Harder Than it Looks

Fume-hood replacement posed major coordination challenges

By Sean Ryan
Daily Reporter Staff

It might not have been the most complicated project, but replacing 98 fume hoods in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chemistry building without disrupting the chemists' experiments took a lot of logistical savvy and site control.

"It's not brain surgery by any stretch of the imagination," said Jim Yurs, project manager for Arnold & O'Sheridan Inc., the lead architectural and engineering firm on the job. "But there was a high level of detail about how to get done what you're going to do without disrupting campus lifestyle."

The UW-Milwaukee chemistry building is an eight-story laboratory facility that hosts research in organic chemistry, laser applications, optical research, cryogenics and general and physical chemistry. According to Arnold & O'Sheridan, environmental conditions in the building were poor, so, using state health and safety funds, the engineering firm formed a team to clean up the air and replace the safety-deficient fume hoods.

The project team handled one floor at a time, working its way up the eight-story building, Yurs said. It had tight timeframes to tear out the old hoods and install new ones because university scientists were using most of the fume hoods for experiments.

"There was a controlled urgency to make sure it got done," he said. "The less time we displaced (the researchers) the better. The weekly coordination meetings were very important. You have written documents, but the intricacies of why things are the way they are sometimes needs a little verbal visualization and discussion."

For each floor, the team had to coordinate its asbestos-abatement group, HVAC and electrical subcontractors, fume-hood manufacturer and state Department of Facilities Development workers. The subcontractors removed the old hoods, the manufacturer provided and installed the new hoods and the state inspected the work.

Keeping in touch

Amid all the project coordination, workers had to stay in touch with UW-Milwaukee staff to make sure the renovation didn't disrupt experiments, said Jeff Pereles, vice president of Choice Construction Companies, the general contractor.

"You had people doing continual, ongoing experiments, so you had to make sure that when you turned off that hood, they had another place to put them," he said. "We worked real close with Arnold & O'Sheridan and UWM as far as phasing in and moving the chemists from one room to another. I think it went very smoothly, and we all worked hard together."

But the hood replacements were only the beginning, Yurs said, since they also decided to replace the air-conditioning units that were driving the fume hoods. The air-handling units were on the chemistry building's top floor, which was so cramped with mechanical equipment that maintenance workers had trouble getting their tools to the machines, he said.

"Fifty percent of the entire floor space is mechanical equipment and one-third is lab space," Yurs said. "Basically, when you walked in the room there was an old steam deionizer and water-purification center that we took out to erect a 4-foot walk space. You can actually push tools all the way through the mechanical room now."

Room to move

Even after creating some breathing room on the top floor, Yurs said his team still had to find a way to install the massive new air-conditioning unit using only a service elevator. He said crews managed to fit the square peg through a pinhole by taking the unit apart and reassembling the pieces on the top floor.

"Nobody wanted to see a helicopter or a crane lifting a big fan up to the building," he said. "We just measured the path of travel and the opening of the elevator door and its weight capacity and just measured the pieces from that."

The renovation will mean lasting changes to the chemistry building since it now has a more efficient and safer air-circulation system that is easier to maintain and will save the university about $420,000 over the next 20 years.

"It was a pleasure to be involved with the project," Yurs said. "It was a good opportunity to do something the right way."

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