DPR Construction, a forward-thinking national commercial contractor and construction manager, announces the start of construction on the new $320 million Sutter Medical Center, Castro Valley to replace Eden Medical Center. The project includes a 230,000-sq.-ft. hospital with 130 acute-care beds and a 34-bed universal care center. Targeting LEED certification, the project is utilizing, for the first time, an 11-party Integrated Form of Agreement (IFOA) in which the owner, architect, general contractor, key design consultants and trade partners are all co-signatories of the agreement and part of a core Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) team. (In previous uses of the IFOA, only the owner, architect and general contractor signed the agreement and formed the core team.)

“We’re breaking new ground not only on a ‘next generation’ medical center to provide the foremost care to the community but also on how projects are delivered using a highly integrated approach and Building Information Modeling (BIM),” said George Hurley, project executive for DPR Construction, which is serving as the general contractor for the project. “Our goal as an IPD team is to design and deliver a facility of the highest quality, at least 30 percent faster than comparable projects in California, and for no more than the target cost. We’re also taking BIM to new levels with model-based estimating. This is truly a breakthrough project in health-care construction.”

The new medical center, designed by the Phoenix-based Architect, Devenney Group Ltd., will include all private rooms within the hospital, as well as a Level 2 Trauma 20-bed Emergency Department, Diagnostic Imaging, Interventional Services, Intensive Care and Women’s Services. An official groundbreaking ceremony was held on Wed., July 1, the same day DPR began demolition of a vacant apartment building located on site, and construction crews are currently clearing away deconstruction debris, as well as working on the relocation of the helipad.

Some of the notable design and construction strategies being used on the project include:

• Value Stream Mapping, a lean tool, which the IPD team used to plan and streamline the design process. The result: Typical time to design a comparable facility is 24 months. The team delivered complete designs in 15.5 months to meet regulatory deadlines for an on-schedule construction start.
• BIM used to coordinate all elements of the project virtually and maximize the offsite fabrication and pre-assembly. In addition, DPR is using model-based estimating, allowing estimates to be generated rapidly and giving the team greater access to real-time cost information.

The first new medical center in Alameda County to be built in compliance with California’s earthquake safety law, SB 1953, the project is also one of the first to use California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development’s (OSHPD) phased plan review system. Using this system, the team is accelerating the permitting process and overall schedule by nearly 12 months.

With an anticipated hospital opening scheduled for January 2013, the project will have up to 350 people working on site at the height of construction over the next three years. Following the opening of the new facility, DPR will begin demolition of the adjacent existing hospital, which will remain fully operational throughout the Sutter Medical Center, Castro Valley project.