A major newspaper plant in Ohio had preliminary A/E drawings completed along with their insurance carrier’s fire protection and property loss control recommendations. We attended a coordination meeting to discuss the owner’s primary objectives and overall design concepts. The sprinkler design we subsequently developed for the high rack roll paper storage was significantly less costly than the one originally proposed by the insurance carrier.

We developed a design concept for the fire pump/water supply arrangement to provide adequate fire protection water supply to the plant. Our approach was optimized for cost effectiveness and, once again, was less costly than the original recommended approach. The owner preferred that both fire pumps be electric-driven, while the insurance carrier felt strongly that one of the fire pumps should be driven by diesel engine. We successfully negotiated acceptance of two electric-driven pumps, saving approximately $90,000. We also determined the feasibility of, and negotiated acceptance with the insurance carrier for the second fire pump taking suction from a storm water reservoir. This approach saved about $50,000 by avoiding the cost of a steel suction tank.

A quality control review of the proposed design for the arrangement of fire protection underground mains and sprinkler lead-ins showed a need to improve constructability and performance, and control overall cost. We reduced the size of the main underground loop, eliminated several hydrants, shortened hydrant feed mains, relocated sprinkler lead-in stub-up locations, increased the size of lead-ins to improve hydraulic performance, and ultimately reduced the cost to construct the interior sprinkler systems by more than $20,000.

Value Delivered

A creative, comprehensive, well-planned fire protection design and property loss control audit saved our client approximately $160,000 in fire protection costs for a newspaper plant.

By Jeff Harrington, CEO and Founder of Harrington Group, Inc.