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Coordination

Coordinating a planned utility shutdown or tie-in

By Review.LivePublished 3 min readHow we write

The plumbing foreman needs the building's water off for four hours to cut the new riser for floors 4 to 6 into the main. The property manager says any weekday evening will do. Nobody has asked what else that main feeds, or whether its valve still closes.

A prefabricated electrical panel with labelled wires and rows of breakers rests beside a timber workbench.
Photo: Troy Bridges on Unsplash

Run it as a scheduled event with a one-page plan, agreed a week or more ahead with everyone who controls or depends on the service: what is shut off and where, the window, what is affected, who isolates and restores, permits, notices, a go/no-go check and a fallback. The work is usually routine. Shutdowns fail on what nobody checked: a valve that will not close, a tenant nobody knew was on the line, a restore waiting for someone who has gone home.

  1. Trace what the service feeds with the owner's drawings and the building operator, fire protection included.
  2. Prove the isolation point, and name who operates it: the owner's operator, the utility or your qualified trade, nobody else. Book a utility's valve, meter or switch with the utility.
  3. Choose the window with the people affected, the shortest that works plus a margin, and book the utility, operator, crew and inspector.
  4. Line up permits and fire protection: the permits the work needs, hot work, and the fire code's measures if sprinklers or alarms go off-line. In Windsor, Ontario, for example, the fire service calls for an immediate fire watch.
  5. Send notices through the owner, a week ahead and the day before, as clear as a notice to neighbours.
  6. Set a go/no-go time and a latest time to start restoring, with the fallback on site, as in a plan B.
  7. Restore, check and record: leaks checked, occupants told, times in the daily report.

Common mistakes

  • Setting the date before tracing what the service feeds.
  • Learning on the day that the valve will not hold.
  • No latest restore time, so the crew keeps trying until the window is gone.

Checklist

The shutdown plan

  • Isolation point and who operates it
  • Everything it feeds, fire protection included
  • Window, bookings, permits and any fire watch
  • Notices a week ahead and the day before
  • Go/no-go, latest restore time and fallback

Check your understanding

The owner wants an 18:00 Friday start, but the building operator leaves at 17:00. What do you settle first?

Show the answer
Who restores the service while the operator is away, and who you call if the restore fails at 21:00. A window that suits the tenants but leaves nobody authorized to restore the service puts the building at risk overnight.

Sources

  1. Fire Watch DutiesWindsor Fire & Rescue Services · Windsor, Ontario, Canada (a municipal fire service's instructions under the Ontario Fire Code) · accessed
  2. Lockout/Tag outCanadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety · accessed
  3. 29 CFR 1926.417 Lockout and tagging of circuitsOccupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor · United States (federal construction standard; state plans may differ) · accessed

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