A S Klein Engineering: Shredding regulatory red tape
2016 was another exciting growth year for A S Klein Engineering as we focused considerable efforts on expanding our building code development offerings and helping clients navigate changing regulations.
By partnering with the California State Fire Marshal’s Office (CalFire), we were instrumental in securing an amendment to the 2018 edition of the International Fire Code (IFC) to permit mobile fueling. With time being our most precious commodity these days, it is understandable that there has been considerable consumer demand for businesses that will fuel your vehicle for you while you are at work. The IFC is developed by the International Code Council (ICC), whose model codes are updated on three-year cycles. Because of the cost and expertise necessary to develop codes, local jurisdictions adopt a set of ICC’s model codes and may add local amendments. The IFC has been adopted as the governing fire code in 43 of the 50 states, including Washington state.
California will likely be adopting the mobile fueling language early during its Intervening Code Cycle, where we will continue to work with CalFire and the California Building Standards Commission to help ensure its safe codification over a year before the state’s adoption of the 2018 IFC.
We have also been representing the Building Owners and Managers Association International during the development of national model energy codes to ensure that construction requirements do not become unnecessarily burdensome for commercial real estate investors, where the time between tenant buildouts averages about 10 years. With 2017 being an off-year in the ICC’s triennial code development cycle, our efforts will shift to local-level adoption efforts of code amendments for various clients.
Our extensive code development background has afforded us the opportunity to provide dozens of independent energy code reviews for commercial buildings throughout the state. These reviews ensure that buildings are code-compliant and also pay dividends in the form of energy cost savings over their useful lifetimes. This supports Washington’s mandate of a 70 percent reduction in net annual energy consumption in newly constructed buildings by 2031, compared to the 2006 Washington State Energy Code.
In 2017, we will continue our code development work on both the national and local levels while continuing to provide world-class fire protection and chemical engineering consulting to our clients.
Being no stranger to the Hanford cleanup effort, we are currently assisting our teaming partner, Meier Architecture and Engineering, on the 242-A Evaporator integrity assessment to ensure that its materials of construction are compatible with the waste it processes. As the last operating nuclear processing facility at Hanford, the 242-A Evaporator is critical to the cleanup mission by managing the amount of available storage space in the tanks. The evaporator creates additional storage space in double-shell tanks by removing water and concentrating the liquid waste, making it possible to transfer the waste from single-shell tanks.
We will also continue to assist as needed on projects with the Hanford prime contractors through our many teaming partners. We look forward to further opportunities to help CHPRC with their risk mitigation work in the Canyon Facilities, a monumental effort on which we recently completed a task. Working through teaming partner Babcock Services, our work helped to ensure that three facilities remain safe from the threat of fire and that cleanup work can safely commence.
Having four successful years under our belt, we look forward to the many opportunities in front of us to continue to give back to our wonderful community. As we work with clients throughout the country and internationally, we will continue our part in securing the Tri-Cities brand as a powerhouse of knowledge and innovation.
This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "A S Klein Engineering: Shredding regulatory red tape."