Grand Junction, Colorado
Design-build replacement of a bulk liquid oxygen system for the VA hospital, including primary and reserve tanks, vaporizers, pressure regulation, and telemetry monitoring integrated with the building automation system.
Schendt Engineering Corp. and Hawk Contracting worked together under a design-build contract to construct a new bulk liquid oxygen system to replace the existing system for the hospital. The existing system consisted of a single liquid oxygen tank, two vaporizers, regulators, and oxygen gas cylinders for emergency backup. The project required maintaining the existing oxygen system operational during construction of the new system.
The new system consisted of a 1,585 gallon primary liquid oxygen tank and a 540 gallon reserve liquid oxygen tank. Two vaporizers were installed for the primary tank and one vaporizer was installed for the reserve tank. The primary tank vaporizers were piped in parallel with solenoid valves controlled by the building automation system to alternate vaporizers every 24 hours to provide a thaw cycle on each.
A new pressure regulator station was installed to serve the primary and secondary oxygen tanks and regulate the supply pressure to the hospital. A telemetry system was installed to monitor the liquid oxygen supply and pressure in each tank and send reports to the local supplier and building automation system. Low level and low pressure alarms were provided for each tank and connected to the main medical gas panels in the hospital and heat plant, then transmitted to the fire alarm panel and building automation system for remote alarming and paging.
The system was installed on a structural concrete slab within an aesthetically pleasing concrete enclosure with an access gate, lighting, and razor wire security barrier at the top of the wall on the inside of the enclosure. Complete system schematics, ladder wiring diagrams, I/O summary tables, and interface requirements were prepared for integration with the telemetry system, main medical gas alarm panels, building automation system, and fire alarm system.
The design required preparation of as-built drawings of the entire oxygen distribution system within the hospital to verify pipe sizing and system capacity requirements. This comprehensive documentation ensured proper system operation and provided critical reference material for future maintenance and modifications.
45,000 SF office building HVAC system complete replacement featuring dual-compressor variable capacity control and high-efficiency heating water boilers. Two-phase renovation with integrated building automation.
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