New facilities, especially sophisticated structures dedicated to research, must undergo commissioning to verify that all systems and equipment supporting their operation work properly—and in concert—prior to occupancy. Typically a custom-tailored process, commissioning can start as early as device selection and is ongoing during construction and equipment installation.

"Normally, you don't just install a unit, turn it on, and assume it will work right," says Robert Payne, Ph.D., who served as the construction quality manager with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before recently retiring. "You need the certainty that all systems and pieces of machinery, from plumbing to air handlers, are not only inspected but will function as designed."

Payne recently spent eight months overseeing the commissioning of the animal research facility at the EPA Research Triangle Park Campus in North Carolina. Known simply as Area A, the vivarium and co-located research labs are part of a larger 1.2 million-sf construction project (the largest ever for the agency) that saw completion in August 2002.

The full-time commissioning effort overlapped the construction schedule by almost one-third and was instrumental in ferreting out several potential trouble spots that could have adversely affected building operation.

"It's important to be proactive and identify issues before they become major problems," says Payne. "By the time you accept a facility, most of the contractors are gone, and you need to be certain you have caught all the warts early. Only time will tell if we've found them all."

Complex Facility Demands

Area A serves EPA research investigating the impacts of various environmental pollutants on human health, particularly the central nervous, cardiovascular, and reproductive systems. A six-story building, it breaks down into 55,000 gsf of animal care space, 45,000 gsf of research labs inside barrier, and 20,000 gsf of research support space.

The first floor includes the core animal support components (quarantine area, bedding and supplies storage, cage and rack washers, and large steam sterilizer) and areas for program shops, radio isotope handling, chemical issuance and disposal, and clean and soiled loading docks. The upper floors feature a three-corridor scheme, one along each perimeter with a parallel central corridor segregating program laboratories and offices on one side and animal holding suites on the other. The second story, the primary staff entrance level, houses animal care offices, locker rooms, break/conference room, program labs and animal holding suites. The fifth floor contains biohazard holding suites and a decontamination room, with control and exposure rooms on the other side of the central corridor.

The commissioning steps—normally customized to take into account a building's individual design and engineering features, from size to layout to local weather conditions—were even more comprehensive than usual given the need to comply with animal environment regulations.

"There are a series of animal care standards that don't really fall into the building envelope but rather concern how we use animals," says Payne. "Because each space needs the correct air flow, temperature, pressurization, etc., the level of precision and attention to detail are probably more stringent than for the normal lab. The fact that the building contains multiple smaller spaces adds a degree of complexity."

An In-House Team

While many new building owners hire an outside commissioning agent, EPA decided to take a different tack, instead assembling a commissioning team that included the ultimate client and in-house personnel. Payne served as overall QA manager, assisted by two full-time staff engineers: one mechanical, the other electrical.

"We felt it was important that we focus on commissioning over a longer time period, which is why we used our own staff to carry it out," he says, adding, "The design principals should be reviewing what's going on during construction to be certain that the characteristics they've specified are incorporated."

Payne and the engineers did the primary commissioning, interacting with the contractor and subcontractors to correct problems as they were found. Three teams of outside consultants were hired for their special expertise in testing and balancing air systems, biosafety cabinet validation and certification, and fume hood certification. In addition, representatives of the manufacturers of specialized systems—TAC America building controls, Steris cage and rack washers and sterilizers, and Edstrom animal watering systems—also participated in starting up their equipment.

Fine-Grained Inspection

Inspection is a very important phase of the commissioning process, according to Payne.

"We have a full commissioning section in our specifications that covers all the mechanical and electrical systems," he says. "You check the components first#151;for instance, to make sure the fans have not been accidentally wired backward and turn in the wrong direction, which does happen. Next you test the individual system, and then everything it's connected to. Close inspection uncovers these flaws."

In several cases the process begins even before systems are installed, as with the team's inspection of underground drainage piping for proper slope and location before the slab could be poured.

The sterility requirements inherent in an animal facility& #151;seamless floors, wash-down walls, waterproof electrical systems, hard ceilings, protected doors—also demanded significant oversight. EPA personnel monitored the installation of the MMA (methyl methacrylate) floor covering. MMA, a very durable coating of epoxy resin materials applied to concrete in multiple layers in liquid form, requires advanced handling skills, and the porous concrete surface must be prepared properly before application.

