Duct Work Complete on New Lab at the BC Cancer Agency

Viaduct Sheet Metal Ltd. recently completed its portion of the major upgrades to the BC Cancer Agency's Vancouver Centre, where a powerful new research tool called a cyclotron has been installed. The 22-tonne machine is being used to provide pre-treatment detection of cancerous tumors, resulting in improved patient outcomes. This addition to the agency puts the province at the forefront of functional imaging research.

“The province is taking a tremendous step forward by establishing a radiopharmaceutical laboratory at the BC Cancer Agency,” says George Abbott, Minister of Health.

The 6,000-square-foot lab was built underground and was required to house the cyclotron. Construction began in September, 2008 and took two years to complete. Keith's Plumbing and Heating has won a Silver Award of Excellence from the Vancouver Regional Construction Association for their portion of the work, and Viaduct Sheet Metal carried out the mechanical sheet metal on the project using a design-build concept.

Nearly half of the mechanical sheet metal portion of the project was made of galvanized metal and the other half, made of stainless steel, had to be welded. The building runs continuously at full makeup air and exhaust air.

“My first impression of this project was that it was not very large for the price tag,” says Lindsay Burwash, Viaduct project manager. “I later heard that it was the most expensive per-square-foot building ever built in Vancouver. Looking more closely, I was able to see certain challenges that had to be dealt with ahead of time.”

Communication is essential to pull off such a technical project, so before work began, Burwash explained his concerns to the foremen and workers regarding the congested area and the need for everybody to be on the same page. “Having every team understand this helped prevent long delays. In the end, each trade was ready at the given time, so the layering of the work and equipment was carried out smoothly.”

As with all projects, it is important to coordinate services in the ceiling spaces to ensure occupant comfort and safety, but there is a higher challenge on specialized projects, such as labs, says Burwash.

“On this project, due to the high requirements, very little ceiling space is left around the supply ductwork and the welded stainless steel exhaust ductwork. High levels of manufacturing precision, coordination, and skillful installation were necessary to make all services work. Unfortunately, most of this good work is hidden by the ceiling tiles and drywall ceilings.”

Burwash was concerned that since projects in medical facilities require a high amount of piping and electrical work, without good stewardship, the project may have been compromised. Susan McCurdy, head of Viaduct's CAD department, stepped in and a concept resembling Building Information Modeling (BIM) was drawn up.

“We created a mechanical leveling plan to incorporate all the trades and their equipment,” explains Burwash. “It took about a month and a half to put together preliminary drawings.” Viaduct then called in all the engineers and the general contractor to review the project model and handed out full sets of drawings in plan view and 3-D to all trades and personnel involved.

Burwash attributes a great team effort to overcoming tight space challenges. “On all projects, there has to be a team effort and the harder the project, the more leadership is needed,” he says, adding that Keith Plumbing and Heating certainly did not fall down in this area. “Their team is highly skilled and did not work ahead of anyone or feel they were above anybody else. Without this spirit of cooperation, projects of this nature would turn sour quickly.”

A more specific challenge on the lab was the installation of a 60-inch welded stack made to withstand ten inches of static part pressure. The 80-feet-high stack had to be installed in a short time span so as not to interfere with the daily operations of the hospital, so GWIL Crane was called in to help. “Their experience and professionalism paid off in spades,” says Burwash.

“They took a very difficult and high risk operation and ran with it and came up with a game plan that was comforting.”

Additional companies involved in the BC Cancer Agency project in Vancouver included Siemens Canada Project Management, Gibbs Wilson General Contractors, and Johnson Controls. Stantec provided architectural, structural, and mechanical and electrical design, and Dejan Radoicic, P. Eng Engineer of Record, and Zlatko Pulljic, P. Eng Design Engineer, consulted with the mechanical design team.

What's in a Lab?

The cyclotron project at the BC Cancer Agency in Vancouver required: 

• A Class 2 Nuclear facility compliancy with Canada Nuclear Safety Committee, where nuclear material with a very short duration (half life) is produced.
• A Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner.
• Computerized Tomography (CT) for active treatment.
• Research space to help with new treatments in the fight against cancer.
• Three Clean Room Certifications: ISO 6, 7, and 8.
• The Canadian Good Manufacturing Practice standard.

   

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of Sheet Metal Journal — The Journal of Record for SMACNA-BC.

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