Acute Care Pavilion, Anne Arundel Medical Center

Job Facts
Tons of steel: 72 tons
Contractor: LR Willson & Sons, Inc.,
Project Manager: Rob Pollack
Sub Contractor: B&B Welding Company, Inc.
Erector: LR Willson & Sons

At B&B, we’ve fabricated steel for all for all types of unusual projects: naval piers, a modern ship chandlery, a scoreboard for Cal Ripken Jr. Field, and even a tiki hut. But this was our first emergency-landing pad for a medevac helicopter.

Once again, L.R. Willson & Sons brought us into the project as a subcontractor. Our mission: detail, fabricate and help erect the structural steel for the Acute Care Pavilion at the Anne Arundel Medical Center. Essentially, the job called for the addition of a helipad and miscellaneous steel to the existing hospital complex. “It was really a pretty neat job,” says B&B’s Dennis McCartney. “We had to interface between the new and the old steel. That added a level of complexity to the job.”

Using archival drawings, we detailed the column connections between the existing building and the new additions. Each new column had to be fabricated to fit the existing elevations. At first the engineer insisted that we use full penetration weld connections to attach the existing columns to the new. But the columns were galvanized. And we know better than to field weld on galvanized steel. Even the cleanest welds touched up with rust proofing will never be as good as the original galvanizing. Inevitably, the welded steel will rust.

So, we suggested an alternative: use bolted moment connections instead. Our idea solved the rust problem while still allowing for the lateral stability from welded connections. After much debate, the engineer relented. And we went to work devising a smart bolt system. “We made provisions for the erector, L.R. Willson, to pre-bolt using temporary erection clips to safely erect/align the column additions for those needing spliced addtions,” says Dennis. “This helped L.R. Willson erect and plumb the steel much faster.”

Our work focused mostly on the support and miscellaneous steel for the elevator shaft, the emergency stairs and the retrofitted columns for the helipad (whose steel was provided by the helipad maker). In brief, we retrofitted new columns for the elevator shaft, extended the elevator guardrails, did rehab work to attach new emergency stairs, and fabricated new columns to handle the superimposed loads for the helipad.

So, how did our work turn out? According to Steve Filapakas at L.R. Willson & Sons, “It all fit together real good.” And to us, there’s no greater compliment.