Building Summary

The WellSpan Health & Surgery Center is a two-story outpatient surgery center and healthcare facility currently under construction in Hanover, PA. The 80.000 square-foot facility will cost approximately $40 million, with the expected completion set for April 2019. Once completed, the facility will employ over 120 healthcare professionals.

 

Analysis #1: Structural Steel Connections

The original design of the structural steel in the WellSpan project omitted diagonal bracing at the connections in an effort to “future-proof” the building. This was supposed to allow for more flexibility with the floor plan if the owner would ever want to renovate later. Instead of diagonal bracing, the design on record instead utilized several stout, bolted connections. This design led to several problems for the field team, including increased costs and delays to the schedule. The impact of the potential implementation of alternate, braced-frame connections will be analyzed in this section of the report.

 

Analysis #2: Coordination Between General Contractor and Specialized Contractor

Alexander Building Company is the general contractor on the project. While Alexander assumes most of the construction responsibilities, WellSpan decided to bid out a third-party specialty contractor to install all the medical equipment once the building has been turned over by the general contractor. The coordination and turnover between general contractor and the third-party specialized contractor, who will install the medical equipment, will be analyzed in this section of the report.

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Analysis #3: Alternate Building Facade

The WellSpan Health & Surgery Center’s current façade design is a traditional brick finish. An alternative, less expensive façade design could offer many improvements to the building once completed. The potential benefits that come with the implementation of an alternate building façade on this project will be analyzed in this section of the report.

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Analysis #4: Research Topic - Impact of Lean Construction on the Industry

The integration of lean construction ideology on a project can increase value and reduce wasted resources. However, based on feedback from the PACE event in November, many industry professionals have run into some issues implementing these lean principles on their projects. This research topic will analyze how to implement lean construction principles on a construction project, as well as identify which practices are most effective across the industry.

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Mechanical Breadth

The first proposed breadth will be mechanically focused and will analyze the alternative building façade system proposed in Analysis #2. This analysis will examine the new design’s resistance to conductive heat transfer through the building enclosure. The R-Value will be calculated for the proposed façade and compared to that of the original design. In the event that the R-Value is significantly changed, there will be appropriate recommended changes to the design to mitigate these effects. The goal of this analysis is to confirm that the alternate building façade is practical for mechanical design.

 

Structural Breadth

The first proposed breadth will be structurally focused and will also analyze the alternative building façade system proposed in Analysis #2. This analysis will confirm that the proposed alternative will not impose on the structural framing of the building. Analysis will focus on the building exterior, and load calculations will be complete to confirm that the current design can handle to proposed structural loads from the alternate façade.