QUINCY — A request for proposals for a general contractor to build the new Quincy Valley Medical Center could be issued by early December.

Joe Kunkel, the consultant working with hospital officials on the project, said whether or not the RFP goes out in December depends on approval of a district request to the Capital Projects Advisory Review Board.

“This is a state agency that gives the opportunity to public agencies like yourself to use a construction management-general contractor approach in lieu of doing a hard bid,” Kunkel said.

Normally a public works project is designed first, then is advertised for bid, Kunkel said. Quincy hospital district officials want to hire a general contractor to be part of the design process.

“So they can help as you are (designing) this, they can do estimates throughout the project, they can do constructability reviews as your project is being designed,” he said.

The involvement of a general contractor allows for a more precise estimate of costs, he said, and also makes it easier to revise the project to respond to changes in the construction market.

The review is scheduled for Dec. 1, Kunkel said.

“A 20-minute presentation is all you’re allowed,” he said, “and then they vote on the spot. So my expectation would be that we will have our homework done and we will get our approval that day. And our intent is to have our RFP actually ready to issue as soon as we get our approval,” Kunkel said.

The proposals will be reviewed by QVMC administrators and the hospital board, and the two or three top candidates will be interviewed. Kunkel said he expected the board would hire a general contractor in January.

In the meantime, architects from Trinity:NAC, the firm designing the project, will be doing analysis to confirm some general outlines for the design.

“Square footage, and types of space,” Kunkel said. “Let’s confirm how many ER exam rooms we need. How many clinic exam rooms do we need?”

All sections of the hospital will go through that analysis, he said.

“This is the ‘measure twice, cut once’ moment, because it’s going to kind of set the edges for this project going forward,” Kunkel said.

More detailed design analysis will be underway from now through the end of January; Kunkel called it schematic design. During that process the architects work with QVMC staff and managers to discuss how the different departments in the building would connect with each other, and analyze the whole project to get the most efficient use of space.

“We’ll look at a one-story option, we’ll look at a two-story option,” Kunkel said. “You don’t want to leave any stone unturned.”

Architects will begin visiting QVMC to talk to employees and administrators as part of that process.

“You’re going to start to see our architects on site more often,” he said. “We’ll start to meet with the users on a more regular basis, probably every three weeks.”

Hospital board chair Randy Zolman asked about the helicopter landing pad, and whether the new landing pad’s location would require moving utility lines or other infrastructure. Kunkel said it was too soon to tell.

“Would it be easier to put that helipad on the roof?” Zolman asked.

“It would be something for us to consider,” Kunkel said. “It is a cost issue, because if you had a helipad on the roof, you need to have a building that can handle it.”

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