A formal groundbreaking event with local, county and state elected officials, water retail agencies and representatives from the design firm and construction team was held on January 17, marking the start of the project. Guest speakers included Claudia C. Alvarez, Esq., President, Orange County Water District; Roger C. Yoh, P.E., Board Member, Orange County Water District and Chair, GWRS Steering Committee; and Larry Crandall, Chair, Orange County Sanitation District and Vice Chair, GWRS Steering Committee.  Immediately following the presentation, officials and project team members used ceremonial shovels to break ground where the expansion will take place.

“The GWRS established the benchmark for international water projects and water reuse technology,” said OCWD General Manager Mike Markus. “Most importantly, the GWRS has provided a reliable, locally-controlled source of water forOrangeCountyduring a time when the availability of imported water is decreasing while its cost is increasing. We live in a naturally arid region. The GWRS Expansion will provide us with the water supply reliability that we need, while creating hundreds of local jobs that will benefitOrangeCounty’s economy through the development, construction and operation of the project. In short, it’s the perfect project at the perfect time.”

The GWRS, a joint project of OCWD and Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD), takes highly treated wastewater that would have normally been discharged into the Pacific Ocean and purifies it through a three-step process that includes microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light with hydrogen peroxide. 35 million gallons of near-distilled quality GWRS water per day is pumped into injection wells where it serves as a seawater intrusion barrier. Another 35 million gallons per day is pumped in a 13-mile long pipe to OCWD recharge basins inAnaheim,California. The GWRS water then filters through sand and gravel to replenish the deep aquifers ofOrangeCounty’s groundwater basin and ultimately becomes part of the drinking water supply.

Serving as general contractor for the expansion, McCarthy will construct a 30 million gallon per day (MGD) treatment facility expanding the 70 MGD GWRS that was completed in 2008.  Parsons of Pasadena is construction manager for the project and Black and Veatch of Irvine is the structural, civil, electrical and mechanical engineer.

The project entails expansion of the existing microfiltration facility by constructing eight new below-grade treatment basins and enlarging the existing basement facility. Other work includes construction of a new 32,000-square-foot reverse osmosis building, the installation of five new ultraviolet light (UV) treatment trains to match the existing systems, as well as retrofitting the existing post treatment systems to employ a new lime feed system. McCarthy will also construct two above ground steel tanks, each is 215 feet in diameter with a height of 35 feet and a capacity to hold 7.5 million gallons of water.

“The project will be carefully executed in order to mitigate any disruptions to the existing plant while conducting a complex facility expansion with significant construction challenges,” said McCarthy project manager Curtis Horner. “The microfiltration facility is a very complicated water bearing structure tucked into an extremely tight footprint. This 30 foot deep structure is bordered on all four sides just beyond the limits of construction by existing structures and piping.  The excavations and concrete durations alone will take approximately 14 months to complete.”

The Reverse Osmosis building also provides project challenges explained Horner. “The RO facility is located in an area bordered by the existing facility, a substation, a pumping area and another building. Furthermore, the structure will sit on more than 200 piles with a long, extensive concrete scope followed by extensive mechanical work.”

The GWRS is the largest advanced water treatment facility of its kind in the world and has garnered more than 35 regional, state and international awards including the prestigious American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) 2009 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award for the year’s most outstanding national engineering project, and the Stockholm 2008 Industry Award for the year’s most outstanding international water project.

“We are proud to be a part of this complex and vital project to mitigate the challenges associated with an otherwise dwindling water supply in Orange County,” said Mark Mardock McCarthy Executive Vice President. It’s exciting to not only  be involved with an internationally renowned project, but also helping to provide a environmentally responsible, reliable and safe source of water which is critical to the public health and economy of Orange County.”

Construction work is scheduled to complete in September 2014. 

