This audio is automatically generated. Please let us know if you have any comments.
Skanska USA has brought one $435 million Florida Hospital to new heights.
The American arm of the Stockholm-based builder ended The nearby hospital of Lee Health and medical office building in Fort Myers, Fla., the contractor announced Wednesday.
To date, the five-story hospital has achieved several construction milestones. Skanska and its 56 business partners on the job have worked more than 720,000 hours with approximately 700 workers on site each day. The team has poured more than 33,000 cubic yards of concrete and installed 12 miles of gas piping, according to the release.
“Achieving this milestone underscores the extraordinary teamwork and dedication of the many local small businesses that are helping to boost the local economy as we advance this innovative healthcare project,” Bob Kramer, vice president and account manager for Skanska’s Florida building operations, said in the release.
The hospital, designed by Madison, Wis.-based Flad Architects, is located on the 52-acre Lee Health Fort Myers campus. When completed, the building will encompass approximately 400,000 square feet of healthcare and office space. In addition, a 122,000-square-foot medical office building will house an ambulatory surgery center.
The construction of the project will incorporate resiliency and sustainability measures to maintain continuous healthcare operations in Florida’s climate.
In a first for a Lee Health facility, an emergency recovery water well will keep air conditioning systems running during municipal water outages. Other resilience features include redundant power systems, dual fuel generators and a reinforced building envelope designed to withstand winds of up to 150 miles per hour. The site has been elevated beyond 100-year flood projections, with an extra foot added to bolster protection against rising waters.
The first phase includes 18 operating theaters and 168 patient rooms, including 24 ICU beds, and 44 emergency beds. The completed project is scheduled to open in 2028.
Health construction and planning has remained a healthy sector amid weaker results in other sectors, according to the Dodge Construction Network. As some non-residential projects have stalled in recent months, healthcare stood out as a relative bright spot, along with the booming data center market.
