MAKING HISTORY: Penn Medicine’s newest hospital sets Philadelphia record
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Record Setting Numbers
14 straight hours of pouring
6,540 cubic yards of concrete
650 concrete trucks
4 pump stations
120+ personnel
950 tons of reinforcing steel
It isn’t even completed yet and the Penn Medicine Pavilion is already breaking records. From Friday, July 7 to Saturday, July 8, 2017, construction crews poured the building’s concrete foundation, making it the largest single concrete pour in city history.
Over the course of 14 straight hours, crews continuously poured approximately 6,540 cubic yards of concrete onto the site, requiring more than 650 concrete trucks, 4 pump stations and over 120 crew members, site managers and safety support personnel. The concrete covers the more than 950 tons of reinforcing steel that forms the building’s foundation.
To supply this volume of concrete, the concrete subcontractor, Madison Concrete Construction, engaged three different suppliers, who each prepared a special high-strength design mix at 6,000 psi that included fly ash to meet the building’s LEED certification requirements. The logistics of the site also posed a challenge—its tight urban location made staging difficult and required the closure of several streets to accommodate hundreds of concrete trucks.
In the end, the placement was not only successful, but also made concrete-pouring history, surpassing the record set last summer by the W/Element Hotel project in Center City Philadelphia, which required 5,850 cubic yards of concrete.
The epic effort was managed by a joint venture between LF Driscoll and Balfour Beatty, who are partnering together as part of the PennFirst integrated project delivery (IPD) team designing and building the Penn Medicine Pavilion. The PennFirst IPD team combines the celebrated architectural and engineering design expertise of HDR, Foster+Partners, BR+A and Southland Industries with the construction management expertise of LF Driscoll and Balfour Beatty. Team members from each firm are working together and with Penn Medicine’s clinical, facilities and patient experience experts to ensure the entire process is a collaborative effort that brings each firm’s talents and knowledge to the table to maximize efficiency, reduce waste and, ultimately, provide the best results.
The Penn Medicine Pavilion will house inpatient care for the Abramson Cancer Center, heart and vascular medicine and surgery, neurology and neurosurgery and a new emergency department, including 500 private patient rooms and 47 operating rooms. According to Penn Medicine, the new facility is the largest capital project in Penn’s history and “Philadelphia’s most sophisticated and ambitious healthcare building project.” The new facility is expected to be completed in 2021. To check out a time lapse of the concrete pour, visit https://vimeo.com/224887776Go to https://vimeo.com/224887776
Concrete Pour Key Team
Owner: Penn Medicine
Construction Management: LF Driscoll, Balfour Beatty
Concrete Construction: Madison Concrete Construction
Site Support: JPC Group, Inc.
PennFirst IPD Team: Penn Medicine, Foster + Partners, HDR, BR+A, LF Driscoll, Balfour Beatty, Southland Industries