Manufacturer: Victaulic

Racing Ahead of Casino Schedule

To meet the tight timeline for a new multimillion-dollar casino and hotel, The Severn Group leveraged the Victaulic grooved copper system’s design flexibility and on-site fabrication capabilities to manage the project’s most critical aspects. As a result, The Severn Group was ahead of schedule on every portion of their scope of work. Victaulic is a major sponsor of MCAA24.

No Time for Delays

Dumfries, a small town in Virginia with a population of approximately 5,750, will soon be home to the Rose Gaming Resort, a $372-million gaming and entertainment complex. The highly anticipated facility is expected to generate the town $35.5 million in annual tax revenue. It will have more than 50,000 square feet of gaming casino, luxury hotel, dining, and event space. Owners made speed to market a priority for the project, trusting that their construction partners would meet the intended completion date, even when the project experienced a start delay.

The Severn Group installed the heated, chilled, and domestic water systems, as well as the mechanical room and plumbing throughout the casino and hotel. “Because the casino is built on a former landfill, preparatory site work delayed the construction schedule for two months—but the owner’s target completion date remained the same. We had to come up with ways to speed up our construction process,” said Richard Grasso, director of operations at The Severn Group.

Grooved Pipe Minimizes Schedule

Among the challenges was streamlining the installation of 2”- to 6”-diameter copper pipe in 35’-tall ceilings in tight corridor spaces. According to Grasso, The Severn Group’s traditional standard is to solder or braze copper tube. However, the project’s time crunch required a deviation from their traditional strategy. The Severn Group only had a small crew available to perform the sizable installation at Rose Gaming Resort and needed to consider how their joining method would impact the MEP trades working around them.

Installing Victaulic’s grooved pipe simply requires tightening bolts, saving The Severn Group the time and complications of welding and making it easier for them to maneuver around other MEP trades in ceiling spaces.

“Trades in these projects are first-come, first-served. Coming second means working around the trades that arrived before us, but it didn’t matter because we used Victaulic. All we needed was to get a scissor lift and a worker to the area, whereas with brazing and soldering, we might not have been able to get around the other trades,” Grasso said. “Victaulic helped ease the stress. We didn’t have to worry about mirror welding, burn permits, hot work orders, fire watch, cordoning off spaces, or welding screens.”

The Severn Group used Victaulic Style 607 QuickVic™ Installation-Ready™ couplings, fittings, and valves to build the copper domestic water system. The products are specifically designed for domestic water applications and are resistant to potable water disinfectants. The Installation-Ready technology is delivered preassembled with no loose parts, meaning contractors only need to stab couplings on pipe ends and tighten bolts to secure them.

According to Grasso, The Severn Group gained back 10 days on the schedule by using Victaulic in the corridor and setting up on-site grooving stations despite working with a smaller crew than originally expected. As additional workers were brought on to expedite the project, they could begin installing grooved copper tube confidently following short training sessions, thanks to easy-to-use products.

“We are creatures of habit and resisted embracing a full Victaulic copper system for a long time,” said Grasso. “Rose Gaming Resort changed that. It’s in Severn’s standards that Victaulic copper is a go. We’re 100-percent sold.  I have no doubt that this system will run for as long as the owners want it to.”

Powered by On-Site Fabrication

The Severn Group did not have shop drawings available for all of the spaces, meaning they would need to capture field measurements, contact their off-site fabrication team, and wait for shipments to arrive before installation could begin. On-site fabrication became key to project success. By setting up a Victaulic grooving tool on the jobsite, The Severn Group achieved considerable time and material cost savings while remaining nimble enough to adapt to unforeseen changes.

“Coordination was under the gun the whole time. We couldn’t afford to lose time waiting for pieces to get fabricated and delivered. We would show up to the site and need to get pipe installed immediately, which is why we switched gears,” Grasso said. “We redlined the drawings as we received them, making changes and adjustments to navigate jumping over ductwork, conduits, and everything else on the fly.”

The Severn Group’s crews set up a Victaulic RG4300 roll grooving tool adjacent to their work area to make it as efficient as possible to prepare, cut, and groove pipe pieces. Thanks to the tool’s compact design, it is easy to transport, and The Severn Group always had the grooving station near work areas, even as they progressed throughout the expansive facility. Victaulic’s roll grooving tool also reduces the risk of error and rework time with a depth-setting feature that enables users to create quality, consistent grooves every time.

Winning Time on the Roof

The Severn Group significantly reduced schedule times on the rooftop, where they were able to complete 20 air handling units in half the time allotted by prefabricating with Victaulic products. Unlike other pipe-joining methodologies, mechanical joints can be easily disassembled when there are misalignments, effectively minimizing lost time in the event of rework. During the time-sensitive Rose Gaming Resort project, The Severn Group’s crew did not need to recut, reweld, or rely on a crane to lift additional materials to the roof when adjustments were needed.

“We had 16 hours scheduled per air handling unit; we cut that down to eight in the shop. On the roof, Victaulic gave us the ability to adjust the design in a matter of minutes,” Grasso said. “It was a conscious decision to mitigate risk and make up time.”

The Severn Group “resisted embracing a full Victaulic copper system for a long time. Rose Gaming Resort changed that. … We’re 100-percent sold.”

—Richard Grasso, Director of Operations, The Severn Group

Partnership Drives Success

Construction on the Rose Gaming Resort is still underway, with an anticipated completion date in 2024. All components in the hotel and casino have been hydrostatically tested and signed off on in the promised time, an accomplishment that Grasso attributed to the collaboration everyone demonstrated.

“We don’t have people we buy from. We have partners, and Victaulic was a huge partner to us. Everyone worked as a team with the same goal in mind. There was no pushback, just a ‘What can we do to help?’” Grasso said.

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA24 and co-sponsoring the annual golf tournament at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club.

With HDPE Pipe and Victaulic Couplings, Shoemaker Mechanical Makes Light Work of Cooling Tower Replacement

By using high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe rather than carbon steel and pairing it with Victaulic’s HDPE pipe joining system, Shoemaker Mechanical replaced a cooling tower in less time than planned, with fewer people than expected, and avoided potential weather delays. Tulsa Community College’s (TCC’s) system has performed with no issues since it was installed. Victaulic is an MCAA major sponsor.

Attractive Alternative

Ranked in the top four percent of community colleges in the United States, TCC has more than 25,000 students attending four locations spread across the city of Tulsa, OK. Recently, an academic building on the college’s Metro campus, located downtown, needed a new cooling tower to provide water to its HVAC system.

TCC initially favored carbon steel for the tower’s piping system, but after consulting with Shoemaker Mechanical, the contractor responsible for the cooling tower and related mechanical room installation project, as well as considering various other factors, the college agreed to explore alternative pipe materials that could streamline installation without sacrificing performance.

The budget and the timeline for the cooling tower project were tight, so any change in the piping materials selected had to allow for quick and efficient installation. And since the new cooling tower would be located on the roof, the system needed to be durable and withstand the elements.

Shoemaker Mechanical ultimately proposed HDPE pipe, which matched the construction type of the new specified cooling tower and offered compelling benefits. Not only does HDPE pipe weigh less than carbon steel, making it appealing to installation crews, it can be joined with Victaulic mechanical couplings more efficiently and with fewer workers and resources than traditional methods.

“HDPE helped us beat our piping installation schedule, and with Victaulic couplings, we did it with a smaller crew.”

— Richard Shoemaker III, Project Manager, Shoemaker Mechanical

“Looking at the schedule, logistics, and potential weather conditions, as well as seeing they’d previously used HDPE on the cooling tower construction, it made sense to use HDPE and keep everything consistent,” said Richard Shoemaker III, project manager for Shoemaker Mechanical.

After evaluating the labor and material costs and benefits to the overall project by pairing HDPE pipe with Victaulic’s new Style W907 couplings, TCC and the engineer ultimately approved the proposed plan. The TCC cooling tower replacement was the first project in the country to use Victaulic’s new 14″ Style W907 couplings.

Despite Weather, Swift Completion

Victaulic’s HDPE pipe joining system allowed Shoemaker’s crew to quickly
and safely install more than 360′ of 4″, 10″, and 14″ HDPE pipe in just two days,
faster and more easily than expected.

In preparation for the installation, Victaulic worked alongside Shoemaker Mechanical to review project drawings to integrate their system solution for HDPE pipe into the plan, then the project went to prefabrication. The teams collaborated to amend plans as change orders came in and adjusted accordingly when the timeline was pushed back to limit disruptions to the TCC class schedule.

Once onsite, Shoemaker Mechanical had one weekend to move materials from the street to the roof of the seven-story building without bucket hoists, pulleys, or elevators. The team used a crane to lift parts into position, while crews easily maneuvered the lighter-weight piping into place by hand. Workers then joined the HDPE pipe with hand tools and visually verified correctly installed joints by ensuring bolt-pad-to-bolt-pad contact, giving them confidence in the system’s durability and longevity.

As the installation progressed, winter arrived in Tulsa. Some days were cold and wet, while others were warm and sunny. On snowy days, workers were especially grateful for Victaulic’s couplings, because they did not have to lie in the snow to weld steel pipe together. If Shoemaker Mechanical had decided to fuse the pipe, the snowy conditions would have forced the crew to use tarps during their fusion process, making it even more laborious.

Using Victaulic’s new 14″ Style W907 couplings—for the first time anywhere in the country—Shoemaker cut the number of work hours required to install a new cooling tower by 50 percent over estimated time.

Despite the unpredictable weather conditions, Victaulic’s HDPE pipe joining system allowed the crew to quickly and safely install more than 360′ of 4″, 10″, and 14″ pipe. By choosing Victaulic, Shoemaker Mechanical reduced the number of work hours by more than 50 percent and finished ahead of the original project timeline by 15 percent, all while using a smaller, four- to six-person crew.

“HDPE helped us beat our piping installation schedule,” said Shoemaker. “And with Victaulic couplings, we did it with a smaller crew.”

A Successful Combination

Plastic piping continues to gain ground as materials like HDPE offer greater corrosion resistance at a competitive cost when compared with materials like carbon steel pipe. Victaulic’s HDPE pipe joining system allows you to install plastic piping quickly and in any weather condition compared with traditional methods like fusing.

“Victaulic made multiple visits over to us, the engineer, and the owner to make sure everyone understood Victaulic’s HDPE products and ensured our team was up to date on the proper installation methods,” said Shoemaker. “Their support throughout the project helped make it a success.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor.

Victaulic and Current Mechanical Achieve Perfect Harmony on Ambitious Expansion Project

Victaulic Products and Expertise Help Current Overcome Labor Shortage to Meet Tight Timeline 

For a demanding new warehouse project with a nine-month timeline, Current Mechanical counted on Victaulic’s experienced virtual design and construction (VDC) team, fabrication services, and grooved mechanical couplings to save installation time even as its workforce was stretched thin. “With the labor shortage, I am not sure we would have been able to complete this project without using Victaulic’s fabrication services,” said Steve Lewis, project manager at Current Mechanical.  

Lewis continued, “Victaulic was able to model the room, create 3D installation drawings, and assist with spatial challenges when they arose with other trades as the project progressed. The biggest advantage to using Victaulic’s fabrication services was that we were able to reduce manpower and save critical time by allowing the construction crew to spend its time focusing exclusively on installing the piping system.” 

Scaling Up With Control 

In 2019, Sweetwater Sound, Inc. planned to expand its Fort Wayne, IN, campus by building a new 500,000-square-foot warehouse. Sweetwater began in 1979 as a recording studio in a Volkswagen bus and has since become the largest online retailer of musical instruments and professional audio equipment in the United States.

“The biggest advantage to using Victaulic’s fabrication services was that we were able to reduce manpower and save critical time by allowing the construction crew to spend its time focusing exclusively on installing the piping system,” said Steve Lewis, project manager at Current Mechanical, of the Sweetwater Sound storage facility project.

Storing musical instruments requires a climate-controlled environment, so maintaining appropriate conditions within the warehouse was critical. High humidity and fluctuating temperatures increase the risk of cracks, corrosion, and broken strings, so precise control is vital to preserving the integrity of the instruments in storage.  

The project also had to be completed in just nine months, which was a challenge because of its large scope of work, including six air handling units (AHUs) with humidification; two chillers; a two-cell cooling tower; three boilers; heating, chilled, and condenser water pumps; an air piping system for conveyor systems; a domestic water system; and a reverse osmosis system for humidification.

The system installed also had to be scalable to accommodate future warehouse expansion. The initial concept was to build a giant central plant that answered the immediate needs of the facility but that was constructed so it could be expanded to meet the higher loads required to adequately control humidity and temperature in a larger space as more demand was made on the system. 

Making Music Together 

The contract was awarded to Current Mechanical, a Fort Wayne-based contractor that specializes in refrigeration, plumbing, HVAC, process piping, medical gas piping, and fire protection services. Current Mechanical had a solid track record with Sweetwater, having previously completed work for two other warehouse facilities, as well as its corporate office in Fort Wayne.

Although Current Mechanical had worked with Sweetwater before, the company had not installed the type of humidification system that was required for this new-build warehouse. Additionally, they were also undertaking this project at a time when their workforce was stretched thin. Current Mechanical needed a partner that could expedite and simplify installation to relieve some of the pressure on its limited crew and provide fabrication to facilitate site work.  

