What's currently the most high-dollar construction project in the Sacramento region includes the use of an emerging high-profile technology.
Jim Mynott, senior vice president of design integration with McCarthy Building Cos., said artificial intelligence is helping crews on the $3.7 billion tower at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento work more efficiently.
"We're at the infancy in this industry of using AI," he said. "It's a huge opportunity as more and more start using models."
Including a new 14-story tower and a five-story adjoining pavilion, the project will add a million square feet and 332 new private patient beds to the center on Stockton Boulevard. Formal construction is set to begin next year and be completed in 2030.
While the tower is in design phase, Mynott said, McCarthy created a digital twin of the finished project. Practitioners can use Oculus Lens headsets to walk through the virtual version as well as point and click at specific locations to see how they'd work in reality. Their feedback is then incorporated into the design, he said.
The virtual walkthroughs include not only doctor's offices, patient and appointment rooms but specialized areas for MRI and X-ray machines, he added.
From the virtual model, McCarthy creates blueprints for the real-world tower that include embedded data such as square footages and material weights. With that data, he said, AI can tell crews not only how long such a project will take, but also what it's likely to cost.
Mynott said for now, his company isn't just taking what the program spits out at its word. "We have experienced people who can add color to the project," he said. "That human touch comes from experience."
But over time, he expects artificial intelligence to play a bigger role in construction projects, he said.
"It helps speed up timelines," he said, adding using AI works well with another time-saving measure, prefabrication, in that regard. "Start early, and be flexible in how data gets incorporated."
