As a global leader in healthcare, medical supply manufacturing, and distribution, Medline looked to Pond to provide design and complete construction management services for a new 300,000-square-foot medical sterilization and manufacturing building in Mexicali, Mexico. This project is an excellent example of Pond’s technical subject matter expertise for this highly specialized medical device sterilization industry. This new multi-story manufacturing building provides the final sterilization process that complements the site’s existing medical device assembly. The plant has 12 process lines with prep, staging, process, post-treatment, storage, and shipping functions. It is semi-automated with the capability to be fully automated at a later time as needed by Medline. The facility provides ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization, including sterilization chamber rooms, preconditioning cells, aeration cells, pre-process and post-process staging areas, and shipping and receiving areas. The capture and destruction of low and high-concentration emissions exceed regulatory requirements with state-of-the-art control and abatement systems.

While creating floor plan options, Pond worked closely with Medline to identify their immediate and long-term capacity needs. Pond exceeded Medline’s expectations by providing an optimized design that allows for future expansion of the facility to a total of over one million square feet. Special design consideration was given to life safety features due to high-hazard H-occupancy classifications and maximum allowable quantities compliance for the process’s sterilant gas, which is crucial for preventing infection in patients undergoing surgical procedures and other medical treatments.

The Pond team implemented an expedited delivery method to procure long lead process and emission control equipment. To achieve the desired schedule milestones, Pond expedited the site and utility work with a two-step permitting approach that enabled the earliest possible start for the grading and infrastructure work. Pond specializes in constructing sophisticated industrial processing facilities with project sizes ranging from $1 million to over $100 million. Working in collaboration with our engineering team, our construction management and onsite supervision professionals assumed full responsibility for the management, coordination, communications, scheduling, and technical coordination between the trades and process vendors.