Current Mechanical’s successful partnership over the past 15 years with Victaulic, the leading producer of mechanical pipe joining solutions, made the decision to reach out for support an easy one. By joining forces, Current Mechanical would not only have access to Victaulic’s experienced and knowledgeable VDC team, they also would benefit from the company’s fabrication services. And by using grooved mechanical couplings, which are 10 times faster to install than welded joints, Current Mechanical could streamline installation with its limited workforce, which was an enormous benefit on a project that was understaffed from the outset.  

Managing Last-Minute Changes 

Victaulic’s VDC team proved its value throughout the project, identifying potential issues, working rapidly to address them, and responding quickly to engineering design changes.

Sweetwater anticipated expanding its new warehouse, which would necessitate scaling up temperature and humidity control, so this project incorporated four large AHUs, all of which required triconnection coils. Problem-solvers at Victaulic addressed this requirement by using a series of single-coil AHU drops, which Current Mechanical was able to install in only four days.

“One of the last steps before issuing fabrication spools is to issue preliminary drawings for review and signoff,” said Brandon Horton, territory sales manager at Victaulic. On this project, “we received guidance from the mechanical engineer that required last-minute changes. Our VDC group was able to adapt and make the applicable adjustments needed.” 

Once the revised preliminary drawings were approved, Victaulic’s VDC team began the fabrication process, which included spooling, fabrication maps, cutting lists, truck loading logs, and material procurement. 

“Making changes, especially during fabrication, can be a challenge, but it’s incredibly important to make sure everything will meet layout and design intent,” said Josh MacMurray, piping coordinator at Victaulic. 

Pulling all the pieces together for seamless execution requires a true team effort. “It’s quite a collaborative ecosystem,” said MacMurray. “There are modelers on one end developing quantities, then they pass it on to customer care to allocate and prepare for production. We also work with the fabrication team to make sure the right quantities will be at the right place at the right time.”

Victaulic provided on-site support and allocated all of the materials ahead of time, which was particularly valuable for the large-diameter pipe, which was not stored by the contractor and not available from local distributors. This approach meant materials could be released as needed for each phase of construction, and the necessary materials were onsite to permit construction to continue according to plan. 

Innovative Solutions 

Because of the size of the warehouse and its eventual expansion plans that would necessitate scaling up temperature and humidity control, this project incorporated four large AHUs, all of which required triconnection coils. Problem-solvers at Victaulic addressed this requirement by using a series of single-coil AHU drops. “This was an example that really showed the flexibility of our product lines,” said MacMurray. 

As critical as this solution was, of equal significance was the product’s ease of installation. Although the contractor feared the workaround would be labor- and time-intensive, because of the simple design of the Victaulic catalog item, workers were able to complete the AHU drops in only four days.  

Another “first” on this project was the installation of Victaulic’s QuickVic™ SD Installation-Ready™ System for small-diameter pipe. Used on the compressed air system that moves the conveyors that transport instruments through the warehouse, these products featured a thermally diffused zinc coating for improved corrosion resistance. 

Additionally, Victaulic’s globe-style balancing valve was a key advantage for this project. Globe-style valves are preferred over ball-style valves because they provide much more accurate flow control of the heating and chilled water through the AHUs, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers.  

Local newscast provides a look inside Sweetwater’s new warehouse: https://wpta21.com/2020/02/17/take-a-look-inside-sweetwaters-new-52-5-million-warehouse/  

The Grand Finale 

Working together, Current Mechanical and Victaulic were able to successfully deliver the project on schedule. Even more important, the groundwork has been laid for Sweetwater to continue to grow for future encore performances.

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being an MCAA sponsor.

Way Engineering Partners With Victaulic to Meet High Expectations for Houston Highrise

Way Engineering, Ltd. partnered with Victaulic to provide the HVAC mechanical work for a new Houston, TX, highrise, saving the contractor money and time throughout the complex project. Thanks in part to Way Engineering and Victaulic, the 1.14-million-square-foot Texas Tower successfully achieved LEED® Platinum status, WiredScore Platinum Certification (for digital infrastructure), and WELL™ Building Standard certification. Victaulic is a major sponsor of MCAA22. 

In 2018, Hines, a privately owned global real estate investment, development, and management firm, began planning  construction of a 47-floor office building in downtown Houston to house their global headquarters. The location (the former site of the Houston Chronicle newspaper) sits at the confluence of the city’s Central Business District, Theatre District, and Historic District. Construction took place throughout 2020 and 2021, with COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in place. 

Reliable Partners

Way Engineering already had a long history of working with Victaulic. “Victaulic partners with you in a way that’s more than a vendor selling a catalog number,” said Derrick Williams,

Building the 1.14- millionsquare- foot Texas Tower in the middle of downtown Houston posed challenges, but Way Engineering overcame them— for example, by using Victaulic products that were easy to transport and install.

executive vice president of operations at Way Engineering. “They partner with you to make the job a success and take an interest in the project, not just an interest in the sale of a product.” 

Way Engineering and Victaulic started preparation right away, working together on engineering, planning, and scheduling. The timing of this collaboration was fortunate, because it meant the bill of materials was finalized before the industry was affected by pandemic-driven supply chain challenges. 

“Victaulic was active in bringing options to the table; not just waiting to receive the order,” said Williams. “Because we used building information modeling [BIM], we knew early on what would be needed for the job. Victaulic took the initiative to review the advanced bill of material and coordinated scheduled, bagged-and-tagged deliveries. This meant when we required material, it only took two to three days to have it onsite, not four to eight weeks. This made a big difference because you need the flow of a job to never stop; you’re always pushing to meet the schedules set by the general contractor.” 

Anticipating Challenges Together 

The chilled water system for Texas Tower includes four chillers, four cooling towers, 12 pumps, two heat exchangers, fans, filtration systems, duct systems, piping up to a 20” diameter throughout the building to serve the air handling units (AHUs), and risers from the basement to the cooling towers. On the risers, all branches were isolated with Series 761 Vic-300™ MasterSeal™ Butterfly Valves. Then, Series 732 Wye Type Strainers and TA Series 789 Grooved End Manual Balancing Valves accompanied the AHUs to optimize energy efficiency throughout the tower and for ease of installation. 

Having enough pressure is critically important for highrise buildings like Texas Tower. Victaulic’s off-the-shelf Series 761 Vic-300 MasterSeal Butterfly Valves eliminated the need for a specialty high-performance butterfly valve, saving costs and allowing more lead-time. “The planning process across the board, through all parties, was exemplary. Since the inception of the project, Victaulic took on a role as a specialized engineering resource in response to high-performance valve requirements,” confirmed Stan Whitfill, Way Engineering’s executive project manager. “They get involved in the BIM process, and they bring value-engineered options to the table. A lot of companies don’t put in that time and risk until they have a purchase order in hand,” added Williams. 

Way Engineering and Victaulic collaborated closely on engineering, planning, and scheduling for the new Houston, TX, highrise. Their partnership helped the project meet some of the industry’s highest building standards.

In addition to meeting Hines’ high-performance butterfly valve requirement, Way Engineering eliminated flex connectors at the pumps, using three flexible couplings in a line instead. Mechanical connections also allowed Way Engineering to cost-effectively install a temporary loop on the 27th floor to hydro-test part of the system early and eventually connect the higher floors. 

“Being in the middle of downtown Houston is always a struggle for contractors for many reasons, including limited staging and storage areas,” said Corbin Best, territory sales manager at Victaulic. “Aside from a reduction in specialized equipment needed onsite while utilizing mechanical connections, one of the biggest advantages seen at Texas Tower was the ease of mobility and installation when there was one service elevator that all trades had to share to access 47 stories.” 

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were limits on how many people were allowed in the building at one time. Way Engineering found that Victaulic products required fewer field connections, and the contractor could fabricate spool pieces offsite, cutting down labor onsite. 

Despite the obstacles, Way Engineering and Victaulic’s collaboration upfront and consistent communication—with each other and with Hines—facilitated a successful project. 

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA22. 

Fresh Meadow Slashes Days Off Residential Riser Replacement Using Victaulic Couplings

With only three weeks to fully replace the riser system at a high-profile residential building, New York-based Fresh Meadow Mechanical Corp. selected Victaulic to win the race against time. Ultimately, they remained ahead of schedule, completing the entire project in only 15 days. Despite spatial constraints at various stages of the project, Fresh Meadow navigated each challenge with reliable engineered solutions that will benefit the building’s tenants and management for years to come.

The existing riser system, original to the decades-old residential building, had degraded over time. A new system needed to be installed before New York’s cold weather kicked in and tenants were left with inadequate temperature control. To accomplish the job, Fresh Meadow needed to first extract the riser that ran from the first-floor ceiling up to the 18th-floor mechanical room. The return riser design also had to accommodate for thermal movement in the existing space. The final and most critical challenge was that the building would remain fully occupied, meaning Fresh Meadow needed to minimize disruptions and maintain occupants’ safety during installation.

Putting People First

During planning of the riser replacement project, Fresh Meadow evaluated the impact of the work on occupants and chose a grooved system over welding. The hot works and fumes generated during welding require a hot work safety program, including restricted work areas, permits, and fire watch. To building residents, welding would raise safety concerns, divert traffic patterns on every floor, and cause a noticeable, unpleasant smell. To mitigate the effect on occupants, Fresh Meadow worked with the Victaulic Piping Movement Design group to execute a grooved system while staying within budget and on schedule.

“We didn’t have to shut down anything and didn’t interrupt the tenants at all. We also knew we wanted to cut down on the noise and could do that using Victaulic,” said Keith McKee, Fresh Meadow’s superintendent for the project. “The only noise was tightening the couplings with an impact gun, which made the building managers happy.”

Tackling a Strict Schedule

Going floor to floor, Fresh Meadow cut the riser out of the wall, rigged it down a 17-story shaft, and then removed the obsolete pieces from the lobby level. The removal used up four days of the three-week timeline, but Fresh Meadow and Victaulic were confident the team would still deliver ahead of schedule.

The Victaulic-patented QuickVic™ Installation-Ready™ couplings installed throughout the riser system are designed to expedite pipe-joining. The two-piece housing design features shift-limiting slant pads that allow for one-touch tightening instead of alternating between bolts, accommodating high-performance impact guns and streamlining installation. On many retrofit projects, standard lengths of pipe tend to be larger than the service elevator. Contractors must choose between cutting pipe lengths to fit on the elevator—which translates to added welding time—and increasing material handling time and coordination of 21’ pipe lengths. Fresh Meadow avoided this lose-lose situation by cutting down pipe lengths to fit in the service elevator, and then joining riser sections within minutes using QuickVic Installation-Ready couplings.

“The pipes were taller than the floor-to-ceiling height, so we cut them in half to get them upstairs. Adding joints may have slowed us down in a different project, but Victaulic grooved connections made it a more efficient installation. We got the building back online much faster than if we had utilized other methods. It was the adaptability we needed for this retrofit,” said McKee.

Additionally, the collective Victaulic team, including the Piping Movement Design group, provided detailed drawings of pipe layouts to the on-site crew and coordinated expedited material deliveries so the project could progress from design to installation without pause.

Space-Saving Solutions

Restricted by the riser shaft’s tight dimensions, Fresh Meadow had to design a dual-temperature system that accounted for sufficient space for thermal expansion and contraction. “There was simply no room to put an expansion loop within the existing shaft,” explained Mike Russo, chief operating officer of Fresh Meadow.

“The owners would need to modify their occupied building, inevitably encroaching on hallway space and evaluating building code, in order to compensate for pipe growth caused by temperature changes using traditional methods like expansion loops.” said Russo. “Instead, using the Victaulic self-contained [Style 155] expansion joint assembly was advantageous because we could work within the existing shaft.”

Fresh Meadow installed two Victaulic Style 155 expansion joints with three Victaulic Style A10 riser anchors at specific levels of the multistory building to accommodate for thermal expansion and contraction. The engineered solution provided the necessary expansion and contraction capability without the need for additional coordination, review, and field work that would have affected the schedule and budget.

Read Victaulic’s white paper, “Using Grooved Mechanical Joining Systems to Accommodate Thermal Piping Movement.”

From Challenge to Triumph

Rapidly replacing an extensive system with minimal disruption to residents’ day-to-day life was a tall order. Attention to detail and thinking ahead during the design phase, combined with Victaulic’s Installation-Ready grooved couplings and engineered motion control solutions, enabled Fresh Meadow to set and maintain a furious pace, cutting a full week off of the project timeline.

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

Maxair Mechanical and Victaulic Streamline Complex Med School Project From Design to Startup

For a new, state-of-the-art medical school campus, Maxair Mechanical saved valuable time by installing “miles of piping” using Victaulic products rather than welding and relying on Victaulic’s 3D models of the mechanical space to anticipate potential pitfalls and avoid costly delays. Streamlining processes at every opportunity, Maxair completed the project on time, despite labor and supply chain challenges. Victaulic is a major sponsor of MCAA23.

Thanks to Victaulic’s VDC team, Maxair was able to optimize the mechanical room layout for the School of Medicine, so each component is easy to access and can be disassembled without welding or flanging, simplifying maintenance and service.

The new Mercer University School of Medicine in Columbus, GA, boasts 77,000 square feet of classrooms, research facilities, and office space. To support it, Mercer University needed a sophisticated, reliable mechanical system that would keep students and faculty comfortable and safe while also providing temperature control to critical areas, such as a gross anatomy laboratory and vivarium.

Mercer University tasked NBP Engineers Inc. and Maxair Mechanical with installing four mechanical spaces at the new site, which included three boilers, chilled and heating water piping and pumps, a condenser system, and five dedicated air handling units for the laboratories.

