Missouri hospital rebuilds after tornado with IPO

~:mJiJ~ ~~~'il -A !anI? PUBLICATION

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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