Encore Electric Builds Unique and Highly Technical Facility to Serve Colorado Springs Community
August 31, 2020 — The William J. Hybl Sports Medicine & Performance Center, located on the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) campus, is a unique partnership between Centura Health and UCCS. It’s a forward-thinking, multidisciplinary academic environment designed for students and a Centura Health-operated clinic that provides whole-person care to amateur and professional athletes, occupational athletes such as first responders, and wounded veterans. The center integrates academic research, clinical services, state-of-the-art performance training facilities, and innovative patient care into a single 104,000-square-foot building. Encore Electric worked with general contractor partner JE Dunn to build this world-class facility that will serve students, athletes, and members of the military.
In order to incorporate the building’s unique and highly technical elements, the project team completed a complex update to the existing electrical utility service that included bringing new utility power to the project and the adjacent Lane Center building.
The center features world-class athletic performance and rehabilitation facilities all under one roof. A 60-meter running track incorporates a high-speed video capture and in-floor force plates that can be used to measure an athlete’s movements for both performance and rehabilitation. The facility also houses environmental and altitude chambers for athletic training and research that simulate altitudes from sea level to over 18,000 ft. and will allow athletes to train and recover at varying altitudes.
Research laboratories at the William J. Hybl Sports Medicine & Performance Center include cadaver, anatomy, and advanced physiology labs, along with administrative, professor, and student office spaces. The team also completed a 30,000-square-foot sports medicine facility and clinic that has designated space for MRI technology, radiology, physical therapy, and patient exams.
Encore Electric Project Manager Andy Sizemore shared how this project has been a great example of Encore Electric’s exceptional teamwork. The project is also personally meaningful to him as one of the last projects he worked on with the late Stewart Pederson, who used his extensive experience to offer mentorship on this project.
“Stewart and I worked through the challenges and details and came up with a successful plan,” said Sizemore. “So, aside from the amazing work of our team and their commitment to each other and the project, for me, it will always carry a somber but fond memory of Stewart and I’ll never forget it.”
Encore Electric Superintendent Kevin Widmer also found the project to be significant. “It was great watching Encore Electric employees from the beginning of the project asking questions like ‘what are we building here’ to seeing their pure enjoyment of the final product of specialty equipment that we may never have the opportunity to do again in our careers,” he said.
At the project’s peak, Encore Electric had 38 craftspeople on the job and worked closely with the Encore Electric prefabrication team throughout the project. Prefabrication ensured that the team was able to keep up with the challenging project schedule. “In my opinion, prefabrication is one of the biggest reasons we were able to successfully maintain our quality and safety expectations and do our part to keep the project on schedule,” Sizemore said. More than 10% of the project was prefabbed in order to pull the project ahead of schedule.
Widmer also spoke to the importance of working closely with prefab on this project for both scheduling reasons and the safety of the team. “Using prefab smartly and effectively really helped Encore stay ahead of schedule throughout the entire job,” he said. “Prefab has the space to build and has a controlled environment. There were several days at HYBL that the weather had the better hand. Even having only half of what was prefabbed would have put Encore behind schedule and there could have been a higher risk of injury.”
The fast-tracked project celebrated its grand opening virtually on August 24, 2020. The William J. Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center at UCCS is one of five Colorado Springs – City for Champions projects. City for Champions is a collection of four unique projects consisting of five distinct and extraordinary venues that will attract new visitors to Colorado Springs, the surrounding region, and the State of Colorado. Encore Electric has been involved with three of the five City of Champions projects and the final project has yet to be completed.
Remember to friend, follow and connect with Encore Electric on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.