Supporting Clients At Any Scale: Data Center Construction From Edge To Hyperscale

The data center industry is set to add 100 gigawatts of new data centers between now and 2030, with artificial intelligence accounting for half the workloads.

General contractor McGough Construction is ready for this surge, with the ability to deliver data centers of all sizes, from smaller facilities to hyperscale data center campuses.

“When it comes to building and scaling data centers, McGough leans on its long-standing processes and careful coordination among its team of superintendents, project managers, designers, and mechanical and electrical engineers,” said McGough Construction Vice President of National Operations Derek Hoeschen. 

He said in many types of construction, the skills translate from one building to another, but that’s not the case for data centers. Having people with direct experience in the field makes a significant difference.

Hoeschen said in the early stages of planning and design, conversations around prefabrication, commissioning and energization are as important as building the 3D coordinated model. It is a team effort determining where in the space the equipment will go, whether on the floor, hanging from the structure, supported on the roof or placed outside the building. This includes equipment such as transformers, generators and uninterrupted power supply as well as cooling infrastructure like piping and plumbing. 

Determining this early in the process speeds up procurement and fabrication and ultimately energizes the building.  

McGough uses building information modeling to visualize the project and 4D scheduling tools to monitor the day-to-day. Both the commissioning and energization teams ensure components are functioning correctly and play an integral role in developing the construction schedule at the beginning of the project, Hoeschen said. 

Commissioning software is used to relay inspection and testing information to McGough’s database. The supply chain dashboard provides the team with updates about equipment deliveries for orders that are often placed several months in advance.

When it comes to project management, data center construction involves knowing the critical path, or a scheduling strategy to prioritize tasks according to their importance on the schedule.  

“You need to understand the critical path through the startup and energization lineups of each critical utility, map out how you're going to start up the building through each electrical lineup, and develop a critical path schedule of how to build around that,” Hoeschen said. “It’s about beginning the project with the end in mind.”

Hoeschen said on a smaller build, fit-out or repurposed space, in particular, the critical path may be through the design and equipment procurement, with less importance on any of the core and shell components. This presents a unique opportunity to maximize planning and prefabrication while minimizing the physical construction timeline on-site.  

To stay organized, the building team divides sections of the construction into clear scopes and divides the crew into smaller groups with particular specialties. These dedicated teams manage specific areas of work such as building the core and shell, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and commissioning and energization, as well as equipment deliveries and site logistics. 

He said this strategy helps keep meetings productive and enables more pointed conversations about the project’s progress.

The firm also relies on prefabrication. While the shell is constructed on-site, electrical and mechanical components, pump skids, piping, conduit and multitrade racks are built off-site, an aspect that enhances quality control. Doing the on-site and off-site work simultaneously reduces the number of people on-site, enhances safety and accelerates the schedule, Hoeschen said.

For hyperscale projects, higher rack densities mean large increases in power delivery requirements. While securing enough power is often the biggest hurdle, developers with access to this power will come out on top, he said.

“These massive loads drive large infrastructure and equipment with complex layouts,” he said. “One cannot underestimate the resources needed during the planning phase to execute a coordinated install and startup.” 

He said the crew has to balance the logistics of putting together thousands of components within a tight schedule. Large-scale equipment often comes with a one- to two-year lead time, which means the virtual design and construction modeling, planning and construction happen in tandem with procurement, providing for just-in-time deliveries and a synchronized energization and commissioning phase.

McGough has a delivery team that focuses specifically on monitoring deliveries of construction materials and owner furnished, contractor installed equipment, which could amount to hundreds of deliveries per day.

Hoeschen said with smaller data center projects, the main differentiator in the team’s processes is the number of people on the project and its duration. With 5-megawatt data centers, for instance, tasks can be accomplished in smaller pull plans with a smaller team.

The strategies McGough uses help mitigate risks, particularly when it comes to obtaining and protecting valuable materials with long lead times.

“If something is off track, you’re picking up on it that day instead of waiting weeks to realize what’s wrong,” Hoeschen said. “If the structure is not designed to accommodate the things that fit in it or the weight of those things, it can really derail projects at the worst time.”

McGough has hundreds of thousands of inspection checkpoints set by the commissioning and QC teams. These get mapped out at the early stages of the project while the foundations and structure are being built. Hoeschen said tracking these inspections and testing to ensure everything within the data center is operating properly is integral to it being ready for use.

“As demand for data centers rises, building owners need construction partners who can deliver on accurate installation and predictability,” he said. “This is what we provide to our clients.”

This article was produced in collaboration between McGough Construction and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.