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Project Description
Parsons has been designing and building critical facilities for more than 40 years for a variety of clients, including telecommunications centers, military command and control centers, air traffic control facilities, and other control centers.
Parsons was honored with the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) Southeast Chapter's 2001 Project of the Year Award for a web hosting facility in Georgia. Competition for this prestigious award included projects from the private, public, and industrial sectors in the southeast region of the United States. DBIA stated the decision to award Project of the Year to Parsons was based on the size of the project, its complexity, and the fast track schedule.
Parsons was selected by one client to design and build six business-ready dedicated web hosting centers in major cities in the United States.
The web hosting facilities provide world-class environments with multiple layers of reliability, security, and core system redundancy for our client's customers. Parsons developed the facilities to eliminate single points of failure by providing highly reliable electric power systems, redundant cooling systems, and state-of-the-art building management, fire protection, and security systems. The redundant cooling systems, which provide backup cooling in the event the primary system fails, are critical to keeping equipment operating smoothly. Additionally, electrical power requirements are substantial with typical facilities requiring 20 megawatts or more of power to service data center loads. While commercial power is the primary power source, each center has electrical generators on-site as a backup source.
Parsons used design-build principles to safely put more than $40 million worth of high-quality construction in place in just 14 weeks. The project involved the coordination of over 30 subcontractors and vendors at each site. This effort required a dedicated purchasing/expediting and subcontract administration team for each of the six sites. The client used a national purchasing approach for the major pieces of equipment (generators, cooling towers, chillers, switchgear, etc.), which was then turned over to Parsons for coordination of delivery and installation.
Due to the fast track nature of the project (most sites required the initial phase to be completed in less then five months) the sites peaked at over 250 construction personnel on-site, working multiple shifts. All sites went to multiple shifts to avoid trade-stacking problems, which occur when multiple tradesmen, such as mechanical and electrical employees, are simultaneously working in the congested construction spaces. Several of the sites employed 24/7 operations for short periods to meet the aggressive construction deadlines. The night shift was dedicated to pulling electrical lines and running conduit, which runs through all areas, including mechanical equipment rooms. By scheduling the electrical work at night, any interface between trades was avoided.
Design was performed in multiple locations, including Charlotte, Reading, and Pasadena, with specialty consultants used for telecommunications and security designs. Parsons designed four sites and used a team approach to handle the simultaneous designs. As the initial design projects were completed and ready for construction, the follow-on designs used the lessons learned and details from the initial projects to improve the design and maximize the allotted design window. Design efforts did not stop once the drawings were released for construction. The design teams followed the projects into the field providing valuable "real time" assistance to the field teams and subcontractors. This joining of resources limited questions and kept the projects moving forward towards completion.
By implementing efficient scheduling and design processes, Parsons was able to successfully meet the challenges presented by the aggressive timeline of this project.
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