Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Bad "Buss Duct" Causes Week-long Closure of 5,000 Employee Federal Complex

Posted by timothy on from the something-to-be-indignant-about dept.

McGruber (1417641) writes In Atlanta, an electrical problem in a "Buss Duct" has caused the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center to be closed for at least a week. 5,000 federal employees work at the center. While many might view this as another example of The Infrastructure Crisis in the USA, it might actually be another example of mismanagement at the complex's landlord, the General Service Administration (GSA). Probably no one wants to go to work in an Atlanta July without a working A/C.

5 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Earthshaking by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    An electrical problem effects power to a signle building, this is news? This has nothing to do with "failing infrastructure" like old bridges, highway maintenance, or such. It's an electrical problem in a single building.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Earthshaking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      A large metal grid used to transmit lots of power within a building. It is a raceway for bus bars. They help dissipate more heat than using cables and can be tied onto at many points. This isn't a sign of a larger failing - it's a critical part of the building's systems that needed repair. It's not easy to repair while live.

      We had a small fire when ours (in a NYC skyscraper) was accidentally shorted. It shut our building down for a couple of days as well (as the bus carried most of the larger loads like HVAC and elevators). We did still have lights and such.

  2. Re:Link doesn't work by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Infrastructure Crisis is a valid link. The rest of it is borked.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  3. It's not "buss" - its bus. by Known+Nutter · · Score: 4, Informative

    A fool's drivel repeated often enough will some day end up in the lexicon, especially in the moden age of instant mass communications, but that does not make it correct.

    "Buss" is not a word, but because there was an electrical manufacturing company called "Bussman" that makes fuses, and people would often shorten it to "Buss Fuses", other illiterates have created a spurious spelling that uses "buss" instead of "bus". It's still incorrect however, in spite of the illiterates repeating it on the internet.

    This holds true within the electrical trade, as many old-timers frequently write (not type!) "buss" -- I often see it on equipment labels, one-line drawings, etc.

    --
    Beware of the Leopard.
  4. Re:17 years ago is a long time for such a system by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No. Bus ducts are installed because of their high current and extremely low maintenance requirements.

    Most bus duct systems I've worked on are on 10-20 year inspection regimes, and I have yet to encounter one, even some which are 50+ years old that actually needed maintenance. They are, or at least should be, sealed systems without so much as a spec of dust to cause problems.