NH Union Leader |  June 28, 2010

PDF: NH Union Leader 6/28/10 (724kb)

As the $85 million Elliot at River’s Edge project moves into new phases of construction, Hampshire Fire Protection of Londonderry has embarked on a project to install 3,200 sprinkler heads for the automatic fire protection system in the first health-care facility to go up, and a parking garage.

Approximately 7 .25 miles of pipe will deliver water to sprinkler heads in the 236,000- square-foot Ambulatory Care Center and the 700-car parking garage, which are partially complete. Aiding the installation is Hampshire Fire’s use of Building Modeling Software, which maps out a building systems’ design in three dimensions, so equipment that is installed conforms to construction specifications, the company said.

Hampshire Fire Protection is working under joint general contractor Suffolk/Eckman on the huge city project that replaces the former Jac Pac Foods meat processing plant along the Merrimack River off Queen City
Avenue. The health-care campus will include medical facilities, office space, residential and retail spaces.

For the fire protection system, HFP (www.hampshirefire.com) will use more than 7,000 manhours at the construction site, in addition to more than 1,200 hours in design and fabrication. All of its materials are fabricated in HFP shops before being shipped to job sites.

The general foreman working on the Elliot project for HFP is Ben Velez, and the project’s completion date is March 2011.

Portions of the project still to come include a medical office building, in phase two, which will contain fi ve levels (120,000 square feet), and require an additional 1,400 sprinkler heads.