Working under a tight completion deadline, Doug Polley, Maxair’s senior project manager, knew they needed to incorporate strategic solutions to compress their schedule and mitigate risk. Victaulic was the ideal partner for the job.

Setting Up for Success

The mechanical rooms required precise layouts to fit the necessary equipment and piping. Optimizing the spatial design was also a priority, as it would simplify the initial installation and facilitate future maintenance and servicing for Mercer University. The Victaulic Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) team was fundamental to meeting the project’s demands.

Victaulic’s VDC team worked to optimize the layout and design of the entire mechanical system at Mercer University which, combined with the efficiency of Maxair’s new fabrication shop, enabled workers to keep pace despite delivery delays.

“Victaulic used their expertise to create 3D models of the mechanical spaces, which proved hugely advantageous in the BIM [building information modeling] process,” Polley said. “The 3D modeling enabled us to optimize the room layout, identify potential issues ahead of time that might have wrecked the schedule, and put solutions in place during the design phase that avoided costly rework.”

Dale Heiring, principal at NBP Engineers, Inc., added, “We were pleased with the consistent support Victaulic provided. The team reviewed all our specs—which are extremely thorough—and they made sure every detail was accounted for.”

Navigating Challenges

When Maxair Mechanical first bid on the project in the fall of 2020, they were prepared to work through a certain degree of uncertainty. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic affected the available skilled labor pool and caused supply chain disruptions that directly affected construction schedules.

“It was constantly a race to keep up on the project. It was quite challenging. There were moments that seemed impossible,” Polley said.

Challenges ranged from finding sufficient staff to substitute workers when outbreaks spiked to delayed material arrivals because delivery drivers struggled to locate people at drop-off locations on the large campus. But Maxair was determined to complete the work on schedule—and they did.

Maxair Mechanical used Victaulic grooved couplings, fittings, and valves to tie in two boilers inside the first-level mechanical room at Mercer University’s School of Medicine, saving time compared with welded solutions.

The thoughtful and clear design and layout of the mechanical space, combined with the efficiency of Maxair’s new fabrication shop, enabled workers to keep pace despite delivery delays. Onsite, pipefitters worked off of a detailed spool map, developed by the Victaulic VDC team, that streamlined installation, while the grooved couplings, fittings, valves, and equipment modules proved easy and fast to install.

“If we had welded everything, it would have been very challenging to maintain the schedule,” Polley said. “We had miles of piping to install throughout a large, two-story medical building, and we were working with many complex systems.”

“Once the materials and units arrived, it didn’t take long to install the Victaulic product, the mechanical rooms were laid out well, and the designs were easy to follow,” said Guy Cozzolino, Maxair’s pipefitting coordinator.

A Productive Partnership

Despite unfavorable supply chain conditions that complicated this highly sophisticated mechanical installation, Maxair Mechanical and NBP Engineers, Inc. delivered the full scope on schedule. By partnering with Victaulic and engaging its VDC services, the engineers and mechanical contractors streamlined the entire process before materials were even purchased.

Mercer University School of Medicine at Columbus welcomed its inaugural class of medical students to the new campus in December of 2021. “It’s a win for Mercer that their students got this state-of-the-art facility that is well thought-out from the design phase to the final product,” Polley said.

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA23.

Kruse Saves Thousands Using Victaulic BIM and Products

Contractor Meets Tight Timeline for Renovation of Wichita’s Union Station

Victaulic’s building information modeling (BIM) expertise saved Kruse Corporation an estimated $15,000 to $20,000 on the renovation of Union Station in Wichita, KS, while the streamlined construction approach reduced build hours from 4,000 to 3,100, yielding an additional $40,000 in labor savings. The combination of BIM services and Victaulic products simplified coordination,
reduced risks during construction, and cut the manpower needed for this project in half.

Laying the Foundation for Project Downtown

Project Downtown is Wichita’s master plan for developing the city’s urban core to increase the community’s quality of life and encourage regional economic growth. It focuses on key stretches of the downtown area and includes both private and public investment. Union Station, a two-story train depot built in the early 1900s as a central railway station, was repurposed as a commercial office building when the city ended its passenger rail service in 1979. Today, it is central to the city’s ambitious urban renewal project.

In September 2018, Kruse was selected to renovate the hydronic piping system in Union Station. The project schedule was ambitious—even without considering the unknowns of a building more
than a century old and the fact that work would have to take place during the winter holidays. With a move-in date of April 1, 2019, for the new commercial tenants, Kruse was determined to meet the exacting schedule, so they reached out to Victaulic and laid out the requirements and timeline.

Before construction could begin, it was important to understand the workspace. Union Station’s mechanical room was in the unlit basement, which meant there was limited space. The area was only 6′ high, and the contractor knew at the outset there was insufficient space for the hydronic system. Excavation would be necessary before work could begin, so it was critical to understand the layout, potential interference from existing structures, and the proposed placement of the new system components.

Victaulic’s 3D scans streamlined design conversations with Kruse and others, because the model and the scans could be overlaid to ensure the designs were aligned with the space.

Site assessments usually begin with a sketch made from physical measurements, a process that takes a lot of time and can be flawed. Victaulic’s Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) team used a FARO 3D scanner to assess the basement instead. Using the scanner allowed the team to quickly compile measurements of the room and the existing piping network while eliminating the need
to go back to the jobsite for a missing measurement. As the project progressed, the scans streamlined design conversations, because the model and the scan could be overlaid to ensure the designs were aligned with the space. While traditional site assessment methods would have taken two to three days, the digital scan was completed in a single day.

The scan verified that the planned installation matched the room dimensions and confirmed which areas needed to be excavated. The data, made up of more than 40 scans, fed into the BIM software, ensuring the correct dimensions were used. As a result, designers from Victaulic, Kruse, and other trades were aware of any potential interference as components were assembled for the hydronic piping systems.

Coordinating in Real Time

Using Victaulic Tools for Revit®—a pipe-routing software add-in—the VDC team drew all piping sized 2.5″ and larger and submitted the drawings to Kruse. Once everything was approved, Victaulic began drawing equipment and piping schematics and shared a virtual model with the Kruse design team.

Taking advantage of Navisworks to identify clash detection, designers from both companies began piecing the system together, noting, for example, that previous electrical components posed impediments that would require piping to be routed around them. This information allowed the teams to coordinate workarounds that would permit construction to proceed without interruption,
streamlining the design and avoiding costly and time-consuming rework down the road.

Using Trimble layout software, the teams were able to see where components were placed in relation to one another. The Victaulic model was imported to the Kruse model to ensure system design was coordinated throughout the project. Kruse laid out duct work and hangers based on the piping design developed by Victaulic. Once the designs were confirmed, semi-trailer trucks excavated
47 loads of earth to prepare the space for the hydronic systems.

Expedited Construction

A nearby Victaulic facility manufactured the pipe spools for installation and shipped them to the jobsite, following the BIM assembly map provided by the design team. Because Kruse knew exactly what was coming and when, they efficiently organized and executed a systematic construction schedule. While work was being done in the Victaulic shop, Kruse was installing hangers in preparation for the pipe spool delivery. Once a spool arrived on the jobsite, it was lifted straight up into the hangers.

With piping systems being installed in a confined space, ventilation was a safety concern. Welded connections would not be feasible because of the open flames and fumes. Kruse decided the most efficient way to meet the schedule would be to use Victaulic’s grooved mechanical joining system, which would allow joints to be connected safely and easily in this space-restricted area.

Using BIM to schedule the work resulted in significant time savings, allowing installers to complete 80 percent of the basement in just a few days. Everything fit as intended, enabling accelerated installation. By using visually inspectable parts, workers could verify proper installation as the system came together, enabling work to proceed safely and delivering a reliable and robust system.

Wichita celebrated the grand re-opening of Union Station on May 16, 2019.

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

Starting from Behind, Poole and Kent Partner with Victaulic Design Team to Finish Early

Taking over a project months into the schedule and facing an extremely tight deadline, The Poole and Kent Corporation managed to complete work 15 days early by teaming up with Victaulic’s Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) team. The Victaulic VDC team’s expertise and use of BIM software allowed Poole and Kent to plan and coordinate so that they could make up for lost time on a new Baltimore apartment building.

Tight Schedule, Tight Space

The Poole and Kent Corporation, headquartered in Baltimore, was responsible for the fast-track installation of the HVAC infrastructure at 414 Light Street, a new, 44-story, 394-unit luxury apartment complex in Baltimore’s historic Inner Harbor in the heart of the city. The building includes an urban park on the seventh floor, a skyline swimming pool lined with cabanas, a private fitness club, and a yoga and movement studio.

Over the past 70 years, Poole and Kent has established a reputation as an expert in commercial mechanical design and construction services. They have managed an impressive range of projects, including biotech research facilities and hospitals, mixed-use commercial buildings, mission-critical data centers, energy plants, hospitality and gaming sites, and sports arenas.

The first challenge facing Poole and Kent on this project was a demanding timeline. “We took over the project from another mechanical contractor,” explained Donald Campbell, senior vice president at Poole and Kent. “We were brought onto the project six to eight months later than is typical for a project of this size and scope.”

For Poole and Kent, that meant the project was immediately behind schedule; in fact, they only had 10 months until the first residents were scheduled to move in and 65 days to complete the mechanical room. As their team nailed down near-term needs and prioritized work, they realized their need for a design partner to assist with the preconstruction modeling of the penthouse mechanical room, allowing them to continue with other tasks.

According to Campbell, the mechanical room posed several challenges, including its limited size, the number of systems and the large-diameter piping that needed to be installed within it, and the fact that the architect had placed it on the top floor. Poole and Kent had to take all of these factors into account during both the layout and construction.

“We realized very quickly Victaulic had the technical capability and resources to provide the services necessary,” said Campbell. Leveraging the company’s VDC team, Poole and Kent “looked to Victaulic as a strategic partner.”

Victaulic products, including these vibration isolation pump drops, and close collaboration with Victaulic’s design team helped Poole and Kent finish the mechanical room installation for the new Baltimore high-rise apartment complex in only 50 days, 15 days ahead of schedule.

Close Collaboration

The spatial constraints were a particular challenge for Poole and Kent’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) Manager, Jeff Bishop, who said the low ceiling heights complicated the design. “We used Autodesk software to overcome some of the constraints, using clash detection spatial coordination throughout the trades,” he said. According to Bishop, working with Victaulic’s VDC team was like working with an extension of his own.

Moving quickly to the fabrication stage was critical. “We knew we needed to utilize a software platform that would enable us to expedite some of the coordination processes so we could begin fabrication and get caught back up with the original schedule,” said Campbell.

As experts in the field, Victaulic’s VDC team put Navisworks and Revit to work, along with the company’s proprietary software, Victaulic Tools For Revit®, to create models within a tolerance of 1/16″. The software also enabled easy file transfers to the Poole and Kent team, streamlining the preconstruction process. All components installed in the mechanical room—including vibration isolation pump drops, strainers, triple-duty valves, and the connections used for the heat exchanger—were Victaulic products.

Victaulic’s BIM Piping Coordinator, Josh MacMurray, explained that accuracy was only one of the many benefits provided by the software. “It allowed us to be efficient,” he said. “Our product families and system preferences are designed into the software, which allowed Victaulic to turn drawings around quickly.”

Campbell recognized that Victaulic’s experienced team and their strong communication with Poole and Kent contributed to keeping the project on track from the beginning. “We had regular meetings to share models and work out any conflicts that existed between the drawings along the way,” he said. “Working with Victaulic VDC on this job was a seamless process. We were in constant communication regarding delivery dates, meeting project needs, and identifying potential areas for equipment placement.”

This communication allowed the VDC team to identify and prevent several potential issues during the drawing process. It also eased the piping installation in the mechanical room, as VDC delivered designs optimized for constructability and maintainability.

Victaulic’s VDC team used Autodesk programs Navisworks and Revit, along with their proprietary Victaulic Tools For Revit®, to create models within a tolerance of 1/16”, so Poole and Kent were able to keep the luxury apartment building on schedule despite the limited size of the mechanical room and the number of systems and the large-diameter piping that needed to be installed.

Poole and Kent Superintendent Tom Major was glad to have a partner that could handle the project’s restrictive timeline. “We had 65 days to finish a mechanical room that normally would have been done in 10 months,” he said. “We successfully completed it in 50 days in the field. Victaulic positively impacted our build schedule—they were able to provide timely drawings and material spools, and we were able to get the material cut, packaged, labeled, and ready for the jobsite.”

“The general contractor and owner were not convinced it was going to be possible to meet such a short deadline,” said Major. “But we were able to make it happen with the help of Victaulic.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA19 and co-sponsoring the golf tournament.

MCAA congratulates Victaulic on their 100th anniversary.

Shinn Mechanical Couples Milwaukee Tool and Victaulic to Go Extra Mile on Seattle Tunnel Project

Under pressure to make up for lost time on a huge tunneling project, Shinn Mechanical Inc. used cordless Milwaukee tools to install Victaulic grooved couplings on an innovative piping design, shaving months off the original schedule. “Pairing Victaulic couplings with Milwaukee tools allowed us to finish a job scheduled to take eight months in only 10 weeks,” said Mike Shinn, company founder.

Setbacks Squeeze Schedule

Seattle’s SR 99 tunnel project is a 2 mile tunnel with a double-decked roadway inside. Part of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement Program, it will replace the original viaduct, built in the 1950s, with an underground tollway that bypasses downtown Seattle, clearing the way for new public space on the city’s waterfront.