For more information about the project, go to www.gwrsystem.com, Twitter @OCWDWaterNews or Orange County’s Groundwater Replenishment System on Facebook.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest commercial construction companies and a leading water treatment facility builder. With nearly  150 years of experience, McCarthy is committed to the construction of high performance buildings. The company provides general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for water treatment, healthcare, education, parking, entertainment, retail, laboratory, biotechnical, microelectronic, and industrial facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; and bridges and highways. In addition to Newport Beach, McCarthy has offices in San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Dallas; Houston; St. Louis and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

About Orange County Water District
Orange County Water District (OCWD) manages the large groundwater basin that underlies north and central OrangeCountythat provides most of the water for about 2.4 million citizens. OCWD is committed to enhancing OrangeCounty’s groundwater quality and reliability in an environmentally friendly manner. With more than 75 years of prudent planning and careful investment, OCWD has doubled the sustainable yield of the groundwater basin. OCWD is a special district established by the California State Legislature in 1933 and governed by a 10-member board of directors. Separate from the Countyof Orange, OCWD supplies water to residents in the cities of Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, Stanton, Tustin, Villa Park, Westminsterand Yorba Linda. Go to www.ocwd.com for information. For more information go to www.ocwd.com.

About Orange County Sanitation District
The Orange County Sanitation District is a public agency responsible for safely collecting and treating wastewater (sewage) for 2.5 million people. OCSD beneficially reuses and recycles the treated wastewater and other resources resulting from the treatment process. It is a special district established by the California State Legislature and governed by a 25-member board of directors. The directors are comprised of elected representatives for each of the sewer agencies or cities within OCSD’s 471-square mile service area. Go to www.ocsd.com for information.

“McCarthy is honored to do our part to serve the soldiers who serve our country both at home and abroad,” said Tim York, project director for McCarthy. “Right now, soldiers and their families must go to more than 20 buildings located throughout the base for medical care. This new facility will provide a more efficient, effective way for them to receive medical care at a single location.”

The contract and construction is being overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District.

Services offered at the new Winn Army Community Hospital will include physical and occupational therapies, orthopedics, podiatry, social services and behavioral health.  Soldiers stationed at Fort Stewart include the Third Infantry Division, which is continually training for and deploying for combat.

“At the time this hospital opened, it was state of the art,” said Col. Ronald Place, commander of Winn Army Community Hospital. “As we’ve grown and technology has advanced, a new solution was necessary. This expansion and renovation will enable our soldiers and their families to continue to receive a quality healthcare experience for years to come.”

The project architect is Leo A Daly. Completion of the expansion and renovation is scheduled for September 2013.

About McCarthy 
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (http://www.mccarthy.com/) is one of the nation’s leading federal builders. Committed to the construction of high performance buildings, McCarthy provides general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for healthcare, educational, parking structure, entertainment, retail, laboratory, biotechnical, microelectronic, and industrial facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; ports; bridges and highways. In addition to Atlanta, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, New Mexico, Houston, Dallas and St. Louis. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.

“Mars is committed to utilizing local and regional resources and talent as much as possible in our new facility,” explained Joe Wrona, operations manager for Mars Chocolate North America. “The event this morning continues to build on the important relationships that we are establishing in the community; we expect to be here for a long time, and look forward to developing mutual relationships with the local community partners.”

Located in Topeka’s new Kanza Fire Commerce Park, the facility will produce M&M’S^®, SNICKERS^® and other chocolate products. Designed by Kansas City, Mo.-based CRB Consulting Engineers and Builders, the project includes construction of facilities for production, office, warehouse and material storage, packaging, central utilities, rail unloading, guard house and water treatment.

McCarthy anticipates more than 1,000 trades people will work on site over the course of the project with the majority coming from the local workforce. Upon completion, Mars expects to hire approximately 200 full-time operations associates to resource the lines installed during this initial phase. Subsequent phases of development will then expand the capacity of the facility.

The site work and building structure packages have been awarded to local contractors already with work currently underway. The remaining building enclosure and fit-out work will be awarded in the first half of 2012.

Demonstrating Mars’ commitment to sustainability, the new facility will be built to meet leading-edge environmental standards and will pursue LEED Gold certification upon completion through the United States Green Building Council’s green building certification program. The LEED program is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of green buildings.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to provide construction services to one of America’s preeminent companies and are looking forward to working with Mars and the community of Topeka to deliver this new state-of-the-art facility,” commented McCarthy Project Director Doug Mangers.

