Schindler Lifts Australia Awarded 2017 Elevator World Project of the Year for Victoria Comprehensive Cancer Centre project
The VCCC is a purpose-built centre-of-excellence for cancer research, treatment, education and care located in Melbourne's prestigious Parkville Biomedical Precinct. It was designed to deliver maximum functional area with a blend of clinical, administrative and research facilities.
"The VCCC is a great example of where we have been able to incorporate the best of our innovations to provide a unique solution for the customer", Schindler Australia Managing Director, Rob Seakins said. "PORT Technology coupled with our S7000 & S5500 products has created a unique user experience in a hospital type environment. The cooperation between Schindler and Plenary Health, the team tasked with delivering this facility, was critical to delivering on the VCCC vision. We are very proud to have been selected for the installation of this project and continue our association through our service and maintenance team," Mr Seakins added.
Delivered under a public-private partnership, the Victorian Government contracted the Plenary Health consortium comprising Plenary Group, the Grocon / PCL builder joint venture and facilities manager Honeywell to design, build, finance and maintain the project under a 25-year concession.
Comprising 23 elevators, the 130,000 square-metre VCCC is the only hospital in Australia that uses a dedicated elevator destination control system, which meant the client's specification for the lift services was prescriptive. Schindler was able to demonstrate that it had the right experience, knowledge and technology to meet all of these requirements and to ensure seamless movement of passengers through the building.
The clinical and research areas are serviced by separate lift banks, each operating on a group traffic control, with a number of priority recalls for special duties. Recalls are ranked according to of priority level and specific lifts are allocated to respond to these recalls.
Public lifts have been separated from the clinical lifts, research staff lifts, and service elevators in the facility.
Each lift is connected into a site wide Remote Lift Monitoring System (RLMS). The RLMS is able to provide real time monitoring, alarm, diagnostic performance and traffic handling information in both visual screen based and hard copy output. The RLMS also provides control functionality to allow for dispatching lifts to assist in evacuation and other required lockdown scenarios.
Where allocated, lift cars and landing displays have programmable Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) or Light Emitting Diode (LED) displays which indicate lift position, direction of travel, lift status and service. This can include priority call, exclusive use, fireman service and where specified video and messages.
Priority recalls including emergency team response, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and critical care patient transfer, offer a dedicated lift use function. When a recall is registered, it responds by taking a nominated lift from group control and sending it to the floor on which the recall originated. For catering and other services which require dedicated usage for extended periods, the lift can be placed onto "exclusive use" by the user once it has responded to the recall. The car can also be driven to another floor exclusively without a passenger in instances where hazardous materials are being transported.
As part of the overall offering to the customer, Schindler also developed customised multi-media instructional videos as part of the training and induction packs that VCCC Management shared with employees, residents and guests.
As acoustics and vibration were important considerations for VCCC, all lift motor equipment has been vibration isolated from the building structure. To meet these requirements a number of measures were employed including lift rail isolators, larger than standard lift guide rollers and multi-layer pad isolators for lift machines.
VCCC Project Credits
- Owner: Plenary Health consortium in partnership with the Victorian Government
- Architectural Team: Silver Thomas Hanley, DesignInc and McBride Charles Ryan
- Elevator Services Provider: Schindler Lifts Australia
- Project Sponsor, Investor, Financial Arranger: Plenary Group
- Facilities Management: Honeywell
- Mechanical Services Consultant: Wood & Grieve Engineers
- Builder: Grocon / PCL joint venture
