Contractors have finished construction on a new MRI suite at the Stony Brook University Hospital in Stony Brook, NY, the largest academic medical center on Long Island. General contractor Stalco Construction, construction manager The LiRo Group, and architect/engineer AECOM completed the project on the fourth floor while the hospital remained in full operation, requiring coordination with staff on elevator use and partial utility shutdowns.

“Delivering the massive MRI scanners into the building was a logistical and technical challenge,” said Stalco assistant project manager Amber Gillen.  “The crews opened up a 10-foot-high by 10-foot-wide section of the outside curtain wall in the vicinity of the new MRI suite.  A crane lifted the scanners up to the opening, allowing the team to place the machines directly on the fourth floor.”

The project also required reinforcing the building’s structural frame with steel beams on the floor below the MRI scanners. “This necessitated relocating utilities suspended underneath ceilings in the laboratory spaces on the third floor, where the new beams were installed,” said Stalco senior project manager George Protheroe.

According to Stalco president Alan Nahmias, “The $6.3 million project included installing a Siemens Magnetom Skyra 3T MRI scanner and a Siemens Magnetom Aera Dot 1.5T MRI scanner and construction of two 400 square-feet MRI rooms; a centrally-located, 200 square-feet control room; a 360 square-feet contrast/prep waiting area with three bed bays; and a 150 square-feet UPS room.”

The MRI rooms include complete magnetic shielding in the walls, doors, floor, and ceilings; plumbing, mechanical, electrical and lighting systems; and medical gas lines. All lighting and HVAC systems and other fixtures were fabricated using nonmagnetic materials. Two 3-ton Krauss chillers and two 1.5-ton air conditioning units were also installed on the hospital’s roof.

Stalco recent work also includes construction of the new, $5.2 million emergency department at the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx.