Until the lights
come on

01 TenderNotice and bidding

For most public works, the ordering body sets out the name and conditions of the project, and a tender decides which company will carry it out. At Takane Electric, work for these clients is handled by the Engineering Headquarters, which has a member of staff in charge of tender administration.

In 2020, Takuhiro Murakami, then General Manager of the Engineering Headquarters and now Representative Director, set out the flow of the division’s work in order: “hearing the customer’s needs, drawing up plans, preparing the estimate, until the work begins and the lights come on.”

The clients range widely. At the Matsudo Pension Office and other sites, the company replaced lighting fixtures. At the Japan Water Agency’s Tone Ozeki weir, it replaced road lighting fixtures. At the JMSDF Shimofusa Air Base, it repaired the receiving and transforming equipment and the outdoor lighting. The company applied for and registered its construction business licence in 1981, the year of its incorporation, and in 2012 changed from a General to a Specified licence. A Specified Construction Business licence is required when a company that has taken on work as the main contractor subcontracts it above a set amount.

02 PlanningBefore work starts, the paperwork

A signed contract does not mean the ceilings are opened straight away. The national Standard Specifications for Public Building Construction (Electrical Works) require a general construction plan to be prepared before work begins and submitted to the client’s supervising officer. Construction plans for each type of work, and shop drawings, are also prepared before the work and approved.

The construction management work described in our job advertisement overlaps with this: site construction management above all, together with liaison with the client, management of budget, safety and quality, cost estimating, and preparing the documents submitted to the client.

Many of the Engineering Headquarters’ projects are in buildings in use. At Sakura City Hall Building 4 and others, it carried out electrical works for seismic retrofitting. At the Chiba Psychiatric Medical Center, it installed air-conditioning equipment. A city hall has its counters open; a hospital has its patients. The days and hours of work, where materials are kept and how vehicles come and go are written into the construction plan and confirmed with the supervising officer.

03 RecordsPhotograph it before it is hidden

As the work progresses, the wiring goes into the ceilings, inside the walls and under the floors. The specifications require construction photographs and other records to be kept whenever work is done on parts that will be concealed and cannot be inspected by eye afterwards. The more that will be hidden, the more photographs are needed.

When a test is carried out, a record is made at once. Matters agreed with the supervising officer, and the progress of the work, are also put in writing. Photographs that include the site photo board build up, one sheet among these documents, until the work is complete.

04 InspectionInspection day

When the work is finished, the company gives notice of completion. Under the specifications, notice can be given only when all the work in the design documents, all the matters instructed by the supervising officer and the preparation of the related documents are complete. The inspection takes place on the date notified by the client.

What is handed over is not only the building’s equipment. As-built drawings showing the finished state. Operating manuals for the equipment, and performance test reports. Notifications submitted to the authorities. A list of the main equipment. The specifications state that these maintenance documents are submitted in two copies unless otherwise specified. The as-built drawings and photographs guide whoever next repairs the building.

The last step in the sequence Takuhiro Murakami named was “until the lights come on”. Before it come all these documents, photographs and inspections.