McCarthy Tops Out Construction for Sharp Grossmont Hospital Heart and Vascular Center in San Diego

SAN DIEGO - June 24, 2014 - PRLog -- – McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (http://www.mccarthy.com/), one of the nation’s leading healthcare builders, has topped out structural steel construction for the new 71,000-square-foot Heart and Vascular Center at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, located at 5555 Grossmont Center Drive in La Mesa, Calif.

         This taxpayer-funded project, estimated at $60 million, is being performed by McCarthy as the general contractor on behalf of the Grossmont Healthcare District (GHD), with CEO Barry Jantz and the publicly elected GHD board members providing oversight. Sharp HealthCare is the operator of Sharp Grossmont through a 30-year lease that was executed with the District in 1991.

         On June 20th officials with Sharp Grossmont, Grossmont Healthcare District and McCarthy held a joint topping out ceremony, during which a 220-foot crane hoisted the final steel beam, decorated with an American flag and evergreen tree, to the highest point of the building.  McCarthy Project Director Jason Mrozek, McCarthy Senior Project Manager Todd Foos, Sharp Grossmont Chief Operating Officer Maryann Cone, and Grossmont Healthcare District Vice President Bob Ayres gave brief comments as part of the official program.

         “The Sharp Grossmont Heart and Vascular Center project embodies the principles that McCarthy has lived by since being founded on this very date, June 20^th, 150 years ago:  A ‘We --Not I -- Attitude’, a ‘Client-Focused Perspective’, and a ‘Genuine Approach’ that places respect for the work we do and the people who do it above all else,” said Mrozek.  “On a project such as this one, it’s easy to see the power of teamwork, and how well everything comes together when team members understand what the project means to the community and the owner, and when we all move in the same direction.”

         Designed by KMD Architects, the Heart and Vascular Center will be a cast-in-place, concrete structure with spread footings and a structural steel moment frame, with one level below ground and two levels above. Construction of this facility will allow for expansion of the hospital’s existing surgery department and provide new multipurpose procedural rooms with the flexibility to support a wide range of specialties including general surgery, minimally invasive surgery, image-guided surgery and endovascular interventional procedures.

         When completed in spring of 2015, the building will encompass four new hybrid operating rooms, four new catheterization labs, a pharmacy, clinical laboratory, materials management services area and loading dock.  A covered walkway will connect to the existing Women’s Center on Level A. The new building will allow for the relocation of the hospital’s existing pharmacy and clinical laboratory space to meet current seismic criteria.

         The new Heart and Vascular Center is being built on a tight site within a small footprint of the busy hospital campus, adjacent to the hospital’s existing operating rooms and cardiac catheterization labs. Its central location has presented access challenges for work crews as well as material and equipment providers, according to Foos.

         “Construction work there has required careful coordination and close management of the construction schedule to minimize any disruption to campus operations,” said Foos.  “To date, the project has gone smoothly and we’ve experienced no time delays. More impressive is there has been zero lost time due to injuries. Every person working on the project has been able to return home safely to their families at the end of every work day.”

         The project scope for McCarthy encompasses shoring, foundations, structure and build-out of Levels A and B. Level 1 will be provided as a shell space to accommodate the future build-out of a catheterization lab and operating rooms.

         KPFF Consulting Engineers is the structural and civil engineer, Randall Lamb is the electrical and mechanical engineer and Wimmer Yamada and Caughey is the landscape architect.

Proposition G, a $247 million bond measure approved by voters of the East County region in June 2006, is the source of funding for the project.  As proposed in the hospital’s Facilities Master Site Plan, Prop. G is funding several other infrastructure construction improvements.

McCarthy is also in the process of building the new $46 million Central Energy Plant at Sharp Grossmont, also being financed by Prop. G. The three-story, 18,400-square-foot energy plant will include electrical switchgear, emergency generators, cooling towers, chillers, fuel tanks, medical gas tanks and various mechanical equipment that will help meet future capacity needs of the hospital. The plant also will include a control and locker room for facilities management personnel.

         The new energy plant will contain a new state-of-the-art cogeneration combustion turbine generator. While not part of the bond-related construction, the cogeneration equipment will complement the efficiencies of the Central Energy Plant and help save millions of dollars in energy costs while reducing the hospital’s emission of greenhouse gas pollutants by 90 percent.  Construction of the Central Energy Plant began last September, and is currently scheduled for completion in late 2015.

About McCarthy Building Companies:

         Recognized as one of the nation’s few true builders, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (http://www.mccarthy.com/), is the country’s 9th largest domestic general contractor (Engineering News-Record, May 2014) and the largest general contractor in California. Celebrating its 150^th anniversary this year, the company is committed to the construction of high performance green buildings; progressive job site technology; safer, faster and higher quality execution; and ultimately, the best final project costs.  McCarthy has approximately 1,600 salaried employees with offices in San Diego, Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Dallas; Houston; Atlanta; Albuquerque; Kansas City; Collinsville, Ill; and Portage, Ind.  McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned (http://www.mccarthy.com/about/employee-owners/).  More information about the company is available online at http://www.mccarthy.com or by following the company on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mccarthybuilding), Twitter (https://twitter.com/McCarthyBuild), LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/company/119184?trk=tyah) and Google+ (http://www.google.com/+MccarthyBuilding).