To bore the full length of the tunnel, a 57’-diameter boring machine was built specifically for the project. Called “Bertha” after Bertha Knight Landes, the city’s first female mayor, it was the world’s largest earth pressure balance tunnel boring machine.

Bertha set to work on the SR 99 tunnel in 2013, boring from south to north. The project progressed until December 2013, when damage to the machine’s seal system prevented it from completing the job. The repairs took two years and the machine restarted in December 2015.

By the end of 2015, Bertha was back at work but was stopped in her tracks again in January 2016 when a barge in Elliott Bay damaged some piers and a sinkhole developed near the project site. Until a safer worksite could be ensured, work was suspended, resulting in a hiatus that lasted until April. A year later, Bertha reached the north end of the tunnel.

After two years of delays, the tunnel had finally been fully excavated, but the work was not nearly complete.

Shinn Mechanical Swivel Joint
Shinn Mechanical engineered its own swivel joint to custom-fit the angle and the dimensions for each joint, fabricating the parts in a single day. With Victaulic’s Style W77 coupling, “We were able to cut our pipe to length and install the two-bolt couplings without mitering any joints,” said Mike Shinn, company founder.

Creative Design Saves Time

The contracts for the project’s major construction programs had been awarded years in advance. With the tunnel finally completed, work began immediately. A team began setting precast panels to create a road deck, and specialists started on the electrical and construction work.

Tasked with installing the enormous drain system for the tunnel, Shinn Mechanical was one of several companies on the worksite. It had won the job by designing a customizable header that decreased fabrication time in the curved tunnel, where every pipe had to be custom fit. Instead of trying to find an existing part that could be modified, Shinn Mechanical took things a step farther. “We came up with a better design,” said Shinn. “We are innovative, and we’re always looking for more cost-effective solutions.”

The capacity, reliability, and compatibility of the Milwaukee tools “enabled us to maximize work hours in a challenging environment.”

— Mike Shinn, Founder, Shinn Mechanical Inc.

Shinn Mechanical engineers designed a swivel joint that uses a pivot to allow the angle and the dimension to be fitted for each joint. Two plates slide against one another at a set point in the middle to allow the arms to be adjusted to accommodate varying tie-ins. Workers took measurements to determine the angles, and Shinn used those dimensions to fabricate the parts in a single day, cutting a three- to four-day turnaround into 24 hours.

With these parts in hand, Shinn Mechanical was ready to begin the largest tunnel project it had ever undertaken, and the company looked to its trusted partners for execution.

Partnering for Success

Victaulic and Milwaukee Tool brought nearly two centuries of collective experience to the table. Shinn explained that the reliability and ease of installation of Victaulic couplings has made them the grooved mechanical
coupling of choice for Shinn Mechanical.

The gradual bend in the tunnel limited pipe lengths for the drain system to 28’, requiring approximately 350 pipe joints on the main line alone. With pipe diameters ranging from 2” to 20”, pipe size presented as much of an installation challenge as the number of joints.

“Victaulic’s Style W77 coupling was exactly what we needed for the SR 99 tunnel project,” said Shinn. “We were able to cut our pipe to length and install the two-bolt couplings without mitering any joints.”

Flexibility combined with a grooved joint that is easy to install in tight spaces and accommodates deflection made Victaulic’s Style W77 AGS™ flexible coupling the right component for the curved tunnel. This one-of-a-kind coupling with a two-piece housing eliminated the need to flange or weld, allowing for a safer and faster installation of the large-diameter pipe. Victaulic’s Installation-Ready™ technology, which improves efficiency under normal circumstances, was invaluable on a worksite where spare parts could be more than a mile away.

“There was no extra walking to get forgotten parts,” Shinn said, and that minimized unproductive time. “I didn’t consider any other coupling for this job.”

The drain Shinn Mechanical installed carries rain and surface runoff, as well as water laden with brake dust, oil, and gasoline deposited by the cars using the tunnel. A proprietary Victaulic nitrile gasket, designed for use with petroleum based products, was supplied with the Style W77 coupling Shinn Mechanical wanted for this project.

Right Tools for the Job

Wet conditions, limited access to electrical power, and long distances to the work area precluded the use of corded tools on the jobsite. Shinn Mechanical looked to Milwaukee’s industry-leading M18 FUEL™ technology for impact wrenches, band saws, vacuums, drills, and stand lights, which were indispensable in the dark tunnel. All these tools run on the same 18-volt battery system, meaning the Shinn Mechanical team did not have to spend valuable time searching for the right batteries and chargers—everything was completely compatible. This kind of tool reliability meant work in the tunnel could progress without interruption to rapidly install the drain line.

However, because of the massive amount of 20” Victaulic couplings, Shinn was skeptical that cordless tools would be up to the task. “We had zero confidence cordless tools would work on those [couplings],” said Shinn. “But as soon as we fastened down the first coupling with the cordless Milwaukee impact wrench, we were blown away that it was actually able to deliver the torque to get the job done.”

The Milwaukee Tool impact wrenches proved to be a perfect match for installing the Victaulic couplings. Providing 1,400 foot-pounds of break-away torque, these tools aptly tackled the myriad of coupling sizes. And they could do all of it without the hassle of pneumatic hoses.

“The tools performed without a hiccup,” Shinn said. “They were seamless, which enabled us to maximize work hours in a challenging environment.”

Milwaukee Tool Stand Lights
The gradual bend in the 2-mile long tunnel limited pipe lengths to 28 feet, which required approximately 350 pipe joints on the main line alone and made Victaulic’s flexible coupling the ideal choice. Shinn Mechanical found that Milwaukee’s cordless stand lights not only lit up the dark tunnel but also stood up to the harsh conditions.

Milwaukee’s cordless stand lights were particularly critical to the project because they could provide light when the tunnel was without electricity. These lights not only illuminated huge areas, but they also held up to the wet conditions deep in the tunnel.

“Pairing Victaulic couplings with Milwaukee tools allowed us to finish a job scheduled to take eight months in only 10 weeks.”

— Mike Shinn, Founder, Shinn Mechanical Inc.

Each light stood on support legs that could be immersed in water with no detriment to the tool or its light output. The Shinn Mechanical team was so efficient at joining pipe that they outpaced the team laying the precast road panels. “It turned into a bit of a competition, but most days, we’d end our shift with 10’ of pipe sticking out the front end of the road,” Shinn explained.

More than two miles of the line was hydrotested without a single leak. “We’ve done a lot of tunnel work in the area,” Shinn said, “but there has never been anything like this in the state of Washington.”

Leveraging its trusted partnerships, Shinn Mechanical delivered an innovative and durable solution in record time. The tunnel is scheduled to open in early 2019.

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com and www.milwaukeetool.com.

Martin Associates Partners with Victaulic, Stays on Budget, Ahead of Schedule

Using Victaulic grooved mechanical solutions and Construction Piping Services (CPS) for a cramped mechanical room in a new luxury apartment building, Martin Associates streamlined its drawing and installation processes, reduced waste, and cut overall project costs by three to four percent. Martin successfully installed, tested, and completed the HVAC system at 525 West 52nd Street in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in a week and a half, staying on budget and ahead of schedule.

Home to several celebrities and a constant wave of newcomers, Hell’s Kitchen is rapidly building out its living accommodations to keep up with its population growth. One of the neighborhood’s newest luxury rental residences, commonly referred to as 525, is a 445,000-square-foot, mixed-use space that includes 392 high-end rental units and over 35,000 square feet of lifestyle and recreational amenities.

Victaulic Installation in Hell's KitchenTight Fit

In 2016, Martin Associates was contracted to design and install the building’s HVAC system. With more than 35 years’ experience working in the New York area, the Martin team is accustomed to working in tight spaces. Anthony Cicchetti, Martin’s project manager, immediately recognized the unique complexities of 525, including a smaller-than-normal mechanical room, even by New York City standards.

“This job was pretty typical for us except that the mechanical room was smaller and more compact than normal,” recalled Cicchetti. “This made our approach to the drawings and installation that much more important. The system had to be designed and assembled efficiently.”

With the resources of his in-house design team focused on several other projects and a deadline quickly approaching, Cicchetti started to feel the heat from Hell’s Kitchen.

Counting on Coordination

Having used Victaulic’s grooved mechanical solutions on multiple projects in the past, Cicchetti knew Victaulic was the most logical pipe-joining method for the job. Using grooved products reduces installation times, and they can be easily installed within the tight space Martin had to work with.

The size of the mechanical room, however, presented a bigger challenge and required extremely accurate drawings. Victaulic reached out to Martin Associates to discuss its CPS and to offer assistance to Cicchetti and his crew. The timing was opportune, as the contractor’s in-house drawing team had multiple projects already underway.

“I’m glad we were able to make it work on this one,” explained Cicchetti. “Victaulic’s drawing team knows the measurements and the nuances of design, which ended up making this project incredibly easy and efficient.”

As revisions or changes were made, updated drawings were sent to Cicchetti within hours, significantly speeding up the preconstruction phase. Victaulic sales and CPS teams worked alongside Martin Associates to fine-tune the building’s piping system designs, utilizing every available inch of the tight mechanical space.

“Victaulic’s drawing team knows the measurements and the nuances of design, which ended up making this project incredibly easy and efficient.”

—Anthony Cicchetti, Project Manager, Martin Associates

“Our CPS team coordinated all aspects of the design, working to ensure all critical components were successfully integrated into the drawings,” said Danny McNamara, Victaulic’s sales manager. “And as with all of our projects, we offered Cicchetti and his team best practices, advice, and recommendations where we could.”

Cicchetti recalled how combining Victaulic’s grooved mechanical couplings with its CPS solutions exponentially sped up the installation phase of the project. Product was delivered to the jobsite on schedule, bagged and tagged so it could be installed in the right place and in the right order, which allowed the project foreman and the rest of the Martin team to focus on other important details.

“Just as the materials would arrive onsite from the fabrication shop, the couplings would show up, ready to install,” said Cicchetti. “In just a week and a half, we had the boiler landed, piping up in the air, and the system connected and tested.”

Victaulic QuickVic™ Style 107N rigid couplings and QuickVic™ Style 177N flexible couplings were used to make the 2 1/2” to 10” connections on the condenser and chilled water lines, along with Series 732 Wye-Type Vic Strainers®, Series 761 Vic™‑300 MasterSeal™ butterfly valves, corresponding fittings, and IMI TA balancing valves.

“Being able to count the number of conflicts we had on one hand was a huge win,” said Cicchetti. “Additionally, we saw waste significantly reduced during the project. Depending on the job, we can sometimes have as much as 15- to 20 percent waste. Both of the factors helped make this job one of the more successful drafting projects I have had in the last five years.”

In addition to streamlining the drawing and installation processes and eliminating waste, Victaulic’s solutions played a large factor in the overall savings of the project, reducing overall costs by three to four percent, and providing invaluable customer service throughout the job.

“To be honest, I was a little hesitant at first, since Victaulic’s CPS team is located in Pennsylvania, which could make coordination a nightmare,” said Cicchetti. “It ended up being extremely well done and very seamless. The CPS team physically came to visit the site, returned phone calls almost immediately, and were some of the most pleasant people I’ve worked with.

“Grooved couplings definitely reduce installation times,” said Cicchetti. “But I choose Victaulic because Danny and his team are always one call away. That one on-one connection is the difference-maker for me and will keep me coming back.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA18 and for co-sponsoring the Golf Tournament.

With Victaulic Couplings, Arden Meets Tight Timeline, Saves $100,000 on Overall Costs

Contracted to design and install the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection systems for a massive renovation, Arden Building Companies faced a tight timeline, a tight space, and a tight budget—all of which made welding a poor choice for completing the mechanical room. Using Victaulic’s easy-to-install grooved connections, Arden joined, hung, and installed pipe quickly and efficiently once it was lowered into the mechanical room. Arden estimated that the speed of installation reduced overall costs by approximately $100,000.

Rhode Island’s Largest Construction Project

Built in 1912, the two-story, 58,000-square-foot South Street Landing Power Station in Providence, RI, provided electricity to jewelry, textile, and machinery manufacturing firms through the early 20th century. The historic power station, decommissioned in the 1990s, has since been transformed into an impressive seven-story, 265,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art nursing education and administrative office complex, which opened in April 2017. It is now home to the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center and Brown University.

Rhode Island’s South Street Landing Power Station
Partnering with Victaulic enabled Arden to meet the tight timeline for the transformation of the Rhode Island’s South Street Landing Power Station—the state’s largest economic development project in 2016—and saved Arden an estimated $100,000 in overall costs.

Arden joined the project in 2016 and recognized that the sheer size and scale of the expansion efforts magnified the complexity of the project. In fact, South Street Landing was Rhode Island’s largest economic development project in 2016, as determined by the manpower needed, the amount of money invested, and the amount of materials used.

John Puniello, vice president of Arden, recalled the difficulties his team came across—specifically with the top-floor mechanical room. “Not only did Arden have just six weeks to complete the large mechanical room, but the space was tight, making maneuverability and installation difficult, and, since the mechanical room was saved for last, it required each section of pipe be installed in a specific order,” he said.

