New Orleans VA Hospital Tests Power Plant
NEW ORLEANS — Construction for a veterans’ medical center in New Orleans reached a major milestone in mid-September as its new, central energy plant powered up for the first time.
The 1.6 million-square-foot Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System replacement medical center will replace a former veterans facility that was damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The $995 million medical center is on schedule to be complete in the spring of 2016, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) anticipates seeing patients in late 2016.
A 130,000-square-foot energy plant serves as the core of the hospital campus’ structural operations. It provides electrical power, chilled/steam/domestic/fire water, heating and cooling systems, and emergency back-up systems to eight other buildings. Contractor Clark/McCarthy Healthcare Partners, a joint venture based in New Orleans that was developed specifically for the VA medical center’s construction, delivered the energy plant for Project Legacy, the name given to the medical center’s construction efforts. Clark Construction is headquartered in Bethesda, Md., and McCarthy is headquartered in St. Louis.
“With this electric service in place, permanent systems may be brought up, getting the project one step closer to controlling the environment required to complete construction,” said Steve Maslen, project director for Clark/McCarthy Healthcare, in a statement. “With the central plant now on line, Clark/McCarthy is on track to turn over some areas of the Medical Center in 2015, which will facilitate VA’s activation.”
The new energy plant provides enough capacity for the entire campus to operate independently of the city’s infrastructure and be self-sustaining for up to five days in case of natural disaster or federal emergency. When the old medical building took on water during Hurricane Katrina, critical internal and maintenance facilities and utility infrastructure were severely damaged. The VA hopes that with a new-build, it will be able to incorporate the lessons learned during Katrina.
New Orleans-based Entergy Corporation is providing power to the plant. All systems are scheduled to be operational by the end of 2014, and once they are deemed ready, the central energy plant will support the already-occupied VA administrative building, which was the former Pan American Life building.
Construction of the central energy plant began in June 2012, and many sustainable features have been considered for its design. Water for the cooling towers will be supplied, in part, from rainwater collected and stored on site, protecting natural resources and helping reduce utility costs.
In September 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs chose Clark/McCarthy Healthcare Partners as the Integrated Design and Construct (IDC) contractor for Project Legacy. Similar to construction management in the private industry, IDC is an acquisition methodology that allows the constructor to interface with the architect of record, the Department of Veterans Affairs and end-user groups during the period from design development through 100 percent completion of each work package, according to a website devoted to the hospital replacement progress.
Project Legacy’s architect is StudioNOVA, a joint venture of NBBJ in Seattle; New Orleans-based Eskew, Dumez + Ripple; and Rozas-Ward Architects, also based in New Orleans. BR&A Consulting Engineers of Watertown, Mass., performed the mechanical and electrical engineering for the central energy plant.