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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 1 - Cheyenne Mid-Term Update - HC Staff Report aEW Ppgr CITY OF NEWPORT PORT BEACH Harbor Commission Staff Report Agenda Item No. 1 March 11, 2015 TO: HARBOR COMMISSION FROM: Public Works Department Chris Miller, Harbor Resources Manager 949-644-3043, cmiller@newportbeachca.gov TITLE: Cheyenne Mid-Term Update (March) ABSTRACT: Per the Harbor Commission's action at the November 2014 meeting, the Commission will conduct a mid-term review of the vessel Cheyenne as submitted by Mr. Chris Welsh. RECOMMENDATION: 1. Receive and file. FUNDING REQUIREMENTS: There is no fiscal impact related to this item. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW: Staff recommends the Harbor Commission find this action is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA") pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(2) (the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment) and 15060(c)(3) (the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378) of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly. NOTICING: The agenda item has been noticed according to the Brown Act (72 hours in advance of the meeting at which the Harbor Commission considers the item). Submitted by: / Chris Miller Attachment: A. Cheyenne March Update Miller, Chris From: Chris Welsh <chris@deepsubllc.com> Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2015 9:21 AM To: Miller, Chris; David Girling Subject: Deep Sub Update March 5, 2015 Chris, Dave and Harbor Commission Members- Work is proceeding on the dome polishing with the newly created tool. I pinged them for photos but have not had a set come back in time for this submission; I am sure I can get them by the meeting next week and bring them along on a flash drive. Being in polish as opposed to grinding is a big step forwards. Give it to somewhere in early April to complete the polish, do QC, and then handover to us of the part. In the mean while, I met last week with the QC/NDT people for the dome and a whole QC analysis of the pressure hull, and then again Tuesday in Sacramento with those people plus the subcontractor that will be removing the current dome from its titanium ring and moving that ring over to the new dome. This Ti ring and its opposing mate are the heart of problem with the old dome; there will be re- working of the Ti rings at this juncture to address those issues, and one of the rings may need to be remanufactured. Certain elements of the ring are within the bond area and will not be visible until the current dome is unmated. The sub & shop container are moving to San Rafael in mid April as part of all this work; this puts the project closer to the Sacramento subcontractor and other tech support in the Bay Area. The dome transfer work can be forecast to use the month of May and re-assembly of the pressure hull the early part of June. From there, we will drive the whole pressure vessel to Penn State for testing, with the pressure test work being done in July. Presuming success, the pressure vessel comes back to SF for mating with the sub again and return to in water testing and operation in August. This is a three paragraph short version of what will be several hundred to a thousand hours of labor plus a great deal of logistics over the next several months. It is inevitable that the schedule will slide; none of it could be expected to go faster than forecast, and there are a multitude of points that could necessitate a side effort to address a problem not currently in evidence. For example, the one Ti ring will be released with heat to break the bond and the other with liquid nitrogen; either process could warp a ring and we would then have to produce a replacement. We will be using all efforts to avoid that of course. The ultimate litmus test is the pressure test and that is when the surety of the program schedule is determined. A good outcome follows the schedule above; a lesser outcome means substitute solutions that we have already identified would need to be pursued. The good news is we have paths available to solve any issues that may arise with the dome or the carbon tube. 1 Overall, the program is accelerating at this time on all fronts and that is exciting. Best regards, Chris Welsh +1949-278-2012 cell 2