This doesn't sound like anything much different than a site with multiple buildings served by a private fire main. However there are a few things that don't sound like they are what we would consider good engineering practice and maybe even to the point of not being compliant but again, without seeing it first hand or having more info that's hard to tell.
It's not uncommon to come into an industrial park or campus and bring the underground into a building or pit, enter the backflow then out to the rest of the buildings on the site. Is the underground piping ductile with run-ins into the buildings? I'd question the buried gate valves in the roadway boxes, they are probably not monitored or secured, but that wasn't stated specifically. The shot-gun type riser assembly with no check valve or control valve isn't that uncommon either, but again not necessarily best practice but a cheap installation, probably how the installer got the job in the first place. The problems I can see is that the control valve in the yard (when able to be found) could be closed and no one would know it. So that's not code compliant, (no supervision), hopefully the flow switch is actually connected to an NFPA 72 compliant fire alarm system which reports to some sort of monitoring service? The fact that there are FDC's on each "riser" yet no check valve makes no sense. On private loops often there is a single FDC tied into the loop on the private side of the fire main at or near the Backflow location and near a municipal hydrant. When that's the case there are often no FDC's at the individual buildings. I've seen this configuration accepted by various jurisdictions and Underwriters. What a concoction of a sprinkler system. Were there any riser placards, proof of any hydraulic calcs? Any inspection tags or reports? Craig L. Prahl, CET Fire Protection Group Mechanical Department CH2MHILL Lockwood Greene 1500 International Drive PO Box 491, Spartanburg, SC 29304-0491 Direct - 864.599.4102 Fax - 864.599.8439 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.lg.com _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list [email protected] http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
