DENVER | Department of Veteran Affairs officials say that despite legal setbacks, September floods, and a government shutdown, the Aurora VA hospital project is over 30 percent completed and will be ready serve its first patient in October 2015.
Dan Warvi, a spokesman for the Denver VA Medical Center, said at a meeting with the Aurora Defense Council on Nov. 21 that contractor Kiewit-Turner has continued construction on the project despite a pending legal battle over the cost.
“As of yesterday, our contract with Kiewit-Turner says we get the keys summer of 2015,” Warvi said. He said the contract also stipulates veterans will be able to use the new medical center starting October 2015.
On July 8, 2013, Kiewit-Turner filed a complaint with the Civilian Board of Contract Appeals, threatening to suspend the project because it was $400 million over budget, bringing the total cost of construction to more than $1 billion. Denver VA officials have said the facility will cost $800 million.
“We are hoping for a ruling in May,” Warvi said about the complaint.
The new medical center is slated to be 1.2 million square feet with nine buildings that will include two inpatient facilities, three clinics, as well a research facility and an energy center with solar panels. There are plans for three parking structures, one which will be located underground next to the outpatient buildings for convenience.
The medical center’s interior design will be more efficient, Warvi said. “Every room, whether it’s an exam room, a medical room, is standardized,” he said. The facility will include 182 beds, and the majority will be in private rooms according to VA documents.
Warvi floated other ideas for the project that include a possible healing garden and a dog park. “We want to make sure every part of the hospital feels like Colorado. A lot of windows, a lot of landscaping,” he said.
The VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System is the third-fastest growing in the U.S., according to Warvi. VA documents show 162, 146 veterans enrolled in ECHS in 2013. That represents a little over 40 percent of the veteran population in eastern Colorado.
“There’s 406,000 veterans residing in Colorado. Of that, 306,000 are combat veterans. That’s one of the highest percentages in the United States,” he said.
Jay Bobchick, a legislative chairman for the United Veterans Committee, says he is optimistic about the project being completed in under two years, despite its history of cost overruns and delays.
“When you have a project of that size, the largest construction project that has ever happened in the state of Colorado there are issues,” he said. “I’m confident we will see a hospital in 2015. Maybe the research center won’t be finished, but what we need immediately, yes.”