Letter from the Editor: Welcome to the March 2010 issue of Fire Protection Engineering Emerging Trends, Fire Protection Engineering magazine's 8-time-per-year e-newsletter that deploys on the off-months of the magazine. Each issue will highlight a new trend and/or innovation in the fire protection engineering industry. This issue will focus on Fire Protection and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Please enjoy the March issue and thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

Morgan J. Hurley, P.E., FSFPE

By: Dave Frable

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The Recovery Act was intended to create and save jobs, increase domestic renewable energy capacity, invest in U.S. infrastructure with long-term economic benefits, stabilize state and local government budgets, and assist those most impacted by the current recession. The U. S. General Services Administration (GSA) has the opportunity to stimulate the real estate, construction, and manufacturing sectors of the economy and help put people back to work.

GSA & Recovery Act Projects

The GSA is the landlord of the civilian government for over 400 federal agencies, bureaus and commissions. GSA has a portfolio of over 33 million square meters, which houses in excess of one million federal employees in approximately 2,100 communities throughout the 50 states, 6 U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. The building inventory consists of over 1,500 government-owned and 8,100 leased assets.

GSA is one of 28 agencies responsible for distributing Recovery Act funding through 277 specific program plans. Of the $787 billion allocated for Recovery Act funding, GSA was appropriated $5.55 billion to convert federal buildings into high-performance green buildings and to build new energy-efficient federal buildings, courthouses, and land ports of entry. GSA's focus has been to modernize the nation's existing infrastructure, reduce the federal government's energy and water consumption, and increase the use of clean and renewable sources of energy. Project examples include installing renewable energy systems such as photovoltaic systems, green roofs, lighting and window replacements; and installing high performance buildings systems such as high-efficiency HVAC systems.

Not only will these projects use state-of-the-art green technologies and improve the energy performance of federal buildings, they will also provide opportunities to install new fire suppression and fire detection systems in existing buildings and update existing building exiting systems to reduce fire risks and improve the overall safety for building occupants.

GSA selected the best projects for accomplishing the goals of the Recovery Act based on two overarching criteria: Ability of the project to put people back to work quickly, and transforming Federal buildings into high-performance green buildings. To date, GSA has awarded over $2 billion for projects at over 292 buildings across the country. GSA's goal is to award another $2 billion by the end of March 2010, with a total of $5.05 billion by the end of September 2010. The remainder will awarded by September of 2011.

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GSA fire protection engineers play a vital role in ensuring all Recovery Act projects are reviewed, designed, constructed, and maintained in accordance with the GSA Facilities Standards for the Public Buildings Service (PBS-P100¹) as well as national codes and standards.

The PBS-P100 establishes design standards and criteria for all new buildings, major and minor alterations, and work in historic buildings in GSA's inventory, and includes a chapter specifically dedicated to fire protection and life safety. The PBS-P100 also requires a fire protection engineer to participate on the design team for each phase of all GSA projects -- from concept through design, construction, and occupancy. This provision extends to Recovery Act projects.

GSA fire protection engineers serve as the agency's Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) for their respective region. As the AHJ, their role is to review projects, witness final fire protection systems acceptance testing, and issue certificates of occupancy.

The addition of Recovery Act projects has both increased the workload and accelerated the project schedules for GSA fire protection engineers. GSA has responded by adding full time or temporary staff, contracting with third party fire protection engineering services or finding ways to adapt to the changed workload with existing staff.

Broad Range of Opportunities & Challenges

GSA is establishing itself as the "green proving ground" of the American building industry. With this noted distinction, both the GSA and design team fire protection engineers have the opportunity to integrate new and potentially unique fire protection technologies into designs that promote water conservation and sustainability in fire suppressions systems. For example, one could incorporate a system that re-circulates the water within the pipe of the water flow switch to simulate the flow of one sprinkler in operation without discharging water from the system. Another example might be to configure a fire pump to re-circulate test water back to a tank or to collect fire pump test water into a grey water reuse system.

