CONTACTS 
0201 - Protrans Consultants               915 532 2282 fax 533 8497
020101 - Mr. David N. Raffel, P.E.; Director

SUBJECTS
Voith Contract Closeout
Interview Engineers
Submit Shop Drawings for approval, review
Special Startup Test Engineer
Submittals
Opinion Contract Requirements,
Industry Standards; Expert opinions
Submittals, complete review, 911118

1110 -    ..
1111 - Summary
1112 -
111201 - David submitted his resume today via fax along with some suggestions
111202 - on approaching the PM situation vis a vis Voith, ref DRT 1.  I called
111203 - and discussed his resume and ideas.
111204 -
111205 - He agreed to consult with DNRC on an informal basis.
111206 -
111207 - His memo, ref DRT 1, says he cannot take the DNRC assignment full time
111208 - because he received an acceptance today of a prior proposal he had
111209 - submitted to the national power utility of Costa Rica for engineering
111210 - services.
111211 -
111212 -
111213 -  ..
1113 -
1114 -
1115 - Discussion
1116 -
111601 - Owner Should Insist on Compliance with Contract
111602 -
111603 - I explained that DNRC has been advised to demand that Voith construct
111604 - the work according to plans and specifications and that Voith submit
111605 - information that shows its work does this.  David feels this is the
111606 - proper position for the owner to insist upon.
111607 -
111608 - He feels Voith should submit the shop drawings for its work and the
111609 - Engineer should review for compliance with the contract, particularly
111610 - in light of the failures and admissions by Voith that the design was
111611 - defective in some respects (e.g. the gear set support bolts sheared
111612 - off).  David feels the Owner has to be even more careful now because
111613 - of the past failure and the history of not submitting shop drawings.
111614 -
111615 -
111616 -
111617 - Renk not Known for Manufacturing Large Speed Increasers
111618 -
111619 - David advised that Renk has not been known as a manufacturer of large
111620 - size speed increasers as would be found on a 10 MW plant like
111621 - Broadwater.  I commented that the list of installations submitted by
111622 - Voith in its letter of Dec 5, 1991, ref DRP 1, indicates it has done
111623 - only one speed increaser of comparable capacity to the 10 MW unit at
111624 - Broadwater, a 13 MW unit for a container ship in 1972.  Its list for
111625 - speed increasers in the 1980's show only units under 5 MW.
111626 -
111627 - David recommends that Goetz Pfafflin might be a good contact at Voith
111628 - in the US to seriously discuss resolution of contract disputes.  He
111629 - does not know Greg Snyder, but has worked out problems with Goetz and
111630 - feels he is someone with whom the State can do business.
111631 -
111632 -
111633 -
111634 - Speed Increaser Shop Drawings Require Special Expertise
111635 -
111636 - David advised that DNRC needs an engineer who can interpret the shop
111637 - drawings for the speed increaser.  He noted there is a lot more to the
111638 - speed increaser than simply the gear set; it is a very complicated
111639 - piece of machinery.  He feels that if Voith did not submit shop draw-
111640 - ings on the speed increaser, then the Owner should insist on this step
111641 - and a careful review should be done because there is no other way to
111642 - ascertain whether the unit is adequate, particularly in light of the
111643 - failures that have already occurred.
111644 -
111645 -
111646 - Voith Responsible for Design
111647 -
111648 - David emphasized his view that the Engineer and the Owner should
111649 - maintain Voith's responsibility for the design.  This does not mean
111650 - that the design should not be reviewed by a competent engineer on
111651 - behalf of the Owner for compliance with the contract specifications
111652 - and industry standards.  Deviations observed by the Engineer require
111653 - the contractor to show why its design is adequate and to correct it
111654 - where necessary.  This does not pass responsibility to the Engineer
111655 - unless the Engineer insists on a change to which the contractor ob-
111656 - jects with competent evidence.  At such point (which has not been
111657 - reached in the Broadwater situation), the Owner has a business deci-
111658 - sion to make with respect to permitting the contractor to proceed
111659 - under its reasoning or opting for the change.  However, most design
111660 - review issues rarely reach this stage.  On Broadwater the initial
111661 - issue is to do the review to see what the design shows.
111662 -
111663 -      Comment
111664 -
111665 -      We did not discuss the matter of the Engineer being held account-
111666 -      able for negligence in not pointing out to the contractor a
111667 -      defect in the design, if something is overlooked.  My general
111668 -      sense is that that the notice provisions in the contract for the
111669 -      contractor to affirmatively advise the Engineer of any deviations
111670 -      between its design and the contract specifications or industry
111671 -      standards would be facts that weigh toward maintaining the
111672 -      contractor's liability, if not an absolute bar to such an
111673 -      argument.  In any event, if such a policy was fully adopted, an
111674 -      Engineer would be irrelevant as an active agent for the Owner.
111675 -      Errors can occur at any point along the continuum of design,
111676 -      oversight, construction and inspection.  The purpose of review is
111677 -      to increase the chance of catching mistakes so failure does not
111678 -      occur with loss of property, utility or even life.  Liability
111679 -      avoidance must at most be a secondary consideration.
111680 -
111681 -
111682 -
111683 - Philadelphia Gear as Source
111684 - of Expertise
111685 - ---------------------------
111686 - He does not know Geartech or Bob E and so cannot comment on their
111687 - ability in this area.  David noted that Philadelphia Gear has had a
111688 - series of problems in recent years with large speed increasers
111689 - subcontracted to foreign firms.  This experience has caused them to
111690 - study a variety of speed increaser problems and so they may be a good
111691 - source for names of people who have worked on these matters and could
111692 - assist the Department in the present situation.
111693 -
111694 -
1117 -