About Mars Chocolate North America
Mars Chocolate North America (www.mars.com) is the North American chocolate operations of Mars, Incorporated. In 1911, Frank C. Mars made the first Mars candies in his Tacoma, Wash., kitchen and established Mars’ first roots as a confectionery company. In the 1920s, Forrest E. Mars, Sr. joined his father in business and together they launched the MILKY WAY^® bar. In 1932, Forrest, Sr. moved to the United Kingdom with a dream of  building a business based on the philosophy of a “mutuality of benefits” for all stakeholders – this vision serves as the foundation of Mars, Incorporated today. Based in McLean, Va., Mars has net sales of more than $30 billion and six business segments including Petcare, Chocolate, Wrigley, Food, Drinks and Symbioscience. More than 65,000 Associates worldwide are putting Mars Principles in action every day to make a difference for people and the planet through performance.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (www.mccarthy.com) is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies. Founded in 1864, the firm is currently the 10^th largest builder in America (Engineering News-Record, May 2011). This resume of experience includes: food & beverage facilities; research facilities; life sciences; nanotechnology; pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical processing; data centers; high containment labs (BSL-3, BSL-4 and Potent Compound); cleanrooms; agri-business; and biomedical facilities. Headquartered in St. Louis, McCarthy also has full-service offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.

 The Replacement Hospital at Camp Pendleton Project construction team has worked more than 250,000 man-hours over the past 14 months, with zero lost-time incidents. The project is currently one month ahead of schedule.

When complete in 2014, the new multi-level hospital will encompass inpatient medical facilities with 54 patient rooms accommodating up to 60 beds, ancillary departments, emergency care, primary care, specialty care clinics, and support spaces and facilities for non-ambulatory patients who require stays in excess of 24 hours.

The scope of construction work includes a central utilities plant; a 1,500-space, multi-level parking structure; surface parking; and site development. Clark/McCarthy’s contract also encompasses a planned modification to furnish and install the furniture, fixtures, and equipment necessary to support the facility’s function and enhance turnover of the hospital. The project team anticipates earning LEED Gold certification.

Through October 2011, more than $223 million in contracts (77% of all contract awards) have been awarded to small business enterprises. Service-disabled, veteran-owned businesses have been awarded more than $157 million in contracts on the project. The team is exceeding the Navy’s original small business participation goals (45%) by more than $100 million.

Navy Medicine West is the sponsor of the hospital representing the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and NAVFAC Southwest is managing the project. Since April 2009, NAVFAC Southwest has awarded 107 ARRA projects with a total value of $814 million. The Naval Hospital Replacement Project at Camp Pendleton is the largest ARRA project awarded by the Department of Navy.

HKS Architects, Inc., Los Angeles, is the project architect. Additional project partners include KPFF Consulting Engineers, San Diego, structural engineer; TMAD Taylor and Gaines, San Diego, mechanical engineer; exp., San Diego, electrical engineer; Flores Lund Consultants, San Diego, civil engineer; and The EcoLogic Studio, San Diego, sustainability consultant.

Project subcontractors include F J Willert, San Diego, earthwork; CMC Rebar, San Diego, reinforcing steel; Bomel Construction, San Diego, concrete; Comm Steel, Cleveland, steel erection; Schuff Steel Company, San Diego, structural steel; Anning-Johnson, City of Industry, metal deck; International Iron, San Diego, stairs; Monaco Mechanical, Los Angeles, mechanical; RPM, San Diego, mechanical; Bergelectric, San Diego, electrical; and G&C, Los Angeles, electrical equipment.

Clark/McCarthy is a joint venture of Clark Construction Group – California, LP, and McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies and has been ranked among the top five national healthcare builders by Modern Healthcare since the magazine began its annual ranking more than 30 years ago. In addition to San Diego, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Dallas; Houston; St. Louis; and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at http://www.mccarthy.com/.

An integral part of the St. Jude Medical Center’s multi-phased Master Plan, the $285.4 million project includes construction of a 200,000-square-foot, 4-story acute care building with a connecting bridge to level four of the existing hospital building and a 14,000-square-foot central utility plant. Along with architect International Parking Design of Irvine, Calif., McCarthy is also adding 215 parking spaces to an existing 455-car parking structure that the firm built in 2004.

Prior to construction of the new tower, McCarthy performed seven months of major utility work and is demolishing an existing medical records building and parking garage. New surface parking and street improvements including redevelop­ment of a cul-de-sac, addition of right-turn lane, street widening and extension of a center median are also being conducted.

According to McCarthy Project Manger Todd Foos, one of the biggest challenges on the project thus far has been relocating all of the hospital’s utility services prior to the demolition of the existing parking structure and construction of the new tower.

