The Challenge

The Draper Approach

Results Realized

The Challenge

E^DeltaCom was an $84 million telecom hotel project consisting of a 376,000 square foot warehouse in a development of similar-looking warehouses. A telecom hotel is a building that houses servers, data storage, and infrastructure needed for Internet and telecommunications activities that require super-high-speed bandwidth. Approximately 55,000 square feet was built out for office space with an additional 41,000 square feet of concrete mezzanine built above for a total of 96,000 square feet of office space. Inside the mezzanine office space are several high finish corporate board/conference rooms, two large open-plan areas with systems furniture and a kitchen/break area. On the first floor, there is a small auditorium, an additional open-plan area, the control center and a DC power room. The lobby consists of stone flooring, interior glass partitions and a glass handrail on the mezzanine overlooking the first floor lobby.

The data center is approximately 250,000 square feet of 4-foot raised computer flooring.

The mechanical support for the facility consists of 2 chiller plants. Each chiller plant consists of five 1250-ton chillers supporting over 3000 feet of a mechanical piping loop ranging in size from 8" to 16". The piping loop in turn feeds over 100 Liebert units.

The electrical support for the facility consists of a main electrical room that distributes power to the chiller plant and to the electrical train that supports the power distribution for the data center area. The main electrical room consists of one main switchgear and 3 chiller substations. The electrical train located in the data center consists of 9 substations, which distribute power to the data center. The back-up system consists of 12 emergency generators and 12 diesel UPS systems.

Both the mechanical and electrical systems have a secondary system for redundancy. Only 4 of the 5 chillers are required to maintain adequate supply. The electrical system is also redundant with the generators and diesel UPS systems.

The project was constructed in 3 phases. Phase 1 was equal to 7 watts per square foot. Phase 2 was equal to 14 watts per square foot. Phase 3 was equal to 21 watts per square foot. The infrastructure (structure and piping) was essentially completed so that as space was rented out in the data center and more power was needed, equipment was added to distribute the power and cool the space.

Much of the electrical and mechanical equipment were long-lead items that could take as long as 12 months to procure. Therefore, it was vital that the power and cooling requirements be finalized early on to release those long-lead items.

The Draper Approach

Given the compressed timeframe for project completion, Draper & Associates assigned two individuals to this engagement - a project engineer and a senior consultant. The project engineer's responsibilities included visiting the site three days per week to assist the general contractor in coordinating material buyout and delivery to support the overall project schedule, walking the job with a near term schedule and bringing to the contractor's attention any problem/behind-schedule areas/activities and following up on action items to insure they were handled by the appropriate party. The senior consultant helped keep the focus on the high priority issues and kept individuals and contractors accountable for their work activities.

Results Realized

The Draper & Associates consultants' counsel helped the project team focus on the issues and activities that made it possible to complete the project on time. Because of the firm's specialty in the area of scheduling, Draper & Associates maintains a focus on a job specifically in terms of time and thus avoids being distracted by the numerous impediments to progress associated with many construction projects. This different perspective - seeing things that might otherwise elude or distract a project manager or superintendent - is one of the valuable contributions that Draper & Associates brings to an engagement.