The AHJs rely on the engineer of record to manage things properly.įire and life safety projects require increased coordination with all other design disciplines. There is a separate bureaucracy of AHJs not usually involved in the design, construction and inspection process. It might seem the fire marshal is, but that is not always the case. Communication is key.Īnother challenge may also be determining who the AHJ is. A user might ask for a unique room to be added to the design, but it’s important for contractors to determine if that party is authorized to ask for that space and only allow if they are the ones directing the design.
It’s sometimes difficult for the authorities having jurisdiction (AHJ) to balance the interests of each party. When designing DOD facilities, there are many parties involved, including the building’s owner, user, builder, maintainer, as well as the entity paying for the project. Our team manages these differences through experience and communication with the various government representatives. Rob Jordan: Fire and life safety projects for federal clients have many additional layers of codes. In addition to the traditional civilian sector codes, there are DOD-specific codes that may limit options usually available on the civilian side. Determination of these requirements early in the design process is essential to producing a comprehensive and accurate set of construction documents that can be bid. Other times, penetrations by conduit may be permitted if there is a dielectric break and/or grounding. For example, sometimes networked fire alarm panels connected by fiber optic are required so that no wiring penetrates the secure perimeter. Close coordination with all disciplines, thorough understanding of the existing conditions, flexibility and creativity are paramount.Ĭhris Ankeny: Requirements for the design of secure or classified spaces can be subjective and dependent on specific decisions of the classifying authority. Historic spaces present unique challenges where routing fire suppression and fire alarm systems without sensitivity can destroy the historic fabric the systems are there in part to protect. within a building that requires sprinkler protection, coordination should occur between the architect, fire protection engineer, AHJ, the building owner and the building owner’s insurance underwriter to discuss and decide on the best type of fire suppression system to be provided for the particular space. When discovering a challenging space such as an art gallery, artifact storage, computer/IT space, etc. For these areas, we engineer a special automatic sprinkler system, such as a double interlock pre-action system that uses nitrogen or compressed air with water, mist or a clean agent type fire suppression system that uses a chemical, gases or foam agent. Some of the unique challenges we encounter on federal projects involve a building type that contains gallery space, artifact storage room, vaults or specialized computer/IT spaces.