Specifying Internet Use in Division 1

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Author Message Sheryl Dodd-Hansen, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: sheryldh Post Number: 14 Registered: 09-2002 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 01:51 pm:    I see that MasterFormat 2004 has Section 01 51 33 Temporary Telecommunications. I'm not sure how exactly to use it and at what cost to the Owner. Do you require internet access in the Field Office? What kind of requirement? A separate phone line? High-speed access? Does the Contractor charge overhead and profit on his email/internet service? Any suggestions on how to word a requirement so that access is provided, but costs not inflated? Also, any suggested verbiage for 01 31 23 Project Web Site? Marc C Chavez Senior Member Username: mchavez Post Number: 95 Registered: 07-2002 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 02:09 pm:    I require high speed internet at the field office (contractor's choice of DSL, cable etc) as a "separate line" (DSL piggy-backs). I assume that it's part of their overhead. besides even at small jobs, 1-3 million, that did NOT have computer access specified, the contractor is bringing a computer to the site anyway. (It's a new century) Dave Metzger Senior Member Username: davemetzger Post Number: 112 Registered: 07-2001 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 02:15 pm:    Below is wording that we typically use in our Construction Facilities section (01 5200), as part of the requirements for the contractor's field office. This is more appropriate in 01 5200 than in 01 5100, becaue it is unique to the field office. I certainly would not have an entire section merely for this extent. This assumes a phone modem. It of course could be modified to require a DSL or T1 line if that is available and appropriate to the project. Telephone and data service: Provide and maintain telephone service to field office for duration of construction, including speaker phone capability on all phones. Provide and maintain an additional line for dedicated fax service, and an automatic fax machine, in field office. Provide and maintain an additional line for dedicated e-mail service compatible with both Owner’s and Architect’s systems, and computer terminal and modem, in field office. E-mail service shall be in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Provide telephone voice mail capabilities through local telephone company or with separate equipment. Tomas Mejia Senior Member Username: tmejia Post Number: 16 Registered: 09-2003 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 02:17 pm:    In the past, CMS Consultants' has included the following paragraph in Section 01500 - Temporary Facilities and Controls. "Provide minimum speed 400 kilobits per second, DSL electronic communication service, including electronic mail, in primary field office." Tommy J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 49 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 02:48 pm:    I have some verbaige on a webcam system (continuous network camera system) that I would be glad to share. This is getting more play on some of our private jobs although many times, the Owner does a side deal with the Contractor. Do CMs ever really know what they are doing? DSL does not go to 400Kbps. In fact, if I remember correctly, it does 64Kbps outgoing and 128Kbps incoming (still much better than the 1200 baud modem I had back in the mid 80s). This is about the same performance you get on a good quality telephone line; rural or older urban areas with poor infrastructure may degrade to 26 to 28Kbps. You need a cable modem or a T1 line for significantly better performance. I'd like to see any of the CMs I have met try to think of a way to verify line speed. The field of telecommunications is rapidly changing. For smaller projects, wouldn't you rather the super have a cell phone (as opposed to an office phone with a pager and a walkie talkie)? At my home, the only reason I still have a land line is for internet access; all my communications go through my cell. The field office needs to have a land line for fax service and possibly internet access although if the project is big enough to warrant administrative support, you may want a land line. If DSL speed is acceptable, internet service over a regular line may be just as good otherwise investigate T1. Wireless phone service for voice seems to me to be the way to go unless the project is in a remote location. If the site is near Starbucks, just take your laptop over there, get a vente latte, and take advantage of their "hot spot." J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 50 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 02:58 pm:    Was just reviewing Dave's post again and had some more thoughts. His description of e-mail service would seem to require an on-site e-mail server which, in my view, would only be required on very large projects. Smaller (but still medium-sized projects in the $25M to $50M range) could probably be adequately served by the Contractor's main office server accessed remotely from the jobsite office. This reduces the Contractor's cost significantly. Unless the requirements were critical (maybe for secure projects), I would merely require the Contractor to provide access to e-mail (send and