Nimble Footwork
Children's Hospital Expansion Steps Forward

by Neal Singer

Towering by sheer mass over nearby buildings of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, the steel framework of the $238 million UNM Children's Hospital and Critical Care Pavilion addition for children is now complete.

 

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The still uncovered steel girders of the high-ceilinged, six-story addition, built in the shape of a pinwheel, rise as powerfully among the small adobe-style buildings clustering near it as the huge dinosaur skeleton at the city's natural history museum dwarfs everything around it.

The project, an addition to the largest public hospital in New Mexico, has had its problems, but nimble footwork has overcome them so far. >>

"Completing the framework took us a little longer than we figured," said Scott Stoltenberg, general foreman and vice president in charge of field operations for Albuquerque-based Structural Services Inc. "We had to move our cranes a few more times than we would have liked." The construction area, congested to begin with, became even more so when fiberoptics lines between the street and the construction site - a distance sometimes no wider than 7 ft. - were not removed at the start of the job.

Nevertheless, the 456,000-sq.-ft. addition is on schedule, said project manager Steve Adams of Albuquerque-based Jaynes Corp., the general contractor on the project in a joint venture with JE Dunn Construction of Kansas City, Kan.

"The biggest challenge was working with overhead power lines and fiber optic lines in front of the building," he said. "The staging of cranes had to be rearranged. It was a contract issue with us. We expected earlier relocation."

Workers had to lift material over the fiber-optic lines instead of taking it directly to the building. That, plus electrical lines still present during the early part of the job, "caused us a lot of stress" because safety clearances were marginal, Adams said.

To help deliver materials in a timely manner, the city of Albuquerque blocked off one lane of busy, three-lane Lomas Boulevard for seven months so that trucks could unload directly to the site.

Among other potential hazards were 15 to 20 medical helicopters landing daily on a rooftop helipad, Adams said. The helicopters had to thread their way through four cranes rising to heights of 250 ft. Crane operators were notified by radio and kept their booms stationary as the helicopters passed them.

Other difficulties included demolishing an old chiller plant on the grounds, as well as incorporating an existing telecommunications building being refurbished by another general contractor.

"We left the stem walls for the old chiller building in place," Adams said. "We utilized the old basement walls for retaining walls. We were able to give a credit of $96,000 back to the owner."

The narrow access for the emergency room of the active hospital next to the addition meant temporary ambulance ramps a few hundred feet long, with walls 2-8 ft. high, were needed. These were built by Albuquerque-based Rock Scapes of New Mexico.

Helical anchors were set in place by Albuquerque-based Vic Peery Construction.

Company president David Chavez said such plates are useful in narrow construction areas where digging out large amounts of dirt for a conventional stem wall or piles is impractical.

"A helical plate is one flight off an auger," he added. "It doesn't extract soil as it goes into the ground; it just screws into the ground and becomes a bearing plate." The load is transferred down the >> shaft from the building. Such footings are relatively shallow, compared to the deep piles often necessary with other methods. The hospital's plates are about 10 to 12 ft. deep, Chavez said.

"With concrete, you have to deal with the excess concrete in addition to the dirt, and you face a seven to 10 days cure," he added. "With helical anchors, there's no extraction and no cure time."

Two very slow elevators in the existing parking facility have been refurbished, rather than replaced. Propulsion has been upgraded from hydraulic piston to cable traction powered by electric motor. "Hydraulics are more prone to problems," said Adams.

"Used continuously, the oil gets hot and tears up the hydraulics."

Ten additional elevators are being installed in the new building. Two will drop from the roof heliport to the first-floor trauma center and will be geared to travel at 350-ft. per minute. Elevators for less critical use will move at speeds 250-ft. or less. The subcontractor is German-based ThyssenKrupp.

Adams said there currently are about 370 men working on the job. "We'll increase to 450 this summer to do framing, sheetrock, mechanical and electrical," he added.

"We have quite a few non-union people coming in on the project and working well," Adams said. "We haven't had a single issue with our union/non-union work force. It's a real success."

The building is expected to be completed by mid-April in 2007. Once the new building is occupied, the second phase of the project will start

"Then we go into the existing critical care wing and demolish five stories of concrete building in a very constrained space to work in," Adams said.

In that space, a "healing garden" will be installed to provide a relaxing space for patients to help heal themselves psychologically. Marc Schiff of Albuquerque-based DCSW Architects designed the garden and hospital.

 
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