BIM Application

Software Gets Good Prognosis in Health Care

by Bruce Buckley

As major firms test the potential of building information modeling, complex health-care projects are serving as effective proving ground for the technology, which is being used to detect system clashes, coordinate installation and trim schedules.

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Jeff Niesen, vice president of construction management at The Boldt Co. in Appleton, Wis., says BIM technology can be applied to varied aspects of the design and construction process.

“We’re currently most excited about the 3-D mechanical coordination and clash detection process,” he says. “We’re seeing tremendous benefits with reduced requests for information, quicker installation and better layouts for customers in terms of making it easier for them to later access those systems for maintenance reasons.”

Boldt is the construction manager at risk on the 469,500-sq-ft University of Wisconsin Interdisciplinary Research Complex in Madison. The eight-story facility consists of a cast-in-place-concrete, three-story base with a five-story concrete tower. A goal of the $158 million facility is to foster interdisciplinary research within health sciences across the entire campus and meet the demands of a wide variety of departments.

Work on the project, which was designed by HOK of St. Louis, began in 2005 and is scheduled for completion this year. The complex will house 107,000 sq ft of lab space with 76,000 sq ft of shell space for future labs, 88,000 sq ft of imaging space and 61,000 sq ft of vivarium space.

Niesen says the facility was designed to keep maintenance workers out of lab spaces, which meant that systems access was grouped into adjoining spaces.

“We have 300-ft corridors that are crammed with intense amounts of pipe, ducts and controls,” Niesen says. “That’s a key area for coordination.”

The key to using BIM effectively lies in how the build team is structured, Niesen says. As CM, Boldt was able to help create a more collaborative team, including bringing in mechanical subcontractors early and requiring them to work with BIM.

Through 3D coordination, the team identified clashes during the planning stages and alleviated costly delays that could have resulted during installation.

“The amount of time it took to coordinate was on the order of one hour for each 1,000 ft of space,” Niesen adds. “My guys estimate they’ve resolved at least two requests for information with each meeting and in some meetings [they resolved] as many as eight. When you think about the weeks it would take to respond to those RFI using the typical process, you see it’s a significant advantage.”

Effective Communication Tool

Steve Cook of Chicago-based computer consulting firm Kristine Fallon Associates says he sees firms gravitating toward BIM’s use as a communication tool within build teams.

“It seems the most efficient and effective way to get all parties around the table and make decisions about any issues that come up,” he adds.

Fallon is serving as the BIM coordinator on the $310 million replacement facility for Sherman Hospital in Elgin, Ill. The firm works with the project’s Chicago-based construction manager, Walsh Construction Co., to create 3D models that reflect the combined efforts of all parties. Each party creates its own drawings, and Cook combines those into a BIM to help identify clashes.

Six different types of software are being used among the subs, so Cook combines everything into Navisworks, which can read each format and create a unified BIM.

Fallon makes a 3D model available via a Web site and manages regular Web conferencing so all parties can view the BIM simultaneously.

“We’re not really creating a master model,” he adds. “Everyone owns their own information and does their own drawings. It’s just a way to briefly bring these together, identify needed changes and then let each party go back and make its changes until the next time we meet.”

Getting the Big Picture

Kevin Kerschbaum, associate vice president and project manager of Minneapolis-based design firm HGA, says that such proactive communication eliminates the traditional “race to be first in” among mechanical subcontractors. By creating detailed 3D installation drawings of ductwork, plumbing, electrical lines, gas lines, fire protection and other systems, each sub knows exactly how its work fits into the big picture.

The process has been particularly effective at the 430,000-sq-ft SSM St. Clare Health Center replacement hospital project in southwest St. Louis County, Mo., where HGA is the lead architect.

“If you look at a 3D screen shot of the design drawings and looked at the actual field installation, they are exactly the same,” he says. “There’s no race. Usually you’d expect the sprinkler guys to go in first, and then everyone scrambles to nest and intertwine around that.”

HGA designed the project, which broke ground in September 2006 in 3D while the design engineer, KJWW Engineering Consultants of St. Louis, worked in 2D. Those files were then turned over to the MEP design-assist partners who added additional detail and translated work into 3D for use with clash detection and installation.

“It’s been efficient in terms of aligning the skills and needs of the individual partners, so the expertise is applied by each team member at the right time and in the right level of detail,” Kerschbaum says.

2-D, BIM Together

Because BIM is an emerging technology, not all firms are willing or able to work in it. For example, a designer might use BIM on a project, and a contractor on that same job might not—or vice versa.

At Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, the fast-moving trend took hold after the $98 million project was under way. Chicago-based architectural firm OWP/P designed the project in 2-D CAD well before it broke ground in December 2006. It wasn’t until Minneapolis-based construction manager Mortenson Construction came on board that the project moved to 3-D.

“We backed into it,” says Jim Mladucky, Midwest health care regional leader and principal at OWP/P. “That wasn’t the original plan, but Mortenson said they wanted to use [BIM] for clash detection and scheduling even though everything was 2D at that point.”

The change required the team to re-input data into a BIM format, in some cases redesigning parts of the project. Although it created added work up front, Mladucky says the team realized savings through clash detection using BIM.

The 466,000-sq-ft expansion brings together 13 different subspecialty health-care fields, each with its own system’s needs. Utilities, including major cooling and steam lines, also had to tie back in to the existing hospital.

MEP models were used to generate fabrication models that allowed some equipment, such as ductwork, to be assembled offsite and delivered on-time for installation.

“It would have been ideal to have designed this project in 3D upfront, but it paid off anyway,” Mladucky says.

Although BIM wasn’t used at the start of the Froedtert Hospital project, Mladucky says the firm has since committed to using it on its future projects.

“There’s no doubt this is where the industry is headed,” he says. “It requires a collaborative approach that most people haven’t used. The difficulty will be getting people to understand the team approach from the beginning and trust it. We’re all still learning this, but it will happen.”

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