Saving with BIM

Project delivery method cuts $3 million, two months at MTMC

Construction of the new Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., is scheduled to be completed in May. The 286-bed regional hospital will feature 10 operating rooms, 27 post-partum rooms and 40 emergency department rooms.

Innovation is the name of the game at the site of a new $267-million medical campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and the result has been a savings in both time and money.

Turner Universal Construction of Nashville is using an innovative combination of Building Information Modeling and Lean construction practices on the 555,000-sq-ft Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Aerial photo by Aerial Innovations of Tennessee

The use of multi-dimensional modeling helped the project team identify problem areas and potential cost savings earlier in the project.

The Nashville office of Turner Universal Construction is using a groundbreaking combination of Building Information Modeling and Lean construction practices on the 555,000-sq-ft Middle Tennessee Medical Center.

The decision brought about the delivery of $3 million in budgeted costs savings below the owner’s initial target and an additional projection of nearly $1 million in savings from BIM-enabled prefabrication.

Construction of the medical center is also on track to be completed two months early.

The 286-bed regional hospital, which will feature 10 operating rooms, 27 post-partum rooms and 40 emergency department rooms, will be substantially completed ahead of schedule in May, largely due to Turner’s implementation of a Lean construction approach enhanced by the use of BIM as a visual and data-rich work planning tool.

“Not only can the new medical center open its doors earlier than originally anticipated, we are also going to benefit from a cost savings due to the early involvement of Turner and its use of BIM in conjunction with Lean construction practices,” says Jennifer Garland, MTMC project director.

In the early planning stages of the project, the team decided to pursue a Lean approach to minimize waste and increase efficiencies throughout the life of the project.

BIM is a process of generating and managing building data during a project’s life cycle using a three-dimensional, real-time, dynamic building modeling software to increase productivity in design and construction.

The process encompasses building geometry, spatial relationships, geographic information and quantities, and properties of building components.

Lean construction is a translation and adaption of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the end-to-end design and construction process.

According to Wikipedia, “The Lean process is concerned with the holistic pursuit of concurrent and continuous improvements in all dimensions of the built and natural environment: design, construction, activation, maintenance, salvaging, and recycling. “

Managing construction under Lean is different from typical contemporary practice because it:

• has a clear set of objectives for the delivery process
• is aimed at maximizing performance for the customer at the project level
• designs concurrently product and process
• applies production control throughout the life of the project

Turner Universal senior project manager Andy Davis says Turner Universal is applying the slogan of “build digitally first” at the Murfreesboro site and achieving large percentages of pre-fabrication on major components of the building systems through a comprehensive digital coordination process.

Subcontractors are using their trade BIMs to visually prototype all aspects of their work in detail long before fabrication or construction starts.

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“BIM, combined with a Lean culture, enabled us to achieve levels of prefabrication we have not seen on previous projects,” Davis says.

“For example, most of the building’s ductwork is being prefabricated off-site and then assembled at the project. In some cases, up to 16 ft of ductwork is being delivered to the site to be installed in a single piece.”

The use of BIM coupled to a Lean workflow also allowed for a significantly reduced crew size in some situations. For example, only three workers over five days were required to stand on the metal deck before concrete was poured to place hundreds of pipe hangars across a 30,000-sq-ft area.

The traditional placement of hangers from lifts or on ladders would have taken the same crew about four times as long, would have increased costs, and perhaps most importantly, would have created unsafe conditions on-site.

Subcontractors used their trade BIM’s to visually prototype all aspects of their work in detail - such as pipe and duct work - long before fabrication or construction began. Photo by Sam Barnes

Throughout the duration of the project about 600 construction workers have been working at the hospital site.

Hospital administrators plan to purchase approximately $10 million in IT (Information Technology) equipment and $32 million in medical equipment for the new facility.

The hospital also plans to hire an additional 100 nurses, doctors and support staff.

The new campus on Murfreesboro’s Medical Center Parkway will be roughly four times larger than the medicalcenter’s current campus.

The hospital is part of St. Thomas Health Services, a regional health system owned by Ascension Health, one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in the country.

About 600 construction workers are building the hospital, which will support an additional 100 nurses, doctors and support staff. The new Middle Tennessee Medical Center will be roughly four times larger than current hospital. Photo by Sam Barnes

Turner is the leading general builder in the U.S., ranking first or second in the major segments of the building construction field.

During 2008, Turner completed $10.7 billion of construction.

Turner is one of the only builders offering clients a nationwide network of offices across the U.S.

The company was founded in 1902 and is a subsidiary of HOCHTIEF, a publicly traded company and one of the world’s leading international construction service providers.

“We are proud to serve as the construction manager and be part of a building team employing innovative construction methods to benefit the patients of Middle Tennessee Medical Center and the surrounding communities served by this important new hospital,” says Shannon Hines, president, Turner Universal.