Rutland Regional Medical Center

Budget: $10 Million

Location: Rutland, Vermont

Design Team Lead: LN Consulting

Construction Team Lead: HP Cummings Construction Company

Scope: LN Consulting was the lead engineer and project manager at Rutland Regional Medical Center that involved the replacement and upgrades of three original central air handling systems in the hospital. The project utilized a phased approached to allow for the completion of each phase to allow for limited downtime of spaces. AHU-1 is rated for 20,000 CFM of airflow and supports approximately 7,000 square feet of the surgical suite which includes five operating rooms. AHU-2 is rated for 68,000 CFM of airflow and supports approximately 68,000 square feet of hospital space including recovery space, the cancer center, and central hospital laboratory space. AHU-3 is rated for 22,000 CFM of airflow and supports approximately 20,000 square feet of floor area including the intensive care unit. The intensive care unit includes thirteen patient rooms.  

During the start of construction, LN Consulting retooled their design to convert existing patient rooms into airborne infectious isolation rooms each equipped with dedicated temperature control, negative pressure control, and increased ventilation air requirements as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A heat recovery ventilator equipped with high-efficiency particulate absorbing (HEPA) filtration was installed to offset the increased energy usage required to exhaust the isolation rooms. The total and outdoor airflow rates for each space served were calculated and the systems were balanced to meet current health care code ventilation requirements. A requirement of the project was to keep the existing systems operational and limit the number and duration of shutdowns to a minimum throughout construction. This required custom air handling units and revisions to the existing building structure to accommodate the proposed unit locations.  

In addition to the air handling unit replacement, the existing pneumatic controls system was completely removed and upgraded to direct digital controls including the new air handlers, hot water heating equipment, chilled water equipment, and all associated variable air volume terminals controls. Upgrades to the hot water heating system included new steam to water heat exchanger, variable speed hot water circulators, and new automatic flow control valves on the terminal heating equipment.