Opened last November, the MaineGeneral Medical Center is able to reduce the cost of energy consumption while creating a hospital environment that meets high benchmark standards for patient wellness as well as introduces multiple engineering initiatives.

“As a health care organization, it is incredibly important to us that we provide a safe, healthy facility and that we set a standard for ensuring a healthy environment now and into the future,” Chuck Hays, MaineGeneral Health president and CEO, said in a news release. “We want to be responsible stewards of our community.”

Sustainable elements for the project touch on four key components: energy, water, materials and air quality. For example, the hospital uses natural gas instead of fuel oil, which results in significant fuel savings. Additionally, LED lighting and high-efficiency light fixtures were installed throughout the facility. The hospital also incorporated lighting that automatically turns on when someone enters the room and turns off when it senses the room to be empty.

Outside, rainwater is collected, recycled and reprocessed, and water is reduced through minimizing the potable water requirements of the project’s medical equipment, building equipment and food waste systems.

There’s also no need to wax floors, because the hospital installed low-maintenance sheet vinyl and rubber flooring. What’s more, during construction the project team implemented an extensive recycling plan and successfully diverted more than 80 percent of construction waste from local landfills. Special attention was also given to recycle-based materials and materials sourced within a 500-mile radius.

To minimize toxins, odors and particles, the construction team established a Construction Air Quality Management Plan and only low-emitting paints, coatings, sealants, adhesives, and flooring systems were used.

The facility was completed in 36 months from the start of the design, finishing design and construction, which is a full 10 months ahead of the original schedule.
“Our initial goal was to achieve silver certification. But as we constantly looked for ways to improve efficiencies throughout the construction process, it became apparent that we would achieve enough points for the higher gold certification,” Hays said.

The hospital’s Integrated Project Delivery Team (IPD) consisted of owner MaineGeneral Medical Center, joint venture architectural firms SMRT and TRO/Jung Brannen Inc., and joint venture construction team HP Cummings Construction Company/Robins & Morton.

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The 192-bed community hospital consolidated the inpatient services of MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Thayer campus and the hospital on the medical center’s Augusta campus. To complete the 640,000-square-foot center for health in 24 months of construction, which included 18 months of deign and construction overlap, the design team used an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) method.

The design was headed by SMRT Inc., which holds offices in Portland, Maine, in partnership with Boston-based TRO JB. Contractors Robins & Morton of Birmingham, Ala., in a joint venture with H.P. Cummings of Winthrop, Maine, led construction.

“The common wisdom is that IPD is about collaboration, but it goes well beyond collaboration to a unity of purpose around a common goal. Collaboration implies parties agreeing to ‘play well in the sandbox,’ but for all practical purpose, the parties remain in their silos representing the interests of their individual organizations,” said Ellen Belknap, president of SMRT, in a statement. “Successful IPD requires unity, with all parties aligned to the goals and the good of the project, not to the organization and individual representatives. This requires a fundamental shift in approach attitude and behavior, creating a virtual single-purpose entity and integrated team with a common goal.”

According to the American Institute of Architects, leverages early contributions of knowledge and expertise through the use of new technologies, allowing all teams to better realize their highest potentials while expanding the value they provide throughout the project lifecycle. A multi-party contract, required by IPD, allowed the owner, designers and contractors to jointly manage the project.

This sharing of responsibilities and goals was a catalyst in achieving goals, including targeting LEED Gold certification rather than the initial LEED Silver goal. Utility costs in the new hospital are expected to be less than half of costs at the former health care facility.

“The IPD process drove the LEED certification from our goal of Silver to meeting the requirements for LEED Gold,” said Kate Everett, senior engineer at SMRT, in a statement. “With the design and contractor team working as a single entity throughout the design process and construction period, we were able to introduce and execute innovative strategies, like ice storage, very efficiently.”

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