Last week PC was recognized by the Associated General Contractors of Maine for our work on the Brunswick Health Care Center. The project, for Martin’s Point Health Care, consolidated Brunswick’s two existing aging clinics at this new 54,000-square-foot facility.
The new two-story clinic includes 63 exam rooms and 8 procedure rooms, space for x-ray, ultrasound and mammography, patient waiting areas, provider and staff spaces, a physical therapy gym, and a testing laboratory. The facility was designed with future growth in mind. The structural steel and concrete roof deck can accommodate an additional 20,000 square feet of space on the second level without structural modifications.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forever changing the way all health care facilities operate, innovative design enhancements were made during the construction phase without significantly impacting the construction schedule. A separate entrance was built to isolate potentially infectious patients and a suite of rooms were designed to be easily isolated from the rest of the facility by simply constructing temporary walls. In addition, several exam rooms were turned into negative air suites by adding dedicated exhaust fans with high-efficiency filters to further mitigate the spread of airborne pathogens.
One of the most complicated aspects of the project was the construction of the prefabricated roof trusses. The trusses were large and presented complex installation and safety challenges, not only for the crew erecting them, but also for anyone working nearby. PC decided to assemble the trusses into pods at ground level before hoisting each pod into place to allow for the metal roof decking and plywood substrate to be installed on each assembly prior to setting in place. The truss pods were also erected and set into their final resting place on weekends to eliminate impacts to activities on or around the site. This decision was the safest installation option and also resulted in time and cost efficiencies.
The project, with core partners SMRT and Sebago Technics, was completed in August 2021, on time and under budget.
