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Oschner tower gets expansion sooner than expected

By Sam Barnes

Even though Ochsner Clinic's Critical Care Tower was built in the late 1990s with future expansions in mind, Bill Ward didn't expect to see an expansion in his lifetime.

Ward, Ochsner's vice president of facilities development, had no idea that a dramatic increase in patient load at the campus would mandate an expansion just three years later using the same general contractor and many of the same subcontractors.

The new $16.4 million project is doubling the size of the tower to seven floors and will be completed next summer. Brice Building Co. Inc. of Metairie is building the addition, which will add about 100 patient rooms.

Brice project manager Steve Judd said Ochsner's engineering staff performed much of the design of the 3.5-floor addition because the floors are "carbon copies" of each other.

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"Each floor has 34 general purpose patient rooms and a core space for a nurse's station," Judd added.

By using its own design staff, Ocshner will experience a 5 to 7 percent cost savings, as well as provide the owner with more project control. Some "supplemental work" was subcontracted to Rozas-Ward Architects of New Orleans.

The original 3.5-floor tower project was finished in 2000 and has a foundation and structure capable of supporting 11 floors, including large structural steel columns, enhanced mechanical systems and a strong deep foundation system of precast piles.

But Ocshner's Ward said he thought decades would pass before future floors would be built.

"In fact, there is already talk about designing the remaining four floors of the tower," he added.

Brice's current job is to build out the remaining half of the tower's fourth floor, which will serve as mechanical space, and build floors five through seven.

In August much of the design had not been completed, so the structural package was released to allow the contractor to begin construction.

"The steel was going up but we didn't actually get the rest of the construction documents until later," Judd said.

Erecting the steel proved cumbersome because of a limited laydown area created by the streets and other campus buildings that tightly border the site.

"We're working on top of an existing building in a tight space and there's no laydown area," said jobsite superintendent Don Plaisance. The hospital allows Brice to use a small alleyway for delivery trucks so that steel and other materials can be lifted and placed directly from the truck.

FabArc Steel of Oxford, Ala., fabricated 850 tons of steel for the addition and Lafayette Steel Erectors used a 300-ton crane to erect the steel. The crane was supported by a 40- by 40-ft. concrete pad.

"When we bid the steel package, we asked for turnkey numbers from the fabricators, including both fabrication and erection," Judd said. "We wanted enhanced interaction between the fabricator and erector."

One critical part of the steel phase was ensuring that the columns "sat directly on top of each other" when tying the new steel to the existing steel beams, since Ocshner did not allow Brice to use of steel base plates.

"On a typical job, a base plate gives you some flexibility because you don't have to be as exact when connecting the beams," Judd said. "But this building is designed to go up even higher, so you have to think long-term with the overall design. You need to have the steel beams lined up perfectly to maintain structural integrity."

Brice crews field-verified the steel coordinates "to ensure that the steel being delivered to the site would be dead-on," he added. After completion of the project, the steel beams will stick about 3 ft. above the roofline to allow for connections during the next expansion.

All of the addition's elevated slabs are made of composite decks with sheet metal and 7.25-in.-thick concrete slabs reinforced with wire mesh. Lafarge of Metairie supplied more than 2,150 cu. yds. of 3,000 psi pumped-in-place concrete for the project.

The semi-lightweight mix contained super-plasticizer to improve pumpability.

Other work required a significant mechanical phase highlighted by the installation of new air handling units in the fourth floor mechanical room.

"We'll ultimately tie in to the existing Oschner mechanical and electrical services," Judd said. A campus-wide mechanical upgrade will eventually add chillers.

The building will also connect to the existing hospital via an existing elevator tower.

Once the addition is complete in December, its exterior will blend with the existing campus and include brick and precast concrete bands, as well as glass and glazing.

"Rush Masonry of New Orleans is performing all of the masonry work," Judd added.

Additional parking will be provided by the expansion of an existing parking garage elsewhere on campus. That project, which is not part of Brice's contract, is currently in the pile driving stage.

Throughout its project, Brice has been required to coordinate every phase with existing hospital staff. If a road closure is necessary the hospital has to be notified two weeks in advance.

That Brice and many of its subcontractors worked on the original tower helped move the project along.

"Throughout the job, we've had some wrinkles thrown at us and we're fortunate to have the original team from the original job," Judd added. "It has really helped smooth things out."

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For more information about Ochsner Clinic in Jefferson, go to: http://www.ochsner.org/