Over the past three years on a series of fast-track data center projects for Digital Realty Trust in Ashburn, VA, DPR has demonstrated its commitment to driving down costs through innovation and a focus on continual improvement.

Since June 2007, DPR has delivered 11 of Digital Realty Trust’s Turn-Key Datacenter® PODs and associated support areas, totaling more than $100 million in construction, at the company’s Data Center Park in Northern Virginia. The first six were located within existing buildings and the next five within the new 135,000-sq.-ft. building core and shell that DPR also constructed. Four additional projects are currently underway, with more build-outs planned on the campus. All of the data suites are Tier III with static UPS backup and are served by air-cooled chillers with primary/secondary chilled water systems feeding computer room air handler (CRAH) units. DPR was also responsible for the installation of all owner-purchased equipment, valued at $30 million, as well as coordination of start-up and commissioning.

Because the Turn-Key Datacenters are highly consistent in scope and design, DPR worked closely with the owner to maximize efficiencies, cutting waste and building even greater savings into each subsequent project.

One example cited by DPR Project Manager Kurt Wallner is the reduction of the electrical field hours worked on nearly identical projects from 32,000 hours on the first job to 27,000 hours on the fourth to 24,000 hours on the seventh. “We were able to become more efficient and drive down the labor hours, and we were also selective on spending premium dollars to meet the demanding schedules,” he said. During a “lessons learned” session following an early project, the electrical contractor recommended starting its work slightly sooner to reduce subsequent overtime costs. “So we accelerated the concrete subcontractor pouring the slab and used a high strength, fast-setting concrete to expedite the [higher cost] electricians’ workflow using less dollars,” Wallner said.

The use of Lean construction practices, such as just-in-time delivery of equipment and materials, and daily coordination and short-interval planning meetings with key subcontractors also proved important factors in the projects’ success. “We started off each day building the collaborative team that was focused on a ‘what’s good for the project is good for me’ mentality,” said Wallner.

The implementation of building information modeling (BIM) halfway through the series of projects yielded even more efficiencies. For one, BIM allowed for much higher levels of prefabrication, which, in turn, helped reduce the hours required for onsite installation and, ultimately, overall project costs.

“DPR has proved to be a very good partner, and I think a lot of it has to do with [the fact that] they’re innovative and they work to understand our business needs and how to add some value into the process,” said Digital Realty Trust Vice President Steve Kundich.

One example was the solution the team devised for the electrical conduit and cabling, which was originally designed to be installed overhead. Although the pre-purchased equipment was top-fed, the team came up with an underground design solution that used “side cars.” This resulted in substantial schedule and cost savings, while allowing Digital Realty Trust to use its standard equipment. Compared with the initial projects’ final total costs of $8,000 per kW, the most recent ones were completed near the $7,000 per kW mark.

According to Kundich, bringing key subcontractors into the design process earlier to provide constructibility input was critical. And by using the same, carefully selected key trade subcontractors on all projects, the team was able to negotiate a more favorable cost and collectively reduce the learning curve. “We’ve been able to fine tune many of the processes,” he said.

“As we progressed through the jobs, and the team became more tightly integrated and we had more subcontractor input, we really tried to look at cutting out duplicative work,” Kundich added. “DPR has definitely met the challenge.”

Digital Realty Trust

Digital Realty Trust is the world’s largest wholesale data center provider. The company is focused on providing Turn-Key Datacenters and custom data center solutions for domestic and international customers across a variety of industry verticals, including financial services, information technology and Internet enterprises.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS:

• In three years, DPR delivered 11 Turn-Key Datacenter® PODs and associated support areas with a construction value in excess of $100 million at the Data Center Park, Northern Virginia campus
• Measurable efficiencies were realized through the use of a tightly integrated and experienced project team on each project
• Utilizing BIM for prefabrication and Lean construction principles produced substantial savings
• Four additional projects are currently under construction, and more data center build-outs are planned on the campus