NGA Campus East Technology Center & Central Utility Plant

The Central Utility Plant project includes six double-ended electrical substations, 47 power distribution units, and 41 remote power panels. The plant contains nine 2,500 kilowatt generators, seven chillers and eight cooling towers producing 16,000 tons of cooling, four 500-horsepower boilers and 190,000 gallons of fuel oil storage. 

The steel and concrete Technology Center is the NGA's information technology hub and contains 65 computer room air conditioning units, secondary chilled water pumps, and multiple uninterruptible power supply systems. It also includes a Tier III 45,000 square-foot data center with 100 percent system redundancy. Additionally, this facility incorporated anti-terrorism and force protection requirements and earned LEED Gold certification.

Clark worked closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and NGA to ensure the success of these critical components. With less than seven months before turnover, USACE and NGA required a major reconfiguration of the data center. A heat load analysis had identified several hot spots, and power deficiencies to the data cabinets were discovered. Clark stopped construction in these areas, and upon completion of the redesign, the project team installed adaptive enclosure heat containment units (chimneys) at various data cabinets, exchanged eight remote power panels for power distribution units, substituted flexible branch circuits (whips) that accommodated increased power requirements, and reconfigured the fire alarm system and cable tray. Clark accomplished this reconfiguration without impacting the schedule and delivered the Technology Center well below the initial target price.