“We worked closely with the hospital to devise a plan that enabled us to complete this sensitive infrastructure work while mitigating disruption to the existing hospital,” explained Foos. “Additional challenges will be maintaining access to the existing hospital’s loading dock. In order to meet this requirement, we will be constructing a temporary road through the foundation of the new building which will be in place until February or March 2012.” 

Featuring sophisticated technologies and innovations in patient-centered care, the new 120-bed patient tower will house: private and semi/private rooms with flat-screen TVs and comfortable daybeds for family members; computers in every patient room permitting physicians and nurses to review and update medical records without leaving the patient’s bedside; 14 operating rooms with state-of-the-art “smart” surgical suites and the newest improvements in minimally invasive and robotic surgeries; and advanced information systems allowing immediate clinician collaboration. The tower will also include a spacious cafeteria, materials management, pharmacy and areas for support staff.

In order to meet strictCaliforniaseismic regulations in compliance with Senate Bill 1953, the tower is being built with a lateral force resisting system consisting of buckling restrained braced frames (BRBF) with moment resisting beam to column connections. Additionally a lateral foundation system is being built with continuous anchor caps in conjunction with tie-down anchors.

The story of theNorthwestToweris one of both timeless design and economic feasibility. The modern design of the tower was developed within a Project Design Charter, which was created to guide design decisions toward a simple functionality that appropriately meets future needs and provides the latest technology for staff and patient care, at a scale and sophistication befitting a major, contemporary, urban medical center.

TheNorthwestTowerdisplays design function, as well as incorporates evidence-based strategies for patient services to reduce stress, length of stay, and enhance communication between caregivers and patients. “These strategies not only provide an optimal care environment for healing, but also supportSt. Joseph’s commitment to patient dignity, the human spirit, and creating healthy communities,” saidTAYLOR’s principal-in-charge Neal Rinella.

In keeping with the social sustainability goals of the project, the new tower incorporates many environmentally sustainable features such as an energy efficient building envelope, which incorporates high performance window glazing, sunshading and well-insulated walls and roof. Mechanical systems also improve energy efficiency by utilizing a 100% outside air system with heat recovery that yields superior indoor air quality and infection control.

“Building a state-of-the-art hospital with complex mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems requires the utilization of latest advancements in design and construction technology as well as an experienced and collaborative team,” said McCarthy Project Director Patrick Peterson.

“To meet the challenges of this complex project on an operational medical campus, we are utilizing a combination of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and design/build methods to collaboratively harness the talents and insights of all team members and to optimize efficiency through all phases of design, fabrication and construction,” explained Peterson.

TAYLOR, McCarthy and key subcontractor partners are using the following Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools for design and coordination: Revit Architecture, Revit Structures, Revit MEP, AutoCAD MEP 3D, AutoCAD Civil 3D, CADmech, CADpipe, NavisWorks and Google Sketch-up.

“Utilizing these combined BIM applications with an integrated team delivery approach not only will help to identify challenges before they become on-site problems, but it also provides a greater benefit by allowing the entire design and construction team to create and work from a seamless model throughout all stages of the project,” said McCarthy Project Manager Todd Foos. As a result of this collaborative effort, the team has lowered the original target budget by approximately $14.5 million.

“St. Joseph Health System has determined that the best way to understand, evaluate and make decisions at each critical point of the project during design, is through the use of BIM tools. This has streamlined the decision-making process and given us the opportunity to quickly evaluate and analyze “What if” scenarios. The BIM tools are a benefit to all stakeholders on the project team,” explained Jim Bostic, AVP Construction Division, at St Joseph Health System inSouthern California.

The St. Jude Northwest Tower project is scheduled to complete in Summer 2014 and open in Fall 2014.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has been ranked among the top five national healthcare builders by Modern Healthcare since the magazine began its annual ranking more than 30 years ago. As the largest American-based healthcare builder in the country, the firm has offices in Newport Beach, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Dallas; Houston; St. Louis and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

“When it came time to select a team for our expansion, I thought of our past experiences – and I immediately thought of Phipps/McCarthy,” explained Leonard Dryer Jr., Children’s Hospital Colorado senior vice president and CFO. “Their superior performance on the original hospital instilled faith in their abilities to complete this project. The idea of a tri-party agreement is relatively new for construction teams and the hospital especially. But, with a team that has worked together successfully before, the experience and trust we have in each other made for a great tri-party team and a perfect match for our expansion project.”

