Buffalo Psychiatric Center
The Buffalo Psychiatric Electrical Upgrades project was an underground duct bank project for DASNY. The psychiatric center ended up selling a portion of their property to the Richardson Hotel. This project was the retiring and reinstallation of infrastructure from the sold property back onto the Psychiatric Center’s property.
Challenges:
Existing Utilities
The route where the new electrical duct bank had to be installed ran through a corridor that had many existing utilities. Most notably was a steam tunnel that was still operable and required rerouting our initial installation path. In rerouting the new duct bank crews had no choice but to run parallel with the existing tunnel. Due to the close proximity of the tunnel and the existing ground composition, a larger area had to be excavated to safely allow worker entry. Crews worked diligently to ensure that no underground obstacles were damaged during installation resulting in zero incidents during construction.
Depth of Excavation
Due to the numerous utilities it was determined that the best path for installation of the new duct bank was to install it at depths ranging from ten to twelve feet deep. Additionally, the location in which we had to excavate prevented utilization of large steel track machines without damaging the existing roadways, sidewalks, and landscaping features. Therefore, Sam and Son procured lightweight stackable aluminum trench boxes and were able to safely set and remove them with a rubber tracked mid size excavator.
Traffic Control
The majority of the project was routed through existing roadways and parking lots. Sam and Son worked hand in hand with Northline Utilities to ensure that traffic was controlled in a manner that ensured public safety as well as worker safety.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Sam and Son was able to maintain traffic and ensure that all areas of the campus were still accessible due to the way we constructed the project through phases.
- Restoration of campus features to meet current code compliances that were previously installed and not NYS code compliant.