georgia #18, 2012

By Cindy RileyCEG CORRESPONDENT

Major construction at South GeorgiaMedical Center (SGMC) promises signifi-cant change at the non-profit hospital. Crewsin Valdosta are putting in long hours, work-ing to complete projects ranging from apatient tower, a new parking deck, infusionroom and generator building. Drainageupgrades and nursing station renovationsalso are among the hospital’s recentimprovements and renovations.“We are working an average of 50 trades-

men right now,” explained Mark Fernung,senior project manager of general contractorRobins & Morton of Valdosta, Ga., which isoverseeing the patient tower project. “Weshould peak around 250.”The tower expansion and renovation

involves approximately 127,000 sq. ft.(11,798 sq m) of new construction with thefive-story patient tower construction and8,000 sq. ft. (743 sq m) of renovation.According to Fernung, working in the some-what confined space has been a challenge,along with keeping the existing areas func-tional and operating.Some of the equipment included as part of

the job are cath labs, ceiling booms andpatient lifts. The patient tower calls for 8,500cu. yds. (6,498 cu m) of concrete, 850 tons(771 t) of reinforcing steel, 48,000 sq. ft.(4,459 sq m) of precast concrete, 180 tons(163 t) of structural steel, 20,000 sq. ft.(1,858 sq m) of metal panels, 17,000 sq. ft.(1,579 sq m) of glass and six new elevators.Crews hope to complete work on the towerby next summer.Half a dozen locations were evaluated

before deciding on the current site for thepatient tower, which is next to the outpatientcenter. The main floor of the new construc-tion will house the Dasher Heart Centerdiagnostics and cath labs. The second floorof the tower is slated for the CardiacProgressive Unit. The third floor will housethe CICU, and the fourth floor will serve asthe M/S ICU. A specialized surgical unit willbe on the fifth floor. A bridge will connectthe existing hospital with the new patient

tower. Chuck Smith, owner of Cauthan

Construction Company Inc. said the SGMCCancer Center expansion/renovaton and thenew hospital parking deck both began inJune 2011. “Both projects are in the final stages of

construction with occupancy in approxi-mately 45 days. Some of the biggest chal-lenges or concerns on this project haveincluded infection control, noise, parkingand maintaining services to SGMC. Also,because we’re working through an existingbuilding to enclose a courtyard and buildingover an existing detention pond, weatherwas a concern and a variable every day.” Equipment used by Cauthan’s crews

included a tower crane, mobile cranes, boomtruck, concrete pumps, backhoes, bulldoz-ers, excavators, dump trucks, power bug-gies, demo equipment, concrete finishingequipment and pneumatic equipment.Materials have included structural fill,ready-mix concrete, masonry, metal studs,

EIFS, hollow metal wood, door, pre-castconcrete, aluminum storefront/curtain walland structural steel. The Cancer Center expansion includes 27

infusion bays and calls for fresh paint, floor-ing, cabinetry and new furniture as part ofthe renovation. The parking deck, mean-while, is expected to feature a walkway fromthe deck to the main cafeteria hallway. Smith added, “These two feature projects

are a successful reality due to the pre-plan-ning and the close working/team relation-ship with our client, our design team and our

many sub-contractors and suppliers.”Valdosta Mechanical Co. Inc. CEO

Jimmy Scruggs says coordination is crucialon a project of this magnitude.“We’re responsible for the

mechanical/HVAC work. We started on thebridge connector addition in March of 2012,and will start physical work on the patienttower in September. We are almost finishedwith the Cancer Center addition/renovationwhich started in late 2011, and have juststarted working in the new parking deck.”Valdosta Mechanical is working on the

new generator building, and has just com-pleted the air handling unit replacement,which is three projects combined into one,replacing air handling units for operatingrooms and adjacent spaces, lab area and theradiology area.“Access to the site and coordination with

other trades to make sure the owner hasaccess to all components involved formaintenance is one of the biggest chal-lenges. Hospitals have a lot more serv-ices than most buildings, but the allot-ted space never seems to increase pro-portionally. Chilled water piping,steam, heating water, supply duct,return duct, exhaust duct, fire protec-tion piping, medical gases, domesticwater, sanitary, and storm piping areall trying to fit into some very tightspaces. We are using building infor-mation modeling (BMI) to helpaccomplish this on the patient tower. “It’s even more challenging on the

renovation areas,” Scruggs explained.“There are existing spaces so tight wecan’t even remove the ceiling tiles.