Timeline, Budget Call for Efficient Solutions

After closely analyzing the timeline, the budget, and the scope of work ahead of them, the Arden team quickly realized that welding the condenser and chilled-water piping would take too long and had the potential to drive the project over budget. So, they called Victaulic. Having used Victaulic on previous projects, Arden saw firsthand how Victaulic’s innovative piping technologies reduced installation times and increased efficiencies without sacrificing safety or reliability.

According to Puniello, the Arden/Victaulic partnership led to an “erector set” approach. Arden designed and prefabricated 90 percent of the piping systems at its facility, relying on Victaulic’s grooved connections for installation onsite.

The entire mechanical room was delivered to the jobsite, and the installation went directly from the truck to the hanger. Arden designed and prefabricated nearly all of the systems in-house, using their 33,000-square-foot facility, located just seven miles from downtown Providence. Once onsite, they used a crane to lift each piece of equipment into the mechanical room through a large hole in the roof.

Overall, it took less than two months to put the entire mechanical room together once the pieces were prepped and delivered onsite—an unachievable feat with a welded solution.

“Given the nature of the project, I knew the condenser and chilled piping job was well-suited for the Victaulic portfolio,” said Don Forsythe, Arden’s senior foreman. “Their solutions provide ease of installation and time savings, which was just what we needed to complete the job.”

“Their grooved solutions, couplings, and valves enabled us to work quickly and efficiently, exceeding our expectations and saving us money.”

—Don Forsythe, Senior Foreman, Arden

Victaulic QuickVic™ Style 107N rigid couplings and QuickVic™ Style 177N flexible couplings were used to make the 2 1/2” to 12” connections on the condenser and chilled water lines, along with Series 732 Wye-Type Vic-Strainers®, Series 761 Vic-300 MasterSeal™ butterfly valves, the corresponding fittings, and IMI Hydronic Engineering TA balancing valves. Victaulic was used exclusively on the building’s fire protection system. An added benefit to Victaulic’s grooved solution is its ability to accommodate building settlement, seismic movement, and thermally induced expansion or contraction of the piping.

“Victaulic’s products were a huge complement to our own prefabrication capabilities,” explained Puniello. “With a project of this size and on such a compressed schedule, our partnership provided us the needed resources and solutions to get the job done on time.”

In addition to reducing installation time, Victaulic’s solutions played a large factor in the overall savings of the project. Forsythe said using Victaulic grooved products reduced overall costs by approximately $100,000.

“Their grooved solutions, couplings, and valves enabled us to work quickly and efficiently, exceeding our expectations and saving us money,” said Forsythe. “The condenser and chilled water systems have been tested and are running nicely.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

Western Mechanical Cuts Days Off Complex Restoration with Victaulic Project Management

Victaulic’s 3D Scanning Technology Enables Modeling of 100-Year-Old Detroit News Building

Victaulic’s project management, coordination, and new 3D scanning technology allowed Western Mechanical Contractors, Inc. to cut days off the schedule for a historic building renovation, cutting labor costs and keeping the project on time and within budget. The 100-year-old Detroit News Building in downtown Detroit, MI, posed several challenges to restoration—including one tenant who remained in the building throughout the project.

In 2014, Bedrock Real Estate Services, a commercial real estate development firm owned by Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans, decided to buy the nearly vacant building. The developer wanted to restore the building by retrofitting it with new mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in hopes of attracting new long-term tenants.

Michigan-based Western Mechanical engaged Victaulic because they had seen Victaulic’s technologies and solutions firsthand on other projects. “Victaulic was originally brought into the mix because of its track record of completing projects similar to the Detroit News Building on time,” said Phil Orsi, project manager for Western Mechanical. Orsi knew how troublesome retrofitting old buildings

could be and that without the right partner, the project could quickly go over budget and last longer than projected.

Overcoming Challenges

The building’s boiler system, mechanical spaces, and hydronics are located primarily on the uppermost floors—with no elevator access. Thanks to the Victaulic CPS team’s modeling, spool sheets, and bagging and tagging services, Western Mechanical cut three days off the time estimated to transport materials to the higher floors.

The crew had very limited space within the building to operate. The building’s boiler system, mechanical spaces, and hydronics were located primarily on the uppermost floors, which did not have elevator access. So, when it came time to deliver the product, Victaulic’s Construction Piping Services (CPS) division was a crucial component for success.

Time was of the essence. The streets surrounding the Detroit News Building were closed so a crane could transport materials to the higher floors. Thanks to Victaulic’s project management and internal coordination through the CPS team’s modeling, spool sheets, and bagging and tagging services, the duration of the street closure was reduced by three days, minimizing labor costs and scheduling delays.

Throughout the project, Western Mechanical encountered other challenges, including the one tenant that remained in place during the retrofit. Hundreds of people occupying one full floor with high ceilings and openings—and thus unique air distribution—made climate control a major challenge. The contractor was also tasked with providing uninterrupted air conditioning to that floor during the hot summer months, as well as bringing the new heating system online in time for the frigid Michigan winter.

For Western Mechanical, the tenant’s presence required a two-pronged approach:

  • Phase one, from July 2015 to September 2015, involved swapping out and installing the new heating system, including five new air handling units, while leaving one of the current units in place to cool the occupied floor.
  • Phase two, from September 2015 to April 2016, consisted of installing the new water-cooled modular chiller system. The chiller heat was rejected to a closed loop condenser water system, which was cross-coupled via heat exchanger to the rooftop cross-flow cooling tower. This extra cooling loop, in addition to the variable primary flow distribution equipment, made the existing chiller room—which was a tight area to begin with—even tighter.
While a manual field measure would have taken two people three days to measure everything by hand, a 3D scan using Victaulic technology took one day. The new 3D scan allowed for detailed planning and modeling by designers, which ultimately helped Western Mechanical streamline its schedule and keep labor costs in line.

New Tech for Old Buildings

Antique buildings, such as the Detroit News Building, predate 3D modeling software, and usually the original blueprints are compromised by changes resulting from renovations. Victaulic made the decision to conduct a new scan and register the building’s point cloud. Unlike manual measuring, the scan captures all surfaces without the need to move equipment already in place and avoids human error in manual measurements. The 3D scanning technology increases operational efficiency by supplying data files that can be easily uploaded into architectural software. While a manual field measure would have taken two people three days to measure everything by hand, this 3D scan took one day. The ability to incorporate a new 3D scan allowed building designers to conduct detailed planning and modeling, which helped streamline the schedule and keep labor costs in line.

Holistic Approach

By making this an all-Victaulic project and leveraging its suite of complementary solutions, the project timeline was substantially reduced and the project was completed on time and within budget. The business relationship was outstanding,” added Orsi. “All parties involved in this retrofit project agree it would have never happened without Victaulic’s solutions.”

And just as Bedrock anticipated, the now-trendy Detroit News Building is attracting innovative, growth-oriented companies. Current tenants include an expanding California-based health care provider and an up-and-coming high-speed internet service provider.

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA 2017 and cosponsoring the Golf Tournament.

Victaulic Helps A.T. Chadwick Renovate a Philadelphia Icon

To meet the coordination challenges and compressed timeline of an historic building renovation in downtown Philadelphia, A.T. Chadwick turned to Victaulic’s drawing services team. The speed of installation of Victaulic grooved piping systems would also prove crucial to meeting deadlines, as well as reducing costs. Thanks in part to Victaulic, A.T. Chadwick finished on time and on budget.

An Icon on Walnut

One of Philadelphia’s most striking examples of art deco architecture, the 25-story building at 1616 Walnut Street originally opened in 1930 and earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Located in the popular Center City area of Philadelphia, the building attracted the attention of real estate developers who, in 2012, purchased the property and planned a $50-million renovation to create a new luxury apartment building, Icon 1616. The mechanical portion of the project entailed replacing the old HVAC equipment with efficient, contemporary equipment as well as running new piping.

Time & Logistics Crunch in the Heart of Philly

Used to the challenges that come with working in downtown Philadelphia, A.T. Chadwick knew the 1616 Walnut project would present coordination issues. Preparation would be critical for a site with no laydown area and limited time in which to close surrounding streets. Adding the typical bottlenecks of a construction elevator and crane serving multiple trades meant that material would have to be very well coordinated before it even arrived at the site. With labor rates approaching $100/hour in the metropolis, any unproductive time quickly translates to wasted money. In addition, construction began in May 2013 and was scheduled to finish in November that same year.

To solve these challenges, A.T. Chadwick turned to Victaulic for help. At up to 10 times faster to install than other pipe-joining methods, the company’s grooved piping products would help ensure rapid completion of the mechanical system installation. The speed of installation greatly reduced labor costs, contributing to overall total installed cost savings. A.T. Chadwick submitted an option credit for grooved systems when it bid on the project. The owner approved the cost savings credit and agreed with A.T. Chadwick’s recommendation to use Victaulic.

A.T. Chadwick took advantage of drawing services from Victaulic CPS, which modeled the penthouse mechanical room and strategically placed equipment such as the plate-and-frame heat exchangers around the existing elevator equipment. Victaulic’s speed and coordination helped A.T. Chadwick meet the project’s tight timeframe.
A.T. Chadwick took advantage of drawing services from Victaulic CPS, which modeled the penthouse mechanical room and strategically placed equipment such as the plate-and-frame heat exchangers around the existing elevator equipment. Victaulic’s speed and coordination helped A.T. Chadwick meet the project’s tight timeframe.

A.T. Chadwick also brought in the Construction Piping Services (CPS) department at Victaulic, which offers drawing and building information modeling (BIM) coordination services. They knew from experience that CPS can help shrink the timeline in the drawing phase. Whereas contractors may be limited by the number of draftsmen or BIM coordinators available to staff a project, Victaulic CPS can assign multiple members from its team of 80 global project coordinators to complete drawings quickly. CPS acts as a partner, offering services such as flagging long-lead-time items during the drawing phase to ensure products are available when the contractor needs them. In addition, Victaulic’s bag-and-tag service enables products to be shipped to the fabrication shop or jobsite for just-in-time delivery, labeled and packaged per the contractor’s direction.

From 1616 Walnut to Icon 1616

With a plan in place for timely completion of the project, preconstruction work began. The existing elevator equipment was to remain in place in the penthouse mechanical room, so the CPS team had to place the new mechanical equipment around it strategically. The Victaulic project coordinator visited the site to take measurements, ensuring the equipment was accurately represented in the contract drawings. Being mindful of clearance for maintenance and egress in the tight space, CPS designed and drew the 2 1/2″ to 10″ condenser water and cooling tower piping systems and the 2 1/2″ and larger cooling tower equalizing system. A.T. Chadwick handled all other systems.

Upon completion of the drawings, CPS produced fabrication drawings with correlating bills of material. “It saved us time for the material take off, for the spooling of the drawings, fabrication, and gave us assurances that everything would fit accurately per the drawings,” Brian O’Kane, A.T. Chadwick project manager, explained. “It took the guesswork out of it.”

CPS also coordinated bag-and-tag product delivery to A.T. Chadwick’s fabrication shop, where pipe spools were cut to length and grooved. Materials and equipment were then consolidated and transported to the jobsite, which allowed the contractor to ensure materials arrived on site perfectly organized and timed for the crane lift date.

O’Kane described how the day progressed: “We blocked down the street, set the crane up, and towed 30-plus cars to have access. We started at midnight and started picking at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. The materials were put in loading containers and picked up to the roof. We picked all the prefabricated piping, cooling towers, pumps, and sent them all up to the mechanical room on the top of the building in a single day.”

Victaulic couplings, fittings, valves and accessories were installed on the 2 1/2″ to 10″ mechanical piping systems. O’Kane reported that the installation went smoothly, with the project finishing on time and on budget. The quick installation of Victaulic products helped A.T. Chadwick meet the tight timeframe, as did the speed and coordination advantages of Victaulic’s drawing services. “It worked out very well,” O’Kane remarked. “CPS is very professional. They’re exacting and very reliable.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

P1 Group Gains a Competitive Advantage with Victaulic

BIM Services Win Bid for Hospital Expansion, Grooved Piping Saves Installation Time

Victaulic’s Construction Piping Services (CPS) division helped P1 Group, Inc. win the bid for a major hospital expansion project by creating a 3D model of the mechanical systems, electrical systems, and ductwork. In the bid, P1 Group also made the case for Victaulic grooved mechanical piping systems for the project to save time and costs on installation.

“We view Victaulic as labor-saving and project cost-saving, so we propose it on many jobs because we believe it gives us a competitive edge,” said Eric Affolter, project manager at P1 Group.

More Than One Hurdle

As the Kansas-based mechanical contractor began work on its proposal for the Overland Park Regional Medical Center (OPRMC) project, a $110-million hospital expansion, the contractor speculated that a 3D model could help tip the scales in its favor. Although P1 Group has in-house detailing services, the availability of resources was limited at the time of the proposal. Even more daunting, the specifications called for welded piping systems. P1 Group would need to make the case for grooved systems in its bid package.

Located in Overland Park, KS, the OPRMC has been serving the health care needs of Johnson County and surrounding areas since December 1978. Part of HCA Midwest Health, Kansas City’s leading health care provider, the hospital is a licensed 343-bed facility offering acute medical care services. The OPRMC campus features four medical office buildings, two pharmacies, and the offices of more than 100 physicians.

In 2011, HCA began planning a sizable expansion to handle growth in the geographic area, resulting in increased patient volumes. The plan called for the addition of a three-story patient tower and a new parking garage, as well as renovations to the emergency department and trauma center. A walking trail was also added to the grounds. In total, 127,000 square feet of space was added to the medical center. Mechanically, plans called for the addition of two boilers and a deaerated tank, two chillers, three chilled-water pumps, and three condenser water pumps in the central plant, plus seven air handling units. Two heating-water pumps and two heat exchangers were added to the remote central plant.

