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    669a91d9aa7440a931bb85e4 Roybal Medical Center 1
    1. Commercial HVAC

    Preconstruction Drives Success in a Los Angeles Medical Center Retrofit

    July 19, 2024
    SCFS partnered with Victaulic to streamline the entire process, leveraging preconstruction strategies and using grooved pipe-joining solutions.

    Health care retrofit projects often have fast-paced construction schedules and intricate coordination requirements. Preconstruction strategies, which have gained popularity in recent years, offer significant advantages to mechanical contractors working with the sector’s demanding conditions. These strategies provide many benefits, including schedule predictability, cost savings, installation efficiency and improved worker safety.

    When it came time to upgrade the aging HVAC system at the two-story Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center in Los Angeles, California, South Coast Facility Services (SCFS), a full-service mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractor, was entrusted with the responsibility. To guarantee a smooth and timely execution on the active medical campus, SCFS partnered with Victaulic to streamline the entire process, leveraging preconstruction strategies and using grooved pipe-joining solutions to achieve the owner’s goals.

    Upfront risk mitigation

    Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center provides outpatient, primary and specialty care to adult and pediatric patients in the East Los Angeles community. To ensure services wouldn’t be disrupted as work began, SCFS needed to keep at least one of the building’s two rooftop chillers online at all times as well as set up a temporary chiller system.

    Victaulic
    SCFS decided to prefabricate many of the final components at their off-site fabrication shop and use modular products when possible to expedite installation times and reduce risk of field rework. Victaulic headers and vibration isolation pump drops were used in this area of the mechanical room. (Source: Victaulic)
    SCFS decided to prefabricate many of the final components at their off-site fabrication shop and use modular products when possible to expedite installation times and reduce risk of field rework. Victaulic headers and vibration isolation pump drops were used in this area of the mechanical room. (Source: Victaulic)
    To minimize the impact of the temporary chiller system on the project’s bottom line, SCFS needed to compress the project timeline as much as possible. Grooved joints boast quicker installation times compared to other pipe-joining methods, a driving factor in SCFS’s decision to use a grooved system on Roybal’s central plant piping. Spatial constraints inside the small mechanical room also influenced the contractor’s design approach.

    Grooved joints boast quicker installation times compared to other pipe-joining methods, a driving factor in SCFS’s decision to use a grooved system on Roybal’s central plant piping.

    “We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how we were going to keep chilled water going into the building,” said Stephen Cappadona, superintendent for piping and plumbing at SCFS. “This is also an older facility, and they didn’t have the room’s schematics on record anymore. We had to really pay attention to how we were going to run pipes around the existing electrical systems while leaving enough room for the new equipment.”

    SCFS worked with Victaulic’s Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) team to perform a laser scan that captured the existing conditions inside the mechanical room. The Victaulic VDC team used the information to build a robust 3D model of the space, identifying opportunities to downsize piping and optimize placements.

    Victaulic
    Victaulic’s VDC team coordinated early deliveries of all grooved products — headers, pump drops, couplings, fittings and valves — to SCFS’s fabrication shop. Each delivery included corresponding shop drawings and a full bill of materials, allowing the shop to cut and prepare pipe to length as quickly as possible and minimize rework in the field.
    Victaulic’s VDC team coordinated early deliveries of all grooved products — headers, pump drops, couplings, fittings and valves — to SCFS’s fabrication shop. Each delivery included corresponding shop drawings and a full bill of materials, allowing the shop to cut and prepare pipe to length as quickly as possible and minimize rework in the field. 

    These BIM-driven solutions ensured sufficient space for every piece in the system and yielded cost savings in the process. The model also provided SCFS with the flexibility to map out how to efficiently set up a temporary chiller system with minimal impact to the medical center's operations.

    “It made my life easier knowing that every piece had been figured out so that my installers wouldn’t struggle in the field,” Cappadona said.

    Superior coordination

    Medical centers rarely have expansive laydown yards for construction workers to stage materials — even less so in the middle of Los Angeles at an active medical facility. To minimize the impact on daily operations and maximize efficiency, SCFS planned its scope of work around two major shutdowns during which they intended to use cranes to lift all the project’s materials to the center’s second-floor rooftop.

    With this goal in mind, Victaulic’s VDC team coordinated early deliveries of all grooved products — headers, pump drops, couplings, fittings and valves — to SCFS’s fabrication shop. Each delivery included corresponding shop drawings and a full bill of materials, allowing the shop to cut and prepare pipe to length as quickly as possible and minimize rework in the field. 
    Victaulic
    New piping needed to be precisely routed around existing equipment and other MEP systems at Roybal Comprehensive Health Center. SCFS and Victaulic created 3D models of the space and determined pipe layout using BIM software to enhance accuracy and mitigate risk. (Source: Victaulic)
    New piping needed to be precisely routed around existing equipment and other MEP systems at Roybal Comprehensive Health Center. SCFS and Victaulic created 3D models of the space and determined pipe layout using BIM software to enhance accuracy and mitigate risk. (Source: Victaulic)

    The effort paid off in the end. Spools were ready for installation and delivered to the job site by the shutdown dates, enabling SCFS to immediately lift materials to the roof and get straight to work. In addition, Victaulic provided detailed pipe schematics that boosted productivity and supplied SCFS with a portable grooving machine so crews could easily cut pipe as needed from the rooftop.

    “The service elevator was tough to work with because it was outdated and right in the middle of the hospital. We also didn’t have the budget for multiple cranes. It was very important to get the scheduling right so that we had everything we needed by that second crane rental date and could load everything onto the roof,” Cappadona said. “Victaulic came through for us. Everything was there when it needed to be.”

    Simplified installation

    Although Roybal’s upgraded system was originally specified as a welded system, SCFS’s project engineer was sold on switching to a grooved system after reviewing Victaulic’s comprehensive submittals and understanding the time savings that grooved pipe-joining solutions could offer from project inception to completion.

    Victaulic provided detailed pipe schematics that boosted productivity and supplied SCFS with a portable grooving machine so crews could easily cut pipe as needed from the rooftop.

    “We showed that we could speed this process up,” Cappadona said. “This scope would have normally taken a full crew and more than a month of welding to complete. With Victaulic, it only took three guys and a few weeks to install. We had a roadmap for exactly what components went where, and everyone was impressed with how quickly everything was assembled.”

    SCFS installed Victaulic headers and vibration isolation pump drops in the mechanical room, which helped reduce the number of field joints. The modular equipment enabled SCFS to include the valves on the system, which will yield long-term energy savings and diagnostics capabilities for the end-user.

    “Pump drops are probably one of the hardest parts to assemble because they have a lot of mechanical fittings and welded joints. They typically take a while to build with traditional methods, but the Victaulic pump drops were great and easy to plug in,” Cappadona said.

    Total project partnership leaves a lasting impact

    The partnership between SCFS and Victaulic played a crucial role in successfully installing Roybal’s new energy-efficient system within the designated construction deadline. Through a collaborative approach encompassing preconstruction planning, modular solutions and meticulous coordination, the contractor effectively minimized risks, maximized installation efficiency, and achieved outstanding results for a high-quality medical center that will continue to have a lasting positive impact on the East Los Angeles community for years to come.

    Kevin Conway is a Territory Sales Manager for Victaulic, a leading global producer of mechanical pipe-joining, flow control and fire protection solutions for the most complex piping applications. Contact him on LinkedIn or at [email protected] and learn more at www.victaulic.com.