Coordination leads to safe and successful completion of maintenance projects

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
Coordination was a key factor in completing multiple maintenance projects safely at AEDC during a recent 11-day water and power outage.

The outages provided an opportunity to access, maintain and repair equipment that is used for daily test operations.
The base-wide water outage was scheduled to involve 19 corrective maintenance projects, while the electrical outage at the AEDC Propulsion Wind Tunnel test facility plant involved six preventive maintenance projects.

“The AEDC contractor team had an ultra-successful outage period from June 30 through July 10,” said Brian Allen, an operations officer for the AEDC Test Support Division. “In this small window, craftsmen and technicians performed preventive maintenance on five large unit sub-transformers and circuit switchers including the PWT main drive switch gear and also tested filter capacitors. Additionally, they completed preventive maintenance on the 13.8kV (kilovolt) breakers and other critical electrical components.”

Allen said during the water outage, workers safely repaired seven known leaks in the cooling water system and conducted nine repairs of valves and other components. Concrete repairs were also performed on the Complex secondary reservoir which supplies cooling water to the test facilities.

According to Ronnie Skipworth, a National Aerospace Solutions, LLC, Utilities manager with the Test, Operations and Support contract, 18 scheduled jobs and three unscheduled jobs were completed with the water outage. During the electrical outage, all scheduled jobs were completed, as well as four that were unscheduled.

Due to the number of projects, many AEDC team members were
involved in safety, scheduling and work.

“Coordination with the different areas was required to ensure the safety of the maintenance workers and to allow for access to the equipment during a non-operational period,” Skipworth said.

Team members including pipefitters, welders, equipment operators, electricians, laborers, carpenters, safety personnel, an emergency response team and others, were involved in performing tasks.

The AEDC Tactical Integration Group, an Air Force and contractor scheduling group, reviewed the maintenance schedule to minimize the impact to testing and limit impacts to the facilities.

“Executing this work will reduce the probability of downtime impacts and provide better reliability for our test customers,” Skipworth said.

-AEDC-