This was a first, one-of-a-kind project for Murphy. The assignment was to design, build, and ship a prefabricated, self-contained Central Utility Plant (CUP) to provide heating, cooling, and domestic water for a new casino addition at River Downs Racetrack in Cincinnati. The 84’ x 30’ CUP was constructed in St. Louis due to the limited construction time on site in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The assembly was disassembled into seven sections and shipped to the site on oversized load trucks. The CUP was loaded with equipment in its final resting place, including two boilers, five primary heating hot water pumps, three chilled water pumps, a cooling tower water filter skid, three condenser water pumps, two cooling towers, two 500-ton water chillers, a chilled water expansion tank, a chilled water Spirotherm Air Separator, a free cooling heat exchanger, two fan coil units, a ventilation fan, and exterior louver. In addition to all of the Mechanical and Plumbing equipment and piping, all the Temperature Controls, Electrical panels, and some distribution wiring were set in place in the St. Louis fabrication shop. The total weight was 230,000 lbs, with the largest section weighing 40,000 lbs.
All the equipment, pipe, pumps, and boilers were installed in Murphy’s St. Louis shop in sections. The chillers were installed on sections in the yard. All sections were set on a level platform in the yard to ensure fit. The sections were then disassembled and shipped to the site for reassembly and tie-in. The prefabricated cooling tower steel was sent to the site along with the cooling towers and assembled over mechanical room sections. This project required extensive team collaboration between our BIM, design-build, fabrication, and construction management staff. Because of its uniqueness and success, this project was awarded the 2014 Design-Build Award by Contracting Business Magazine.
