Surge Tank and Construction at CCI
Tags: Ohio, Construction

In conjunction with the Chillicothe Correctional Institute (CCI) Energy Conservation Project, which kicked-off in January 2017, the Brewer-Garrett (BG) Company was also hired to provide engineering design and construction administration services to replace the existing steam boiler system deaerator tank and condensate surge tank.

As part of the energy contract, a financial incentive was created to complete the surge tank portion of the project prior to the start of the steam heating season in October 2017. These allowance dollars were set aside for additional project scope that was anticipated to be required in case the surge tank was not completed in time for the start of heating season.

Unused dollars would remain available for the State to use as needed, however completing the install by the mid-October heating season to preserve all the surge tank allowance dollars was the goal.

As engineering planning began, the issue of extended lead times of the DA and surge tanks became apparent. The State was funding the construction costs directly, and therefore was required to follow standard plan-and-spec bidding and award requirements and timeframes. The updated project schedule demonstrated that if the installing contractor also purchased the surge tank, the surge tank would not be available for installation in time before the start of the mid-October heating season. The State confirmed that there was no means of decoupling the purchase of the surge tank from the construction contract. What other options were there?

Team Lead Mechanical Engineer Bryan Schritz had taken note that the existing to-be-replaced condensate surge tank was not a commercially-fabricated tank. Upon inquiring, CCI personnel confirmed that the tank was fabricated on site using inmate labor from OPI (Ohio Penal Industries). The OPI Mission Statement is as follows — To assist Ohio Prisons in the management of offenders through training, by producing quality, cost efficient products and services; thereby, contributing to their successful reentry to society.

Of particular note is that all the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) salt spreading trucks are custom fabricated at CCI OPI, so fabrication of a custom stainless steel condensate surge tank was well within their capabilities. One day Bryan Schritz expressed a thought — OPI fabricated the old/existing tank, so why not have them fabricate the new tank? This idea was vetted with CCI and OPI staff and it was concluded to be feasible and could be funded in advance of the award of the construction contact.

With the green light to proceed with the “homemade” surge tank, Bryan went to work researching and designing a new surge tank three times as large as the old one it was replacing. Bryan created fully-detailed fabrication drawings for a custom surge tank to be built onsite by CCI OPI. By the time the surge tank drawings were complete, however, CCI OPI became too busy keeping up with their ODOT truck fabrication obligations (the summer is their busy season) that it became necessary to explore other options. Calls were made to Marion Correction Institution OPI, who also had a critical steel plate roller large enough for the new tank, who agreed to build the surge tank.

A Purchase Order was written to OPI in June of 2017 and materials started to arrive in July. The tank was fully fabricated in about 8 weeks and delivered to CCI early September. Bryan Schritz personally witnessed hydrostatic testing of the tank, and it is now successfully in use at CCI collecting and reusing as much condensate as possible to decrease steam generation energy usage. As a result of these efforts, the vast majority of the surge tank credit allowance was preserved, and it is estimated that the OPI-fabricated surge tank cost one-third the price of a commercially-fabricated tank, thus possibly saving the State approximately $40,000 or more in equipment costs.