Standing Out from the Crowd

When the OPRMC project entered the bid stage, the mechanical systems were not fully designed; the conceptual design represented only about 20 percent of the job. As one of the preselected mechanical contractors for the project, P1 Group was focused on formulating a creative solution to help win the job.

P1 Group is one of the nation’s premier mechanical, electrical, and service contractors, with more than 1,000 employees. Incorporated in 1998, P1 Group’s founding companies have been in business since 1919. The Lenexa, KS-based company provides a variety of specialty contracting services through its commercial, industrial, and health care divisions, with offices in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nevada.

Temporarily unable to meet the demands for 3D modeling in house, P1 Group looked for alternatives to offload some of the modeling work and turned to Victaulic for assistance. The manufacturer also offers drawing and coordination packages through its CPS division. Dedicated project teams work with contractors prebid to produce 3D, proposal, or first-pass precoordinated models. In the preconstruction phase, services are tailored to meet the contractor’s needs, from basic drafting services to full business information modeling (BIM) coordination packages.

Although P1 Group had not previously worked with the Victaulic CPS team, it was well acquainted with the company’s products and the services and support that back them up. Despite reservations about outsourcing the prebid modeling work, Affolter reported that the project team went into it open-minded. “We work quite a bit with Victaulic, so we felt confident they knew what they were doing,” he said. “Evaluating the cost, it looked like it would be comparable or there would be savings, to some degree, to what we would have done.”

The Victaulic CPS team adhered to the BIM execution plan and developed a 3D model of the piping and equipment layout based on the portion of the project that had been designed. In addition to serving as a selling tool, proposal models offer contractors a head start on mechanical space design and coordination upon being awarded the project.

Making the Case for Grooved Piping

With the detailing resources challenge solved, the next step was to ensure the proposal would be the lowest bid. “It was a competitive preconstruction proposal, so we needed to have the lowest number in order to secure the project,” Affolter said. “We were trying to utilize any advantage we could.”

One of the advantages P1 Group employs is Victaulic grooved mechanical piping systems. The P1 Group preconstruction team prepared a cost comparison for welded versus grooved piping as part of their proposal submission. Victaulic systems were offered as a voluntary deduct. HCA accepted the proposal and awarded the mechanical and plumbing system coordination and construction to P1 Group.

The design work that had been started prebid continued after the contract was awarded in early 2012. To complete the fully coordinated BIM drawing, the Victaulic CPS team modeled the central and remote central plants while the P1 Group detailing team modeled the systems in the new patient tower. A majority of the mechanical systems were designed using Victaulic components, including hot and chilled water, condenser water, pumps and boilers, plus some of the domestic plumbing. Victaulic QuickVic™ and AGS couplings were used to join piping systems from 2.5″ to 24″ in size.

P1 Group managed the space constraints of the existing mechanical room by installing Victaulic grooved piping. Jordan King, field foreman on the OPRMC project, explained that Victaulic was the only viable option. “Trying to weld in some of those places just wasn’t feasible.”
P1 Group managed the space constraints of the existing mechanical room by installing Victaulic grooved piping. Jordan King, field foreman on the OPRMC project, explained that Victaulic was the only viable option. “Trying to weld in some of those places just wasn’t feasible.”

With the models complete, CPS generated fabrication drawings, shop drawings, and spool sheets tailored to P1 Group’s installation plan to jumpstart fabrication. P1 Group began mobilizing onsite in late 2012, and by early 2013, fabrication and installation of the mechanical systems was underway. Most of the piping was prefabricated in P1 Group’s shop and sent to the jobsite for installation as the laydown area and work space was limited at the fully functioning medical center.

Space constraints also created challenges in the existing central plant, but the use of Victaulic systems helped overcome them. “We had to run some new services—chilled water, condenser water, large-diameter steel pipe services—through an existing mechanical room,” Jordan King, field foreman on the OPRMC project, explained. “Really, Victaulic was the only way to go. Trying to weld in some of those places just wasn’t feasible.” Mechanical and plumbing system installation was completed and fully functional by March 2014. The grand opening ceremony celebrating the completion of the overall project was held later that year on August 19.

The OPRMC expansion was the first HCA project that used Victaulic piping systems, but it will not be the last. The successful installation resulted in a mindset shift; the owner now accepts the pipe-joining method, and grooved systems have been used in another HCA facility.

The project was a success, with P1 Group crediting the help of Victaulic. Affolter recounted that it would have been hard to handle all the work in-house. “It helped manage our resources and talent internally with outsourcing it to [CPS],” he said of the modeling and BIM coordination. Overall, Victaulic CPS services and grooved piping systems helped P1 Group win the project and deliver an on-time, on-budget completion.

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com. MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA 2016 and for cosponsoring the Annual Golf Tournament.

CFI Mechanical Overcomes Skilled Labor Shortages with Victaulic Products and Services

Building information modeling (BIM) and 3D modeling offered by Victaulic’s Construction Piping Services (CPS) division helped CFI Mechanical manage the lack of detailers available in Houston, where construction is booming. Victaulic’s grooved piping systems and prefabrication services also saved CFI Mechanical installation time and money on a new office building project.

Building Boom Spurs Labor Shortage

Houston, TX, the heart of the oil and gas industry, has seen rapid growth in recent years, fueled by tax incentives for companies setting up headquarters in the area. The influx has led to a high demand for office space and, in turn, a wave of construction that has resulted in labor shortages. Despite the recent oil industry downturn, building activities continue at a breakneck pace. When they were awarded the mechanical systems contract for the Millennium II Tower, CFI Mechanical turned to Victaulic for help in overcoming the labor shortage, as well as schedule and budget challenges.

“CPS did exactly what they said they were going to do and when. … We can’t wait to get another job where we can plug in Victaulic.”

—Chuck Fell, President, CFI Mechanical

The Millennium II Tower is an office building under construction in the Westchase district of Houston. The long-planned sibling property to the Millennium Tower, Millennium II is a 24-story glass-and-aluminumclad tower that will stand 309’ tall, making it the tallest building in the district. All 417,000 square feet of space was pre-leased by National Oilwell Varco (NOV), a leader in the design and manufacture of oil and gas drilling equipment and Houston’s largest energy employer. With more than 14,000 employees in the area, NOV will consolidate employees from 10 other facilities at the Millennium II Tower when it is completed in October 2015.

Victaulic triple-service valve assemblies, strainers, couplings, and fittings join condenser water piping to pumps in the basement mechanical room of the Millennium II office building. Combining Victaulic products and CPS for BIM, CFI Mechanical saved installation time and overcame Houston’s skilled labor shortage.
Victaulic triple-service valve assemblies, strainers, couplings, and fittings join condenser water piping to pumps in the basement mechanical room of the Millennium II office building. Combining Victaulic products and CPS for BIM, CFI Mechanical saved installation time and overcame Houston’s skilled labor shortage.

“Construction has a lot of cycles to it, but for the last two years, it has been crazy around here,” said Chuck Fell, president of CFI Mechanical and immediate past president of MCAA. The Houston-based contractor, which provides plumbing and HVAC services for commercial construction throughout Texas, knew the labor shortages would present challenges on the Millennium II Tower project in terms of design and construction. In addition to welders, the company has experienced a shortage of detailers that has been magnified by mandates for BIM on projects. “There’s a lot more demand now on our drafting services,” Fell explained. “More customers want the Cadillac, they want everything.”

CFI Mechanical is also facing thetypical construction challenges ofschedule and budget. “We are buildingat a record pace around hereas far as the speed at which we putbuildings together,” Fell noted, “andbudget’s always an issue.”

Victaulic Services Extend Drawing Departments

Although CFI Mechanical planned to manage the BIM process in-house, it quickly became clear that help was needed. CFI Mechanical had not previously worked with the Victaulic CPS team, but the Millennium II Tower was a good project to test the waters. “We see a need for [CPS services] in the future, and this looked liked it was a good fit for Victaulic to come in,” Fell said.

Shortly after CFI Mechanical was awarded the contract, in January 2014, the contractor brought in the Victaulic CPS team to model the mechanical rooms and piping systems. The CPS team completed the fully coordinated BIM model for the basement and penthouse mechanical rooms, an air-handling unit room on the eighth floor, the cooling tower area in the attached parking garage, and the crossover piping, managing to stay ahead of the construction coordination timeline despite the tight schedule. CPS also generated isometrics, fabrication spool drawings, and bills of material, enabling the contractor to get a head start on fabrication.

Victaulic Products Speed Installation With years of experience working with Victaulic products, CFI Mechanical knew grooved piping systems would be the solution to the schedule and budget challenges, as well as the labor shortage. “We’ve been in business for 19 years; we’ve used Victaulic for 19 years,” Fell stated. “We try to use it every possible way.”

In 2014, CFI Mechanical executives toured Victaulic headquarters in Easton, PA, where they got a closer look at the manufacturing and quality control processes. Already a proponent of Victaulic because “there’s a trust factor there,” according to Fell, the tour gave CFI Mechanical’s leadership even more confidence in the products. It also revealed new ways to improve efficiency. “It changed our approach, got us more into fabricating and using the tools available to us from Victaulic,” said Fell.

Victaulic grooved mechanical piping products, including QuickVic™ Installation-Ready™ couplings and AGS couplings, were specified to join the carbon steel condenser and chilled water piping systems as well as the stainless steel and copper domestic water systems. In addition to the mechanical systems, Victaulic products were specified for the storm drainage and fire protection systems.

“We could not have accomplished our budget for the job without using Victaulic products, and it would have been a whole lot more difficult keeping up with the schedule.”

—Chuck Fell, President, CFI Mechanical

The Victaulic CPS team coordinated bag-and-tag product shipments to CFI Mechanical’s fabrication shop. This service enables Victaulic products to be shipped to the shop or jobsite for just-in-time delivery, labeled and packaged per the contractor’s direction. Pipe spools were cut, grooved, and assembled in CFI Mechanical’s shop and sent to the jobsite for installation.

Cooperation Keeps Project On Time, On Budget

The installation went smoothly, and the CPS team stayed involved throughout the construction process, assisting with several design changes. For instance, an extra floor was added, which increased the size of the piping at the lower levels and called for larger cooling towers. The control valves that had been ordered per the contract drawings did not fit the cooling tower connections, and the lead time to get new valves would have delayed construction. The CPS team devised a solution using Victaulic reducers, which enabled the original control valves to be used and construction to progress on time.

The Millennium II Tower project is on time and on budget. “We could not have accomplished our budget for the job without using Victaulic products,” Fell stated, “and it would have been a whole lot more difficult keeping up with the schedule.” Despite CFI Mechanical’s reservations about working with CPS, attitudes changed by the end of the project. Initially concerned about costs, prompt service, and lack of control, Fell reported that the project “turned out very well. CPS did exactly what they said they were going to do and when. The value was there. We can’t wait to get another job where we can plug in Victaulic.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

EMC Sees 30-Percent Labor Savings with Victaulic 3D Renderings and Installation-Ready Couplings

Having installed Victaulic grooved products numerous times, Environmental Mechanical Contractors, Inc. (EMC) knew Victaulic could help them meet a tight deadline for renovations at Kansas’ Fort Leavenworth. Working with Victaulic’s Construction Piping Services department (CPS) to create 3D renderings of the project also allowed EMC to minimize rework and identify and troubleshoot potential problems.

“We picked up a 30-percent labor savings from fabrication to install[ation] because of the isometric drawings and Victaulic Installation-Ready™ couplings,” said Marcus Howell, EMC’s senior project manager on the Fort Leavenworth project (now director of construction operations).

Going Deep

Renovations at Fort Leavenworth, the oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., focused on Building 120, also known as Eisenhower Hall. It includes the Combined Arms Research Library, high-tech classrooms, a conference center, and the DePuy auditorium. In operation for over 180 years, the facility required a full restoration of its three-story, 220,000-square-foot interior.

With their expertise in sustainable projects and quick-turnaround commercial/ industrial HVAC heating and cooling, sheet metal, ductwork and piping design, EMC was selected for the renovations. The most involved aspect of the project was replacing the existing HVAC system with a more energy-efficient hybrid geoexchange system featuring 240 geothermal wells drilled 500 feet into the earth. The new system would enable Building 120 to achieve a 40-percent energy savings under the ASHRAE 90.1- 2001 standards. Other renovations included a new HVAC installation within the library, complete removal and revamp of restrooms on all three floors of the building, general mechanical and maintenance repairs, and a full-building test and balance of the HVAC system.

Racing against the clock with $8 million for mechanical upgrades and a tight deadline of only 540 calendar days, EMC engaged Victaulic to overcome the challenge of not only a compressed schedule, but also configuring the piping around an existing geothermal system. Howell was familiar with CPS, Victaulic’s drafting and building information modeling (BIM) services, and called on them to draw and coordinate the mechanical room. At EMC’s request, the CPS team developed isometric 3D renderings to identify the pad, equipment, and overall piping layouts and provide prefabrication support.

EMC partnered with Victaulic’s CPS for BIM, creating isometric drawings that solved unique challenges. For example, laying out piping in 3D allowed EMC to overcome space constraints and include more piping in the mechanical room at Fort Leavenworth.
EMC partnered with Victaulic’s CPS for BIM, creating isometric drawings that solved unique challenges. For example, laying out piping in 3D allowed EMC to overcome space constraints and include more piping in the mechanical room at Fort Leavenworth.

