[Escoordminutes] ES Div Coord. Mtg minutes - April

[Lew Serna]

Minutes for the ES Division Coordination Meeting on Tuesday, April 24, 
2004, at 10 am, in the LL CB conference room.  Attending were Ramon 
Gutierrez, Lew Serna, James Sullivan, Steve Tenorio, Pat Lewis, Guy 
Stanzione and Bob Broilo,

BUDGET   Serna.
Final budget numbers are in and local adjustments and allocations are 
being determined. ES Division budget allocations are expected by the end 
of the month.    Proceed with Antenna Bearing changes, Generator Repairs 
(May 11 $ 12) and Water Tank Repairs.  Purchase material for the PT 
azimuth rail repairs (except tools).  Hold all other project spending 
until the exact ES budget is known. The HVAC position vacancy is 
unfrozen and the hiring for this position should occur as soon as 
possible. With multiple projects like ALMA and EVLA, supervisors need to 
ensure that all materials, including stock items used, are charged to 
the proper accounts.

AZ Bearings.
Antenna 14, the second prototype EVLA antenna is scheduled for bearing 
change.    Preparations should be made for a May 25 bearing change on 
#14.  Antenna #16 will be scheduled for bearing replacement at the end 
of summer (September sometime). Materials required to change 5 bearings 
have been purchased have arrived.  Antennas 14,16,18,20 and 26 all have 
bad bearings that will eventually need to be replaced.  A spare bearing 
should be maintained at all times. An estimated three weeks in the AAB 
are required before a bearing change can occur.  Staff members from the 
Jodrell Bank Observatory, in the UK are very interested in witnessing 
our bearing change but will not visit us for Antenna 14’s change, 
perhaps for Antenna 16’s in September.  Jon Thunborg was elected as the 
Bearing Change Supervisor for antenna 14.

Foundation Platform Status: Modification to the Antenna pedestal 
platforms to make them safer was completed on April 6.

NEW PROJECTS:
Control Building Transformer The replacement of the Control building 
Transformer will occur as soon as practical after all parts are 
received. There will be a power outage at the Control Building, 
Cafeteria, VSQ, ALMA and the Visitor Center.  The date for replacement 
is to be announced and a memo should be issued to nm staff and ALMA 
personnel.  A concrete pad for the transformer will be poured this week. 
   The computer room power fire sprinkler shunt trip will be tested 
prior to dropping power to the building. A bypass test switch for this 
system will also be installed.

Shop space ES Division is in need of at least 5,000 square feet of shop 
space to adequately address the needs of the VLA site shops. . There is 
also a need for a warehouse to store bulk EVLA equipment and material. 
A 5,000 sq. ft. metal building will be erected NE of the Generator 
Building. Once EVLA storage requirements are ended, this building may be 
used for shop space. It is expected that Grounds, Track and HVAC will be 
moved Technical Services area.  Almost every ES Div. shop will be 
impacted by additional shop space. The sprinkler bids arrived at a very 
high cost and the sprinkler system will likely be built and installed in 
house at ½ the price bid.  Guy should have good estimates by tomorrow. 
It is hoped to have the building erected by the end of June so it can be 
ready to accept storage equipment and material by then.

WATER TANK REPAIR

It may take about a week to complete spot paint repairs.  Target Date 
for repairs is the week of June 7.  Water reserves are required for 
adequate fire protection and tankers should be filled prior to making 
repairs. A request came through the Socorro County Emergency Coordinator 
for helping the Alamo Reservation through a water crisis. We are asked 
to provide a supply of potable water until they get their well done. 
They'll send a 5000 gallon water truck to VLA about once a week to fill 
up.  We need to make sure that they are informed about when we intend to 
make our repairs.

SAFETY HANDRAIL ON ROOF STORAGE AT AAB  A safety rail is required around 
the perimeter of the roofs of several AAB shops since they are used for 
storage.  The Weld shop roof storage handrail is completes the motor and 
subreflector shop remains.