Construction of the new 355,000-square-foot addition is currently on schedule to complete in late 2012. Upon completion the facility will connect to the existing hospital on the north face of the outpatient building and the east face of the hospital building. The facility will have the capacity to provide an additional 200 beds and will be home to cancer care, heart and rehabilitation medicine, and an advanced maternal/fetal medicine center. In total Children’s Hospital Colorado’s main facility at the Anschutz Medical Campus will then have a footprint of 1.8 million square feet.

The East Tower project is LEED Registered through the United States Green Building Council and will pursue LEED certification upon completion. The team is currently coordinating aggressive material tracking and recycling of demolition and construction materials and completing full energy modeling of the East Tower addition to ensure the most advanced building enclosure and efficient mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

“Unlike the initial project on a greenfield site, this expansion requires careful coordination to minimize disruption to ongoing facility operations while still keeping pace with the fast-track schedule,” noted Phipps/McCarthy Project Manager Justin Peterson. “We hold weekly meetings and project walks with the hospital’s construction, epidemiology, facilities and safety teams to keep everyone up to date. We also have detailed processes in place to ensure all are aware of what activities are happening in the hospital on a daily basis, helping the construction team to adjust our schedule and construction to best fit the needs of staff and patients.”

A variety of innovative design and construction solutions are also being implemented to help manage these complex issues.

“From the earliest stages of the project, the team knew efficiencies could be achieved by moving the detailing and coordination process for the building’s embed plates, anchor bolts, reinforcing steel and formwork systems upstream and thus bypassing the traditional shop drawing and submittal process,” commented GH Phipps Preconstruction Director Gary Constant.

Phipps/McCarthy suggested contracting directly with the project’s structural engineer of record S.A. Miro, Inc. out of Denver to provide these detailing services. Working closely with the Phipps/McCarthy team, S.A. Miro, Inc. maintained separate in-house design and detailing teams and completed the advanced detailing work concurrently with design deadlines. This early effort enabled the team to pre-plan many of the most difficult elements of construction, including the building’s climbing formwork system and also to more precisely define the scope of work when the project was put out for bid resulting in much tighter bid spread.

To save time and dollars, the team also worked together to create rated construction separation walls to be used as temporary enclosure walls when peeling the existing building façade off to gain access for the expansion tie-ins. By creating a rated, weather-tight wall, impacts to the hospital were limited to one time at each tie-in location and these walls were then able to remain in place to become part of the permanent building.

With construction underway, the team is using Bluebeam^® document control for collaborative document management and is utilizing innovative mobile kiosks in the field to enable all field staff to have access to this information in real time. Unlike the use of only tablet PC’s and iPads, these mobile kiosks are available to all personnel on the jobsite when they need it. Rapid changes are tracked and documented as they are developed with the design team and implemented in the field to minimize rework and improve overall project efficiency.

About McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
Founded in 1864, McCarthy (www.mccarthy.com) is the largest American-based healthcare builder in the country. McCarthy has constructed more than 800 significant healthcare facilities and renovated thousands more – while consistently appearing on Modern Healthcare’s Top 5 list of leading healthcare construction management companies. McCarthy is 100 percent employee-owned.

About GH Phipps Construction Companies
GH Phipps (www.ghphipps.com) is an employee-owned full service Construction Manager/General Contractor. Average revenues over $230 million make GH Phipps one of Colorado’s largest contractors and one of the nation’s top 400 contractors since 1985. Corporate headquarters are located in Greenwood Village, Colo., with branch offices in Colorado Springs and Fort Collins.

About H+L Architecture
Founded in 1963, H+L Architecture (www.hlarch.com) specializes in healthcare, K-12, higher education and science/technology practice areas. Ranked as the number one healthcare design firm by Mountain States Construction in 2010, the firm has offices in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo.

About ZGF Architects LLP
ZGF (www.zgf.com) is nationally recognized for architecture, planning and interior design and urban design, with offices in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC. The firm has received more than 500 design awards, including the Architecture Firm Award, the highest accolade given to a firm by the American Institute of Architects.

