By Evan Williams, Cambridge Companies
Preparing MRFs for Success
By leaning on industry close-out best practices, the close-out can give the owner the tools needed to run their facility safely and efficiently.
Constructing a new or retrofitting an existing Material Recovery Facility (MRF), the focus tends to be on the equipment, the commissioning, and the training of the sorting and operations staff, as that is the critical area for the performance of the facility. What often gets left behind, are the other important tasks of the balance of construction completion including:
- Punch List
- Close-out
- Commissioning
- Training
- Hand-over to the operational staff
- And, warranty coordination
These steps are essential to the proper functioning of a successful facility.
Construction Completion:
In a rush to complete the building for sorting and processing equipment installation, many tasks may be left incomplete.
Further, there needs to be a list of these items and a realistic plan to implement their completion. Typically, access in and out of the equipment is adjusted to allow other building work to finish while not impacting its installation. An added complication is that many building sub-contractors work on, and around the equipment, so the project will take longer.
Likewise, you can get a temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO) to allow the owner to test the equipment even while you finish up some of the items that would fall in this category.
If you can not secure that TCO, it may be a risk to the project schedule, the subcontractors, the owner, and equipment vendor. Everyone must be on the same page about the project priorities and the impacts for the project to finish strong.
Read the full article in Waste Advantage Magazine
