QUINCY — Details of the design for the new Quincy Valley Medical Center are starting to take shape. Architects and construction experts are still working to nail down costs, said Joe Kunkel, the consultant working with QVMC on the project.

Kunkel said the design team had to make some revisions, but the new building’s size has been pretty well established.

The current design calls for eight inpatient beds, he said. A proposed design should be ready for district patrons to see by early May.

“Right now we’re sitting at just about 49,000 square feet, which is really about where we wanted to be,” Kunkel said. “I think the master facilities plan was 47,000 (square feet) and change, so I think we’re pretty darn close, and have been able to hold on to most of the important things we wanted.”

Hospital officials had added some services, a small pool in the physical therapy department being one example, which added to the square footage requirements. Some of those may be included in the final design, but they might not, depending on the cost.

Kunkel gave an update on the project at the March 27 meeting of the hospital commissioners.

“Right now you’re talking, on average, direct construction (costs of about) $760, $755 per square foot, so all this stuff adds up pretty quickly,” he said.

Design meetings are held weekly, Kunkel said, and cost is a focus at each gathering.

“We’ve got some ideas of places that we were trying to realize some cost savings,” he said. “Every week we are reviewing a handful of those.”

Architects have worked out the size of each department, and how they fit together within the building. Now the design team is working on the layout of specific rooms, he said, such as the location of electrical receptacles and storage cabinets.

Part of that process is building full-size replicas of the rooms so QVMC employees can walk through them and see if the proposed design actually works, Kunkel said. Employees were working through that process last week.

The design team will be hiring construction managers for the electrical and mechanical systems, he said.

“This will help us with our (cost) estimating, as these will be the people who are actually doing the work,” he said. “It helps us especially on this project because your construction time is short. We’re talking right now that your direct construction time could be 15 (to) 16 months.”

Some components of those systems will take a while to arrive after they’re ordered, Kunkel said, so it’s important to get them ordered early. Having contractors focusing on those systems will speed up that process.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at [email protected].

New QVMC basics:

About 49,000 square feet

$755-$760 per square foot

Funded at 39 cents per $1,000 of property value in the district

Total cost estimated at $36 million in mid-March

Max bond authorization for the project: $55 million

Architect: Trinity:NAC of Spokane ($3.29 million)

Cumming Corporation – Design/Construction review ($23,500)

General Contractor: Graham Construction and Engineering

SOURCE: Grant County Hospital District 2