AURORA | Multiple sleek, shiny greeting stations now line the entrance to the four new audiology rooms that will be part of the future Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System Hospital in Aurora that is set to be finished by early 2018.
Nearly a year into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers taking over the $1.7 billion construction of the replacement veterans hospital — years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget — the project is now 78 percent complete and officials say they are confident the facility has overcome its cost issues.
Officials took reporters and photographers on a tour of parts of the 1.2-million square-foot facility Oct. 22, the first since VA officials hosted a tour of the site in 2015 when the hospital was only 55 percent complete and still requesting millions of dollars to from Congress to complete the hospital.
Today, Kiewit-Turner, the hospital’s contractor, has about 1,000 skilled workers per day employed on-site, said Andrea Rodriguez, a senior project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers.
The Corps, which took over managing the project last November, was awarded a $571 million contract to complete the medical center.
“While I had absolutely no faith in the VA, I have confidence that the Army Corps of Engineers is doing everything it can to bring down the price tag and complete this hospital as soon as possible,” said Congressman Mike Coffman, who was instrumental in the fight in Congress to strip the VA of its construction management authority to build this and other hospitals across the country.
Sen. Michael Bennet’s office said he, too, is looking for the next step.
“We are happy the management of the project has improved under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” said Bennet spokeswoman Laurie Cipriano. “Looking forward, we are pressing the VA to ensure the critical activation phase goes smoothly so our veterans have access to the world-class care they deserve.”
Members of the press were only allowed to tour certain portions of the future hospital, which included viewing the under-construction, quarter-mile long, 70-foot-high concourse that connects all 12 buildings. Reporters also toured the hospital’s radiology unit, the audiology clinic, and the future inpatient 30-bed spinal cord injury unit.
“It’s the first of its kind for the state,” Kevin Lindsey, the VA’s project executive for the hospital, said of the spinal cord injury center. “This is a crown jewel of the project.” Lindsey said the VA partnered with Paralyzed Veterans of America to design each of the spinal cord injury rooms to meet the needs of disabled veterans, with each patient being guaranteed a private bathroom in their room.
“We’re thrilled at the progress,” Lindsey said.
Eileen Williamson, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps, said the Corps will be handing over all of the clinic and research buildings to the VA when construction is completed in January of next year. She said the Corps will turn over inpatient buildings to the VA sometime in February or March of next year.
“We’re in various states of completion,” she said, describing the transference of buildings back to the VA when the Corps completes their construction as “staggered.”
Permanent power is now available at the site. Some parts of the hospital look patient-ready, with reception desks and cabinets installed, boasting calming blue or green paint on the walls. Light filters in through the many windows that line the design’s labyrinthine corridors.
“The architectural design incorporates as much light as possible,” said Rodriguez.
Corps officials say the project is still on track to cost $1.7 billion to construct with an additional $340 million activation cost that will be the responsibility of the VA. That cost, which the VA confirmed would add to the overall budget in April of 2015, involves moving surgical tools, laboratory equipment, patient monitors, waiting room furniture and hospital beds into the future facility.
In June Corps officials said they were looking for ways to save money since taking over construction management from the VA last year. The project is being led by 30 Corps employees working with a VA project team, according to project officials.
Imported Brazilian wood was scratched from the original budget-busting design. And a planned $10 million landscaping scheme was slashed to $2 million, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, which took over management of the project under the direction of Congress after the cost nearly tripled.
When completed, the 184-bed hospital will hold two inpatient buildings, two clinic buildings, a diagnostic and treatment center, a research building, concourse, energy center to power the building efficiently, as well as three parking garages for staff and visitors with 2,242 spaces. It will be located next to the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.