Plans for project are not yet final

By SUSAN BERG

Managing editor

Hutton Construction Company has been selected as construction manager for a St. Luke Hospital expansion and renovation project.

The board of directors of Marion County Hospital District 1 heard presentations from three construction management firms Friday — Hutton, Murray Company, and Simpson & Associates.

Plans for a proposed $5.2 million project have not yet been finalized, but previously the board had chosen Spangenberg Phillips Architecture of Wichita as architects of the project.

Hutton Construction was the general contractor of recent USD 408 projects — Performing Arts Center and the new Gym and Aquatic Center.

The company did $90 million in business in 2008, specializing in construction management. Of those projects, 44 percent were health care related.

Since the company’s 1992 beginning, it has been a part of 250 hospital projects, totaling $600 million.

Construction would take approximately 16 months.

As in past projects, Hutton said they would use local subcontractors as much as possible.

Hutton’s bid for managing the project was $224,000 to $233,000 or $14,000 to $14,600 per month. A $10,000 pre-construction fee or 4.5 percent of the total project also would be assessed. The total cost would be dependent on the duration of the project.

Murray Company’s estimate was $22,700 per month with $11,700 in pre-construction costs. The total cost would have been $295,103.

Simpson & Associates would have charged $13,000 per month.

“We were impressed with the experience of Hutton Construction and quality of work in Marion,” Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Armstrong said. “We also were impressed with the superintendent of the project who has 40-plus years of experience.”

Superintendent Lowell Peterson also supervised the school projects.

Armstrong said the next step for the board is to get financing in place.

Preliminary plans include a larger physical therapy department, new inpatient rooms, updated surgery and emergency rooms with private bays, improvements to the kitchen, a new dining room, and separate areas for cardiac rehabilitation, bone density scanning, and cardiac stress testing.

Patient rooms will be reduced from more than 20 to six or eight. The cost of each room is $160,000.

The hospital’s laboratory also will be updated to include a station for drawing blood and a patient waiting room.

One of the most noticeable changes will be the hospital’s front entrance.

The project will be completed in phases so the hospital will remain in operation.

The board will borrow much of the money to complete the project and hopes to repay the debt out of operating revenue. As a result, neither a tax increase nor approval by voters of the district will be required.

All of the work will take place on the current site of the hospital and living center.

A new hospital could cost as much as $12 million.

Renovations will begin next year.