Central Plant at New Fort Belvoir Community Hospital Minimizes Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The new Central Utility Plant (CUP) at the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, which opened in 2011 in Northern Virginia, is now fully operational and serving the entire 1.27-million-square-foot healthcare complex. Designed by Dewberry as part of the HDR/Dewberry joint venture, the plant helps avoid the emission of more than 4,000 tons of greenhouse gases and air pollutants per year. The complex is also estimated to consume 27.6% less energy per year than a typical hospital, representing a savings of nearly $450,000 annually.

Dewberry planned and designed the CUP and all site/civil and utility infrastructure components of the complex, which includes a 120-bed inpatient facility, four attached clinical buildings, and two parking structures on a 75-acre site. Highlights of the 28,250-square-foot CUP include:

• 6,750 tons of installed chilled water capacity, expandable to 8,100 tons
• 2000 BoHP of installed steam capacity, expandable to 2500 BoHP
• Eight MW of installed emergency generating capacity, expandable to 10 MW
• High-efficiency electric-driven centrifugal water chilling units (one operates as standby)
• Natural gas-fired, high-pressure, low-emission steam boilers (one operates as standby)
• Boilers specified for dual fuel operation; system designed to provide critical heating and cooling in the event of an electrical utility or natural gas utility outage
• Electrical system consisting of an emergency system and an equipment system
• Four 2000 KW/2500 KVA indoor generators (one operates as standby)
• Approximately 8.6 MVA normal connected electrical power service served by two utility electrical feeds for redundant operation

The Fort Belvoir Community Hospital was designed under a challenging Integrated-Design-Bid-Build schedule. The HDR/Dewberry team collaborated closely with the client and the joint venture of Turner Construction and Gilbane Building Company to complete the project in an expedited five years and three months—approximately half the time normally allotted to a healthcare facility of this size and complexity.

design-bid-build • utility • healthcare • engineering • site civil • MEP