Just stay off the Linear Accelerator

#1 · July 13, 2010, 11:03 pm

Quote from Andy Nold on July 13, 2010, 11:03 pm
So, I ended up having to do the field work on the hospital vertical expansion myself. We've got a pretty good routine going with frequent checks. I do have a little sponginess with my roof top setup, but if I keep my gut off the tripod, it doesn't seem to be a problem. Again, frequent checks seem to be doing the trick.

The first thing I was looking for was some distant points that could make a good backsite.

This cross on top of the church to the northeast would have been ok, but I would have had to make a beerleg to use it, so I ended up using an antenna tower on the Ector Junior High School campus to the south.

The first setup lined up with West 4th Street.

Yours truly with improvised no-penetration roof setup.

The roof access for this portion of the project is through a narrow set of stairs. The lower portion is via ladder. Not looking forward to getting the equipment up onto the Oncology building. The only bright spot is that I don't think we're more than 40 feet from the ER. Unfortunately, that would be 40 feet vertically. The stair gas has a label at the top that warns you of venting radioactive gases. Saw a similar sticker on a vent stack on our project.

My CAD tech and field crew for the day, Kevin Starnes, levels up the mini-pole on a steel column whose temporary roof cover has been removed.

We took water in styrofoam cooler today. I couldn't resist the urge to run up to the information desk holding the cooler and excitedly ask where the transplant department was. I got some laughs out of the attendants.

We went over to the Oncology building to scope tomorrow's work, and after looking at the roof and climbing back down the access ladder, I noticed a sign that warned to contact the linear operator before accessing the roof. Whoops. I made contact with the staff and they referred me to building maintenance. We told them we needed to access the roof tomorrow. They said no problem, just stay off the linear accelerator. I suppose that explains some of the radioactive gas warnings. Interesting project.

So, I ended up having to do the field work on the hospital vertical expansion myself. We've got a pretty good routine going with frequent checks. I do have a little sponginess with my roof top setup, but if I keep my gut off the tripod, it doesn't seem to be a problem. Again, frequent checks seem to be doing the trick.

The first thing I was looking for was some distant points that could make a good backsite.

This cross on top of the church to the northeast would have been ok, but I would have had to make a beerleg to use it, so I ended up using an antenna tower on the Ector Junior High School campus to the south.

The first setup lined up with West 4th Street.

Yours truly with improvised no-penetration roof setup.

The roof access for this portion of the project is through a narrow set of stairs. The lower portion is via ladder. Not looking forward to getting the equipment up onto the Oncology building. The only bright spot is that I don't think we're more than 40 feet from the ER. Unfortunately, that would be 40 feet vertically. The stair gas has a label at the top that warns you of venting radioactive gases. Saw a similar sticker on a vent stack on our project.

My CAD tech and field crew for the day, Kevin Starnes, levels up the mini-pole on a steel column whose temporary roof cover has been removed.

We took water in styrofoam cooler today. I couldn't resist the urge to run up to the information desk holding the cooler and excitedly ask where the transplant department was. I got some laughs out of the attendants.

We went over to the Oncology building to scope tomorrow's work, and after looking at the roof and climbing back down the access ladder, I noticed a sign that warned to contact the linear operator before accessing the roof. Whoops. I made contact with the staff and they referred me to building maintenance. We told them we needed to access the roof tomorrow. They said no problem, just stay off the linear accelerator. I suppose that explains some of the radioactive gas warnings. Interesting project.

#2 · July 13, 2010, 11:12 pm

Nice Pics !

Tell us more please.

BTW- From experience (and mistakes of others for big $s) if you are joining floors to a new addition run, re-run and re-run the existing floor elevations many ways with redundancies.

It's tuff running a gurney uphill !

Cheers

Derek

#3 · July 13, 2010, 11:18 pm

Derek, this is a vertical only expansion - no access from adjoining buildings on this level. We have shot the existing deck surface several times over the existing floor plate. It is currently the roof, but they will scrape off the asphalt and roofing materials and it will become the new 3rd floor. We are verifying horizontal location of the existing vertical steel girders but are taking care to include elevation verification in several places.