CHALLENGE
A federal government agency solves interdisciplinary, strategically important problems of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Army, Department of Defense, and the Nation by advancing and applying science and engineering to complex environments, materials, and processes in all seasons and climates, with unique core competencies related to the Earth’s cold regions.
With increased research demands from across the globe, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needed to implement a next-generation data center to support its engineering and research operations and external partnerships with organizations like NOAA. The new data center needed to be highly redundant, scalable, and energy-efficient, and be designed and built using existing real estate on the agency's campus.
The design and construction of the next-generation data center needed to be completed within six months and create a Tier III-level facility, including N+1 redundancy, multiple independent distribution paths serving the dual-powered IT equipment, and a concurrently maintainable site infrastructure guaranteeing 99.982% availability. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers team chose to repurpose a sensitive compartmented information facility that meets official government requirements for a secure area where classified information is handled and typically enclosed in special panels to prevent information from leaking and where jamming is used to prevent surveillance. A tightly managed, integrated approach and the right partner were needed for this important project to succeed for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
SOLUTION
The US Army Corps of Engineers chose Leading Edge Design Group (LEDG) to design and build their next-generation data center. LEDG integrated design, budgeting, and construction management processes to streamline the transition between design approvals and the commencement of construction. As soon as a conceptual design was approved, LEDG understood that the construction process would have to be mobilized. Extensive design meetings were conducted to ensure all customer requirements for redundancy, scalability, and energy efficiency were met, and all design work was fast-tracked to meet strict time deadlines. In addition, LEDG’s experience helped to identify long-lead time items that could potentially impact the schedule and worked with the agency to obtain approval and release of outlined equipment to ensure on-time, on-budget site arrival.
A detailed site-specific safety plan was developed and construction teams were trained to ensure that amidst the aggressive schedule, that safety was always a priority. Project plans were significantly condensed with LEDG leading and coordinating tasks like demolition, excavation, and rough-in to all occur simultaneously. LEDG worked closely with all contractor teams to precisely track schedules, requirements, dependencies, and risks and developed a sequencing plan to ensure the space was effectively utilized and critical tasks were not delayed. Once the Tier III facility was near completion, LEDG coordinated the system shutdowns necessary to implement the new, required electrical services and switch from the existing utility transformers to the new data center without impacting CRREL operations.
Ultimately, LEDG was able to convert the former facility into a fully operational Tier III, scalable, energy-efficient data center in less than six months.