The George Bush Intercontinental Airport Central Plant Upgrade was a multi-phase renovation/addition to the existing central plant. The project was a scheduling and coordination challenge as the one project was divided up amongst 4 general contractors with an independent Construction Manager. The new construction plus the existing facility was 25,000 square feet of equipment and piping.

PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

The first portion of the project involved the installation of 4-36” welded cement-lined underground condenser water lines serving the existing 4 cell cooling tower and the new 8 cell cooling tower. The above grade plant work involved adding a west end addition of four new chillers totaling 14,000 tons of cooling, of which two were steam turbines, with a spaghetti maze of large bore extra heavy piping up to 36” in diameter. In the existing central plant Cobb Mechanical Contractors retrofitted 5 existing chillers capable of 10,500 tons of cooling. Eleven new air handlers of 86,220 CFM and one spot cooler were installed to cool the plant. Another addition was the east end boiler room where two new boilers, two deaerators, seven pumps, and six heat exchangers were added to produce the high temperature hot water for the plant and steam for the new steam turbine chillers. Within the existing central plant, Cobb Mechanical Contractors retrofitted the existing 9 chilled water pumps and replaced just under 100 heavy-duty valves. Down in the basement Cobb Mechanical Contractors retrofitted the existing High Temp Hot Water Piping that fed the entire airport via the ITT tunnel. Cobb Mechanical Contractors also provided a Boiler and Condenser Water Treatment Facility for all the new equipment.