W.G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center

The existing sanitary sewer servicing the Sterile Processing Services (SPS) portion of Building 2 within the W.G. (Bill) Hefner VA Medical Center campus is experiencing capacity issues.  The existing service connects to the existing sanitary sewer within a portion of the original hospital.

The project concept was to identify and evaluate alternative methods of collecting and discharging the sanitary sewer from the SPS building with enough capacity to serve the sterilizing and other washing equipment within the SPS.  The scope of the project included the design of new sanitary drain plumbing design in the crawl space underneath the SPS, as well as the design of an external pump station to pump the wastewater to a new connection point at the existing external sanitary sewer system within the VAMC campus.

The MEP design team evaluated the existing and proposed flows to the system and the electrical design for the control panel of the pump station.  The Civil design team designed the pump station and the force main to connect to the existing campus sanitary sewer system with the least amount of disruption to the existing campus infrastructure.

With the use of underground utility location services during the design stage, Acela was able to evaluate the alternatives and design a solution to minimize disruption to existing campus operations.  Additionally, the construction documents include requirements for the construction team to utilize direction drilling techniques to minimize disturbance to the recently constructed concrete loading dock and other pavement areas along the proposed route for the force main.  Acela utilized 3D scanning technology to map the existing plumbing system in the crawlspace under the building during the conceptual design phase.