CEO Update: October 2024 construction update

I visited the hospital expansion construction site again on Sept. 24 with Justin Shorter, project superintendent with JE Dunn. A lot has changed since we gave an update from the construction site in July, and construction continues to be on schedule for opening in early 2026.

Read the blog post to learn more about where we are with the project and recent developments. Watch the video to see what is happening on the construction site.

Pouring concrete

Justin Shorter, JE Dunn: Today (Sept. 24), we poured the first slab, which is about a third of the building of the new tower. The west stair tower has now been topped out, and we’re working on the center. We’ll be pouring that tomorrow — the first lift on the center elevator and stair tower. And we’ve got the east stair tower up to the second floor. By mid-October, we should have all the slab on grade poured.

Mike Calhoun, CEO/Executive Director: You can really get a perspective of how big the building is as you look from this west stair tower over to the other side of our construction site where we have the east tower. All this is going to be the width of the building.

Wall for fire protection

Calhoun: Before we did some of these pours, I noticed a block wall along the back of the building and around our central utility plant. Talk to us about why we are going about it that way.

Shorter: That’s a 12-inch block, big heavy blocks they’ve been working on for the last month and a half. That gives you the fire separation. That’s a three-hour wall that separates the new construction from the existing facility.

Calhoun: That looks to me like it gives us something to tie into with the existing building.

Shorter: Yeah. There’s expansion joints to allow movement between the two buildings. That gives us a good separation.

Support piers

Calhoun: We also have these support piers. Talk through that and where those are.

Shorter: Behind us, these guys are prepping the deck that’ll go in and set the second floor. It’s all concrete above the first floor. Next week, we’ll start flying those in. That’ll tie everything — all the rebar ties — into the columns. We’ll pour the second-floor deck and continue that stair-stepping as we go.

Stormwater drainage

Calhoun: One more thing that was really important to us that I think it’s good for us to talk about is making sure that we have a good excavation plan and concern about changing the level of this site and the drainage that’ll go toward the park. I know we’ve done a good job of making preparations for that. Could you walk us through how we approach that to make sure we have a good place — when we have rains like we did today — that we keep the environment safe?

Shorter: We have a SWPPP (Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan), which is a detailed plan that goes into the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) that they approve. It’s all of our erosion control measures so we don’t have any runoff on the site. I think we finally got tested over the weekend with the monsoon rain we had here in Bolivar. The detention pond worked really good. We didn’t have any kind of runoff, and everything held together pretty good.

Calhoun: With these stair towers coming up and then being topped out, we really get a sense of how tall the building is, too. One of the things about the design of this new hospital is we really want it to be a new front door for CMH. As you come down Hwy. 83 or if you come down Butterfield Road, it’s starting to become really apparent that this is going to be a new face for CMH, a new front door. It’s going to be really inviting for the public.

We encourage people to come and take a peek at what we’re doing. You can’t come on-site, but you can look from Butterfield Road. If you want to see the progress, you also can visit our website. We have a camera on the site every day, and you can keep up to date with the latest on our building project.

Michael Calhoun shares the latest happenings at CMH in his monthly CEO Updates. He is the CEO/executive director of CMH and the Citizens Memorial Health Care Foundation.