INSIDE SCOOP
November 2013
Mercy Health Saint Mary’s 7 North Renovation
Rough-In! www.elzinga-volkers.com
Upcoming Milestones »» Completion of new cored holes for plumbing relocation »» Patient room steel studs framing completion »» Mechanical and electrical rough-in »» Through floor tie-ins
Executive Summary It’s hard to believe that this space served patients just a handful of weeks ago. Already, the site has transformed from a pile of rubble and debris to a clean and clear build-out space. The skeletons of patient rooms are already coming to fruition. Working in a clockwise manner, the framers layout and build room after room. Walls on the west side of the floor are almost completely framed, with the east side open and ready for crews to turn the corner on the north end. One of the main ongoing activities during this time is the through-floor mechanical tie-in work. Once the floor is cleared of walls, ceilings and old utilities, the main arteries of the building will remain standing. These remaining utilities feed and vent air, provide power, run water, and drain sanitary and storm lines from above. Although an attempt is made to enclose these items within a wall or shaft, most of them require some re-routing to fit the new floor plan. This task requires crews to work below on the 6th floor in both the PMU and Endoscopy space. Due to the nature of these patient areas, this work is the most critical and complex on the job.
The shutdown of rooms on the 6th floor takes a tremendous amount of coordination by the subcontractor, the CM and the hospital staff. For this project, groups of two rooms are taken off-line at a time. Crews then have one week to remove the ceilings in each room, core new holes through the concrete floor, remove and re-route utilities, fire caulk, pass all required inspections, re-build the ceilings, repair any damage, and finally clear and clean the space to prepare for patient use. This pattern will continue for months to come, giving life to the renovation above. Joe Novakoski, P.E., LEED A.P. Vice President / Senior PM
Track the Project’s Progress as the Lake Grows!
Demolition
Rough-in
Drywall
Painting
Ceilings
Flooring
Casework
Furniture
The Look Ahead
Looking ahead, we are moving along with the plumbing relocations and framing walls. All of the trades will be starting the rough-in stage. When complete, all of the pipes and wire for medical gas, water, nurse call, patient bed lifts, etc. will be buried behind the drywall and ceilings. -Joe Shashaguay, Field Manager
New conduit along the ceiling
Existing electrical scanned for further drilling
Demolished area ready for new walls
New framing set
Inside Scoop |November 2013
Coring new holes for shower and floor drains
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Did You Know? We use a wide variety of construction equipment onsite, and each instrument serves a unique purpose. One particularly interesting machine is the concrete coring drill. These specialty drills are used to remove cylindrical sections of concrete. The machines are fitted with diamond blades, which come in a broad range of sizes and can cut through nearlyimpenatrable surfaces. A California mining engineer, Branner Newson, invented a coring drill that could cut up to 16’ in diameter. His invention was used for mining shafts but was later phased out as modern tunnel boring technology became more economic.
Today, the largest boring machine, Bertha, creates a cut that is an incredible 57.5 feet wide. It weighs over 7,000 tons and is 326 feet in length. To put it into perspective, this boring machine would take up roughly 5 floors of the bed tower at Mercy Health Saint Mary’s and would stick out of the building an additional 50 feet on one end.
Concrete coring drill used on-site
SUBCONTRACTOR
SPOTLIGHT Area ready for new walls
Plumbing equipment ready for shutdowns
Inside Scoop |November 2013
This month’s spotlight goes to Allied Mechanical. They are off to a great start core drilling the concrete for new plumbing. In addition, they have upped their manpower to make sure we are ahead of schedule during the rough-in phase. Their willingness to work through all these and other complex mechanical opportunities is giving the project a boost from the beginning stages. Thank you, Allied Mechanical!
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