GRAEF-USA Inc.

University of Wisconsin Children's Hospital PICU Expansion

GRAEF was retained to provide both structural and site/civil engineering services for a new $17 million University of Wisconsin Operating Room and Children’s Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) expansion. The new building addition is a four story steel frame building, with a penthouse and basement, totaling 72,000 square feet. Mechanical interstitial levels totaling another 41,340 square feet were located below levels 3 and 4.

Unique engineering and construction challenges included:

1. Access to hospital entrance and parking garage had to be maintained through construction. This required an extensive parking study and evaluation of options completed by GRAEF to keep the entrance open.

2. Existing utilities, i.e. main electrical duct bank, powering 80% of the remaining hospital could not be moved for new building foundations. GRAEF had to engineer deep foundation systems and transfer beams to span over the existing utilities and keep them in service.

3. The existing hospital had not been designed for a horizontal expansion for the new addition. GRAEF had to evaluate reusing the existing foundations for new loads and use deep foundations where existing foundations could not support the additional load.

4. Operating rooms had very stringent design requirements to minimize vibration. GRAEF reviewed several structural systems and floor thickness to minimize and keep vibration below allowable levels.

The University of Wisconsin – University Hospital operating room addition provides new state-of-the-art operating rooms, lab rooms, X-ray rooms, operating room prep, patient exam rooms and new office space.

The new PICU is more than four times larger in square footage than the existing PICU. The new unit is a remarkable medical, architectural and engineering achievement. Constructed over 28 months, the new PICU provides a setting for state-of-the-art care that puts families first and provides a far more aesthetically pleasing environment for families dealing with the stress of an acutely ill child.
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LOCATION Madison, WI