As you walk through a building, have you ever thought of exactly what you’re walking on? Have you ever given a thought to what’s beneath the carpet and concrete?

In the dirt lies plumbing and electrical work that is coordinated months in advance of digging trenches. BIM (Building Information Modeling) is the latest technology utilized to accomplish coordination among subcontractors. After all, there is only so much space for the plumber and electrician to lay their pipes or conduits. It takes time and careful planning to ensure all parties can put their materials in while meeting the quality specifications of the building.

This image, above, is a snapshot of the underground work, generated by NavisWorks (BIM software). We’re looking at it from below ground, up toward the dirt that covers it. The yellow indicates electrical conduit running into the main electrical room. The green and pink are plumbing pipes running underground.

The photo below shows 7 electrical conduits placed in a trench, running away from the main electrical room. This number of conduits in one trench is slightly higher at than average, due to the size of the project. It will take the electrician 20 days to complete all underground work. It’s surprising to see progress made so quickly every day. Trenches are dug, conduit placed and then trenches need to be back filled (put dirt or another mixture over them).

At this project, the rocky nature of the soil requires the use of a concrete-like mixture to take the place of dirt, as you can see in the photo below. A red caution tape is also placed on top to tell someone in the future to be cautious, since there are critical lines running beneath the mixture.

The Main Electrical Room houses switch gear, main panel boards, lighting control panels and transformers. As you can assume, these control and monitor the electrical elements of the building. Here is another image from NavisWorks, showing the various items (the yellow boxes) inside the electrical room. As you can see, there is a lot of equipment to fit into one room.

The Electrical Room also requires special conditions. For example, during operation, the room must be consistently kept at a moderate temperature level. The walls of the room must also be fire rated for one hour, per code. However, as mentioned in our previous blog, an advantage of using concrete is the slow spread of fire, so the walls around the Kravis Center’s Electrical Room are rated above an hour.