Creative Planning Allows for Seamless Installation of MRI and CT Scanner
Project Update: Creative Planning Allows for Seamless Installation of MRI and CT Scanner for New Veterinary Hospital
What to do when you need to install a 12,000-pound MRI with no easy interior access? Design a removable wall.
On April 1, nearly seven months of planning came to fruition with the seamless delivery of an MRI and CT scanner for the future Compassion-First Pet Hospital in Centerville, Ohio. Within just a few hours’ time, the project team removed a 9×9 section of wall, took delivery of the equipment, and had everything closed up. Working within both compressed quarters and a tight schedule required a tremendous amount of creative thinking and collaboration between project players. But that’s all in a day’s work for the Miller-Valentine Construction team.
A project within a project
When it is completed this June, the 14,000 square foot 24-hour veterinary hospital will bring a new level of quality care, including comprehensive imaging, for pet owners in the region. The imaging piece quickly became a project within a project, with the construction team building the entire schedule around the installation and commissioning of the MRI and CT scanner. The reason: equipment of this nature poses multiple challenges on any construction project.
First, it can take weeks to get the highly sensitive equipment installed and commissioned. To ensure the customer could be up and running as early as possible, the project team phased the construction work from the south to the north side of the building. This allowed for the MRI/CT center to be fully closed in—with all mechanical, electrical, and plumbing equipment operational—so that the imaging equipment vendors could commission the equipment while construction finished up on other parts of the building.
The second challenge is the size of the equipment. The team couldn’t just roll the MRI through the front door. So the project team worked closely with the structural engineer to design a special load-bearing beam that would allow for a 9×9 section to be removed without affecting the structural integrity of the facility. The section was bolted into place during construction to allow for speedy removal on delivery day.
The location itself also required creative planning on the part of the team. Located on a heavily traveled intersection in a developed area, the project site offered little room for maneuvering a 165-ton rigging crane. And, with a hospital just down the road, the team couldn’t close down the road to set up the crane. All staging for the delivery had to be done on site, which the team planned for weeks in advance.
Mission accomplished in just 48 hours
When the delivery date arrived, the team cut out the wall section, took delivery of the equipment, bolted the wall back in place, insulated and sealed the section, and installed two layers of metal shielding by the end of the day. By noon the next day, the interior wall was taped and mudded. By the end of the week, the MRI was connected to its compressor and chiller and commissioning was underway.
With so many players involved—including subcontractors, equipment vendors, the crane operator, the owner, and even the City of Centerville—there was no room for error with either communications or the project schedule. Because collaboration and accountability are signatures for Miller-Valentine Construction, the team met this important milestone without a hitch.
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