The steam plant at Navicent Hospital in Macon, Ga. was vintage 1980s, nestled in the basement of a 1954 building. Replacing the plant’s five boilers and adding a sixth required a sequence of deft moves, especially since the plant had to keep running. The project also required a valving scheme to bring a new deaerator online without shutting off the existing one. But the greatest challenge? Working without a GC partner.
We prefer to leave that to the good construction partners we work with. They know how to handle the many intricacies of a project beyond the mechanical work.
But when it came time for Navicent Health in Macon to replace its heating hot water and steam system in The Medical Center (its primary hospital), the limited project scope and budget meant it wasn’t a good fit for our GC partners. So, we stepped in and stepped up, performing some tasks that were new to us.
The Medical Center has a deep history in Macon. An 8-room brick home built in the 1840s became The Macon Hospital in 1895; over the years, the facility grew with expansion after expansion. Today, Navicent is Georgia’s second-largest hospital.
Local 72 pipefitter Vance Jennings finalizes the fuel oil vent piping that serves modular condensing boilers inside Navicent Health in Macon, Ga. The (highly efficient!) heating hot water and domestic hot water condensing boilers are great ROI — they save money and lessen the environmental impact.
On the mechanical side, the 2016 project was vintage hospital work for us: Remove and install massive components … in tight quarters … without interrupting service.
The environment was vintage, too. We would be removing a 1980s-era steam plant from a transformer vault room in the basement of a 1954 building, replacing five old boilers with six new ones and replacing the deaerator and surge tank.
First, we had to install a freight elevator – getting modular boilers in and out of the basement just wasn’t going to happen without one. For that, we found a new collaborator in Power and Motion Industrial Sales and Highland Machine Works, a trusted installer of cranes and elevator systems. It proved to be a good partnership. Three years later, we hired them to install the crane system in our new fabrication shop.
With the elevator in, the orchestration began: Take out a large boiler, replace it with two new boilers, while operating the heating plant with the other three (the fifth wasn’t working). Then take out two other boilers, add two new ones, and repeat the sequence for the final two.
Along the way, we developed a valving scheme to bring the new deaerator online, keeping the old one running to provide makeup water to the boilers and manage the returning condensate. We also added temporary and future taps for that makeup water, as well as for steam, condensate, natural gas and fuel oil.
HVAC systems installed in Phase 3 of the Navicent project. The absence of a general contractor made the project especially challenging.
HVAC systems installed in Phase 3 of the Navicent project. The absence of a general contractor made the project especially challenging.
“Getting everything in and out was hard work, but equally challenging was navigating the aspects of the project that a GC typically handles,” says David Vepraskas, head of B&K’s healthcare practice who served as project manager. “We had everything from A to Z to cover. We hired fire protection experts to guide us on protocols and steel contractors to reinforce openings that were being cut through concrete. And we worked closely with the fire marshal to ensure compliance at every step.”
Today, the new system is generating value as much as steam and heating hot water. Navicent Health was happy with our work – so they brought us back in 2019 to work on the expansion of the Children’s Hospital.
(For that project, we felt fortunate to have a general contractor partner.)
Today, the new system generates value for the hospital as much as steam and heating hot water.
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