Strategic Planning

“Environmental Mechanical Contractors firmly believes that if we spend time upfront to make the right decisions prior to construction, like we did with Victaulic Construction Piping Services, it will have a direct and positive result on the project’s success,” said Howell. “Having this aspect under our control helps assure the project schedule. That means responsiveness, cost-effectiveness, and delivering on time to the specifications the project requires.”

Using the drawings allowed for strategic planning to ensure economical, practical, and proper installation and to avoid conflict and changes at the time of implementation. For example, refining pipe routings in the drawings guaranteed there would be proper clearance for installation and maintenance, which was especially beneficial when making accommodations for the new geothermal water system.

“The isometrics changed the way EMC communicated,” said Howell. “It gave our team a clear picture of how the finished job would look and allowed us to accelerate project collaboration and efficiency in real time. It also minimized the potential for miscommunication by eliminating the need to use our own imagination to interpret the plans.”

Improving Safety and Savings

To help avoid delays and save time and money, EMC enacted a variety of processes, including developing accurate bills-of-material (configured from the pipe routing drawings) to ensure precise material orders and roll grooving and prefabricating the pipe at their headquarters. Using detailed pipe cut sheets provided by CPS, pipe marking, lengths, and quantity data offered a guide for crew members to match the pipe to the isometrics. Furthermore, to help increase the speed and ease of field installation, EMC shipped preassembled lengths to the jobsite for final assembly. They also labeled the additional grooved products and accessories with location and date information.

Victaulic’s BIM services and Installation-Ready couplings saved EMC 30 percent in labor costs as they renovated Building 120 (Eisenhower Hall) at U.S. Army post Fort Leavenworth. Projects included replacing the existing HVAC system with a more energy-efficient hybrid geoexchange system featuring 240 geothermal wells.
Victaulic’s BIM services and Installation-Ready couplings saved EMC 30 percent in labor costs as they renovated Building 120 (Eisenhower Hall) at U.S. Army post Fort Leavenworth. Projects included replacing the existing HVAC system with a more energy-efficient hybrid geoexchange system featuring 240 geothermal wells.

Isometric drawings solved unique challenges within the mechanical room. Space constraints were overcome by laying out the piping in 3D. Four-inch pipes connected the distribution piping and heat pumps for the 640-ton geothermal heating and cooling system, while pipes 12″ in diameter and smaller were used for connections off the chilled, hot, condenser, and geothermal waters in the mechanical room. Just as large as the other systems in the mechanical room, the geothermal water piping connected to the underground heat exchange, requiring EMC to reroute the pipes to accommodate the new system. To avoid costly specialty joints, Victaulic CPS specified tightly stacked triple-service valves, providing elasticity and vibration attenuation while avoiding flexible connectors for pumps.

At the onset of the project, EMC planned to weld the systems. But to increase productivity and safety on the job and meet compressed schedules, they chose Victaulic couplings, which feature proprietary Installation-Ready technology for piping up to 8″ in diameter. Howell stated that these couplings contributed to labor savings on the project because they can be installed in less than half the time of standard grooved couplings and up to five times faster than welding.

“We are huge fans of these new couplings,” said Howell. “Victaulic standard grooved couplings are fast and easy to use, but these are even more so. We’d use them for everything if we could, and we’re excited that they’re available for 10″ and 12″ sizes now as well.”

While cost, schedule, and a job’s bottom line are important components to a project, even more so is the safety of its team. Grooved mechanical systems require no hot work, making them inherently safer than welding by minimizing the risk of arc flash and fire hazard. With no welding, EMC was able to eliminate the unproductive time associated with fire watch. Additionally, transporting complete assemblies to the construction site allowed EMC to reduce material handling, further controlling the work environment and minimizing risk.

“We use Victaulic on every project we can because we know the value they bring in helping us deliver a successful job,” said Howell. “After working with the Victaulic CPS team on the Fort Leavenworth project, our people were really sold on it, so now we also use Victaulic drawing services on large mechanical rooms when we can.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA 2015.

Legacy Mechanical Gets New Transit Hub on Track with Efficient Victaulic Grooved Products and Prefabrication Services

Speed and Safety of Installing Grooved Pipes Saves Contractor Time and Money

To meet the complex requirements of a massive public transit expansion, Legacy Mechanical, Inc. called on Victaulic. “We’ve worked with Victaulic grooved mechanical systems for nearly a decade so we know we can trust them to help us maximize productivity and address compressed work schedules, while increasing worker safety,” said Scott Krum, president at Legacy Mechanical. “We also know we can count on them for expert prefabrication and minimizing time in the field.”

Big Project, Big Challenges

The $650-million revitalization of Denver’s historic Union Station is the nation’s largest public transit expansion project. The site was once a key transportation hub for the United States, connecting Denver to the transcontinental railroad line. Serving as a distinctive gateway to downtown Denver, the modernized facility brings together many different transportation modes (including light rail and commuter rail, regional bus lines, taxis, Amtrak trains, and local shuttles), along with private development, to create a new bustling urban center.

Spreading across 20 acres, the Union Station site includes a 1,100’-long underground bus depot with 22 bus bays and also houses aboveground transportation hubs. The site also incorporates two million square feet of mixed-use development, including office, retail, residential, and restaurant space. It goes without saying that a task of this magnitude requires significant planning and strategy, but building the new facility in the center of one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the United States presented a unique set of challenges.

“By using grooved mechanical systems and eliminating welding, we were able to speed up productivity, increase cost savings, and minimize field labor by at least 10 percent.”

—Matthew Archuletta, Project Manager, Legacy Mechanical

As a full-service mechanical contracting company, Legacy Mechanical was up for the challenge. In addition to working onsite in a design/assist capacity starting in March 2012, the Legacy Mechanical team was responsible for all mechanical, plumbing, and HVAC work in the underground bus station. The work included 3D coordination services and modeling of the entire project as well as pipefitting, HVAC, plumbing, fuel, and gas pipe work, which required the contractors to work subgrade. The work had to be conducted in phases, and the team was tasked with completing the project in just three years.

To help them meet the compressed schedule and handle intricate structuring and phasing, as well as simplifying their subgrade work, Legacy Mechanical chose Victaulic. Together, the teams needed to install miles of pipe safely, including approximately 6,000’ of hot water piping, 8,000’ for chilled water, 4,000’ for domestic water, and 1,500’ for snow melt.

Alleviating Time and Safety Constraints

Timing was critical with the Union Station project. Thousands of pedestrians, motorists, and businesses were affected by detours and construction zones. The phased approach made for a very fragmented construction process, further compressing the work schedule. To alleviate time constraints and to further streamline the installations, Legacy Mechanical decided to avoid welding whenever possible on the project. This decision helped eliminate the burden of stringent safety regulations as well as the potential for fire hazards and extra man-hours required for fire watches. In addition to increased safety on the jobsite, removing welding from areas such as the two subgrade mechanical rooms also improved overall efficiency on the project.
“By using grooved mechanical systems and eliminating welding, we were able to speed up productivity, increase cost savings, and minimize field labor by at least 10 percent,” said Matthew Archuletta, project manager at Legacy Mechanical.

Legacy Mechanical used Victaulic Style 155 Expansion Joints (shown here) to address space constraints in Union Station’s subgrade bus box and reduce installation time.
Legacy Mechanical used Victaulic Style 155 Expansion Joints (shown here) to address space constraints in Union Station’s subgrade bus box and reduce installation time.

Increasing Productivity

Additionally, Legacy Mechanical used the manufacturer’s installation-ready™ QuickVic Style 107 Rigid Couplings and QuickVic Style 177 Flexible Couplings. The patented technology is twice as fast to install as standard grooved couplings, up to 10 times faster than welding, and six times faster than flanging, while offering the same high-performance capabilities. The couplings expedite the project construction by requiring only standard handheld tools for assembly and by reducing installation steps. With no loose parts and no need to disassemble before installation, the coupling is simply pushed into the grooved end of the pipe, fitting, valves, or accessories as a fully assembled unit and joined by a second grooved end and tightened. In addition, no flame or heat is required for installation, furthering project efficiency and increasing jobsite safety.

Prefabrication also played a critical role in ensuring the project’s installations stayed on course. By roll grooving most of their piping in a prefabrication setting, which largely consisted of 20’ to 40’ lengths of straight runs, Legacy Mechanical significantly increased productivity. Because the bulk of the work was executed in a controlled environment at the Legacy Mechanical prefabrication shop, the team had fewer on-site field hours when assembling the piping. This approach also meant fewer overall man-hours and fewer workers onsite, reducing the risks of accidents on the job, while improving safety and efficiency. Krum said the practice helps Legacy Mechanical remain competitive.

In addition to using grooved mechanical systems, Legacy Mechanical also engaged the Victaulic Engineering Services Department for design recommendations related to expansion joints. With tight spaces in the subgrade bus box, the firm wanted to eliminate large welded expansion loops requiring a perpendicular louver arm. As an alternative, Legacy Mechanical installed Victaulic Style 155 Expansion Joints and Mover Expansion Joint Style 150. The linear grooved mechanical systems not only saved space and reduced installation time over welding but also eliminated the need for field welding.

Partnership Pays Off

Working with Victaulic paid off for Legacy Mechanical. “The success we had on the Union Station project once again confirms why we continue to go to Victaulic for our piping needs,” said Krum. “In addition to increasing our productivity, they also have the ability to help us meet compressed timeframes, increase jobsite safety, reduce man-hours on the job, and provide us with greater design flexibility—all while staying under budget.”

In addition, Legacy Mechanical improved productivity during the commissioning and pressure-testing of the thousands of feet of piping. According to Archuletta, testing for each system of the phased project was initially planned to take two to three weeks, but with Victaulic couplings the firm was able to finalize each phase of testing within a week.

“On the Denver Union Station project, we reduced our testing time in half, if not more,” said Archuletta. “That allowed us to stay ahead of schedule and reduced our man-hours on the job, translating into increased productivity.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

Palmer Christiansen Cuts Costs, Installation Time with Victaulic Grooved Products, Keeping Salt Lake City Courthouse on Schedule

With 24 months to install 130,800’ of pipe, Palmer Christiansen Company relied on Victaulic for high-quality systems that reduce labor costs and installation time. As a result, the new federal courthousein Salt Lake City, UT, is expected to open in March 2014, with the mechanical system coming in on budget and ahead of schedule.

The building, located in downtown Salt Lake City on the same site as the former Frank E. Moss Courthouse, was designed to be a noticeable presence in the city’s skyline. The 10-story building has a glass façade and stands an impressive 200’ tall. The facility was built to achieve LEED Gold certification, and the interior flaunts 21’ ceilings to give the feeling of grand courtroom spaces.

Mechanical System Poses Challenges

As a result of the design, the 375,000-square-foot building needed to accommodate high loads, and the central plant had to be sized to provide service to an adjacent federal courthouse. Palmer Christiansen, which specializes in installing large, complex mechanical systems often associated with hospitals, semiconductors, clean rooms, and research laboratories, was selected for the project.

“The boiler room and chiller room in the federal courthouse were two of the largest mechanical rooms that we’ve ever done,” said Brett Christiansen, the third-generation president of Palmer Christiansen, whose grandfather founded the firm in 1946. “The size of the building and size of the load were huge and the downtown site provided us with very little space to lay materials.”

“As partners, [Victaulic] help[s] us work smarter and more efficiently, and we knew Victaulic products would deliver labor savings on this particular application.”

— Brett Christiansen, President, Palmer Christiansen

In addition to the 3,500-square-foot boiler room and 3,200-square-foot chiller room located in the basement, 30 air handlers were housed in the additional 28 mechanical rooms, with two located on every floor, including the roof and basement. Knowing that the project was specified to include large amounts of grooved end fittings, the contractors turned to Victaulic for support. Palmer Christiansen has been partnering with the manufacturer of grooved mechanical systems for about 40 years and knew Victaulic could deliver high-quality systems that reduce labor costs and reduce installation time.

“We were an early adopter of Victaulic technologies, and we see them as the leader in developing grooved mechanical systems,” said Christiansen. “As partners, they help us work smarter and more efficiently, and we knew Victaulic products would deliver labor savings on this particular application.”

Planning and Prefab Address Space, Time Constraints

To increase efficiencies on the job, the contractors used 3D renderings and prefabricated the HVAC piping offsite using automated Victaulic roll grooving equipment for standard and large-diameter piping. To address the tight working conditions, Palmer Christiansen shipped the piping just in time and assembled it onsite. The piping included sizes up to 20” for the condenser water, chilled and hot water, a glycol snowmelt system, and domestic water system. For the 20” condenser water line, Palmer Christiansen relied on Victaulic Advanced Groove Systems (AGS) to join the large-diameter piping. The domestic water system used Victaulic copper grooved systems and dielectric waterway fittings for transitioning between materials. Victaulic flexible couplings helped to reduce motor vibration off the pumps, cooling towers, and air handlers, minimizing the transfer of vibration into the building.

“In comparison to other grooved systems, Victaulic AGS couplings are about 15 percent faster to install because they use only two bolts in comparison to four,” said Kevin Rasmussen, project superintendent at Palmer Christiansen. “The QuickVic style couplings also give us a huge labor savings because they don’t have to be disassembled to install, so we don’t lose parts and can reduce warehousing.”

