2024 Award Winners and Nominees
Project Name
OSU Wexner Medical Center
Description
The Ohio State University contracted the Walsh Group to take on one of their biggest projects to date, the expansion of the Wexner Medical Center. This new project involved the construction of a 1.9 million-square-foot inpatient hospital tower, the largest facility in the complex to elevate services, training for future physicians, and create a stronger connection to the OSU’s Cancer Center. Given the magnitude and significance of a brand-new hospital project, the Walsh Group had the big challenge of adhering to the requirements for concrete temperature control and the internal reviews of strength.
Unfortunately, the monitoring system they were going to use provided data in an outdated fashion, with no options for anything else other than limited temperature measurements. This was a major issue given that during the winter, it was necessary to properly register and track the conditions to ensure the slab’s quality on metal deck pours (SOMD) and column grouting.
With the help of a quick email, they contacted the Giatec team who were able to provide the perfect and most complete solution, the wireless concrete sensor SmartRock®. The sensors offered a whole-package solution to their needs for temperature and strength monitoring with real-time data. The sensor’s wireless capabilities were the necessary equipment to eliminate expensive cable systems. Additionally, the Walsh Group benefited from the services of Giatec’s Engineering Solutions team, which provided a game-changing service that included onboarding, preliminary technical assistance, historical concrete performance data analysis for maturity schedule proposals, development of maturity curves and submittals, and on-the-job concrete temperature monitoring for high-profile projects with stringent concrete specifications. The construction of the Wexner Medical Center complex has been able to run smoothly and is scheduled to open in 2026.
Evidence
The Ohio State University is one of the most comprehensive universities in the U.S. Being in the top 16 public schools in the 2022-2023 ranking, research is a significant focus at OSU and one of its notable examples is the Wexner Medical Center. This leading institution serves as a complete healthcare system with multiple hospitals, clinics, academic research centers, and educational facilities that provide leading-edge research and world-class patient care. The Walsh Group deserves recognition for being capable of tackling this enormous task that ultimately serves the public with a quality healthcare facility.
Bringing the services of Giatec was a necessary step for the Walsh Group to solve the dilemma of finding an efficient and cost-effective solution for concrete monitoring. The old system required maintenance fees and its batteries did not last long enough to provide data continuously. Overall, keeping this system functional resulted in higher costs that were ultimately unreasonable given that the measurements were limited to temperature. Going the extra mile in the budget to pay for extra cables and replacements was not the ideal investment to ensure the quality of the concrete. The transition to the use of the SmartRock wireless concrete sensors allowed them to save over $5,000 on quality monitoring solutions.
Another significant benefit of incorporating SmartRock sensors into the project was the improvement in the quality of day-to-day operations. The efficient rollout of the 100 sensors used eliminated the need for replacements and minimized the patching work, saving management about 5 hours every week. Additionally, management was able to easily review the reports created on the app during their site walks.
While it is true that the initial investment in this state-of-the-art technology was higher than other traditional monitoring systems, SmartRock represents a higher return on investment in the long run. As a comprehensive solution, the sensors worked directly with the SmartRock mobile app and the cloud-based dashboard Giatec 360™ for accessing data 24/7, sharing reports, and managing your pours. The integration of these services proved to be of immense value for the Walsh Group, helping them to reduce labor costs while keeping the project to the highest standards.
Images
