Boldt focuses on details for hospital expansion

Boldt runs daily checks to make sure its foundation work for the expansion doesn’t cause movement in the original hospital. Photo courtesy of The Boldt Company

There’s a wall going up somewhere in Pennsylvania.

It’ll never leave the testing facility where it’s being built, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. In fact, that wall represents a top priority of Children’s Hospital at the Milwaukee County Regional Medical Complex.

And if it’s important to Children’s Hospital, then it’s important to The Boldt Company, which is building a 12-story, 420,000-square-foot, $100 million-plus expansion for the facility.

“Children’s Hospital has a major concern over infectious contamination and building performance,” said Nick Stromer, Boldt’s project director. “The construction is not the typical office building construction.

“When the weather is cold or when it rains, they don’t want leaks or condensation.”

And the Pennsylvania wall should give Children’s Hospital exactly what it’s looking for. Stromer said it’ll give the construction team a chance to see how the materials it plans to use for the expansion hold up against wind, water, heating and cooling.

The west expansion at Children’s Hospital gives the facility 12 stories for routine-care and intensive-care beds. Photo courtesy of The Boldt Company

“It tests the design and materials and sets the bar for field installation,” he said. “They will know based on the mock-up how their building will perform, but it also gives everybody involved a chance to kick the tires.

“It’s one way to build in quality; you’re not inspecting it in.”

It’s an attention to detail that’s become a theme during an expansion that will give the hospital additional space for routine-care and intensive-care beds as well as a pharmacy.

Before construction even started, Boldt, realizing that a big chunk of work would take place next to the original hospital, determined how construction would impact the people and sensitive equipment inside.

“We did noise and vibration testing last spring to see what effect it would have and get baseline readings on what was tolerable,” Stromer said. “It gave us parameters. We know a backhoe digging or a jackhammer next to the building did not affect [hospital] equipment, but driving equipment on the site does.”

That’s not to say that Boldt stopped driving equipment on the site. But as the project rounds into March with the foundation’s completion and preparations for structural steel, at least the contractor knows when to use a more delicate touch.

“It’s a hospital, and it’s a children’s hospital, and our No. 1 priority is making sure our customers can serve their customers without this project affecting that,” Stromer said. “They have to operate and function 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to heal sick kids.”

- Chris Thompson

Project Essentials:

Project Name: Children’s Hospital West Expansion
Location: Wauwatosa
Owner: Children’s Hospital and Health System, Wauwatosa
Construction Manager: The Boldt Company, Central Operations, Waukesha
Architect: Shepley Bulfinch Richardson and Abbott, Boston
Start Date: May 2006
Scheduled Completion: Early 2009

Project Fact

The expansion is at the main entrance of Children’s Hospital, so Boldt every day must manage the flow of 1,000 to 2,000 cars.