B u i l d i n g I nn o v ati v e S o l u t i o n s
PROTON POWER by Teresa Miller, AIA, LEED AP
The McLaren Proton Treatment Center addition to the Great Lakes Cancer Institute in Flint will provide the first proton therapy services in the state of Michigan. Proton therapy is a non-invasive, pain free way to treat cancer tumors without damaging surrounding tissues. The center provides treatment for previously untreatable cancer conditions including pediatrics, brain tumors and others. There are only a dozen operational proton treatment centers in the United States. A Hyper-Collaborative Team The design-build joint venture of Barton Malow (Southfield) and The Christman Company (Lansing) was hand-picked by McLaren to perform this project. The design team is SmithGroup (Detroit) and RTKL (Chicago). The prototype nature of the project resulted in intensive design coordination with the equipment vendor, ProTom International and the owner. One of McLaren’s primary goals was to deliver this project as quickly as possible, therefore the project team developed a hyper-collaborative environment to make decisions quickly. From A/E selection, McLaren approved the conceptual design within one month and the project broke ground just four months later. The overall time frame for design and construction is only 18 months. Equipment installation will take another year with the first patient treatment anticipated in December 2012. Fast but Safe In order to meet the schedule several risk-reducing measures were implemented. Design Assist Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing partners (Limbach, Shaw & Shambaugh) were selected to mitigate schedule concerns and leverage value engineering ideas for cost control, plus 3D BIM coordination has been used for general coordination and phasing. The project team also self-performed earthwork, exterior carpentry and interior work, and equipment installation. Utilizing self-perform labor has played a major role in reducing risk, avoiding cost increases and providing the highest quality installations possible. Beaming The project is nearing completion with the installation of finishes. The accelerator was installed in September and is producing beam as part of the final trials required for FDA approval of the equipment. Temporary radiation shielding is in place to protect on-going work including installing equipment in each of the treatment rooms.
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