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NC-2009 EAc3:Enhanced Commissioning

Changing CxA agents after Final Design

Due to issues with the contract and how our project was funded, we may be forced to get a new CxA to continue the project after final design. Basically, the contract was written by people who aren't that familiar with what was required and had contradictory language in regards to the scope of work and the contract end date. Because of the vagueness we have had a difficult time getting what we need from the CxA-the design team didn't see the specifics of the contract until way later and there wasn't much we could at that point. Is it still possible to achieve this EA3 credit. If we have a new CxA review our Final Documents and complete everything that happens after we advertise (Commissioning Plan, submittal review, pre-function and function checklist, post ocupancy review, etc) and write a narrative explaining what has happened do we have a shot at this credit?

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Scott Bowman
LEED Fellow
Integrated Design + Energy Advisors, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
377 thumbs up

Fri, 05/11/2012 - 18:02

It seems that all my comments start with “it depends!” What did the original CxA due during the design period? I surprised there is not commissioning plan or specifications. Was a design review done and completed? Was the OPR developed and BOD reviewed? If these actions were done and documented, and you due to circumstances outside of your control must look to a new CxA, then I think in the narrative for the credit you can describe how this still meets the intent of the credit and you should have a good chance of gaining the Enhanced credit. If this was not done, and you are really doing the design review now at 100% CDs, then things are less clear. We have just a couple of projects where we were brought in late, but we were very clear with our clients that we could not assure them we could get the credit. We did a design review after contract award, and in one case a change order was issued and accepted for an action item. In these cases our client saw the value of the enhanced activities was such that the credit was just a bonus. We are open and disclose this in our narrative and will see what they think. Since this is construction submittal, we do know how these will turn out yet. Interestingly, these are v2.2 projects, and right now all our v2009 that are just getting to submittal state now (just in time for v2012!) we have been engaged early on all our enhanced projects. So I think the market is understanding this and making the LEED decision early in the process now. From the language in v2012, even fundamental will have to be engaged early in the process.

Fri, 05/11/2012 - 18:19

The CxA did do design reviews of our drawings and specifications, and the design team developed the OPR and the BOD was basically handed to us by the client. We didn't get any feed back from them in regards to our OPR or BOD. The design reviews themselves were thorough and helpful to the team, but any questions we had about any of their comments basically went unanswered. The prelim Commissioning plan had some conflicts with our specifications and we have tried to contact them to resolve these issues but they haven't responded to us because of the ongoing contract dispute. They aren't going to do any more work for us without more money even though the amount they were paid is the amount that an ENTIRE CxA contract should be and they haevn't even completed a third of their responsibilities. At this point everyone on the team would rather work with someone else. We can't have 2 different CxAs assigned to the template so I figured that since the new CxA would be doing most of the work they can upload the package with reference to the earlier design reviews.
Profile picture for user bowmansc
Scott Bowman
LEED Fellow
Integrated Design + Energy Advisors, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
377 thumbs up

Fri, 05/11/2012 - 18:24

That is too bad, but it does sound like you would be able to continue with a new CxA and document the tasks were completed. Best of luck!

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