Baker Group was selected to provide Mercy Medical Center – North Iowa with needed capacity to their existing chiller plant. The most critical aspect of this project was the need for the Hospital to keep an active chilled water loop throughout the project. Baker Group also replaced the aging cooling towers utilizing our piping, plumbing, sheet metal and service teams.

During this project Baker Group re-routed condenser water piping from an existing chiller to a remotely located cooling tower. Following this, Baker Group disconnected three (3) cooling towers and turned over to a cooling tower rep for rebuilding. The next step was to remove the existing 500 ton chiller and turn over the owner, in-tact for resale. Baker Group then installed a 900 ton chiller, upsized the associated water piping, pumps, replaced condenser water and chilled water heaters. New cooling towers were set, assembled and connected to all new condenser water piping. An external tower filtration skid was set and plumbed into three (3) cooling towers. The temporary tower piping was removed, final existing remote tower removed and salvaged for reuse. Balancing was completed, the plant was turned over to the owner.

Several obstacles that Baker Group effectively worked through, included:

• Active chilled water loop for the Hospital throughout the project
• Working in an environment below grade vault
• Delivering all tools, equipment and materials lowered into vault by a crane
• Assembling cooling towers during harsh January temperatures