Konstantin Vengerowsky/Clarendon Citizen
Hospital goes underground
Clarendon Health System’s hospital expansion project is well underway, even though it may not be that visible from above ground. Everything is on schedule, according to Bryant Brown, vice president of GMK Associates, Inc., the design build contractor for the project.
“What many people don’t realize is all the underground work that has to be laid out before we start pouring the foundations,” Brown said.
Construction to date has included 2,000 feet of water line and 54 concrete pilings for the building’s foundation. Brown said that the pilings had to be drilled 40-80 feet because of the sandy soil.
“With the sandy soil, you have to go deeper to get the load support needed for the piers to support the foundations. Eight tons of rebar steel was installed in the pilings for extra support, as well as 1000 cubic yards of fill dirt for foundation pad. Two large electrical transformers were relocated and 6,750 lineal feet of electrical wiring was also installed.
The more time consuming part of the underground work has been all the pre-electric lay down according to Brown. The rerouting and installation of over 10,000 feet of electrical wiring and 1,800 feet of waste lines has been a real challenge.
Brown said that most of these tasks have been complete, and that the electrical wiring rerouting is 75 percent done. The next step is putting in the actual foundation system and expanding the hospital’s energy plant.
“We’re planning to get two new high efficiency boilers,” said Bill Upp, Clarendon Health System’s director of Facilities Development & Engineering. “We’re also planning to add three new generators to the one we have now. This will give the hospital the capability of uninterrupted power, during power outages”.
The project is divided into three phases. The first phase is building a new surgery department with three operating rooms, two procedure rooms, and 14 recovery bays. This will also be the new home of the outpatient surgery department. Also, on the first floor, will be the new emergency department. It has been completely re-designed with 22 treatment spaces and a new treatment clinic, according to Brown.
The second phase of the project will be the re-fitting of the spaces that are being replaced in the first phase. Phase three will be done simultaneously with phase one, and include the expansion of the energy plant and installation of new generators that will support the new facilities.
The health system’s expansion will be South Carolina’s first Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED)-silver certified inpatient facility. It will include high-efficiency heating, ventilating, and air conditioning equipment, rainwater harvesting, energy-efficient lighting, and low volatile organic compounds (VOC) paints and adhesives. The new and renovated spaces are expected to be complete in 2012.