About Children’s Hospital Colorado
Children’s Hospital Colorado (www.childrenscolorado.org) has defined and delivered pediatric healthcare excellence for more than 100 years. Founded in 1908, Children’s Hospital Colorado is a leading pediatric network entirely devoted to the health and well-being of children. Continually recognized as one of the nation’s outstanding hospitals by U.S. News & World Report and ranked fifth in their Best Children’s Hospitals 2011-12 Honor Roll, Children’s Hospital Colorado is known both for its nationally and internationally recognized medical, research and education programs as well as the full spectrum of everyday care for kids throughout Colorado and surrounding states. Children’s Hospital Colorado is recognized for excellence in nursing from the American Nurses Credentialing Centers and has been designated a Magnet® hospital since 2005. With more than 1,000 healthcare professionals representing the full spectrum of pediatric specialties, Children’s Hospital Colorado’s network includes its main campus on the Anschutz Medical Campus, 14 Network of Care locations and more than 400 outreach clinics

The 12-story, 349-bed hospital is scheduled to open in 2014, and will replace the existing hospital across MacArthur Boulevard. The construction is part of the state-mandated earthquake safety retrofit of all California hospitals. NBBJ serves as the project’s architect.

“For more than 65 years Kaiser Permanente has served the health care needs of this community.  We recognized and celebrated the significant achievement of placing the last steel beam on top of the new Oakland Hospital Tower, confirming our commitment to that legacy for future generations,” said Nate Oubre, senior vice president and East Bay Area manager for Kaiser Permanente, Northern California.

“We are thrilled to be an integral part in fulfilling Kaiser Permanente’s vision to expand its offering of exceptional medical facilities in California,” said Rich Henry, president of McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.’s Northern Pacific Division.  “As the general contractor, we’ve streamlined project delivery with a special emphasis on utilizing innovative technologies throughout the design and construction phases.  It was exciting to come together with Kaiser Permanente and the local community leaders to place the final beam on Kaiser’s new “flagship” hospital facility here in Oakland.”

The first of three phases of the project was completed in May 2009 with the opening of the Broadway Medical Office Building and Cancer Center and an adjacent parking garage. The second phase of the project includes the new hospital and a Specialty Medical Office Building, which will house 99 medical provider offices, six outpatient operating rooms and seven outpatient procedure rooms.

A 1,200-stall parking garage is complete.

“The ‘topping out’ was an exciting milestone in the construction of Kaiser Permanente’s new, state-of-the-art Medical Center here in Oakland,” said Dr. John Loftus, physician in chief at Oakland Medical Center. “The physicians and staff believe this new facility will provide superior technology for the complex tertiary adult and pediatric services that we provide for the Oakland community and patients referred to Oakland from throughout Northern California.”

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 8.7 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to www.kp.org/newscenter.

About McCarthy
With more than 145 years of experience, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is the largest American-based healthcare builder and one of California’s premier commercial builders. In addition to San Francisco and Sacramento, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Dallas; Houston; St. Louis and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

McCarthy and Jefferson County-based partners, Shores Builders and Lipps Construction, broke ground on the hospital project in April 2010 and expect to complete their work by October of 2012.  McCarthy broke ground on the medical office building March 15. McCarthy expects to complete the $14.5 million core and shell portion and lobby of the medical office building in the spring of 2012 with completion of the interiors aligning with the October completion of the hospital. The official groundbreaking and topping out ceremonies occurred yesterday, May 23, at Good Samaritan Regional Health Center in Mount Vernon, located on Veteran’s Memorial Drive, adjacent to the new interchange for I-57 and I-64.

McCarthy is construction manager for both projects that are designed by BSA LifeStructures. Both the design and construction processes include a number of innovations, including room design that incorporate short distance between bed and bathroom to minimize risk of patient falls, energy performance rated high-efficiency heating and cooling system, decentralized nursing stations to reduce distance between patients and caregivers and a “family zone” in each private room that allows for families to stay overnight with loved ones.

McCarthy is using Building Information Modeling (BIM), Bluebeam software and prefabrication to improve construction efficiency and coordination on the project. The project partners and subcontractors coordinate three dimensional images of the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems on a smart board in McCarthy’s onsite BIM lab which is virtually linked to McCarthy’s home-office lab. BIM allows the project team to create a model for use in the field, incorporating submittals, installation sequencing and startup sequencing to the model to expedite construction.

“BIM models have expanded well beyond MEP systems to include the structure, building enclosure, framing, drywall, equipment and more,” said McCarthy project manager Andrew Poirot. “The use of virtual planning helps to avoid issues during installation.”

