OSU Medical Center

In February of 2010, utility inspectors at the main OSU Medical Center discovered that electrical duct banks carrying main circuits to the hospital had become exposed after a steam line manhole repair project. The steam vault collapsed, and threatened a shutdown of electrical services to all OSU hospitals. After inspecting the duct banks, it was determined that they were severely damaged and in jeopardy of becoming more damaged. In March of 2010, SME was chosen to reroute the circuits through existing and new duct banks.

The SME crew worked diligently to install 600 feet of new primary duct bank between existing manholes, as well as 36,000 feet of high voltage cable. They connected new high voltage feeds to the existing utility building, and installed one hundred high voltage terminations and splices.

The emergency replacement of four hospital high voltage circuits without disrupting the building’s power supply was completed in sixteen days with 2,400 man hours involved.