Color me confused
Color me confused
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Posted by editor Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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Regarding the ‘New Hospital Construction’ article in the April 16 issue, after hearing first hand most of this news repeated at the Wednesday evening board meeting, the content of the article seems a bit confusing.
Mr. Nowicki presented a 'laundry list' of potential changes to the existing OSHPD Approved Plans. Most of which, did make some amount of good sense, and others which could well be considered frivolous, although well intended and adaptable at any point during or after construction, as needed.
One item from this article, “...there's no expansion allowed,” was clarified at the Wednesday meeting. Yes, one can expand when need arises, in the conventional or modular methods in a limited to methods manner. One other item, “Load bearing/structural concerns for floors,” Mr. Hicks stated the OSHPD approved plans indicated a “40 psf” load bearing which is to my recollection, standard procedure, however no one would stake claim to any documentation to the contrary, so far.
Then there is the comment regarding 'zero tolerances' in respect to modular construction. Modular construction is not new. DSA, Division of the State Architect has approved public school buildings, the same building code OSHPD uses, (CBC Title 24). Churches and commercial entities have utilized modular building technology for decades without wining about zero tolerances, also referred to as required tolerances.
Unfortunately [as] costs are concerned, the sky rocking construction material index had its hey-day not so conveniently during the design and plan check phase of the new hospital construction's $15 million budgetary assessment. These material indexes tripled in cost in most cases, and in no way will they ever retreat, sending our budget through the floor. Time for a budgetary re-assessment. Any further delays will cost the taxpayers of this community even further hardship.
As welcome as professional opinions are and as many as there can be offered up, the fact remains: We have an OSHPD Approved Plan in our hot hands. Now let us move forward. The board has reached a milestone with our new hospital construction. Please do not drop the ball now.
– Denis Mayberry IOR,
Construction Quality Consultants Inc.,
OSHPD Certified Class A Inspector
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To clarify a couple of items for Mr. Mayberry, the 40 psf floor loading called out on the room plans "meets minimum code" according to OSHPD but will have to be reinforced for heavier floor loading from medical equipment such as x-ray machines or even toilets in the patient rooms to something on the order of 100 psf or more according to info I received from OSHPD. And as to the modularity comment, yes, office buildings and schools are routinely built today with modular construction but not to hospital design margin standards (that are much higher than even schools) and have not been applied to hospitals for many years in this state. So the modular manufacturers I've spoken with have indicated that many such companies either went out of business in applying their technology to hospitals (too risky) or have simply not used the required tooling and manufacturing procedures required to meet the much higher hospital standards in many years, and so have sort of "lost the art" for hospital work. And as our architect has made clear to me on a number of occasions, this is a "prototype" design and an "experiment" to be developed for the future benefit of other rural hospitals in California. So, it is a technology development effort using our TVHD/community and as such has admittedly a certain degree of increased risk as is true with any prototyping effort,similar to new rockets, aircraft, spacecraft or a new race car. And, yes, we do have an OSHPD-approved set of plans that fundamentally can be built, but the question is at what cost and risk level - achievable or not for the funds, risk level and within the timeframe we can manage is the issue. And, finally, professional "opinions" from an architect who has exclusively designed hospitals for the last 25 of his 40 years as an architect and a construction cost estimator who has specialized in that for over 27 years is more than just an "opinion" in my mind - say, compared to my personal "opinion". I would not have pushed so hard to get this design through OSHPD, done a pre-screening search for the best qualified contractors, and carried out an independent review to identify potential risks and nail down our total budget shortfall if I didn't intend to figure out the best way to build this approved design - but with an approach with the least risk and most affodable cost. I've tried to stay neutral in all this and just act as a conduit to pass all the information I could to the Board/CEO from all industry and government sources. I've written detailed weekly progress reports to the Board/CEO of virtually everything I could find out about current hospital development in California. But I would not hold up my "opinion" as the definitive perspective compared to professional engineers, architects and contractors that I have spoken with in the field that specialize in hospital development in California.
