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MUSC's new hospital Central Energy Plant put together with much experience by Heather Woolwine Public Relations When the Courtenay facility opens to the public in October, Lowcountry residents and South Carolinians will have the opportunity to receive cardiovascular, surgical, and gastroenterological care in an innovative and technologically advanced facility. And while so much of this innovation will be easily seen in the every day operations of the hospital, it’s a well-equipped Central Energy Plant (CEP) and its staff that will make it all possible.   Boiler operator Keith Able, right, watches as Nalco water treatment employees Bill Lyons, center, and Tim McGlame test the CEP water supply. You can have the best tools, best physicians and health care professionals, and best treatments, but if you don’t have water, power, heat and air, all those things, including people are unable to sustain excellence in patient care. MUSC is lucky then, that the energy and other basic needs of the Courtenay facility are in the hands of an administrative staff with more than 80 years of facility management, engineering and maintenance experience.   “Every plant has a personality,” said Dave Dement, construction and mechanical engineer and the man in charge for CEP engineering oversight. “We’re still in that starts-and-fits stage, and with a facility of this size, you’re tweaking constantly. Our goals are to take care of the people who care for our patients. We need to take care of CEP by keeping it clean and efficient so that things work well, and hopefully make the CEP a national model for facilities engineering.” Who’s in charge Dave Dement, CEP construction and mechanical engineer, describes the utility system while in a vault 15 feet underneath Bee Street. Dement’s team consists of professionals with years of perspective in operating and running the basic functions many take for granted each day. Mike Bolen works as the CEP manager, and is responsible for the technician crews in the plant who maintain normal function for all the heavy-duty fixed equipment in the facility. It is their job to maintain the three 500-horsepower, dual fuel boilers, the three 1,400-ton centrifugal chillers, generators, and all of the other large, fixed equipment in the CEP and the Courtenay facility. “Our job is to keep the facility clean and running smoothly. If you keep it looking good and clean, that’s the first step in preventative maintenance,” Bolen said. “This is a learning process for us. You can come in here with all kinds of experience, but you don’t know this equipment until you get in there and work with it. We’re always learning new things.”   Jimmy Owens is the maintenance manager of the Courtenay facility, and his staff of zone technicians will address the needs of hospital personnel. They stay busy running drills and failure scenarios so that in the event of a power or other emergency, the technicians are familiar with procedures and how to address particular problems. Rick Elder serves as facility manager for the Courtenay facility, and Stacia Williams, CEP administrative specialist, will be the voice on the other end of service calls at 792-5600.   Display panels like the one on this giant chiller give engineering staff a hands-on option for analyzing how the machine is operating. The CEP command center office has a comprehensive service management computer system, enabling staff to see how everything functions in the CEP from individual breakers and creating timelines to study energy input and output to monitoring the source of a power problem, voltage, or testing and running generators.     “When a hurricane is raging outside, we can keep track of every function or process in this facility. The computer system also will allow for easy entry of subsequent phases as they are added to the CEP,” Dement said. And the system and its intranet are totally protected via emergency power operations systems. “MUSC has made a great investment in this technology, and it has and will continue to do incredible things for efficiency. This department has to be fully functional the first day. It is our responsibility to make sure that the facility can perform the vital functions needed here, and maintenance staff is already at work in the new hospital. When the first nurse arrives in the new space and sets her stuff down, she’s going to call us to start hanging bulletin boards and attend to many other needs. We have to be ready.” Cool, hot features One of the biggest considerations made when CEP was designed was room to accommodate future hospital phases in the 56,000 square foot facility. The building had to allow for expansion, and make it as easy as possible. With that said, CEP has enough square footage to accommodate another 500- horsepower boiler, three more 800-horsepower boilers, another 1,400 ton chiller, three 2,800 tons chillers, two more generators, and more evaporation towers for the roof. To put it in perspective, when the CEP reaches full capacity in the years ahead, it will have 10,000 tons of air conditioning capability. Just one generator on the CEP roof has enough power to light an entire subdivision.   Designing CEP wouldn’t have been complete without taking into consideration the city’s attractiveness to hurricanes. With a strong emphasis on flood control, CEP was erected to withstand a 15-foot flood level, and during a major storm will have full emergency power capabilities. This means that in addition to its own generators, the Courtenay facility will not see any impact on its comfort conditioning, including AC, during a major storm. A closed transition system allows the facility staff to run and test the generators without causing the power to blink off, which would require advance scheduling and would be inconvenient for medical staff. “There are multiple layers of protection. SCE&G can have one, even two lines fail and we can still operate. We’ve also worked pretty hard with them to keep the lines of communication open and show them our plant and how it functions, as well as communicating with the City Fire Department and fire chief about how to handle any emergencies.”   An eight-foot diameter tunnel stretches 15 feet beneath Bee Street from CEP to the Courtenay facility, providing space for all the major utility piping to pass from one facility to another. MUHA facility maintenance staff can perform repairs, monitor systems, or check on the water, steam and energy lines in various vaults spaced between the two buildings.   