Rebuilding the Superdome Roof, 6

Here is an article from "Engineering News Record" about the Superdome roof replacement: ENR Article

Superdome Roof

Rebuilding the Superdome Roof, 5

The work of replacing the Superdome roof is progressing well. Do to the relatively good weather thus far the schedule seems secure. This can change, of course. At my last site visit, the lower ring had been completed full around the dome. The roofers “golden spike” had been placed! Since then, the deck replacement has past approximately 75% of the total. The process is well rehearsed. The new material comes in, is prepped and hauled to the top. At the same time, the old decking and roofing is removed, lowered to the Superdome floor and hauled off. The new roof system is spray-foam and the components are pumped to the roof directly from the drums on the floor.

Once the decking is complete and the spray-foam work is done, the coating will be applied. There is some talk of changing the color of the top coating to something other than white. This should not be a problem for the coating manufacturer, Neogard, so long as the decision is made with enough time for them to commence production.

There is a great deal of work taking place in the Superdome besides the roof replacement. The roofing work is simply the most visible from the outside. Since the Superdome is 35 years old, it was already scheduled for a remodeling and upgrade when the hurricane struck. I’m sure the public will be impressed with the work done this year.

Superdome Roof

NCR meetings, May 2006

On May 27, 2006 we held the CSI North Central Region (NCR) Caucus or Member Meeting. After introducing the distinguished guests, we heard a presentation by members of the Milwaukee Chapter encouraging attendance at next year’s NCR Conference in their city. The Conference will be August 2 to 5, 2007. There was some discussion of the “challenges” for NCR CSI members in attending the Winnipeg conference. There was also discussion of future NCR meeting dates and the value of NCR leadership training.

Immediately following the NCR Member Meeting was the NCR Board Meeting. This meeting actually started before the scheduled time, but since everyone present in Winnipeg was in attendance, the meeting started early. The first order of business was the approval of the minutes of the last meeting in Des Moines.

It was mentioned that the Region budgets $2000 for “seed” money for use by the Conference host Chapter, if needed.

Elected to one-year terms was Darrell Jones, Secretary and Dan Goetsch, Treasurer.

A lengthy discussion of proposed By-Laws changes followed. This was possible for the first time in years, since there was a quorum present. (Perhaps we should schedule all Region Board meetings out of the country!) It was moved and approved that the terms of office for Secretary and Treasurer be changed to two years. It was moved and approved that meetings currently requiring 30 days advance notice be changed to five days’ notice. There was an article-by-article and section-by-section discussion and approval of several other changes to the By-Laws. Most notable among the changes was making the senior Institute Director the President of the Region. Those roles had been separated several (seven?) years ago. The consensus opinion of the Board was that that had simply confused the scope of the officers. The Board will still elect the Region Vice-President, however.

Upcoming NCR Conference locations include:
2007 in Milwaukee (50th anniversary)
2008 in Central Missouri (to be confirmed)
2009 in Kansas City (50th anniversary)

CSI

CSC/NCR Conference, May 2006

The Construction Specifications Canada/North Central Region (CSC/NCR) Conference was an unqualified success. This year’s CSC national convention was held jointly with the NCR of the Construction Specifications Institute (CSI). The NCR has held joint meetings with other CSI regions in the past. I do not know if there has been a meeting with CSC, however.

Approximately 50 members represented the NCR. This is a smaller group than usually attends the annual NCR conferences, for sure, but probably not a surprising number. Since this was not a “home” conference for any NCR chapter the “traveling” attendance was probably not far off the average. Another factor limiting attendance is that many US companies do not operate or have sales territories that cross the Canadian border. Therefore, some NCR members who would normally attend would not have their company’s support. A third factor is that Winnipeg is not a short distance from any of the NCR chapters. Everyone who attended spent some time and/or money to get to Winnipeg. Next year’s CSC Conference will be in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have had the good fortune to attend a couple of conferences there. It is one of my favorite (or favourite) cities.

I arrived in Winnipeg on the morning of May 25. Gordon French of the Winnipeg CSC Chapter was there to pick me up and take me to the conference hotel. Along the way he provided an interesting travelogue of the history of Winnipeg. I followed the NCR Leadership Training “track” of seminars. Richard Sophir presented a seminar on Chapter programs. Sheldon Wolfe presented a seminar on Chapter newsletters and websites. John Rickert gave a presentation on Chapter education programs. All of these presentations were only constrained by the time allowed. They were very well received and prompted interested questions and discussions by the attendees.

The CSC has similar but different certification programs. I have not had time to learn the details, but there are Certified Technical Representatives (CTR) and Registered Specifications Writers (RSW). More on this later.

Luncheon speakers included Dr. Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian Foreign Secretary and Hannah Taylor, age 10 who has helped establish the Ladybug Foundation to help homeless people in Canada. Both speakers had inspiring messages.

On Saturday Lynn Javoroski and I attended the Registered Specification Writer’s meeting. It was an open meeting. It was literally an open forum, with everyone arranging their chairs in a large circle so we all were facing one another. The hour was filled with lots of discussion on various topics including: SectionFormat, open-book exams, outline specifications, manufacturer guide specifications, creation of a mentoring manual and creating a specification editing course. We were impressed with the openness and genuine interest of the members. I am not familiar with the CSC approach to their Certification programs, but it appears to be focused on mentoring, experience and education. I certainly enjoyed the open forum approach and the exchange among the members.

CSI