McCarthy is also improving efficiency by using prefabrication on the project in an innovative way. They are assembling wall sections of patient bathrooms and patient room head walls, inclusive of electrical and plumbing systems in a local warehouse and delivering them to the site for installation.

Both projects add jobs to the area, with between 120 and 150 tradespersons at work daily on the 36-acre site. At the peak of construction approximately 350 to 400 tradespersons will be working on the hospital. An additional 50 to 60 persons will be put to work on the medical office building project. The project is expected to create approximately 112 permanent health care jobs at the hospital and surgery center by the third full year of operation, and some additional 40 physician office positions.

Founded in 1864 and headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the oldest and largest commercial builders in the Midwest and the largest American-based healthcare builder in the country. McCarthy has constructed more than 800 significant healthcare facilities and renovated thousands more – while consistently appearing on Modern Healthcare’s Top 5 list of leading healthcare construction management companies. McCarthy is 100 percent employee-owned. More information is available on line at www.mccarthy.com.

The CorpU Awards salute corporate and government learning organizations that create exciting, impactful programs resulting in measurable improvements in employee and business performance. Since 1999, the Awards, given by CorpU, the leading provider of corporate education research, benchmarking and advisory services for the enterprise learning marketplace, have set the standard for corporate learning.

“The winning programs show how important learning excellence is in enabling companies to execute their business strategy,” said Peter McAteer, CEO of CorpU. “We congratulate them.”

“Operating in today’s business world is more complicated than ever,” commented McCarthy Chairman and CEO Mike Bolen. “Through McCarthy Build U^® we are able to provide our employee-owners with a comprehensive training and development program designed to result in both short- and long-term success. To be included among this year’s CorpU Xchange award winners is truly an honor.”

Founded as a family owned business almost 150 years ago, McCarthy is one of the largest 100% employee-owned companies in America today. The firm has long fostered a culture dedicated to continuous improvement, and “Learning” represents one of McCarthy’s six company Core Values.

While a formal McCarthy Training Program had been in place for decades, McCarthy formally launched an entirely revamped training program in 2008 under McCarthy Build U. Unusual in the construction industry and among best-in-class training programs outside of the construction industry, the McCarthy Build U framework provides the company with the structure, alignment, centralization and flexibility needed to personalize training to meet both individual and business needs.

About Corporate University Xchange
Corporate University Xchange is a private membership of senior learning and talent executives. Founded in 1997, members have access to cutting-edge research, practitioner-tested tools, and expertly facilitated peer-to-peer networking.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest domestic general contractors. Committed to the construction of high performance buildings, the company provides general contracting, construction management, and design-build services for healthcare, educational, commercial, parking structures, science and technology facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; bridges; and highways. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

Construction was managed by a joint venture of McCarthy and Kwame Construction, who exceeded minority participation on the project, achieving 30 percent overall participation. Bond Wolfe Architects designed both buildings.

Barbara C. Jordan Elementary, the first new University City school in more than 15 years, was built using green engineering practices and the district has applied for LEED certification, which will be determined following occupancy of the building. Enhanced day lighting and air quality will create a better learning environment for students while being respectful of the surrounding environment and resources. Environmentally conscious building elements include rain gardens, drought-tolerant landscaping, placement of windows to maximize daylight, a highly efficient HVAC system, and other features. Recycled materials were used when possible and practical.

Construction on the new Barbara C. Jordan building began in the fall 2009 on the site of the previous building of the same name. Originally named Daniel Boone School, the District changed the name in 1996 to honor Barbara C. Jordan, the first African American woman from a southern state elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Groundbreaking for a second new University City elementary school, Pershing Elementary, will be held on May 13. The McCarthy and Kwame joint venture will also manage that project, beginning tear down and abatement once school is out. Pershing will also be a two-story, 60,000-square-foot building, but will retain more of the features of the original school as requested by the community. Pershing will also be built to meet LEED certification and with similar minority participation goals. The beginning of Pershing was coordinated closely with the completion of Barbara C. Jordan so that the construction process could be as efficient as possible.

“The project will have an aggressive schedule, with construction expected to complete in July 2012, in time for the beginning of the school year,” said McCarthy Project Director Christopher Nisbet.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest domestic general contractors. Committed to the construction of high performance buildings, the company provides general contracting, construction management, and design-build services educational, healthcare, commercial, parking structures, science and technology facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; mixed-use; bridges; and highways. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.