However, with each opportunity come some challenges. Though fire protection engineers should embrace "green" technologies, they must also ensure the "green" technologies being incorporated into projects do not compromise fire safety, especially in instances where such technologies have yet to be incorporated into national building and fire codes. Because of the unique aspects of these types of projects, a fire protection engineer should be involved to ensure there is a balance between the risks and benefits of new "green" technologies. Fire protection engineers not only need to be cognizant of all the normal fire protection concerns (i.e., fire suppression, fire detection, exiting, etc.) associated with a project, but they also should understand how to analyze and mitigate the potential adverse impact "green" technologies may have on the overall safety of the occupants, fire department operations, as well as any unintended consequences that may be created.

To address these emerging trends, GSA fire protection engineers have recently developed guidelines that address two roof-related issues: application of bituminous asphalt and photovoltaic systems.

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Photovoltaic systems convert solar energy into electric energy suitable for connection to a utilization load. However, these are high voltage systems and could impact fire fighting operations. Therefore, based on existing reference material,³ an installation guideline was developed. This guideline addresses several factors affecting safety (e.g., energized equipment, trip hazards, etc.) and fire fighting operations (e.g., marking requirements, venting locations, pathways, etc.).

GSA is also exploring the emerging and unique energy-saving trend of vegetative facades. One of GSA's cutting edge "green" modernization projects proposes a vegetative facade curtain wall system on a 17-story high-rise building. The vegetative facade can respond to seasonal changes, providing shading in the summer and heat and light during winter months. GSA and the design team fire protection engineers are evaluating the fire protection and suppression alternatives to use with this cutting edge facade approach.

Additional Information on Recovery Act Projects

Anyone interested in obtaining the latest information on ARRA projects should visit websites www.recovery.gov and www.gsa.gov/recovery. These sites also include information pertaining to getting a contract for ARRA work, prerequisites for becoming a Government contractor, and obtaining a GSA Schedule contract. It should also be noted that GSA also advertises all federal contracting opportunities at www.fedbizopps.gov.

Any firm that currently does not hold a GSA contract can still participate by seeking subcontracting opportunities with current companies that are under contract. Subcontracting opportunities currently exist within the Blanket Purchase Agreements covering GSA's own ARRA spending.

Dave Frable is with the U.S. General Services Administration

1. "Facilities Standards for the Public Buildings Service," U.S. General Services Administration, Washington, DC, 2005.
2. "Rubberized Asphalt Melter Guideline Fire Safety Element," U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Energy and Environment, Washington, DC, October, 2009.
3. "Solar Photovoltaic Installation Guideline," California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection – Office of State Fire Marshal, Sacramento, CA, 2008.
4. "Fire Safety Guideline for Photovoltaic System Installations," U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Energy and Environment, Washington, DC, October, 2009.

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What does building energy efficiency have to do with fire protection? This article will focus on those trends in new or updated buildings to identify their potential impact on fire protection practices.
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Fall 2007 – Fire Protection/Life Safety in a Sustainable Design World
A major change is happening throughout the building design and construction industry. A shift toward better stewardship of natural resources and the integration of sustainable design principles into the built environment is happening very rapidly. In the last four to five years "green building" design principles have become a part of building design and construction. This article provides a broad-ranging discussion on how integration of "green," or sustainable, building design elements are often included into today's building design and construction projects, while at the same time recognizing the need for design teams to comply with building code and fire/life safety requirements.
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Fall 2003 – How the GSA Ensures Safety and Security
The physical protection of federal employees, the visiting public, and facilities is a priority for the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). GSA works closely with the Federal Protective Service (FPS), which has the responsibility for law enforcement and security in federal buildings. FPS is a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Fire, environmental, security, and other public safety concerns are an integral part of GSA's design, construction, and space procurement process. Since the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, FPS, GSA, and other government agencies have followed building security guidelines developed by the Department of Justice in June 1995.
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ADVERTISEMENT: Careers in Fire Protection Engineering Interested in a career in fire protection engineering? Know someone who is? Pondering a new career? Visit FPEmag.com/Careers to access an exciting career guide with valuable information on the field of fire protection engineering.

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