"MMA is a four-part system consisting of sealer coat, base coat, top coat, and finish coat applied to cast-in-place concrete flooring after it has been cleaned, smoothed, and patched," explains Payne. "If the finish is put on an unclean surface, the dirt will express right through. High spots will wear and incur water penetration. Air bubbles must be avoided during application for proper sealing."

While the responsibility for application resided largely with the contractor, Payne invited animal facility managers to be on hand to provide closer owner scrutiny. They also inspected for gaps at the base of all walls and had them sealed where necessary so vermin would have no place to hide.

"Inspecting for gaps takes a knowledgeable person who knows what to look for," he says.

Watch Your Wording

The commissioning process did uncover some glitches, one resulting from using inappropriate terminology in the original building specifications. A contract provision calling for the installation of ceiling access doors with "vermin-proof gaskets" had unfortunate consequences. EPA's intent was to ensure tight closure to keep creatures from penetrating overhead areas. However, the contractor did not recognize this user-oriented language—as opposed to industry-standard nomenclature—and wound up having to retrofit about 500 access doors with gaskets made of the proper material.

"'Vermin-proof gaskets' is not a term the construction industry is familiar with," says Payne. "One needs to be very careful to specify exactly what is needed. The wording should have been 'closed-cell neoprene,' or 'waterproof,' as in a hospital or similar environment."

Another problem, the finishing on the naturally porous concrete masonry unit (CMU) interior walls, showed up later in the construction process. Specifications mandated block fillers and two complete coats of latex epoxy paint to thoroughly seal the surface. Despite inspection during construction, workers missed some areas, and in the final stages the contractor had to go back and do some filling and re-painting.

Convoluted Risers

Perhaps the most serious misunderstanding related to the initial installation of Area A's exhaust ductwork. Insufficient attention to a contract diagram detailing exactly where to install control dampers led to the need for major rework.

"The animal facility is just dissimilar enough from the other campus labs that its exhaust ductwork runs differently," observes Payne. "In the first buildings, it was easy to do straight runs, but this building required some angles in the ductwork."

The problem was that controls were installed too close to hard duct transitions or elbows and thus were affected by turbulence caused by the shifting air path. In the course of commissioning, data gathered at selected fume hoods showed that airflows could not be adequately controlled with the improperly installed ductwork.

"It's critically important to get stable airflows in laboratory and animal areas, one of the things that we needed to keep a close eye on," says Payne.

The fix involved five different contractors and entailed moving 115 of the building's 200 total exhaust risers.

"The controls contractor first removed all the control wiring. An electrical contractor then removed the power connections and the sheet metal contractor relocated the duct risers and control dampers. The electrical and controls contractors reconfigured their connections to the controls, and then the test-and-balance people had to come back and recalibrate each unit. Finally, our consultant verified that the air flows in each fume hood and biosafety cabinet functioned correctly," says Payne. "It took nearly five months of work."

Other Systems

Traditional system-level checkouts included Area A's seven air handlers, all on variable frequency drives with full humidification control and filter load monitoring; the main plant steam supply as well as a 24/7 onsite boiler to provide standby steam requirements; and the stand-by chillers on emergency power to back up chilled water from the central plant.

The procedures to establish the specified pressure relationships among various spaces were also critical.

"In setting up an animal facility, test-and-balance has to be one of the most important activities to ensure that the pressure cascade is correct as you go from room to room," says Payne. "This is what creates the barrier facility. If you don't pay enough attention to this step, you will not have the outcome you need."

He also advises verifying that all filters—present in abundant quantities, from pre-filters in the air handling units to HEPA filters conditioning the air into each animal holding area—are clean on building start-up. Even though fresh on installation, filters run for months during construction ventilation and should all be replaced before occupancy.

Training was one of the last commissioning steps, occurring at two levels. Operations and maintenance personnel learned how all the building systems and equipment worked, individually and together, while users received training on the machines they would be running and the procedures they would perform.

After commissioning, the team moved on to validation—making sure that functional elements of specialized equipment (sterilizers and cage washers, for example) worked properly, and that conditions were set correctly for all program areas (temperature, humidity, air changes, no vermin, and so on).

The final phases of validation occurred in December 2002, at which point move-in started and the first sentinel animals were brought in. Occupancy was completed in January 2003.

By Nicole Zaro Stahl

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