me_irl

Oh, absolutely. We were a bit obsessive about operability and maintainability - ensure that all valves can be operated without bending down, make sure that there's space and lifting gear available wherever it's needed for maintenance and removal. I could have told you the properties of ten different kinds of valves and when you'd use each one, I just couldn't have recognised them on site.

One of the stumbling blocks we had is that the operators would look at our layout drawings, and be unable to visualise how that would look once we'd built it. We'd started to do 3D models; wander through the treatment plant like it was Quake. The helmets always made me want to vom. But that helped in sorting out additional issues while they were still "the stroke of a pen" to fix.

I suspect that the laboratory design issues are caused by the people spending the money either not appreciating that it's even an issue, or not caring that they would cause issues. Bit like a kitchen, I'd guess - certain things want to be kept together because you move between them? But if the installation team can't even take half an hour to check with you that [fancy gadget A] is suitable in the easiest spot to power and plumb it, then that's a problem right there.