With the ever-increasing concern of a major earthquake hitting the west coast, Loma Linda University Medical Center and Layton Construction have teamed up to make major seismic updates to the hospital campus steam plant. The steam plant seismic update will be one of the first projects to meet regulations for seismic compliance standards in the state of California. Work on the steam plant seismic updates began in June 2016 and will wrapped up in December 2018.
Updates to the steam plant were needed in order to expand the capacity to meet the needs of a larger hospital facility. The updates are also needed in order to meet current criteria for hospitals under California Senate Bill 1953, which requires buildings constructed before 1973 to be updated to current codes. SPC-4D, the regulation from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, allows buildings to be upgraded to current standards by 2030. The regulation allows renovations to be made to the steam plant instead of completely rebuilding it.
“This project is very complex in regards to the seismic work being done in order to meet current standards all while keeping the steam plant fully operational,” says Kris Jenson, senior project manager for Layton Construction. “We will be able to update the steam plant while keeping the hospital fully operational through a phased approach.”
The updates include increasing the steam plant’s capacity by removing two existing chillers and one boiler and installing three new 1,400 horsepower boilers and associated equipment. The boilers are the largest fire tube boilers in the state of California with each boiler having the capacity to produce up to 48,300 pounds of steam per hour.
The removal of existing equipment and installation of the new boilers will be done in phases. Replacing the existing equipment with new boilers separately allows the plant to continue to function and support the hospital as work is done. New pile foundations and other structural enhancements are part of the update in addition to installing new boilers.