A window that cannot move
A tie-in or shutdown is planned for a day when the plant can spare the process. If the prerequisite work is late, the window is not late with it; it is gone, and the next one may be months away.
Plant upgrades
Wastewater treatment plant construction project management
A plant upgrade is built while the plant keeps running, so the job is decided by a handful of dates: when a tie-in can happen, when a shutdown window opens, and whether the equipment is on site before it does. Most of the risk sits in the schedule and in the paper that feeds it. This page covers that part only, how Fidrel holds the milestones, the agreed baseline, the submittal log and the open questions, and it says plainly what it does not do for a treatment plant.
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What decides a job that cannot stop the plant
Equipment that arrives after the window
Pumps, blowers and control panels have long lead times, and their submittals must be reviewed before they are ordered. A review that runs two weeks over moves the tie-in by a season, and nobody sees it coming from the schedule alone.
A plan that nobody can hold anyone to
When the schedule is revised, the question becomes: against what? Without a saved baseline, delay is a matter of opinion, and the reasons behind it are argued from memory.
Milestones, deadlines and the baseline
A milestone marks the day, a deadline says whether an activity finishes in time, and the baseline shows how far the plan has moved since it was agreed. Several baselines can be saved, for example one after a re-plan, and one is chosen at a time in the View menu. The schedule’s Baseline comparison shows the baseline finish, the forecast finish and the variance. A dependency has one of four types and a lag in working days, and successors move forward automatically when a dependency requires it. The critical path can be turned on in the View menu to show the activities with no float.
Scheduling
The submittal log as the other half of the schedule
The register keeps product data, shop drawings, samples and the rest through review to approval. There are ten submittal types, including calculations, test reports, certificates and O&M manuals, which cover most of what a plant package needs. Each submittal has a number, a spec section typed as the specifications number it, a Required on site date, a Review due date and one reviewer, the architect or engineer. The outcome is Approved, Approved as noted, Revise and resubmit or Rejected, with comments required unless approved. The Ball in my court filter and an Overdue flag show whose turn it is.
Setting up the dates and the paper
Step 1
Put each tie-in and shutdown in as a milestone
In the schedule, add a milestone with New milestone here for every date a tie-in or shutdown is planned. A milestone has no duration and sits on its own day, so the plan shows the window as a fixed point the work leads up to.
Step 2
Chain the preparation to the window
Link the activities that must finish first to the milestone with dependencies, using a lag in working days where equipment must be commissioned or tested before the window. A slip in any link then pushes the dates after it.
Step 3
Give the critical work a deadline
Set a Deadline on the tie-in activity. The plan does not move, but the activity shows how many days it runs past the deadline, so a late prerequisite is visible against the window before the window arrives.
Step 4
Save the baseline when the plan is agreed
Open More, choose Save baseline and accept the default name, Baseline with the date. Later, pick a baseline in the View menu and the schedule shows a thin line under each activity that has moved and the variance in days on the end date.
Step 5
Run the submittal log and mark blockers
Create each submittal with its spec section, type, required-on-site date and reviewer, and submit it for review. Where an open RFI or issue holds an activity back, link it from the activity under Linked records and tick Blocked.
RFIs and issues that hold work back
An RFI has a question, an assignee, a Due date, a Priority, an Area and linked drawings, and moves through Draft, Open, Answered, Action required and Closed. An RFI or an issue can be linked to a schedule activity and marked as blocking, and while it is open the activity shows as Blocked. That connects the paper to the dates: a tie-in held up by an unanswered drawing question appears in the schedule as blocked, with a name and a deadline on the question behind it.
What Fidrel does not do for a plant
Fidrel does not model the treatment process, run shutdown permits or track any environmental, discharge or safety requirement. A submittal cannot be linked to a schedule activity; its required-on-site date is typed in and compared with the schedule by the person. Fidrel saves a baseline; it does not record whether the owner has accepted it. A submittal has one reviewer, so a package that needs several disciplines to review is split, or the others are asked by comment.
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Add a milestone for each planned tie-in or shutdown, link the preparation work to it with dependencies and lag, and set a deadline on the tie-in activity. Slips then show up before the window does.
It saves baselines, names each with the date by default, and shows the variance in days against the one you select. It does not record the owner’s acceptance; that stays in your contract process.
In the submittal register, with a number, a spec section, a type such as shop drawings or test reports, a required-on-site date, a review due date and a reviewer. The register flags overdue items and shows whose court the ball is in.
Yes. Link the RFI or issue to the activity and mark it as blocking. While it is open the activity shows as Blocked, and the RFI keeps its own deadline and assignee.
No. Fidrel covers the schedule, the submittals, the RFIs and the other project records. It does not model the process or track environmental, discharge or safety requirements.