Case Study

GovernmentDocking State Office Building

Replacement: Hard-to-access Chiller

Topeka, KS 532,592 SQ FT

Completed: August 19, 2021

To improve reliable 24/7/365 cooling of buildings within the Kansas State Capital complex, an old, inefficient chiller needed replacement. Located in the cooling plant in the Docking State Office Building basement, the only access was a garage-door-sized opening that wouldn’t allow a traditional crane.

To solve the challenge, McElroy’s partnered with a local truck-towing and recovery service to use a truck-mounted, 75-ton rotator crane. The crane boom extended horizontally through the opening, lifted the old chiller, retracted to pull the unit out, and rotated to place it on a waiting flatbed for disposal. Moving the new chiller through the opening and down to the basement floor was just as easy.

In two hours the old chiller system was gone and the new system was on the floor, ready to be installed. McElroy’s connected all the piping and ensured that the new chiller system was set to work correctly and efficiently.

Project Highlights

Basement location with small entryway created serious access challenges
Innovative use of a 75-ton rotator boom crane to remove the old chiller and place the new one
York 400-ton, water-cooled, centrifugal chiller with variable-speed drive
Greenheck centrifugal inline fan
Greenheck backdraft damper and manual balancing damper
Keckley triple-duty valve and Bray butterfly valve
JCI controls

McElroy’s replaced an outdated chiller serving the Kansas Capital complex with this efficient York 400-ton chiller.

McElroy’s used a rotating boom crane to remove an outdated chiller from a hard-to-access basement at the Docking building.

McElroy’s used an innovative crane technique to lower a new chiller into the hard-to-access Docking state office basement.