missouri hospital rebuilds after tornado with...
TRANSCRIPT
Soon after St. John's Mercy Regional Medical
Center was destroyed by a massive tornado May
22, 2011, plans were launched for its replacement.
Mercy, the sixth largest Catholic health care
system in the U.S., looked to fast-track
the construction of a new hospital to continue
serving the community.
Me rcy initiated plans 10 build the new $335 million
rVl c rcy H ospital in Joplin , Mo., in just three years.
The owner and its genera l con tractor, McCarthy, made the decision early in the design phase to b r ing in the
major mechanical , electrical and p lumbing subcontractors
in a det;ign-assisl role - aka the modified integrated proj
ect delivery const ruction method.
As part of the team, U.S. Engineering was hired to handle the mechanical and plu mbing design, fabrication and instal
lation of the enti re project. Given the tight schedule, size and scope of the job, and the survey-accuracy positioning
required for every component, U .S. Engineering knew it
would have to draw a ll of its technology expertise to kee p the
project on track. They've stayed on schedule and much more.
Since p ro ject go-ahead in Decem ber 201 1, the company has established w hat it says is one of the industly'S most efficient, accura te and re peatable design-Io-fabricltion-to-insta llation
workflows ever put in place o n a hospital p roject.
6 JANUARY 20 14 • www.snipsmag.com
Mercy Hospital Joplin is currently rebuilding following a May 201 1 tornado that devas· tated the facility. Here the patient tower is shown under construction.
Bigger and stronger The new 875,OOO-square-foot Mercy Hospital Joplin, desig ned \0 withstand the ne xt powerful tornado, wi ll include beds for surgical, crit ica l care, women 's/ c hildren·s
services (labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms),
beha viora l health and re hahilitation. The honom th ree
floors o f the st ructure will include hospital space a long wit h a 7-story palientlOwer and a 4-story cli n ic lower ris
ing above the hospital space.
The fa cility also incorporates heavy-duty mechanical , plum h ing and e lect rica l systems. A new 30,000-squa re
foot central utility pbnt will house emergency equipment a nd gene rato rs localed away from the hospita l with a
s trengthened exte ri o r. Utili ty service access 10 the p lant from the hospi ta l wi ll be vi a a 450-foot underground
tunnel.
The hospital mec han ical a nd p lumbing systems include the necessa ry components for fu e l storage, ai r su pply and
relLLrn, c h illed water, condenser water, I-\VA C and plumbing as we ll as piping fo r the tunn e l he tween the hospita l
and the utili ty plan t.
For example, the plant syste m includes three steam boi lers and ho il e r feed p umps fed hy a high pressu re
12-inch steam main. The cent ral plan t's c hilled water system includes th ree 2,000-lOn c h ille rs and three chill ed
wate r pumps wit h 24-inch supply and return mains from the c h illers to the tunne l and c htlled water return main
fro m pumps to c hill e rs . The plant also inc ludes th ree cool
ing lowers and three condenser water pumps connected by a 30-i nc h underg round main.
Continued on page 8
An unidentified worker uses a robotic total station from Trimble to layout hangers and sleeves.
Prequalification To bid on the project, the owner and the general contractor
mandated that all suhcontracto rs had to have 3-0 coor
dination capabilities. Due to the timetable of the project ,
the goal was to u se the detailed 3- 0 model , which wou ld
include all MEP e lements, to issue construction docll ments
and facilitate a speedier start 10 fabrication,
j eff Kiblen , U.S. Engineering's project. manager o f fabrica
tio n and 3-D coordinatio n oversight for the mechanical and
plumbing systems on the project , sa id the work was quick.
"We came on board in December 2011 , and we were PUI
ting in deep underground by March 2012," he said. "Most
pro jects of this scope and sca le would require si x weeks to
complete drawings, issue doculllents and finish detailing.
Because of the modified IPO methodology, we had to be
exponentially faste r."
ing the hangers and sleeves for the piping and sheet meta l
components that wou ld be routed overhead.
"This was our biggest challenge on the project,"' Kihlen
said. ~On any given day, we'd need to locate hundreds of
points on a given floor, which spanned over 100,000 square
feet. At the beginning of the project, we had three Trimble RTS
robotic total stations \0 be used by our 6-8 member field team.
Robotics to the rescue The pace of the pro ject design, fabrication and installation
drove the need for more robotic total stations, and U.S.
Engineering's interest in the Trimble rental program. Through
the program , the finn was able to rent two more identical
robotic total stations.
For the hospital pro jects, the team lIsed th ree Trimble
RTS773 units connected to the Windows 7 Trimble field tablet
and two Trimble RTS655 tota l stations connected to Nomad
The Mercy Hosp ital j op lin project broke ground in januaty Cable hangers for one the hospital's towers await the installation of ductwork
20 12 - eight months after the tornado. Once the foundation
and stmctural steel had been instal led on the site and the first
noor deck pour \vas comple1.e, U.S. Engineering began instal1-
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handheld units. Due to size of pro ject and potential Wi-Fi
issues on site, connectivity using the Trimble robotic total sta
lion unit."s integmted radio frequency communkalion capabil
ity ensured no signal loss.
'The military-grade radio has made a huge difference in
connectivity and communication throughout the project,"
Kiblen said.
Once design of the mechanical and plumbing systems was
coordinated and approved, U .s. Engineering lIsed Trimble
Po int Creator for CA f) (computer-a ided d mfting) and Revit to
create 2-D and 3-D field poinLs within Revil.
"This was the first time tlut we had used TPC (Trimble
Po int Creator) to this magnitude," Kiblen said. "One great
advan tage of the tool is the abi lity to break systems up into
more manageable sizes. For instance, the mechanical system s
might be broken up as third-noor patient tower exhaust, return
and supply air."'
to move inlO the neld, the
points were exported to
a Trimble Field Unk for
MEP robotic lOtal station 10
layout the floor penetra
tions and hanger support
embeds.
"Overall, it lOok us 2-3
weeks to complete each
floor including setting units,
triangulating and then posi
tioning," Kiblen said. "On
average , the rield layout
person can routinely lay
aliI between 40 to 50 points
an hour in good candiA building information modeling image shows the system's fit and coordination. tions.··
U.S. Engineering has
completed the design of the mechanical and plumbing
systems and located in excess of 78,000 points for sleeves,
embeds, floor penetrations, drains and hanger supports. The
points 10GHed on the first and second floors of the hospil.:'11
main building exceeded 38.000 points. The third floor. which
is cOlllmon to both towers. had roughly 10,000 points. The
6-story patient tower added another 22,000 points and the
three-story clinic lower another 8,000 points.
U.S. Engineering has also u sed the Trimble Point Creator
for CA D and Revit and Trimble Field Link for rvlEP connec
tion to verify as-constructed conditions wi th the architectural
floor plan.
In terms of accuracy, U.S. Engineering is also very satis
fied.
"Any inaccuracy especially with sleeve layouts in walls for
plumbing would have created significant fit problems, " Kiblen
of the densi ty of ceiling spaces, and tight coordi nation with
all the other systems. Thus far, we've realized incredihle accu
racy thanks to our 3-D model-to-field workflow."'
The building exterior was 10 be com plete in November
2013 and the plant o perational by this month. The main
stru ctUre expec ted to open in early 2015. This article and its images were supplied by Trimble. ~j
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