QUINCY — Construction of the new Quincy Valley Medical Center should reach an important milestone early next week. 

“Steel starts going up a week from today,” said Joe Kunkel, the project manager, during the QVMC commission meeting Jan. 22. 

The hospital project has been an object of curiosity for children in the neighborhood, including some who have asked QVMC Chief Executive Officer Glenda Bishop when there would be progress they can see. 

“You can tell your friend across the street, Glenda, he will be able to see it over the fence line,” Kunkel said.

Since demolition and construction began in October, work has proceeded behind a construction fence with a visual barrier.

Jessie Steiger of the Klosh Group, part of the team overseeing the construction, said during the meeting that the foundation has been poured and a lot of the underground utility work has been completed. Construction crews have finished the foundation work required for the hospital CT scanner and the hydrotherapy pool for physical therapy patients. 

Steiger said the project is still on budget and the maximum budget remains the same, $55.67 million. That includes construction of the building, new equipment for the facility, furnishings and all associated costs.

Construction was about five days behind schedule as of the end of December, Steiger said, mostly due to a shortage of workers for the subcontractor doing the cement work. Severe winter weather also affected the project schedule, Steiger said. Graham, the general contractor, figured out a way to make up the five days and get the project back on schedule.

“If we’d been five days behind schedule and we only had a month or two left in the project, we would’ve been very concerned,” she said. “But at this point, it wasn’t that big a deal and Graham had it under control,” Steiger said. “So we’re feeling pretty good about the schedule right now.”

One of the steel support beams will have a second purpose along with holding up the walls.

“Graham is going to take one beam that goes into the facility and set it aside for everybody to sign,” she said. “It’s kind of fun to sneak your name in there and have a piece of the building for the next 50 to 100 years.”

Some sections of the building permit are still under review, she said, but the contractor has received permission to start putting up the framing. Abram Jenks of the Klosh Group said the inspectors have asked some questions about the plans, which management personnel are working on answering.

While construction is still in its early stages, Kunkel said it’s time for hospital officials to start thinking about making the move from the existing building to the new one.

“We’ll start this summer, gearing up for (that process). How do you move into this building? How do you train in this building? How does workflow happen? Those sorts of things,” he said. “So we’ll start that toward the end of the summer, but we’re already starting to think about those things. It’ll be here before you know it.”

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

    Construction workers prepare the foundation at the Quincy hospital site.