Expansion Fittings

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jflynn

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:-? Bidding a job today,where the E.E. shows a detail for underground duct banks.Along with the detail, he has a note to provide expansion fittings every 10' for the undergound raceways. The duct banks consist of 4"&2"conduits for primary,secondaries,tele.,and fire alarm.Some of the lenghts exceed 400 ft,carrying expansion fittings per his detail will be extremly costly,which may cost us the job. I/ve never heard or seen this done,any thoughts...?
 
jflynn, Never heard of using expansion couplings underground and never

every 10' above ground. If I was bidding this job I would call the EE to

confirm, and maybe ask, Why?
 
jflynn said:
:-? Bidding a job today,where the E.E. shows a detail for underground duct banks.Along with the detail, he has a note to provide expansion fittings every 10' for the undergound raceways. The duct banks consist of 4"&2"conduits for primary,secondaries,tele.,and fire alarm.Some of the lenghts exceed 400 ft,carrying expansion fittings per his detail will be extremly costly,which may cost us the job. I/ve never heard or seen this done,any thoughts...?

Not sure why it would cost you the job , unless you are the only one who has to use the couplings..
 
Every 10 feet! I think that's a mistake.

The only time I've used expansion fittings for duct bank work is when it was going to be open for a few weeks and there were pretty dramatic night to day temperature changes expected.
 
jflynn said:
:-? Bidding a job today,where the E.E. shows a detail for underground duct banks.Along with the detail, he has a note to provide expansion fittings every 10' for the undergound raceways. The duct banks consist of 4"&2"conduits for primary,secondaries,tele.,and fire alarm.Some of the lenghts exceed 400 ft,carrying expansion fittings per his detail will be extremly costly,which may cost us the job. I/ve never heard or seen this done,any thoughts...?

You are calling it a ductbank. That usually means reinforced concrete encasements that do NOT allow for neither contraction nor expansion that would be any different than the expansion of the conduits themselves. If the civil guy provided expansion breaks in the bank, then of course the conduit exnasion jouint would be needed at the same places. (Very tricky installation though.) Requiring more than one on a 400' run would be something I would start questioning, but if there is 40 I would REALLY want to see the installation detail and of course the reasoning of why?

Open conduit of 150' GRS run or more may warrant expansion joint, less if it is aluminum.
 
jflynn said:
:-? Bidding a job today,where the E.E. shows a detail for underground duct banks.Along with the detail, he has a note to provide expansion fittings every 10' for the undergound raceways. The duct banks consist of 4"&2"conduits for primary,secondaries,tele.,and fire alarm.Some of the lenghts exceed 400 ft,carrying expansion fittings per his detail will be extremly costly,which may cost us the job. I/ve never heard or seen this done,any thoughts...?

If you are bidding this job today, it is too late.

If you had the prints earlier than today, and did not send in an RFI for clarification, shame on you.

If this is a competitive bid, and none of your competitors RFI'ed the confusion, don't even bother getting a bid bond . . . If you figured expansion joints every ten feet, you are a gonner . . .

Best Wishes Everyone
 
HighWirey said:
don't even bother getting a bid bond . . . If you figured expansion joints every ten feet, you are a gonner . . .
That's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Thanks! It's true, though.
 
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