Ramming the steel tunnel into the ground wasn’t that difficult, according to Dement, but welding it together took a lot of man power and hard work. Some other challenges associated with the building’s construction involved tricky soil conditions for pile-driving, debris left from an old hotel, and meeting the City of Charleston’s need for an aesthetically pleasing building at the foot of the Ashley River bridge. The good-looking brick façade and the landscaping, complete with palmetto trees, disguises what in reality is a large mechanical room. What’s up with the gray side? If one didn’t know the reason why, a building built with brick on three sides and dull, gray concrete on another might seem incomplete at best, or an eyesore at worst. Not to worry, because the big gray back wall of CEP is all part of the plan. “We knew that the new parking garage would back up against the building, so we decided it would be best to save $50,000 and not put up brick that would become invisible once the new garage was in place.” Taxpayers everywhere, rejoice. Bee Street parking garage Construction began in March on the 1,500 space Bee Street parking garage. This new garage will be located adjacent to the Central Energy Plant. Students who had been parking on the site were relocated to the Courtenay Drive parking garage (previously known as the county garage).When completed, the Bee Street garage will serve MUSC employees and students. The estimated time of completion for this garage is approximately 20 months. Meet who's behind the scene Name: Hank Harrison. Department and how long at MUSC: Department of Construction-ology for 15 years; New hospital project superintendent. Specialty: Health care projects, many at MUSC, including the McClennan Banks Ambulatory Care renovation, a three-story addition to the Rutledge Tower, Basic Science Building renovations, and Darby Children’s Research Institute. Family: Wife of 24 years, Terry, and daughter, Elizabeth. Something people don’t know about you: I served in the Marine Corps Reserve for six years. Ingredient you must have in your refrigerator: Icecream, chocolate. (Hank is rumored to be the first to show up whenever cake is in the office.) Biggest challenge in the project: Helping to coordinate so many people in so many places at one time. Words of advice: Go to med school, not into construction. What did you want to be when you were little: Nothing, I just wanted to play and have a good time. I wish it was still like that. Coolest thing about the project: The Conservatory/atrium, how vast and beautiful it is. Name: Kim Duckworth. Department and how long at MUSC: Facilities—Project Management, working on the new hospital project. I started with the COM Dean’s Office as a consultant in 1992 and became a permanent employee in 1997. Specialty: Early development and planning, space programming, budgeting, signage planning and installation, lease negotiations, special projects. Something people don’t know about you: I was an au pair for an Australian diplomatic family in Paris, France. Ingredient you must have in your refrigerator: Cheese (and beer). What do you like the most about Charleston: It’s very cosmopolitan for a city of its size, and I love that you can’t go far in any direction without seeing or having to cross water.   Biggest challenge on the project: The amount of documentation required by HUD to be submitted on a monthly basis. But, the biggest challenge, still to come, is going to be meeting the requirements for final closeout of the project with HUD. Rewarding thing about the project: It’s wonderful to be part of building something that will benefit the community for years to come, but for me it’s been the opportunity to work with the great group of people we have working to make this project happen.  Something people don’t know about the project: The large quantity of M&M’s and other forms of chocolate being consumed by our team. There’s a direct correlation between stress and M&M consumption.We’re averaging two large bags a week and expect this to increase in the weeks and months ahead. Favorite quote: “There’s a fine line between comedy and tragedy so always look for the comedy.” I joke about the fact that walking that line sometimes seems more like a high wire act these days.  What did you want to be when you were little:  I think that changed weekly.  I remember loving Nancy Drew mysteries and Cherry Ames, RN books, and wanted to be a private detective or nurse.  Coolest thing about the project: To see the impact the bed tower has made on the skyline from different entrances to the city and along the Ashley River. Name: Greg Soyka. Department and how long at MUSC: LS3P Associates Ltd. since 1999.  Head architect on the MUSC campus. City you were born: Chicago. My then medical student dad delivered me in the living room of my parent’s apartment. The placenta came out first and legend has it dad showed it to mom and said “what an ugly baby we have” (no the marriage didn’t last long).  Ingredient you must have in your refrigerator: Flavored coffee creamer, milk (for cookie eating), salad and ranch dressing, and apples. Biggest challenge in the project: Effectively communicating project information. Something people don’t know about the project: The natural interior lighting (daylighting) is tremendous, all materials are durable and low-maintenance, the air conditioning and electrical systems are efficient, the perimeter is well insulated, and there is a master plan that encourages mass transportation. Words of advice: Regardless of whether you believe you can or can’t achieve a goal, you are correct. What did you want to be when you were little: I wanted to be Mighty Mouse, then I wanted to be Batman, and then I wanted to play for the Red Sox.  Coolest thing about the project: The City of Charleston and local historic groups have embraced a tall and modern building. More than 200 architects, engineers and specialty consultants contributed to the design of the building. More than 1,000 construction workers have played a part. The project is a great story of people coming together and giving their best efforts based on a common vision of a better tomorrow. Name: Steve Mann. Department and how long at MUSC: Senior Project Manager, Brasfield & Gorrie. I started working at MUSC in the summer of 2003. Family: Wife, Barbara, and three sons, daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. Something people don’t know about you: I’m the fourth generation in my family to go into the construction industry. What do you like the most about Charleston: The food! This town’s got awesome food. Biggest challenge in the project: The soil. There is no solid ground. You basically have a crust of dirt then 60 to 80 feet of pluff mud. We have to drive down to the marrow (80 – 100 ft.) to build. Most rewarding thing about the project: Seeing it finished. Something people don’t know about the project: This hospital is built to accommodate a 2,500 year earthquake event. Which means it can take the worst that Charleston has seen in the last 2,500 years! The bottom floor of the building is designed that if the peninsula floods (like in a hurricane), the water can just run through the bottom of the building without damaging the upper floors. Coolest thing about the project: The great big curved glass wall. It’s the first thing you see. First thing you’ll do after the building is completed: In three years I’ve taken about two weeks off, total, so I’m going on vacation.     Friday, March 30, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.