More Than X-Rays Needed on Kansas City Medical Center Renovation
Operator using GSSI SIR 3000 with a 1600 Mhz antenna looking for near surface conduits to saw cutting.
New plumbing lines were part of a medical center remodeling project recently completed in Kansas City and CSDA member Echo GPR Services was only too happy to supply ground penetrating radar services to detail for the concrete cutting contractor exactly what lay beneath the concrete floor. It was imperative for the general contractor and subcontractor to know if there was electrical conduit under the slab. As is the case in many health care renovations, this project would be completed in an area of the hospital adjacent to active hospital operations and could not interfere with the delivery of medical services. The Emergency Room and other procedure rooms were in close proximity to the construction area and not only would they be in continuous operation, it was determined that conduits under the slab likely fed power to these crucial areas of the hospital. CSDA member Echo GPR Services was contacted to map out all of the electrical conduits prior to saw cutting the floor. An entire room, measuring 80 feet by 35 feet, needed to be mapped out. Until the client knew where the electrical conduit was, they would not be able to determine exactly how to plan the new plumbing.
The layout of conduits are shown in red and plumbing are shown in green under the slab.
After Echo located the electrical conduits they questioned the client about the manner in which the new sewer lines would be connected to old sewer lines and found that the client did not know, so Echo was able to use a different GPR antenna to map out the below grade sewer lines, providing an additional service to the client. They were also able to provide the contractor the depths to the targets. Echo employed one operator scanning the floor using a GSSI SIR-3000 machine with a 1600 Mhz antenna to locate near surface conduits.
The saw cutting layout is marked in yellow for the operators.
In addition, a 400 Mhz antenna was used to map out the deeper plumbing lines. Because of the accuracy of the GPR mapping, Echo was called out a second time to map additional conduits prior to saw cutting. Once they supplied the client with the findings, the cutting plan was revised to entirely avoid some conduits, thus saving the cutting contractor time and money. Scanning mark-outs were in accordance with CSDA BP-017 and made the layout easy for the saw cutting contractor to avoid cutting any conduits. The cutting contractor was able to perform all of the cutting without incident and was able to plan where they needed to make the connections to existing plumbing. This job proves that sometimes an X-ray just might not be good enough.
RESOURCES
Founded by CSDA Past President Rick Norland and CSDA training instructor Mark DeSchepper in 1999 as Construction Solutions and renamed Echo GPR Services in 2017, Echo provides ground penetrating radar services to contractors, governmental agencies, engineering firms and private industry. Echo is headquartered in Paola, Kansas.
GPR Contractor
Echo GPR Services
Tel: 913-879-2200
Mobile: 913-710-9923
www.echogpr.com
General Contractor
Rand Construction
Kansas City, Missouri
