QUINCY — Quincy residents are beginning to hear and feel, if not yet see, construction on the site of the new Quincy Valley Medical Center. 

The site has been cleared of three buildings, some trees and grass, and Tony Sanchez of Graham Construction said Monday that the next task is installing the pilings to support the new building, called geopiers.

“We drill eight to 10 feet (in) depth, fill them with rock and crush them down,” Sanchez said. 

Chris Colley, also with Graham, said the building requires 294 geopiers, with installation taking seven to eight days. Sanchez said residents in the neighborhood will hear and feel the rumbling that comes along with the compacting. 

“Beyond the geopiers, you’re going to start seeing footings and concrete (work at) the end of November, (early) December. You’re going to start seeing some formwork and concrete placement into December,” Sanchez said.

Graham managers on the project estimated the structural steel for the walls will start going up by the end of January.

The construction update came during a special hospital commission meeting to discuss approval of the last phase of the construction contract. It covers the bulk of the construction costs, and because of the way the contract is structured, will be the maximum cost the district will pay to build the building. 

Joe Kunkle, the project manager for QVMC, said what’s called the “guaranteed maximum price” came in over the budget projection. Hospital commissioners approved a GMP of $40.16 million on a 4-0 vote. That’s compared to Graham’s original projection of $38.5 million. 

The district had enough money in its contingency funds to cover the difference, Kunkel said, without requiring major changes in the project.

“Same number of beds, same number of exam rooms, same number of clinic rooms, all those parts and pieces. Same square footage,” Kunkel said. 

Abram Jenks of the Klosh Group, which is overseeing the construction, said prices went up between the last estimate in August and the time the bids were opened in mid-October. Initially, the mid-October construction estimate was $40.8 million, Colley said. The project managers and QVMC officials reviewed the design to see if there were places to cut costs, Kunkel said.

“There were some easy things to find,” Colley said. “But there weren’t enough easy things to find.” 

However, they did find some places to cut costs, Kunkel said. During the reviews managers and QVMC officials reduced the costs by about $627,000, Colley said. 

“These were not easy meetings,” said QVMC Chief Executive Officer Glenda Bishop. 

Construction managers had put some money aside in case prices increased, Jenks said. In addition, money was set aside during the design phase, and with the design phase over, that money could be applied to the construction budget.

“Does that cover the complete $1.6 (million) that we’re over (the construction estimate)? No, it does not cover it completely, but it comes close,” Jenks said.

The remaining money came from the project’s contingency fund for unexpected expenses. State mandates require a contingency of at least 5% on the project, Jenks said. Quincy’s contingency is still higher than that, he said, even with the construction cost going up. Both the contractor and the hospital are required to keep contingency funds, and between them the contingency is about 6.3%, he said.

“We are on budget, we have a GMP we are moving forward with, and we have our contingency,” Jenks said.

“There you go,” said board chair Randy Zolman after the board approved the GMP and applause broke out. 

Bishop expressed gratitude to the construction managers and the work they’ve put in to get the project to the construction phase. The new hospital is scheduled to open in 2025.

“Joe told me at one point that there would be a lot of milestones along the way,” Bishop said. “Groundbreaking would be one of them, but he also told me this would be another one of them. And it feels like that to me today.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

    Abram Jenks, one of the project managers for the new Quincy hospital, reviews the construction contract during a special board meeting.
 Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald