EBMUD’s NEW WEB-BASED FIRE SERVICE REQUEST PROCESS

摘要

East Bay Municipal Utility District’s (EBMUD) Water Distribution Planning Division (WDPD)rnreviews and verifies hydraulic sprinkler designs and calculations for installation of new privaternfire services for individual buildings. Private fire services can range in size from 1-inch forrnresidential buildings up to 12-inches for commercial/industrial buildings. EBMUD currentlyrnmaintains approximately 6,000 fire services within its service area. Final fire sprinkler designrncalculations are submitted to EBMUD to verify that the required flow and pressure needed forrnthe system to operate is available at the point of connection to EBMUD’s water main. A majorrnpiece of information that the fire sprinkler contractors used to design the sprinkler systems isrnhydrant flow tests. Fire sprinkler contractors often had to redesign and revise sprinklerrncalculations because the required pressure was not available most often due to the use of hydrantrnflow test information that may have not reflected current distribution system operations. Thernapproval process took anywhere from four to eight weeks from beginning to end.rnTo minimize impacts of fire sprinkler redesign, shorten the processing time, and make everyrncustomer transaction web-enabled, EBMUD designed and implemented a new interactive webbasedrnFire Service Request (FSR) process that improved work processes through the use ofrntechnology. The new FSR process enables fire sprinkler contractors to make requests forrnavailable flow and pressure information at potential fire sprinkler connection points viarnEBMUD’s internet website. Once the request is received, EBMUD performs a hydraulic analysisrnat the connection point and notifies the sprinkler contractor of the results within ten days.rnThis paper will discuss the design of the FSR web-based application and numerous advantagesrnincluding, but not limited to, user-friendly online forms, minimizing EBMUD’s response time torncustomers, ability to query and track FSRs, minimizing duplication of hydraulic models, andrnminimizing redesign of fire sprinkler systems.