Albuquerque Presbyterian Hospital
by K. Robert Wendel

"Quiet, please," was a bit harder for Bill Schuttler to obey than for the ordinary visitor to a hospital.

Schuttler is the overall project manager on the $55 million construction and renovation job for Albuquerque's Presbyterian Hospital, the largest acute-care hospital in New Mexico.

The work, a joint venture for the Southwest and Midwest divisions of McCarthy Construction, includes a three-story addition of 150,000 sq. ft. and 25,000 sq. ft. of renovation. It required coordinating the services of 12 subcontractors.

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The hospital is on Central Avenue, just east of Interstate 25.

As Schuttler's crews drilled 75-ft.-deep auger-cast piles inside the existing facility to support additions that would rise above it, they had to work around a continual influx of patients and not disturb vibration-sensitive equipment such as CT scanners and MRI.
The crews also upgraded existing steel support beams to meet new seismic codes, demolished part of the building's existing brick skin, added three new elevators and raised four existing ones.

"We could only work at certain times because of the noise," Schuttler said "We put up sound blankets, moved patients away, and used dust partitions and HEPA filters."

To drill one pile, crews removed a section of existing roof to gain the vertical space needed to operate the drilling machine. Another hole, inside the hospital's main lobby, was drilled by relocating the patient entryway and using a small drill rig.

Pressurized grout was pumped down and a reinforcing steel cage stabbed into the wet material.

"The concrete goes into square footings that sit atop the piles," Schuttler said.

L.G. Barcus and Sons drilled the holes.

Earl Brooks, superintendent for Klinger Construction of Albuquerque, a subcontractor on the job, said that additional hoses were needed to route concrete so as not to interfere with hospital operations.

"There were times we were asked to stop because we were making too much noise for a patient, so we stopped," he said. "It added some cost, but if it wasn't too bad, and we just absorbed it."

To upgrade in-place steel supports, the crews took pictures of existing areas to be sure they could re-create what they were about to destroy. Workers broke down walls and stripped insulation from existing 14-in. to 18-in.-thick columns before welding .5-in. to .75-in. plates to them.

Because of the new seismic requirements, technicians had to perform load tests on the steel beams to ensure they would support the mandated load limit. Crews from AMFAB Steel also ripped out walls to install K-braces and chevron braces built from 8-in. to 10-in. tube steel to stiffen the frame further. More than 1,300 tons of steel will be used during construction.

"It's a five day process for each room," said project manager Tim Tyree of Albuquerque-based AMFAB Steel. "The contractor gets two days to go in and strip the walls, we have one day to install the stiffner plates and then two days to close it back up."

Software allowed AMFAB designers to totally construct the steel portion of the job digitally, engineering and detailing the project without even using a pencil. All of the information for cutting and drilling is programmed into a computer, resulting in more efficient and quicker designing.

The beams were then re-fireproofed and the walls rebuilt.

Only four vertical steel girders support the entire new section, Schuttler added.
"Everything else is tied to that."

A two-hour firewall space separates construction and user areas. Passage of fire through the chamber would be retarded by mineral fiber.

Special features include Corian surfaces instead of laminated countertops.

"You chip plastic and it delaminates," Schuttler said. Plastic's hard to repair and doesn't hold up well in institutional facilities."

The Corian is hard enough to be used in a continuous-appearing surface for countertop and sinks, which means no additional material need be imported and affixed for basins. Sinks are built separately and then glued in place, to provide the seamless appearance.

Steve Zediker, project manager for ISEC Inc. of Mesa, Ariz., which provided the Corian fixtures, said the material is resin-based and comes anywhere from .25 to .75 in. thick. Half-in. thickness was used at Presbyterian.

"Unless you burn it, it won't wear out," Zediker added. "If scratched, it can be sanded. It's the same all the way through."

The material is applied to plywood for its base.

Cabinets are of raised-face maple panels, for style and because they'll last longer, Zediker said.

The HVAC system engages air handlers in the roof penthouse that serves each floor.

"Actually, half a floor," Schuttler said. "The requirements are different in each half for isolation rooms, emergency, post-partum rooms, and so on." The system, managed by Trane Control Systems, uses variable- speed drives controlled by temperature and pressure sensors.

The service elevators, by Thyssen-Krupp, use a card access system only available for employees.

Landscaping consultant Sites Southwest Landscaping oversaw work on an inner courtyard, as well as landscape replacement for the materials staging area.

According to Pat Gay, project landscape architect, and Chad Depugh, landscape designer and construction inspector, more and more hospitals "are recognizing the value of having small outdoor areas for people to get away."

A boom crane, with bucket removed, lifted 10-ft.-tall trees over existing walls by using nylon straps made into a cage and strapped to the root balls. Hawthorne and Eastern Redbird flowering ornamental trees were among the most visible landscape imports.

The renovation project began in March 2002 and is slated for turnover to the owners in July. It is on time and on budget.

"The owner was very happy with the way we put things together," Schuttler said. "It was nondisruptive. The floors are very open and clean, the colors bright. It doesn't look like a hospital to me."

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