McKenney’s installed a new prefabricated chiller plant and piping loop to support up to nine megawatts of critical load for a colocation data center in North Carolina.

THE CHALLENGE

The project had a very aggressive schedule coupled with extensive scope in a small area making the jobsite congested with both personnel and materials. At times, the workforce on the project exceeded 200 people.

THE SOLUTION

McKenney’s utilized Building Information Modeling (BIM)—along with prefabricating nearly all of the steel piping mains—to minimize on-site congestion and optimize installation efficiency. Pipe deliveries were sequenced just-in-time and set in place upon arrival, reducing on-site storage. To ensure an on-time installation of the chiller plant, the construction team created a detailed installation schedule utilizing heavy BIM coordination, numerous trips to the factory and major collaboration with all trades.

THE RESULTS

With the exception of the chiller plant installation which took two rather than the scheduled four weeks—on-site pipe-fitting crew size was kept under 10.