First steel beams begin to go up at Union Hospital

By Howard Greninger
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE March 12, 2008 11:40 pm

— Steel beams went up for the first time Wednesday at the new Union Hospital under construction on Terre Haute’s north side.
“Just seeing that steel go up is tremendous,” said David R. Doerr, president and chief executive officer of Union Hospital Health Group.
“We have concrete structures up. There is a stairwell at the south end, off of Seventh Street, and an elevator tower in the middle, the bigger structure in the middle. Then the concrete columns in between the two are utility shafts for plumbing, wiring, et cetera.” Doerr said.
“We’ve had this big hole in the ground since we started digging back in September, then some concrete and foundation work, but when steel is going in, that is reality. The steel makes it all work,” Doerr said.
The project is to be completed by January 2010, Doerr said.
The first steel beam was erected about 8:45 a.m. Wednesday.
Doerr said the hospital is considering having the last beam, the top beam on the project, signed by workers and hospital officials later this year.
The five-story (four stories above ground, one story below ground), 492,000-square-foot hospital is being built by Garmong Pepper, a partnership between Garmong Construction of Terre Haute and Pepper Construction Co. of Indiana L.L.C.
“That way we can have the security of a large construction firm like Pepper and some local input and control with the Garmong group,” Doerr said.
Brian Kooistra, project manager for Garmong, said the project will require 2,400 tons of steel.
“We’re supposed to finish up with all aspects of steel erection by the end of October. We will have a crew of 20 to 30 ironworkers on that,” Kooistra said. “We’re anticipating on the total job somewhere between 600 to 800 tradesmen during the peak of construction.”
As steel sections are finished, exterior framing will take place.
“We will begin some of the exterior framing the third week of June. It will be staggered throughout the project,” Kooistra said. “It will not be a thing where we wait until all the steel erection is done, then move to the next step. Instead, as soon as an area is freed up we will start working on it.”
The project will involve 16,000 yards of concrete, equal to 1,600 truckloads.
Union Hospital’s Web site offers a live construction Web cam of the project at www.uhhg.org and by clicking on the construction button.
The architectural firm for the $178 million project is The Estopinal Group. Sycamore Engineering of Terre Haute and Ermco of Indianapolis are the mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractors. The project includes about 500,000 square feet of new space and 104,000 feet of renovated space.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.