Enhancing Efficiency and Resilience in Support of Veterans Care

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By Stephen Kazim, P.E., PMP, M.SAME, and Dana McDonough, M.SAME

A redesigned boiler plant for the Loch Raven VA Medical Center will result in a centralized system that enhances operational efficiency, reduces long-term costs, and ensures the facility can provide support to those who served. 

The Loch Raven VA Medical Center, part of the VA Maryland Health Care System, provides care to veterans in the Mid-Atlantic. The facility recently conducted a survey as part of preparing its operations for the future, that identified deficiencies in its usage of scattered boilers and prioritized the need for a resolution.

A new, consolidated boiler plant was contracted for, with the design to be resilient, technologically advanced, and sustainable. The project would serve to not only enhance readiness across the campus but optimize the workflow for staff at the same time.

Determining The Design

While the scope of work at Loch Raven required evaluating multiple options to determine the most cost-effective solution to replace the existing boiler system, the exact requirements were generalized with limited input on the programming or sizing. The project team, led by Above Group Inc., assessed many scenarios at a high level while still gathering sufficient data to make accurate evaluations.

Estimators were brought in to analyze not only construction costs but the operational expenses and facility impacts as well. These included factors such as maintenance material costs, required staff hours, and equivalent full-time staff necessary for each proposed solution. This comprehensive approach allowed engineers to holistically evaluate the available options from the outset, enabling them to determine the best course of action.

The analysis concluded that consolidating the smaller satellite boilers into a single-story, centralized boiler plant was most effective. This would enhance campus infrastructure and operational efficiency while balancing short-term costs, such as installing new distribution piping, with long-term savings in energy and staffing.

Once a single, consolidated boiler plant was established as the best option, the team moved forward with developing concept plans for the new facility. Unlike healthcare or administrative spaces that are common in hospital projects, central utility buildings such as boiler plants require a different design approach. Leveraging expertise in designing, retrofitting, and improving central utility plants, the project team applied best practices in system requirements, spatial planning, safety regulations, and industry standards to develop a well-rounded initial design that met both operational and performance needs.

This proactive approach allowed the hospital to review and refine a professionally developed concept from the outset rather than create a program or scope that might not fully address day-to-day needs. The design and concept development workflow optimized time efficiency and reduced the risk of costly redesigns. Additionally, it helped facility operators visualize potential solutions they may not have previously considered. This ensured that critical aspects were properly addressed, including equipment layout, maintenance access, ventilation, and regulatory compliance.

In early design iterations, multiple boiler plant configurations were developed and refined based on user feedback and facility needs as well as agency standards and regulatory requirements. The final design consists of a 4,700-ft², single-story building that houses a trio of 6,695-MBH, dual-fuel, heating hot water boilers. The setup includes redundancy, integrated controls, and safety features to ensure continuous and reliable operation, along with additional resilience-focused features.

• 15,000-gal, above-ground, double-wall, fuel oil tanks with spill prevention measures for groundwater protection.
• Hookups for temporary rental equipment alongside built-in redundancies.
• Full-sized looped distribution system for heating hot water to prevent service interruptions.
• Natural gas distribution upgrades to meet pressure requirements for the full range of boiler operations.
• Relocation and security enhancements for utility transformers to meet physical security standards.
• A 500-kVA emergency generator with automatic power controls to sustain operations in emergencies.

Additional design elements, such as a mezzanine above the control room for extra storage and oversized maintenance paths for boiler service, were incorporated to enhance functionality without significantly increasing building size or construction costs.

Optimizing Workflow

As the boiler plant design progressed, project management closely monitored estimated construction costs while incorporating ongoing feedback from facility engineers. This approach facilitated an iterative design process that strove to optimize staff workflow. Key considerations for improvements included minimizing travel distance and maximizing accessibility for boiler plant operators, ensuring a clear line of sight from control and break rooms into the boiler plant, and installing large control monitors visible from the operator’s desk to the boilers.

Additionally, the project team worked with facility operators to understand existing systems that required monitoring and response across the site. While not explicitly part of the scope, the team recognized that configuring the control room to oversee all critical utility systems in a single user-friendly environment would significantly benefit campus operations at minimal additional cost.

Consistent Coordination

Given the involvement of multiple regulatory agencies and stakeholder groups within the Department of Veterans Affairs, a project management strategy was established that centered on consistent communication, clear expectations, and goal-oriented design.

Early coordination with key stakeholders helped identify critical project submission milestones. This process provided guidance and expertise while also offered additional value by helping the team understand not just the boiler plant technical design needs, but the unique regulatory and logistical timelines that affect boiler plant operation.

The project team implemented a pull-planning schedule to enhance interdisciplinary coordination. This empowered design teams to focus on project needs and interdependencies while promoting collaboration and workflow efficiency. Aligning schedules based on real-time constraints and dependencies helped identify bottlenecks, optimize sequencing, and mitigate rework caused by misalignment between disciplines.

The project’s engineers also factored in the required coordination timelines to allow for each discipline to properly create the construction documents. They integrated these external factors and key deliverables that would need to be coordinated with other agencies prior to the start of construction.

• Working with local utility providers to address increased gas pressure and demand required for the new building early in the design phase.
• Coordinating with the Maryland Department of Environment to meet stormwater management, air permitting, and landscaping requirements.
• Coordinating with representatives of other ongoing projects on the medical campus whose scope of work would overlap or affect the new boiler plant and piping distribution.

Consolidated And Efficient

The design for the Loch Raven VA Medical Center’s new boiler plant culminates in a system engineered to deliver a resilient, energy-efficient, and cost-effective heating solution that will allow for clinicians to provide continuous care for veterans.

Developed through a collaborative and informed process, the final design will ensure reliable operation with its centralized solution, with critical aspects like equipment layout, maintenance access, and centralized monitoring properly addressed.

Stephen Kazim, P.E., PMP, M.SAME, is Mechanical Engineering Manager, Above Group Inc.; kazim@abovegroupinc.com.

Dana McDonough, M.SAME, is Partner, The McDonough Consulting Group. 

Published in the September-October 2025 issue of The Military Engineer