Rasmussen added that the mechanical contractors at Palmer Christiansen pride themselves on being craftsmen, and Victaulic represents top quality in grooved systems that help the firm uphold its reputation.

“In the 30 years that I’ve worked with Victaulic, I have never been called back to the jobsite to fix a problem,” said Rasmussen. “Because of that, my preference is to work with Victaulic every opportunity I get.”

Christiansen echoed the sentiment. “Victaulic has the best engineering group that we deal with,” he said. “They are exceptional problem-solvers, so we’re big believers in Victaulic and grooved piping to help us be more competitive on jobs. We’ve done a lot of our high-profile projects with Victaulic, and they delivered again on the federal courthouse project in helping us increase efficiencies and achieve labor savings.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA 2014.

A. D. Winston Speeds Processes, Increases Efficiency with Victaulic

Grooved Couplings Cut Installation Time from One Day to Under One Hour

To install the mechanical system for the International Gem Tower, one of New York City’s largest HVAC installations, A. D. Winston Corporation turned to Victaulic, a global manufacturer of mechanical grooved systems and services. Contractors at A. D. Winston are well versed in working with mechanical systems in the five boroughs of New York City. The firm specializes in hotel, institution, residential, commercial, and health facilities.

“We decided to institute the Victaulic system because of the significant cost savings,” said Salvatore Barbera, president of A. D. Winston. “This was our first experience using them (Victaulic) in this magnitude, but we were installing such a significant amount of piping and knew they would allow us to be more competitive in terms of speeding up the process and cost savings.”

3D Renderings Increase Efficiency

Since the early 20th century, New York City’s West 47th Street has been the diamond trade capital of the Americas, but it has remained virtually unchanged. In 2010, construction began on a state-of-the-art, 35-story tower that is the city’s only commercial condominium designed specifically for the diamond, gem, and jewelry trade, with retail and commercial space available on the top floor.

The 800,000-square-foot job includes two large mechanical rooms on the 6th and 34th floors. The 34th-floor mechanical room includes three cooling towers using a 20” pipe hookup to the heat exchanger and six pumps. The 6th-floor mechanical room contains the hot water system and secondary condenser water pumps for distribution to the air handling units. Thousands of feet of piping in a variety of sizes were used for the job, including 2.5”- through 14”-diameter pipe for the chilled water system and 2.5”- through 8”-diameter pipe on the condenser lines.

To simplify the installation in the two mechanical rooms, A. D. Winston solicited Victaulic’s Construction Piping Services to provide 3D isometric renderings that enabled them to coordinate efficiently and effectively with other trade groups (plumbers and electricians). With the renderings, A. D. Winston predetermined the lengths to cut the pipe to keep the installation moving. As a result of the isometric drawings, A. D. Winston was able to plan ahead and cut piping down so it could be transported efficiently using the elevator shaft instead of lifting 21’ lengths by crane.

By having the Victaulic Construction Piping Services team complete the 3D project renderings, A. D. Winston was also able to have their Victaulic materials bagged and tagged using the coordinated isometric drawings and bill of materials. The process increased organization and cleanliness of the job, which led to speed and efficiency on site.

“I’ve been enlightened about how Victaulic can help us be very, very competitive in the market to win more projects to keep more people working.”

— Salvatore Barbera, President, A. D. Winston

“The bag-and-tag system was like putting together a puzzle,” said Joe Casale, project manager at A. D. Winston, who oversaw the International Gem Tower project. “Everything came boxed and labeled according to where it needed to be installed, along with a bill of materials, which made for easy coordination. When you needed a part you’d just locate the box, look at the bill of materials, find it, and install it.”

Barbera estimates that Victaulic’s bag-and-tag process saved hundreds of field manhours that would otherwise have been spent on material handling and product logistics. Parts were packaged and shipped when and where they were needed.

Grooved Products Speed Installation

A. D. Winston used Victaulic grooved mechanical systems to complete its work on the International Gem Tower, one of New York City’s largest HVAC installations, in just 19 months.

When installing 14” pipe in the tight 6th-floor mechanical room, the contractor was surprised by the speed of installation. “I’ve been around AC and mechanical systems for 25 years and knew about Victaulic systems prior to this job,” said Casale. “I have seen Victaulic installed all over the city, I know that they work, and I’ve never had a problem. I knew they were a lot quicker than welding and that they provide a nice, clean, neat job, but I was surprised at how fast we could hang a 14” joint. We cut joining time in half, if not more, over welding the joints.”

According to Casale, in the past his team did not associate large-diameter piping with being quick to install. A 14” weld would typically require a full day to complete. However, since using Victaulic Advanced Grooved System (AGS) couplings, which start at 14” in diameter, Casale experienced firsthand the speed and ease of joining Victaulic’s large-diameter products. Casale’s 14” AGS couplings were installed in under one hour.

“Victaulic grooved mechanical systems are high-quality and very easy to use and just as effective as welding,” added Casale. “I’ve seen pressure tests on the couplings, and I was amazed at how much pressure they could handle. When you consider this, in addition to the fact that they are safer and more environmentally friendly, it’s a night-and-day difference.”

Environmental health and safety on the jobsite is always important, noted Casale. With welding, the team has to think about smoke and breathing it in, eye safety, the risk of fire and potential for burns, and increased electrical needs. Victaulic grooved mechanical systems eliminate all of those issues. Installation simply requires clamping the systems into place and tightening with two nuts using a hand ratchet. Additionally, A. D. Winston eliminated the costs associated with cornering off the area for fire safety and for an extra person on fire watch.

“I was surprised at how fast we could hang a 14” joint. We cut joining time in half, if not more, over welding the joints.”

— Joe Casale, Project Manager, A. D. Winston

With Victaulic grooved mechanical systems, A. D. Winston was able to complete the installation in 19 months. The company and the developer for the International Gem Tower are already exploring additional possibilities to incorporate Victaulic grooved mechanical systems on future jobs.

“I’m a welder and have not always been open to using grooved mechanical systems,” confessed Barbera. “But after this project, I’m sold. I’m a big fan. I think it’s a good product. I’ve been enlightened about how Victaulic can help us be very, very competitive in the market to win more projects to keep more people working. Victaulic helped give our client a good impression of A. D. Winston, and we intend to find new ways to work with Victaulic.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

U.S. Engineering Company Improves Productivity, Cuts Costs Using Prefabrication with Victaulic Grooved Technologies

For U.S. Engineering Company, finding creative ways to keep the University of Colorado Hospital’s (UCH’s) new expansion on track helped them increase productivity while delivering on schedule and on budget. To maximize productivity, U.S. Engineering decided on a multi-trade prefabrication process using Victaulic grooved systems whenever and wherever possible.

As baby boomers age, demand for healthcare services is surging. As a result, healthcare construction projects are bigger, more complex, and have shorter timelines than ever before.

To meet the rigorous demands of the University of Colorado Hospital’s expansion, U.S. Engineering fabricated with Victaulic grooved systems as much as possible to meet a fast-track schedule.

“The UCH project was extremely aggressive based on the large volume of materials in a compressed timeframe, so pre-planning and creativity were needed in order to be able to perform well on the project,” said Scott Hager, associate vice president at U.S. Engineering, who was responsible for field operations on the project. “We had a 12-month critical path for all of the multiple trades to rough in, and we were anticipating the possibility of multiple shifts, seven-day weeks, and a great deal of overtime.”

U.S. Engineering is a 120-year-old, full-service mechanical contractor that has served the Rocky Mountain region for more than 40 years from its Loveland, CO, location. One of the firm’s fabrication shops is located in Aurora, near the UCH 12-story Inpatient Tower. Work on a second inpatient tower began in early 2011, with a facility opening date set for March 2013. U.S. Engineering was responsible for installing the sheet metal, mechanical, plumbing, and piping system for the 734,000-square-foot project. The $400-million state-of-the-art building doubles the size of the facility’s emergency department and, when fully built out, adds 276 more beds.

The UCH project had two mechanical rooms in the basement. One housed the heating water and domestic hot water equipment and the steam generators; the second contained the chilled water and domestic water system equipment. A third mechanical room on the fourth floor housed large air-handling units and supporting accessories. All the chilled water and steam were drawn from the central utility plant owned by the university.

“We took steps to incorporate Victaulic grooved technology where we hadn’t before and that helped with speed and ease of installation so we could successfully deliver on this fast-track project.”

— Scott Hager, Associate Vice President, U.S. Engineering

Prefabrication Improves Ergonomics, Safety, and Quality Control

The speed and ease of use of grooved technology in the fabrication shop wasn’t the only attribute that helped U.S. Engineering maximize productivity on the UCH project. The company also credits a variety of benefits associated with the prefabrication process. For the UCH project, prefabrication created a controlled environment that made for more ergonomic working conditions and better quality control. Also, the construction team’s use of multi-trade fabrication increased efficiency throughout the entire construction process. By collaborating with the general contractor and all trades—from mechanical plumbing, piping, and duct, to fire protection, electrical, gypsum board, framing, and controls—team members fabricated and assembled entire sections of corridors and headwalls at the U.S. Engineering prefabrication shop. Once the sections were complete, they were loaded on a truck and delivered to the jobsite for installation. This construction method allows multiple parallel activities to occur, resulting in faster completion times, reduced costs, reduced site safety risks, increased quality, and improved project performance.

Victaulic Products Increased Speed, Ease of Installation

U.S. Engineering had prefabricated with grooved pipe-joining previously, but the UCH project was the first project on which it incorporated primarily Victaulic technology. As a result, grooved systems were used in a large portion of the major mechanical and large bore piping, including pump equipment work, headers, and connections, where the company had previously used welding. U.S. Engineering incorporated Victaulic Advanced Groove System couplings for quick and easy large-diameter connections, check valves, straining devices, butterfly valves, stainless steel systems, and flexible and rigid couplings. QuickVic® 107H Couplings with proprietary Grade “EHP” gaskets rated to 250° F (121° C) for unmatched performance on hot water systems were also included, as well as Style 607 QuickVic® copper couplings and Style 47 Dielectric Waterway fittings that served as a transition waterway between copper and stainless pipe.

“We took steps to incorporate Victaulic grooved technology where we hadn’t before and that helped with speed and ease of installation so we could successfully deliver on this fast-track project,” said Hager. “We definitely saw faster installation times in the mechanical rooms that were highly complex, and we were able to eliminate spool pieces of so many flanges by replacing them with Victaulic grooved couplings and valves.”

Hager, who began working with grooved mechanical couplings in 1989, said there were also big benefits in the quality of the completed product over welded flanges. “I have a lot more confidence in not experiencing leaks using grooved couplings. They are a lot quicker to install and are a great product.”

According to Bret Russell, superintendent at U.S. Engineering, who is responsible for managing the fabrication shop, the firm’s pre-planning paid off. No additional shifts and limited overtime were needed to complete the job successfully. And Russell would know. He measures the fabrication shop’s productivity by calculating per inch of pipe used, per hour, per day.

“We were able to groove approximately 29,200 diameter inches for the UCH project from November 2011 through August 2012. And that’s while also prefabricating for two to three other similar-sized jobs,” said Russell. “Welding and flanging can’t even compete. Grooved is more than six times faster, which is a considerable labor savings and a tremendous boost in productivity.”

By using mostly Victaulic grooved mechanical systems in the fabrication shop for the plumbing and piping, Russell’s team saw other cost-saving benefits. “We reduced the need for welding and soldering consumables and various equipment parts,” he said. “These types of savings are increasingly more important as jobs become more demanding.”

Increasing Safety

Using grooved systems also played a significant role in increasing safety in the shop. Mike Parker, project manager at U.S. Engineering, noted that the ability to take assembly off of the jobsite and into the fabrication shop in a controlled environment reduces the amount of field fitting and exponentially increases safety over welding. It also allows changes in the field without a big impact on labor. “With grooved, there’s no cutting or grinding to create sparks and flames like welding,” said Parker. “You don’t have the added dangers associated with welding, soldering, and brazing, and that’s important when you take safety as seriously as we do.”

Hager agreed, saying, “Victaulic is much less accident-prone than heavy flanges and large heavier lug style valves that we’ve used in the past. I have no doubt that grooved offers safer installation than welding.” He added that because grooved reduces labor, exposure to injury also decreases.

U.S. Engineering was recently recognized by the Colorado Division of Labor with an Excellence in Safety Award for their outstanding commitment to workplace safety and workers’ compensation cost containment. “Ensuring a safe working environment” is among U.S. Engineering’s core values.

“We were able to groove approximately 29,200 diameter inches for the UCH project from November 2011 through August 2012. … Welding and flanging can’t even compete. Grooved is more than six times faster, which is a considerable labor savings and a tremendous boost in productivity.”

— Bret Russell, Superintendent, U.S. Engineering

Gaining a Competitive Edge

Hager, Russell, and Parker all felt that prefabricating with Victaulic grooved technology was the right fit for the UCH installation. The company believes so firmly in using prefabrication as a competitive advantage that they now begin all projects by identifying what cannot be fabricated in the shop.

“Jobs are going to continue to get larger, harder, and faster, and for healthcare projects like UCH, thinking outside of the box and using prefabrication is the way of the future to meet budgets and tight schedules,” said Parker. “Anything we can do to speed up the process ahead of time and offsite keeps us competitive. Using grooved couplings from Victaulic gives us a leg up and will definitely be part of our strategy for future projects.”

For more information, visit www.victaulic.com.

MCAA thanks Victaulic for being a major sponsor of MCAA 2013.