Carolinas HealthCare System Pineville

OWNER

Carolinas Medical Center

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Construction Cost
$105 million

Completion Date
October 2012

Project Size
270,000 square feet / six levels

Carolinas HealthCare System Pineville

Pineville
North Carolina

The Carolinas Medical Center Pineville Phase 2 project is an expansion of the existing Carolinas Medical Center hospital campus. This project entailed two main sequences. Sequence 1 consisted of a two-story surgery expansion and a one-story maternity addition. The surgery expansion floor framing was designed for operating room vibration criteria and chosen to be “hard connected” to an existing surgery building to eliminate expansion joints crossing the floor of the surgery suites.

Sequence 2 of this project is a new six-story bedtower. Construction was staged to begin later than the Sequence 1 construction due to the required demolition of an existing central energy plant. The Sequence 2 addition was structurally isolated from adjacent buildings, yet interfaced with existing structure on three of its four sides, including the surgery addition of Sequence 1. Due to the proximity of the new structure to the existing structure, Walter P Moore worked closely with the design team to find innovative solutions to the project challenges. For example, an existing shearwall was modified to accommodate a new exit corridor, and an existing roof was retrofit to become a new floor. Additional notable features include structural design provisions for two large rooftop air handlers designed to be up to 280,000 pounds each and a new 55’ clear span pedestrian bridge to connect the new bedtower to the existing parking deck.

Walter P Moore collaborated directly with the Owner, design team, contractor and steel fabricator on an innovative steel connection system which reduced steel tonnage and erection time. We investigated a pre-fabricated structural steel conneciton system known as “SidePlate” for the moment frames. This unique system reducing steel tonnage, minimized steel erection time and saved up to $500,000 in project costs. It was the first use of its kind in our region.

Innovation
The bedtower portion of the project utilized moment frames for lateral stability and architectural flexibility in space planning. We opted to investigate ‘SidePlate®’ connections for the moment frames and through a collaborative design process with ‘SidePlate®’, we were ultimately able to reduce steel tonnage, field welding and save project costs.