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Building a World-Class Academic Medical Center for Orange County Print E-mail

On the Job with IBEW 441

Building Trades craft union members are helping to bring topnotch medical care to Orange County. In February 2005, construction began on the state-of-the-art $371 million UC Irvine replacement hospital. When completed in early 2009, the new hospital will house the latest medical technologies and strengthen UC Irvine Healthcare’s ability to provide patients with the latest therapies and treatments. The hospital will replace the main hospital building, which was built in 1960. "Health care is the up and coming growth industry and we want to be a part of building it," said Doug Mangione, Business Rep with IBEW Local 441.

The 480,000 square-foot hospital, will position UC Irvine Healthcare as one of the world’s leading academic medical centers. Not only will it be a patient-focused healing environment, it will also serve as a center for excellence in health care for Orange County. The hospital is a design-build project and perhaps the largest design-build hospital project according to Bret Raus, general foreman for Sasco Electric. Design-build is a construction project system where the design and construction aspects are contracted for with a single entity, the designbuilder or design-build contractor.

The designbuilder is usually the general contractor, but in many cases it is also the design professional (architect or engineer). This system is used to minimize the risk for an owner and to reduce the delivery schedule by overlapping the design phase and construction phase of a project. Sasco Electric has been on the job since late February of 2005, with crews as many as 75 electricians at times. Sasco Electric is installing the electrical infrastructure and has already placed over eight miles of underground conduit On the Job (continued from page 1) and 3-1500kW @12kV generator sets in the central energy yard.

By the time the project is completed in 2008, the Sasco team will have utilized over 150,000 IBEW man-hours, and installed 1.5 million feet of branch wiring according to Sasco Project Manager Jon Griffis and Superintendent Randy Durham. In addition, Masters Electric will have utilized 6,000 man hours installing the Building Automation System controls for 650 constant volume boxes, 16 air handlers, 19 isolation rooms, and eight operating rooms. The project has been going exceptionally well, said Griffis. In fact, the project is nearly four months ahead of schedule. Construction is now scheduled for completion in September 2008. Sasco’s safety record on the project has been exceptional.

"The General Contractor wrote a letter to OSHA recommending us for a safety award," said Durham. In the new hospital, patients will be cared for in 191, mostly private rooms that offer space for families to be part of the care team. The rooms are in addition to the existing 102 beds in the medical center’s tower and the 84-bed Neuropsychiatric Center. Designed with the patient in mind, rooms were built to capture natural light and increase privacy. Instead of transporting patients to different treatment areas, larger private patient rooms will allow multidisciplinary teams to care for patients on the spot. In addition to emphasizing patient care, the new hospital will facilitate the teaching and research missions of the UC Irvine School of Medicine.

The new hospital will include modern facilities for conducting the latest medical research and training future and practicing physicians. In addition, the new hospital will allow researchers and clinicians to work closely together to bring the latest therapies and treatment to patients. Carefully-planned intensive care units, treatment rooms, laboratories and surgical suites will further facilitate leading-edge care.

The 15 new stateof- the-art surgical suites will include the latest equipment, including the robotic surgical systems. The health-care sector is also running a construction fever, due in large part to strict new building requirements that followed the 1994 Northridge earthquake. These requirements compel new and existing hospitals to meet state seismic codes. "Many [hospital] owners have determined it is cheaper to replace than upgrade," said Scott L. Whitlock, director of project development for the Irvine-office of Hensel Phelps Construction Co. "Either way, the building industry is provided an opportunity.

" Other major health care projects under construction in Orange County include expansions at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton. In addition, the UCI replacement hospital will have a second phase to it. "There is also going to be a five-story, halfmillion sq-ft lab building and they are going to demolish the existing hospital once this is completed," said Griffis.

 

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Drew Kinnison

Apprentice - 4 Years - Sasco Electric

It’s really important to teach the less experienced guys what you know. When you retire, they are going to be the ones paying for your retirement so you want them to be good craftsmen.

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Clinton Weinrich

Journeyman - 8 Years - Sasco Electric

I used to work non-union before and the pay and benefits are much better in the union sector. The tools are much better, there’s better camaraderie, and the workers are smarter and better trained. That’s becoming more important because buildings are getting more complicated and systems are becoming interlocked. This hospital is a design and build project so you have to be able to think more and be able to problem solve to prevent problems from emerging. That’s one of the things that the union apprenticeship program really help prepare me for. You don’t learn just how to install things, but you learn the theory behind it. In the union program you actually learn why things work. That’s something I never learned in the ABC school. I have a deeper understanding and I can look at a blueprint and know something isn’t going to work or I can suggest a better way to go about it.

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Brian Dayus

Journeyman - 30 Years - Sasco Electric

I’ve been on this project going on two years now. I was here from the underground and I got to see all the phases of the job. Hopefully I’ll be here until the end. That’s the great thing about this craft—it’s never boring and you never get stuck in a rut. The tools are a lot better now than they used to be. When I first started in the industry, we used to use hacksaws. Those are extinct. Now we use cordless circular saws.

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Bret Raus

General Foreman - 30 Years - Sasco Electric

This is a design and build OSHPD job. No one has ever done a design and build of this magnitude. We started the design phase of this in November of 2004, started building and then we were design and building concurrently. We coordinate and plan with all the different crafts so there are no conflicts out in the field. Everything gets solved ahead of time on paper. This is really the wave of the future for construction. It saves a lot of money and eliminates a lot of the conflicts out in the field.

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Manny Paz

Foreman - 17 Years - Masters Electric

I worked in Human Resources doing payroll for the County of LA and I noticed the pay scale for electricians. I took some classes with the [nonunion] ABC apprenticeship program before I joined Local 441. The difference between the programs is like the difference between community college and a university. There’s a big difference in the quality of the training. The hourly rate is also much better in the union sector and everyone treats each other with respect.

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Robert Cordova

Apprentice - 19 Months - Sasco Electric

I like the fact that this is a skilled trade and it’s a career opportunity. I like learning about all the different aspects of the craft and having to apply what I’ve learned to new situations. The apprenticeship program has been a really great experience for me so far. I’ve been learning a lot of the basic theories—where electricity starts, where it goes, what it does. The journeymen on the job have been a great help to me—showing me a better or more efficient way to get something done. Sometimes you think you already know how to do something, but the more experienced guys on the job might know a better way.

 
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