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Featured Construction Stories

The New Main Hospital Keeps Growing and Growing and Growing – December 2009

Most of structural steel columns, beams and metal floor deck are now installed.  By early January, the 12th and 13th floors will be completed and the steel will be “topped out.” The smaller tower crane will be “stretched” 134 more feet which will make it 321 feet tall. The iron workers have been very busy this month and have been working some extended hours to keep things on schedule.  Even though the weather is beginning to get more challenging, work on the columns, beams, metal deck and a significant amount of welding continue each day.

Concrete is being poured on floors seven through 10 and the required fireproofing of the beams and columns will begin. 

Some of the glass panels will be installed soon, giving all of us a good glimpse of how the building will appear when it is complete. Extensive testing has been done on a typical window that will be installed in the building to verify the performance of the window under very cold conditions, so that we are assured of minimal heat loss and condensation.

We are now preparing the space in front of the new main hospital for a two-level, underground visitor’s garage. The garage will be directly connected to the hospital by tunnels accessible to patients, families and visitors. The garage will be the length of two football fields and hold 425 cars.

A view of the east stair tower.	A mock up window was recently tested using liquid nitrogen to mimic cold conditions. The windows showed minimal heat loss and condensation.
Aerial view of the site (provided by Turner Construction).

Steel Beam Signing and a View from the New Main Hospital Seventh Floor

Over the past couple months, hundreds of employees, patients and families signed steel beams that will be part of the new main hospital. These beams will be hoisted into place in mid-January. Check out these videos showing one of the steel beams being signed and a view from the seventh floor of the new main hospital.

Family Dollar Relocating to 865 Parsons Avenue:

Family Dollar, CVS and Wendy’s are preparing to vacate their current spaces in the old Kroger’s plaza to allow for construction of our new Research III building. Family Dollar will be moving to a new building at 865 Parsons Avenue and CVS is moving across Livingston Avenue to the old Bobb Chevrolet site. Plans for Wendy’s are unconfirmed.

Nationwide Children’s partnered with Family Dollar to design and construct their new 8,100 square feet retail space at the corner of Parsons and Kossuth. The hospital embraced the opportunity to assist in providing an asset to the community on Parsons Avenue south of our Campus. The new store improves a site previously occupied by a vacant structure that was an eyesore and dangerous to neighbors. The new building is brick and looks as though it’s been part of Parson’s Avenue for many years. The store neighbors the Parson’s branch of the Columbus Public Library and is pedestrian friendly to benefit the surrounding residential neighborhoods. The store will open in late January 2010.

Family Dollar as seen traveling North on Parsons Avenue.

Family Dollar from the entrance of the library.

Street Name Change

The portion of the street between Livingston Avenue and the main hospital entrance you know as Ann Street recently received a new name.  Following a requirement from the City of Columbus to change the name, and to help patient families navigate our campus more easily, the street was renamed Children’s Gateway.  This doesn’t affect Ann Street south of Livingston Avenue, just the portion of the street on the hospital campus.

Installing the new street sign.

The finished product.

Creating Additional Beds

The new main hospital will fulfill a need for additional space to care for children. We need to be creative in making the best of our current space.

In the meantime, here are three examples of departments renovating to make additional room:

• Neurosciences Unit on A5W: minor renovations to accommodate five intermediate care PICU beds (with capacity to increase to 10 if needed). Project completed in early November of 2009.
• Hemoc Unit on J5: renovate J5 to accommodate Day Hospital relocation from C5. Project completed in mid-November of 2009.
• Acute care beds on C5: add restrooms and modify existing rooms/systems for five additional acute care beds. Completion slated for January of 2010.

Before picture of a new restroom on C5.

After picture of a new restroom on C5.

New two bay treatment room on J5.