We’ve also had issues dealing with some ofthe existing systems old enough that no oneknows where or what many of the compo-nents are. We’ve tracked and found dampersclosed, blocking air to different areas, foundin-line pumps no one knew the purpose of,found piping that had eroded bad enough tostop up the HW system, etc. These are issuestypical in an aging facility that can’t be pre-dicted. SGMC has been good about workingwith us on these issues, but it takes a lot of

SGMC Undergoes Extensive Renovations, Improvements

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Photo courtesy of Aero PhotoWorking in the somewhat confinedspace has been a challenge, along withkeeping the existing areas functionaland operating.

see SGMC page 6

September 52012

Vol. XIV • No. 18

Core drilling for the new patient tower keptcrews busy as they worked on one of SGMC’shighest profile projects.

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time to resolve.“The patient tower is the largest

project,” Scruggs went on. “It’sfive stories with a new heart centeron the first floor, and patient roomson the upper four floors. We areinstalling five custom air handlingunits with fan walls totaling140,000 cfm, two in the basementand three in penthouses to servethe building, three new boilerstotaling 350 hp for heating water,chilled water piping connecting tothe existing plant to provide 560tons of cooling, nine individualcomputer room units totaling 45tons, steam connecting to the exist-ing plant for humidification, and244 VAV boxes along with inter-connecting supply, return, andexhaust duct.“The air handling unit project

consists of removing and replacingfour each air custom handling unitswith fan walls totaling 96,600 cfm,while the spaces being served areoccupied, three new glycol sub-cooling chillers, and a new steamfed heating water system. We hadabout five days from shut down togetting each space back under fullcontrol. This required a lot of prepwork, planning, and coordinationwith each department. The operat-ing room systems were done one ata time, so the hospital always hadat least half their eight rooms in useat any one time. During that time,we also installed new operatingroom pressure and status monitor-ing and connected them to thefacility automation system. Whenfinished, the units deliver 37-degree Farenheit air and maintainthe rooms as low as 62 degreesFarenheit at 42 percent relativehumidity and can raise or lower thespace temperature 10 degreesFarenheit in each individual oper-ating room in about 11 minutes.We had to install a 20,000 cfmtemporary unit connected to facili-ty utilities for the radiology unit tokeep it in service and the machin-ery cool while we were replacingthe main unit and used spot coolersto maintain temperature in the labwhile that unit was being changedout.”According to Scruggs, the

Cancer Center addition and reno-vations involved installing a new9,000 cfm custom rooftop unitwith fan walls, 21 each VAV termi-nal units, HW and CHW piping to

connect the equipment to the exist-ing facility utilities, and associatedduct work and distribution pumps.The parking deck and bridge

connector involve installing multi-ple fan coil units and associatedHW and CHW piping to connectthe new equipment to the existingfacility utilities. The power plantproject involves a new fuel systemand associated tanks and piping,including a new 30,000 gal. UGtank, three new 400 gal. day tanks,and temporarily relocating theexisting 10,000 gal. tank, and pro-viding 25 tons of cooling for thenew generator building.The air handling units are all

made by Temptrol. Pumps are allB&G. Computer room units are allLiebert. VAV boxes are all JCI.Crews will be using 200,000 lbs.(90,718 kg) of sheet metal, 23,000ft. (7,010 m) of piping, 23,000 ft.of piping insulation and 170,000sq. ft. (15,793 sq m) of duct insula-tion.“Weather has not impacted us so

