Healthcare facilities do not get to pause for construction. Patients are still coming through the doors, staff are still at work, and every mechanical system in the building still needs to function – even while a major upgrade is underway. That is exactly the environment Schwickert’s walked into at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea, Minnesota. And it is exactly the kind of challenge the team is built for.
This project required replacing aging cooling equipment, installing new piping systems, and doing all of it without disrupting an active healthcare facility. Here is how it came together.
The Project at a Glance
Schwickert’s completed this mechanical project at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea between October 2017 and April 2018. Schwickert’s served as the mechanical contractor alongside general contractor Benike Construction
What Got Installed and Why It Matters
The scope of work on this project covered the full mechanical cooling and heating system for the facility. Schwickert’s installed three centrifugal Trane chillers, which are large, high-efficiency units designed to cool a building at scale. These are the workhorses of a commercial cooling system – reliable, powerful, and built for facilities that cannot afford downtime.
Alongside the chillers, the team installed a three-cell BAC cooling tower. The cooling tower is what pulls heat out of the system and keeps the chillers running efficiently. Without it, the whole cooling loop breaks down. To protect the quality of the water moving through that system, Schwickert’s also installed a Lakeos cooling tower basin scrubbers and filter system. In a healthcare environment, clean water in mechanical systems is not just about performance – it is about safety.
To complete the heating side of the project, the team put in Reznor gas fired unit heaters, along with miscellaneous plumbing fixtures throughout the facility.
Beyond the equipment itself, Schwickert’s fabricated and installed both the chilled water piping and the condenser water piping – the full network of pipes that connects the chillers to the cooling tower and keeps the entire system moving. If you want to understand more about what goes into commercial mechanical systems like this one, Schwickert’s handles the full scope from design to installation.
The Real Challenge: Keeping the Building Running While Replacing Its Core Cooling System
This is where the project got complicated – and where experience matters most.
Replacing three centrifugal chillers sounds straightforward on paper. In practice, it meant coordinating the removal and installation of large equipment while the facility still needed to maintain cooling throughout the process. To do that, the team had to keep one of the existing older air-cooled units running during the transition so the building never lost its cooling capacity.
Here is what made that especially tricky: the first chiller scheduled for removal happened to be in the best condition of the three. That meant the team could not simply start with the most worn-out unit and work their way down. The sequence had to be carefully planned to protect the building’s cooling at every stage, even when that meant working around equipment that was still performing well.
On top of the sequencing challenge, close clearances inside the mechanical space made the cooling tower fabrication significantly more difficult. When you are working with large equipment in a tight room, there is very little margin for error. Every piece has to be measured, fabricated, and placed exactly right – because there is no room to adjust once it is in.
What Sets Schwickert's Apart on Projects Like This
A lot of mechanical contractors can install equipment. Fewer can manage the live system coordination that a project like this requires. What Schwickert’s brought to Mayo Clinic Albert Lea was not just the technical skill to install the equipment – it was the planning and field experience to keep the hospital running the entire time.
That kind of project management is especially critical in healthcare. These facilities operate around the clock. A disruption to the mechanical system is not just an inconvenience – it can directly impact patient care. Schwickert’s understands that, and it shapes how the team approaches every decision on a healthcare job, from sequencing the work to managing the tight spaces where large equipment has to fit.
This is also the kind of project that benefits from having an experienced fabrication team in-house. Rather than waiting on outside vendors, Schwickert’s fabricated the piping systems directly, which gives the team control over quality and schedule. That in-house capability is one of the reasons projects like this finish on time even when the conditions are difficult.
For a look at another project where Schwickert’s navigated complex mechanical and coordination challenges, check out the Eide Bailly Center project profile to see how the team managed a large multi-trade commercial build from the ground up.
The Result
Schwickert’s completed the Mayo Clinic Albert Lea project on time and exceeded expectations — in a live healthcare facility, with close clearances, and with a sequencing challenge that required careful coordination from start to finish.
That is what good mechanical work looks like in a high-stakes environment. Not just getting the equipment in, but managing every step of the process so the building and the people inside it are never compromised.
Planning a Mechanical Upgrade or Replacement?
Whether you are managing aging equipment, planning a full system replacement, or navigating a project in an occupied facility, Schwickert’s has the experience to handle it. We work across healthcare, commercial, and industrial settings throughout Minnesota and beyond. Contact us today to start a conversation about your project – and find out what Schwickert’s can do for you.