The team of G.J. Hopkins and Carilion was nominated for the Virginia Society of Healthcare Engineers (VSHE) annual teamwork award for the Electric Room Relocation Project at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Well…..WE WON!
(L to R) William Rockwell, Scott Blankenship, Ernie Caldwell, Debbie Daniel
This project was needed as a result of the “Flood of 1985” which caused the Roanoke River to crest at 13 feet above flood stage. This caused the first floor of Roanoke Memorial Hospital to be flooded. The main electrical service for the fourteen story west pavilion was located in the basement. The entire electrical room was under water resulting in a full loss of normal and emergency power to half of the facility (This was before the South and Mountain Pavilion were constructed). Below are two pictures that were taken from the roof of the Hospital showing the extent of the flooding.
Shortly after the mess was cleaned up the planning and budgeting for the relocation of the electrical equipment began. This process continued off and on for the next 27 years. Finally, in 2012, the sun, moon and stars aligned and the project moved forward with Carilion negotiating the design build project with G.J. Hopkins.
The project scope was basically to move the electrical service from the existing electrical room in the basement to the new electrical room located up the road out of the flood plain. In order to accomplish this scope of work we provided the following equipment: 4000 AMP double ended sub-station, (2) 2500 KVA sub-station transformers, (2) 1600 AMP switchboards, (6) panelboards, (3) transformers, and (4) 800 AMP Automatic Transfer Switches. Additionally, the existing emergency power switchboard was extensively modified to handle new breakers. Overall 1.76 miles of conduit and 26.59 miles of wire were installed.
The project required a total of seven major shutdowns of areas of the hospital. Extensive planning was put into each shutdown and all were completed without the client experiencing a disruption of services. Debbie Daniel, Director of Engineering at RMH, stated “most staff did not know the shutdown occurred…the shutdown planning made her job easy. She just sat back and observed.”
On May 20, 2013 William Rockwell (President of VSHE) and Scott Blankenship (President of the Blue Ridge Chapter of VSHE) presented G.J. Hopkins and Carilion with the award at the annual state conference in Williamsburg, VA. Ernie Caldwell and Debbie Daniel were present to receive the award.
Again, congratulations to the entire team that made this project possible. They are as follows:
Estimator: Howard Woodford, Jason Showalter
Project Manager: Chris Smith
Superintendent: Tim Weeks
Rest of the Team:
Thomas Carroll Stephen Cockerham Kendall Dodd
Troy Dunman John Hass Mark Hartberger
Everett Hubbard Richard Humphries Kevin Jenkins
Daniel Johnson Thomas Matthews Richard Mitchell
Richard Nedoszytko Brock Reid James Seigla
Shawn Smith Chris Smith Mark Wimmer
Michael Wood
