Construction of new Samaritan Hospital forecast to begin this summer

MOSES LAKE — Revisions to the plans for a new Samaritan Hospital and an extra design planning workshop resulted in a request for additional payments to the architectural firm designing the project. Samaritan Healthcare commissioners approved the payments at Tuesday’s commission meeting.

Commissioners also approved a payment to Graham Construction and Management of Spokane to pay for subcontractors added to the team reviewing the construction plans.

Joe Kunkel, a consultant working on the project, said the requested revisions covered three different contingencies. Hospital officials and architects from ZGF, of Spokane, spent about eight months working on a design, including workshops with hospital employees and district patrons. The preliminary plan that resulted was bigger than anticipated and required review at an additional workshop. The cost was estimated at $235,000.

The estimate for the preliminary plan was more than the projected budget, Kunkel said. A review found 55 possible changes that would cut costs, which were reviewed in turn by hospital administrators. Adding those changes to the plan will require about three more weeks of work by the architects, Kunkel said. He asked for an extension to that portion of the contract through Feb. 21 at a cost of $250,965.

The payment to Graham Construction was $234,590 and will pay for review of construction documents by the subcontractors hired for electrical and heating-cooling work. Kunkel said it’s not an extra payment, but an early payment.

Kunkel said the project budget included money set aside for situations like this, and commissioner Tom Frick asked how much money was in that reserve, called a contingency. Kunkel said project managers set aside $11 million to $12 million in contingency.

Commissioner Alan White asked about the chances of more change orders as the project continues. Kunkel said he thought there would be more but didn’t anticipate they would be as expensive.

Commissioner Joe Akers said he anticipated construction would begin this spring, but CEO Theresa Sullivan said it’s more likely to be this summer.

Hospital commissioners voted in March to build a new 50-bed hospital on property on Yonezawa Drive. Kunkel said the next step will be completion of the construction plans, after which the project will be advertised for bids.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at [email protected].