As we announced earlier, our new steel frames, and two HVAC units arrived today. It was a big event. I know our loyal clients expect me to provide them with timely and complete updates of our construction progress, but today I was late, sorry! The Puget Sound area was covered in thick fog, and despite a pre-dawn start to get here traffic delayed me and I arrived as the second steel frame was being craned up over the edge of the roof. I snapped this shot literally as I parked my car:
Running up to the roof with my MacDonald-Miller supplied hard hat on this is the scene I found:
Both steel frames already in place and workers from MacDonald-Miller installing the duct work between the openings created last week and the frames.
Top image above: A view down into the datacenter (sealed with plastic during the install!) via the hot air return duct.
Bottom image above: Kevin Teker inspects the steel frame before the HVAC units arrive.
Within an hour the HVAC units arrived on a flatbed truck. The rest you see captured on the video above. Craning the units up onto the roof and placing them on the steel frames. The crane itself was a very impressive unit, and the crew from Ness Crane were very professional and did an outstanding job swiftly, and accurately.
The steel frames fit perfectly onto the supports installed last week, and the HVAC units fit perfectly on the steel frames. Today was the first time these two components met, but since they were designed to go together, everything fit perfectly. The tolerances achieved were amazing, everything fit to within 1/64th of an inch. (That's 0.396875 millimeters... which accordion to my calculations is.... amazingly small!) We have to hand it to the guys at MacDonald-Miller, they did an fantastic job of design and fabrication. Today it all came together after months of planning and work. Good job guys!
Above: A nice view at the business end of the HVAC unit. On the left side is the cold air supply outlet, and on the right is the hot air return intake. These mated up to the ducts placed in the roof last week, after the unit was spun around in mid-air of course.
Above: Checking the fit and placement of the unit before it is lowered the final amount. Watching this huge unit being gingerly placed by a gigantic crane was very interesting to watch.
Afterwards the units were welded into place. Welding will continue tomorrow. The electricians will be here later in the week to run power to the units. Turn-up is scheduled for Tuesday, November 13th. Ironically snow is forecast for Wednesday, November 14th. This project began in the planning stages last Spring, and I always joked that we'd have our new air-conditioning units installed "just in time for Winter." Funny how it all works out.
Stay tuned for updates as work progresses.
(and YES, constructioncam will be updated tonight!)
