GSA Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, Wheeling, WV

AFG was awarded a contract to provide construction management support services for the installation of Fire Alarms at the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Wheeling, West Virginia.

The Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Wheeling, WV was originally constructed in 1907 to house a post office, courthouse and custom house.  Over the past century, expansions and renovations have been added to accommodate additional services within the building. Most recently in 2004, construction of an 86,900 square foot annex was completed.  This annex, added to house additional courtrooms, was completed under the GSA’s Design Excellence program, and is connected to the historic portions of the building by a four-story atrium.

This project involved replacing the entirety of the existing EST fire alarm system and elevator recall system with a new system including an emergency voice alarm communication system (EVACS). During the project, three new EVACS control panels were installed in the Courthouse building, located in the main lobby, the federal marshal’s command control room, and the basement engineering office. Additionally, new smoke detectors and fire safety devices were installed according to design documents.  This included supply and return duct smoke detectors, smoke detectors in the elevator machine room, hoistway, and lobby, and manual pull stations.  New beam detectors were installed in the atrium using current device locations, with original detectors and control panel being removed after installation and testing of new devices.  While the work was primarily completed during working hours, some off-hours work was required for utility shutdowns, system testing, and work that was disruptive to current building tenants.

During this project, AFG has been responsible for record keeping and documentation for all major project actions, and maintaining complete records of construction contract, including correspondence, contract modifications, and claims submittals. The team has lead progress meetings and developed meeting minutes for client, in addition to progress reporting to include daily, weekly and monthly reports, recording job site conditions, activities, issues, communications, project progress, information and recommendations. AFG has been responsible for cost control, including budget cost accounting to maintain a construction cost accounting system during the construction phase.