receive) via the internet at the job site. William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 361 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 03:22 pm:    Peter, No, Dave's description does not require that at all. It only requires the ability to send and retrieve email. The mail server of the architect's to owner's systems or whoever uses it could be a pop server or imap server somewhere in the world. The user can retrieve and send their email just find. Nothing is requir%d at all other than the actuve line. Some email systems even have web views (like outlook exchange and many domain hosted mail servers - and again, you just need a compatible browser. It is important to state that what is provide be compatible with the mail system of of the users - there are different formats for some of them that they don't quite work with everything. Some older pop server systems are no longer compatible with newer pop clients. And not every browser works with every mail server's web view either. But dedicated on site mail server is not required for Dave's list. William William C. Pegues, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: wpegues Post Number: 362 Registered: 10-2002 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 03:46 pm:    For our own requirements for this - it varies vastly from client to client. We have had clients that engage us for full time CA in which case we insert our own requirements for the connectivity. But then we are usually bringing our own computer system and just requiring a line whatever minimum requirements we want. We have some clients that do not want anything, not even a desk, and some that want a full service office specifying how many chairs of what type and file cabinets, desks, etc., very detailed - depending on their own CA involvement and how much time they will be there. So, the requirements section related to the office and electronic communications is always a custom paragraph. I have a few mockups of this paragraph and chose one close to what an owner seems to be leaning towards and let him see it well in advance. Would I develope a separate section for this, no, not unless there were some really extreme requirements for electronic services to be performed at that location. Even then, I would probably only specify the required line speed that I wanted and then go from there. William Tomas Mejia Senior Member Username: tmejia Post Number: 17 Registered: 09-2003 Posted on Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 07:07 pm:    Mr. Jordan, I think you need to do a little more research. Maybe you have Kilo bits per second (Kbps) confused with Kilo Bytes per second (KBps) or ADSL confused with IDSL which is limited to 144 Kbps. There are sites out there which do test your DSL connection like www.dslreports.com. I do need to rephrase the paragraph to read "minimum download speed of 400 Kbps, ADSL ...". I just tested my ADSL and came back with a download speed of 639 Kbps and an upload speed of 134 Kbps. Tommy J. Peter Jordan Senior Member Username: jpjordan Post Number: 52 Registered: 05-2004 Posted on Friday, March 25, 2005 - 01:17 pm:    Computer-based telecommunications systems are usually based on kilo bits per second (as opposed to kilo bytes per second--8 bits to the byte) because you usually need more than 8 bits transmitted to get the full byte. Apparently DSL speeds have increased since I had one, but it is interesting that speed is not guaranteed (I did check a few sites). As Mr. Mejia found, upload speed on DSL will usually be significantly less than download speed. A project site must also be located within a certain distance of an exchange in order to get the service. This may not be available in certain developing (surburban or exurban) locations or in certain underdeveloped urban locations. You can usually verify if the service is available over the web. Where the project is large and graphic files are being transmitted, investing in a T1 line (measured in the Mbps range rather than the Kbps range) may be cost effective. Mr. Pegues' observation is also very pertinent. "Temporary Facilites" including internet services are "temporary"; they are required for the construction phase and may add value to construction processes, but they are removed upon completion of construction and do not really add value to the building itself. While it is nice and certainly convenient to have a "deluxe" construction trailer (including your own expresso machine) along with A/C, lights, chairs, tables, file cabinets, and internet service; many project sites can do with the bare minimum. Most of our clients share space with the Contractor in his field office, but some of our clients want their own separate trailer. As with bonds and insurance, ask if the Owner has specific/special requirements (like web cam monitoring) before going beyond the minimum for good support of the Owner and the A/E's field operations. Sheryl Dodd-Hansen, FCSI, CCS Senior Member Username: sheryldh Post Number: 15 Registered: 09-2002 Posted on Monday, March 28, 2005 - 10:50 pm:    Thanks to all of you. Based on your help, for the small project in a mountain community that prompted the question, I went with a very basic requirement much like Peter suggested. But I put "high-speed" as an option in our master for larger projects. I appreciate your help.