Cator, Ruma & Associates provided the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technology design for Phase II of the Vail Health Remodel and Expansion, including replacement of the existing East Wing and renovations within the existing Central Wing. The expansion included 137,000 square feet of Program Space and 204,000 square feet of Parking, utilizing a five-story total parking garage with three stories below grade, and a six-story above grade addition with helipad on the roof of the 6th floor.
Program spaces include but are not limited to a central plant to serve the entire hospital, replacement emergency department, imaging department, surgery center expansion, clinical physician offices and patient spaces, physical rehabilitation spaces, and lodging spaces for Eagle County Paramedics.
The central plant is 750 boiler horsepower, utilizing three boilers. The mechanical design includes capability to support a future capacity of 900 boiler horsepower. Deaerators, surge tanks, and boiler treatment areas were designed for the full service steam plant, which will serve all steam and heating needs of the facility, including domestic hot water, building heating water, humidification, and steam loads of the sterile processing department.
Domestic water is provided by high pressure condensate regulated heat exchangers. Building heating water is provided by shell and tube heat exchangers and vertical inline centrifugal pumps.
The central plant also included relocation of an existing 350-ton air cooled chiller installed during Phase I, and two additional 350-ton air cooled chillers to serve all cooling needs for the facility. All systems were designed with redundant or N+1 capacity.
The project utilized a mixture of indoor and outdoor custom air handling units to meet future expansion predictions. Air handling units were provided with heating water coils, chilled water coils, fan wall arrays, filtration, and in some cases heat recovery coils in pursuit of LEED certification.
Truck docks and ambulance docks and pull-thru areas were designed for a mixture of ambient and tempered space conditions, with heating provided by heating water coils and evaporative coolers via custom make up air units.
The large snowmelt system was designed using condensing low temperature boilers for energy efficiency purposes and in pursuit of LEED certification.
The facility is served by a new 25,000 gallon direct bury fuel oil tank installed during a previous phase and completed during this phase.
