ITER NEWSLINE
93
The stage is set, may the builders move in
Timothy Watson, Deputy Head of the Office of Civil Construction & Site Support
The stage is set, may the builders move in
Timothy Watson, head of the Civil Construction & Site Support Office.
The year 2009 has been and will continue to be a busy one for the Civil Engineering & Site Support (CCS) Office. Important milestones reached in the first half of the year include the preparation and signature of three major Procurement Arrangements with the European Domestic Agency. Four others have now be signed that cover the design and construction of the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Building, the fabrication of anti-seismic bearings, the excavation for the Tokamak Complex including the design and construction of the reinforced concrete retaining wall and, lastly, the design of all buildings and site infrastructure required for ITER.
These completed Procurement Arrangements have enabled the European Domestic Agency to commence its own procurement activities. Prequalification and tendering for the architect engineer and support to owner contracts are now well under way and it is expected that these will be in place by the end of 2009. Detailed design work for Tokamak Complex excavation is ongoing in preparation for on-site activities to begin in early 2010. Prequalification of bidders for the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Building is complete; further design work is planned for the end of the year in time for on-site construction works to begin mid-2010.
The CCS Office has also been busy producing the Baseline documentation for the site and buildings. Thirty system requirements documents, 34 system description documents and several hundred interface documents have been prepared which will form a significant proportion of the Baseline documentation to be submitted to the ITER Council in November 2009.
Whilst staffing of the CCS Office is now all but complete, the European agency continues to build its own team on the ITER site. As this team grows and contracts are awarded, it is expecting up to 150 staff and engineering contractors to be on site next year. For this reason, Europe will build a temporary office building adjacent to the ITER Headquarters—scheduled for completion in May 2010—which will also provide additional office space for up to 100 ITER staff.
During the second half of 2009, the primary focus of the CCS Office will be the preparation of the final functional design requirements that will enable the European Domestic Agency to start the detailed design of the buildings and site infrastructure. The preparation of these requirements will require a huge effort from all ITER staff in the various departments and divisions as the building requirements are primarily driven by the systems housed within the buildings.
The last and perhaps most important Procurement Arrangement is also under preparation by the CCS Office namely for the construction of all ITER buildings and site infrastructure. The signing of this Procurement Arrangement will enable the European Domestic Agency to start the prequalification and tendering process for the contractors who will actually construct the ITER buildings and site infrastructure.
In order to assist and support the eleven CCS staff members in this task, a framework contract has recently been signed with Jacobs Engineering to provide additional engineering resources as required during the development of the project. The ITER Council approved this framework contract in June 2009 after a three month pre-qualification and tendering period.
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