The U.S. Navy has exercised an option authorizing Advantech to continue implementing a contract providing a dozen hospital construction experts to augment Navy staff as part of the new $451 million naval hospital at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego, CA. Jack Fraser, P.E., Advantech president/CEO, made the announcement.
The stimulus hospital project, the largest the Navy has under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will replace the current hospital, built in 1974. Thousands of engineers, construction workers, architects, and military and civilian contractors have contributed to the project which recently passed the halfway mark. Lessons learned from other projects have also guided current success.
"The Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest team extensively researched lessons learned from over 20 hospital visits, to include the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (Maryland), Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (Virginia), Palomar Pomerado Hospital (California), Las Vegas VA (Nevada), and both the UCSD and UCLA hospitals in California. The choice to augment the Navy field team with contracted expertise was a clear step in the right direction to provide flexibility and specific skill sets when needed while providing proficiencies in areas that NAVFAC normally does not possess. The composite organization now provides a blended team of employees familiar with NAVFAC business procedures, Camp Pendleton-specific organizational knowledge, hospital construction and design, medical gas, hospital commissioning, and proficiency in OSHPD certification for California. Although not required to be OSHPD certified, many aspects of the hospital design were required to meet the stringent requirements of the California safety code for seismic design," says Commander Whit Robinson, NAVFAC Southwest Resident Officer in Charge of Construction (ROICC), Replacement Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton.
The new facility, expected to open in 2014, will feature open spaces for natural light and includes a central atrium. There will also be a reflection and meditation area that will have a wall inscribed with the names of Medal of Honor recipients. The new hospital is part of a 70-acre site that will also have a central utilities plant, a 1,500-space multi-level parking structure, 1,500 outside surface parking spaces, and associated supporting facilities.
According to Fraser, his staff has been coordinating with the Navy since February; they consist of professional engineers, inspectors, technicians (including medical gas inspectors), and safety professionals. Advantech continues to provide civil/electrical/mechanical/structural engineering services as well as architecture and interior design consultation. The staff augmentation consists of 12 professionals overall to support the ROICC at Camp Pendleton.
NAVFAC is the Systems Command that delivers and maintains facilities, acquires and manages capabilities for the Navy's expeditionary combat forces, provides contingency engineering response, and enables energy security and environmental stewardship.
Advantech GS Enterprises (www.agse.us) is a San Diego-based multidisciplinary Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) company providing engineering, environmental and construction management, construction materials testing, and staff augmentation services to support government requirements. Advantech is certified as a HUBZone Small Business by the Small Business Administration and as a Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE) and a Small Business Enterprise (SBE) by the State of California.
Editor's Note: See two articles Progressive Engineer Magazine has published on NAVFAC at
No comments:
Post a Comment