CONCRETE TIMBERS
The track crew has built prototype concrete timbers to replace wooden 
timbers which are used at every intersection that accesses an antenna 
station. The original wooden timber design is a high failure design and 
timbers and planks are often broken under the weight of a transporter 
carrying an antenna. It takes a six man crew about two weeks to replace 
the timbers & planks and to repair an intersection. An intersection 
requires repairs on average about every 5 years.  The track crew will 
repair from 3 5 intersections per year due to broken timbers.   The 
longevity of concrete timbers should be at least 10 times that of a 
wooden timber. The cost for material to renew an intersection is around 
$3,000. The new design could save about 2 the cost in material and 
numerous man hours in labor.  Tests with the new timbers have shown that 
they are robust enough to sustain a loaded transporter.  As soon as 
timbers on hand are exhausted, we will begin repairing intersections 
with concrete timbers.

EVLA Status
Control Building Chiller Replacement  The control building chiller 
replacement was completed on April 14.  The old chillers have been 
replaced with new more efficient chillers. So far these chillers have 
improved chiller power consumption by about 15%.

EVLA manpower requirements—A meeting will be held on 4/25/04 to discuss 
EVLA manpower requirements.  Estimates show that 1.25 Antenna Mechanic 
FTE (Full Time Employee)  is required to outfit each antenna EVLA 
antenna per year;  Approximately .31 FTE Electricians for each antenna 
per year and .25 HVAC technicians per antenna per year.

EVLA power requirements—If recent estimates for EVLA power requirements 
are accurate for Antennas and the Correlator, a huge impact on the 
entire electrical system is expected, including exceeding the capacity 
of the two main VLA transformers (SEC and Generator) and possible fuse 
coordination along array arms and hatch gear equipment.  Current EVLA 
estimates double the Antenna load and increase the correlator load by 5 
times.  New operating procedures for load shedding under generator power 
may be necessary.  The existing high voltage power cable will handle up 
to 2.8 megawatts.

Meeting on May 6 at the AOC on Shielded room and related items

There are possible problems fitting all necessary EVLA gear into C-rack. 
  The existing C-rack will be used for the next few EVLA antennas unless 
otherwise directed.

Quarterly Report Update      P. Lindsey
Patty will distribute forms for updating.  Please update & return to Patty.

SAFETY REPORT ...James Sullivan
Accident Report:
There have been a total of Seven (7) Accident/Incidents reported. Five 
attributed to ES.
ES	2004-006	Employee was backing a dump truck up to an area by the auto 
shop when he backed over a three foot step ladder.
ES	2004-007	Employee was moving the Sky-track forklift when the door 
flew open due to wind and the back tire caught the door a bent the door. 
Door has been repaired.
Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting:
Last meeting was held on April 22, 2004. There were a total of 52 
employees in attendance.  Back safety (Posture, Mechanics and Exercise) 
was the topic.
  Next Monthly All Hands Safety Meeting:
The next all hands safety meeting will be held on May 27, 2004 @ 3:00pm 
in the VLA Café. Topic to be announced
Fire and EMS drill
	Their will be a meeting set for May concerning the up coming site 
evacuation drill. This drill will occur sometime in late June to mid 
July.  First meeting will be with the EMT Chief, Fire Brigade Chief and 
Chief of Emergency Services

OTHER Discussion (Other)
2004 VLBA site visit manpower requirements—Several VLBA projects must 
occur simultaneously and concurrent with EVLA antenna outfitting.  Tiger 
team visits and other VLBA work like VLBA Antenna Rail Repair must occur 
at the same time to minimize VLBA downtime.  Antenna Mechanic group may 
have to borrow a few Site & Wye personnel for rail repairs at Pie Town 
and possibly other site visits and local VLA repairs such as Water Tank 
Repairs.

Announcements:
Business office and Fiscal move. These offices will move to a new 
building on tech campus. This move will probably occur around late May 
to sometime in mid June.  Impact on the VLA is minimal since move will 
be conducted by NM Tech.

Computer purchases—Funds for replacing older existing computers will no 
longer be used from Division budget.  The newly formed Computing 
Infrastructure Division will purchase replacement computers.  Computers 
that are 6 or 7 years old will be replaced by the CI Division however; 
additional computers (new) will still be purchased by the ES Division 
then future replacements will be made by CI Division.

(NOTE: Lothar will not be at the VLA for the month of May; please 
contact Marie for computer problems during Lothar’s absence.)

All Hands Meeting with J. Ulvestad on May 18 at 1PM in the VLA 
Cafeteria.  Antenna moves should cease at noon on that day so all 
employees have a chance to attend.