far but has impacted the project asa whole while the basement iscoming out of the ground. With allof these projects going on at thesame time, logistics are a night-mare. We are involved on all ofthem, but each one has a differentprime contractor. We were theprime contractor on the air han-dling unit project. Coordinatingwhat is happening and when oneach project to be able to controlgetting materials in and out wherewe need them has been tough, buteveryone has worked togetherbetween the different projects verywell. “We are prefabricating and

using our warehouse as much aspossible, delivering material andequipment to the site only as need-ed to minimize any lay down spaceand protect the materials to main-tain the quality and cleanlinessrequired in a medical facility.When all of these projects are fin-ished, SGMC and the communityas a whole will have one of the topmedical centers in the region.” Ashley Paulk, president of

Valdosta Electrical, predicts hiscrews will go through roughly amillion ft. (304,800 m) of wire andapproximately 250,000 ft. (76,200m) of pipe as they continue workon the patient tower.“We’re using scissor lifts, Gehl

loaders to move dirt, John Deere

backhoes, John Deere mini exca-vators and a John Deere 330 exca-vator,” Paulk said, “We needed thelarger one because we’re as deepas 23 feet to get down to the base-ment.”“In addition to the tower, we’re

actually doing the central energyplant that feeds the entire project.Our work here has involved a lot ofcoordination and planning.Anytime you’re adding on to abuilding, it’s a different environ-ment. And in a hospital environ-

ment, you must be extra cautiousin doing any kind of shutdown.You have to be careful not to turnoff any critical service that couldput someone’s life at risk.”Hogan Pullin, CEO of Erickson

Plumbing of Valdosta, Ga., statedthat his company was responsiblefor plumbing and medical gas,beginning in December 2011.“Accurate coordination and

placement of nearly 1,000 sleevesfor pipes penetrating the concretefloors is the greatest challenge on a

project of this nature,” Pullin said.“Doing so requires a great amountof effort to locate every sleeve onthe plywood forms before the con-crete is poured, so each pipe, fix-ture and drain is in its correct loca-tion.” Pullin also said that prefabricat-

ing as much practical in-walldomestic water and medical gas,and as much overhead sanitarypiping as practical, was key. “This is done to maximize pro-

duction while building the pipingsections and minimize the fieldlabor needed in installing the pip-ing.”Kohler plumbing fixtures were

used, along with Amico medicalgas equipment. Fulton condensingboilers equipped for natural gas asthe primary fuel source and fuel oilbackup provided domestic hotwater. A Flo-Pak domestic waterbooster pump also was utilized,along with Chem-Aqua water sof-tener.Materials used include under

slab sanitary and storm PVC. Thedomestic water piping is copper.Above slab sanitary and storm pip-ing is no-hub cast iron. Medicalgas piping is copper. Plumbing fix-tures, drains and major equipmentare worth about $700,000.Said Pullin, “A great deal of

coordination between the trades, aswell as with the owner-furnishedequipment, is always a major fac-tor in a health care project of thismagnitude. Our company has beeninstalling the types of systemsrequired for this project in hospi-tals for more than 50 years and oursuperintendent has been doing sofor nearly 30 years. When it comesto understanding and planninghow all of the components of thesystems should fit within the over-all construction, our experience inthis field is an invaluableresource.”Since SGMC’s founding in

1955, the full-service acute carefacility has grown from a smallcommunity hospital into a regionalreferral center serving roughly350,000 residents in north Floridaand south Georgia. The hospital isnoted for its Pearlman CancerCenter, The Birthplace and theDasher Memorial Heart Center.

(This story also can be foundon Construction EquipmentGuide’s Web site at www.con-structionequipmentguide.com.)CEG

Multi-Faceted Job Requires Coordination of Many Trades

The main floor of the new construction will house the DasherHeart Center diagnostics and cath labs. The second floor of thetower is slated for the Cardiac Progressive Unit. Here crewshave been working on the heart tower pit.

SGMC from page 1

The new hospital parking deck is nearing completion and willserve visitors, patients and hospital staff.

Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • September 5, 2012 •

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