Avoid Delays On Recovery Funded Projects

The glazing industry is starting to see the trickle down of government recovery money, but it’s not without a price. These projects are tagged with important features that glaziers will do well to be aware of. Most of the projects are for Department of Defense installations or GSA and have blast resistance requirements.

A significant percentage of the recovery money ends up in the hands of architectural firms responsible for design and construction oversight. The design budgets are nice and fat and many of the architectural firms hire blast load consultants to provide design input, write specifications, and …review your submittals during the construction phase. So now the typical submittal has to jump through an additional hoop. The blast load consultant is usually eager to make their value known, and that translates to a necessity for every “t” being crossed and every “i” dotted.

Submittals which are rejected (for what ever reason) require time, effort and often a tangible dollar amount to be resubmitted. Sometimes the blast load consultants may not be altogether familiar with glazing systems and this results in a nightmare of rejections and resubmittals. Glazing contractors who want to cash in on the recovery money should be prepared for the additional efforts that are being required.

Projects with recovery earmarks are good business when you understand their process.

Stay tuned! Next time we’ll cover some of the items typically required in the submittals for blast resistant glazing.

Antiterrorism: Blast-resistant Glazing Systems

The environment of rapidly evolving antiterrorism codes has left estimators and manufacturers in a whirlwind of confusion asking themselves, “Why do blast resistant requirements seem to be a moving target?” It’s important for us to understand what is driving this part of the glazing industry. A great emphasis has been placed on protecting the inhabitants of government buildings from flying shards of glass due to explosion. The U.S. government will be investing great amounts of capital into protective glazing systems during the next 10 to 15 years to make the changes necessary to their existing buildings and for all new construction. The two major codes driving the changes are GSA/Interagency Security Committee Security Design Criteria and the U.S. Department of Defense Unified Facilities Code UFC 4-010-01, Minimum Antiterrorism Standards for Buildings. The UFC code requires all future DoD programming beginning in 2004 to include blast resistant glazing systems. Over the last couple of years we have begun to see many of these projects entering into construction and it’s essentially the same story for the GSA’s programmed projects.

For more insight on this topic see:

http://www.glassmagazine.com/article/commercial/antiterrorism-blast-resistant-glazing-systems-and-moving-target

Government Bid Lists - glass & glazing specific

Do you want the best industry specific government bid list?

Checkout: http://www.jeistructural.com/web/govt-bids

Recovery money is starting to flow into the glass and glazing industry. Now is the time to position your company to recieve business.

Misinterpretations of UFC Requirements

Are the anchors for your blast resistant glazing systems appropriately designed?

There are many misinterpretations of UFC requirements for blast resistant design among engineers. Some engineers solely design anchors for two times the static equivalent blast load determined from ASTM F2248.

However, UFC 4-010-01 (2007) also requires a minimum anchor design equivalent to the resistance of the glass determined from ASTM E1300.

Many engineers miss this requirement, but UFC, under section B-3.1.1.4 Connection Design, state, "The actual connection design load is dictated by the glass type and thickness determined by ASTM E 1300."

Therefore, the correct design load is the maximum of either two times the static equivalent blast load from ASTM F2248 or the resistance of the glass from ASTM E1300. The intent of UFC is to design anchors such that they will not fail before the glass.At JEI Structural, we stay up-to-date on the latest codes and offer many value-added services.

Let's build together,

Stewart P. Jeske, P.E.
President
www.JEIstructural.com

"Expert engineers for commercial glazing calculations."