Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility

Today the contractors will continue painting the front office area so the office will be closed. There will be no front office staff on site. The INRF/BION cleanrooms will remain open and lab staff will be available at their usual times.

Tomorrow the contractors will start painting the front office area so office will be closed. There will be no front office staff on site. The INRF/BION cleanrooms will remain open and lab staff will be available at their usual times.

Due to the Central Plant hot water shutdown the INRF is extremely cold. Please review your process and if you believe that it might be affected please wait until we get notice that the heat is back on. Below is the message from Facilities

Engineering Community,

During startup of the high temperature hot water, Central Plant experienced a critical systems failure that will cause the high temp system to be down for up to another two days. Building heat, autoclaves, cage washers and industrial and domestic hot water will continue to be out of service during this time. I will forward an update once I am notified.

Due to the flood in the front office the contractors will be dry-walling and painting all day today.

The INRF cleanroom will be closed tomorrow in order for Facilities to work on the compressor. BION will remain open.

Tomorrow morning at approximately 8am facilities will be adding a new N2, lab air and vacuum line to the room for the dicing saw. We don’t expect there to be any downtime but just pay attention when working in there to make sure everything is working properly. Ill post again if there are any updates.

The third floor of EG experienced a flood on Tuesday night that caused some damage to the INRF offices. The INRF front office will be under construction until Monday (6/13) to make repairs caused by the flood. There will be limited access and office staff might have to work from home due to the noise and activity levels. The cleanroom was unaffected so operations will remain as usual.

Facilities will be shutting off power in that room for approximately 30min at 10am. Once the power is back on feel free to use the room but make sure the bench is functioning properly before starting your process. Please notify staff if not.

From Facilities:

Update on the progress made since Wednesday and the plan moving forward

–          On Thursday NuAge and Plumbing sub cut open the wall on the third floor, installed a scaffolding system and replaced the defective parts. AGI was on site to address leaking issues and to relocate air movers and dehumidifiers. Tony Garrit (Central Plant) charged the line and the fitting was noted to be working properly now

–          On Friday with the leak being fixed, AGI set up containment at the end of affected corridors and around lab equipment to protect from dust as the space starts to dry out. AGI will do their best to cover and create a barrier around the equipment identified in Fridays walk through with Jordan Terrones and Jake Hes, however the facility understands that there is the possibility that dust will still get on equipment unless it is completely disconnected and removed from the space.

–          So far to note, floor tiles are going to need to be removed from W2310, W2311, W2314, W2315, W2318, W2320, & W2321 to see the extent of the water damage under the floor. As needed, flooring will be removed up to and around larger equipment and around table legs where items cannot be moved. Ceiling tiles will need to be removed in rooms W2310, W2312, & W2314 to see how far down the corridors the water travelled.

–          On Saturday AGI will have a crew of 5 guys total to remove damaged floor and ceiling tiles. Due to the extensiveness of the work, AGI may need to have a smaller crew to work on Sunday.

–          On Monday AGI will provide an assessment report of their findings and the extent of the damage.

–          After that time, the university can begin to plan the remediation of the space.

–          Central Plan was notified to shut down Eng. Gateway AHU’s 6 &7 that control cleanroom space.

–          AGI brought in Negative Air Machines to limit the dust as the space begins to dry out.

–          On Saturday AGI finished installing protection around lab equipment and began removing ceiling tiles and floor tiles from affected areas. As we began pulling up tiles the extent of how far the water travelled was realized and it was determined that AGI would need to continue work on Sunday.

–          On Sunday AGI continues to remove flooring tiles

–          Monday will consist of AGI wiping down the space of surface dust and providing assessment of their findings.

As of now the cleanroom is still closed and we will keep you updated if things change. The BION has not been effected and will remain open.

From Facilities Management:

To All,
We recently had a flood at Engineering Gateway – #321 on the west side of the building and as Project Manager I wanted to give everyone a brief overview of the progress of the clean up and the plan moving forward.

I would first like to acknowledge efforts of the UCI staff who were able to be on site, specifically Amy Provorse(Skilled Trades & Construction Services), Tony Garrit (Central Plant), John Walker (Electrical Shop), Juan Tapia (Plumbing), Alvin Samala(EH&S), who all helped to address the issues in as timely a manner as possible.

After investigation the cause of the leak was identified as a burst chilled water pipe in the mechanical shaft of the 3rd floor between rooms 3312 and 3304. Due to location of the pipe, at this time we have not been able to get close enough to see if the issue is with the pipe, fitting, or connection in-between.

The leak was first reported around 11:00am on 4/12/16

While the source of flooding was the third floor mechanical shaft, water traveled to the adjacent rooms 3312 & 3304. Through the bottom of the shaft water penetrated the ceiling into the clean room area on the second floor located directly below. While rooms W2311, W2312, W2314 were the worst affected, water was found down the hallway as far as room W2329.Water also traveled down the exterior stairway and into the first floor mechanical rooms.

Currently the chilled water has been turned off at the building level and due to availability of parts will be repaired tomorrow. We are currently working with NuAge, our on site JOC contractor to handle only the repair of the pipe at this time.

Once the pipe is repaired, we can begin to fully dry-out the space and see the true extent of the damage. Currently Anderson Group International has been onsite vacuuming up water and setting up air movers and dehumidifiers. Water is continuing to drip down from the sealed ceiling and AGI continues to clean up as puddles appear. They require 48 hours once the pipe is repaired to dry out the space and provide an assessment. I would like to note that due to the self cove base of the flooring, and the walls and ceilings being constructed of laminated plywood, at this damage looks to have been contained to a small area.

Some damage to note is that the electrical breakers directly outside W2312 will need to be replaced and parts are currently on order by John Walker and should be installed Tomorrow 4/14. Water also has been found under flooring where welded seems were already damaged and repaired by tape.

Once we finish the water remediation and have the assessment from AGI by Monday 4/18, we will be able to determine the extent of the repair work and impact to the facility moving forward. At this time I cannot make an statement as to when I believe the facility will be operational.

 

We will continue to keep you updated as things progress.