H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center

Turner Construction Co. Completes Work on Addition to Tampa Cancer Treatment and Research Facility

by Debra Wood

Turner Construction Co. will complete the fast-track construction of an $85 million multistructure addition to the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute at the University of South Florida in Tampa on time, within budget and without interfering with the existing hospital's operations.

"It is significant to note that the targeted completion date of April 2003 was established in May 1999, and now, nearly four years later, the project team will meet this goal," said Tom Lail, project executive with Turner, Maitland.

For this project, Turner has provided construction management services for the following:

• 600-vehicle parking garage.
• 2,000-ton central energy plant, which is expandable to 5,000 tons.
  
• 160,000-sq.-ft., five-story outpatient-services clinic.
  
• 200,000-sq.-ft., four-story Vincent A. Stabile Research Building, with a 300-seat
  auditorium, conference facilities, administrative space and laboratories.
  

"The Moffitt Cancer Center is the only NCI (National Cancer Institute)-designated comprehensive cancer center in the state," said Braulio Vicente Jr., vice president of facilities and support services for Moffitt. "We have to continue to expand our research capabilities so we can try to find a cure for the horrible disease we are fighting against. The clinic building is expanding our clinical capabilities to deal with the tremendous volumes [of patients] that cancer generates."

An architectural association of Hunton Brady Architects PA, Orlando, and NBBJ, San Francisco, designed the buildings. When finished, the project with equipment will total $170 million.

Moffitt awarded Turner the construction-manager-at-risk contract after a qualifications-based selection process. Trade contractors and vendor contracts were competitively bid.

Site work began late in 1999 with utility relocations. Kimmins Contracting Corp., Tampa, completed excavation, backfill and roadway improvements on and around the site.

The parking garage broke ground in July 2000 and was finished in September 2001. It has a cast-in-place concrete frame with post-tensioned concrete decks. With completion of the parking structure, Turner began work on the central-energy plant, located on the first floor of the garage.

The plant was brought on line in July 2002. It has enough capacity to power the research building's vivarium, an animal holding facility, and the build-out of laboratory space on the third and fourth floors.

Work began in November 2000 on the cast-in-place concrete-framed research building and clinic structures. At the same time, architects completed the balance of the construction drawings for the mechanical, electrical and plumbing components, the exterior envelope and the interior finishes. The clinic structure abuts the existing hospital.

Both buildings are on track for an April 2003 substantial completion. An auto plaza separates the two main structures.

"The project has progressed nicely," Vicente said. "It's a complicated building in some aspects." Vibroreplacement stone columns support the research building. Hayward Baker of Tampa completed the work. Vibroreplacement is a soil stabilization method used to consolidate weak soils and to collapse voids under the surface of the soil to provide a stable foundation.

"The process involves sinking a large vibratory probe, about 4 ft. in diameter and 20 ft. long, suspended by a crane, into the soils using water jets that facilitate the probe penetrating into the earth, consolidating the material in the area of influence of the probe and collapsing any voids that it encounters," Lail said.

"By doing this at the location of each column footing and at the perimeter wall footing, it assures that the foundation of the building will rest on a stable base," he continued. "The use of ground-penetrating radar between the footings identified any potential voids in the areas not under the footings. Identified areas of concern were treated by means of jet grouting."

The clinic rests on a mat foundation, selected to avoid disruption of activities at the existing hospital. United Forming, Orlando, installed the reinforcing steel and placed the concrete for the mat and for the building's structures.

"The foundation for the clinic building consists of a monolithic concrete-mat foundation that contains 4,440 cu. yds. of concrete that was placed in 9½ hours beginning on a Saturday evening and continuing uninterrupted through Sunday morning," Lail said.

Inside the research building, a ring of transom glass caps a four-story atrium to allow natural light to illuminate the area. The ceiling of the atrium is 75 ft. tall and about 150 ft. long. It is built of skim-coat plaster over gypsum wallboard and includes an intricate pattern of reveals.

The ceiling in the research auditorium includes a perforated metal system manufactured in Germany, which was procured and installed by Acousti Engineering Co. of Florida, Orlando.

The east end of the research building features a cantilevered, sloped, glass-enclosed prow, which forms spaces for break areas on each floor.

"KHS&S Contractors, (Tampa), the trade contractor for the metal studs, drywall and cement plaster, installed a scaffolding system to complete this ceiling that extended the full length, width and height of the atrium," Lail said. "The area that had to be covered tapers from about 40 ft. wide at one end to about 10 ft. wide at the other."

The clinic building contains a cylindrical, precast concrete-clad elevator tower. Gate Precast Co. of Monroeville, Ala., fabricated this element and all of the precast for the project. All Florida Erectors and Welding, Apopka, completed the installation.

A glass-enclosed, three-story atrium provides natural light to waiting areas overlooking the atrium from each floor.

"The clinic is required to meet the Miami-Dade County standards for resistance to hurricanes," Lail said. "This requirement led to the inclusion of impact-resistant glass and frames for the exterior aluminum and glass curtain wall system and all punched windows.

"The aluminum and glass trade contractor, TSG Industries, built and tested a full-scale mock-up of the curtain wall system at a testing laboratory near Miami to obtain the necessary Notice of Approval, certifying that the system met the Miami-Dade standards," Lail continued.

Key venders include Aneco Electric, Miami; ThyssenKrupp Elevator, Tampa; Mill-Rite Woodworking Co., Pinellas Park, fabrication and installation of millwork and laminate casework; CEI Florida, Debary, roofing systems; Waterproofing Specialists, Tampa, below-grade and plaza deck waterproofing and paver systems; Coastal Ceramic Tile, Ventura, Calif.; and Pompano Masonry Corp., Pompano Beach.

The project averaged 230 workers on site daily during the final months of construction. The labor force peaked in July 2002, with an average of 280 workers each day.

"It is very satisfying to work on a project that will most certainly help in the fight to cure those with cancer and on a project that has the potential to help find a way to prevent this terrible disease," Lail said.