A closer look, through the fog, at the work over the previous week:

Moving the steel: the crane in action

The patient care tower emerges

A vew from inside: steel intersection between the podium and the tower

Upper foundation rebar installation

It’s been a busy week since the opening of the new helipad site on October 28. Construction continued right through the ceremony and is in full swing again this week. Here are a few highlights, with more to come!

Crews complete the rebar installation and formwork in preparation of the concrete pour for the lower foundation.

Installation of the fire road retaining wall.

The former helipad was demolished October 29 in just three hours, giving access to the full footprint of the new building and beginning work on the rest of the foundation.

The upgrade of our Website is now complete, and we are back with more news and information with a renewed vigor. These past two months have seen a bit of a slowdown on our posts and social media program due to summer vacations and transitions here, but we are up and running again — and even more dedicated to making this site informative and useful to our staff, patients, neighbors, community and ever-growing network of friends.  If you haven’t yet taken the time to subscribe to our site, I encourage you to do so now. You will receive a notice only when new updates are provided, and we won’t inundate you with e-mails nor solicitations.

The Eden Campus has been alive with activity since we broke ground on July 1. Because of the tremendous progress, we have launched our “Photos of the Week” to complement the WebCam and give you a bit more detail on what the crews are working on.

Below are a few highlights:

Foundation Piers
The crews are continuing to drill and pour the foundation piers, the first phase of the new hospital’s foundation. What does it take for a hospital of this size? Crews will pour 570 piers altogether, some reaching 60 feet underground. They are moving at a rapid pace now, drilling and pouring 10 to 12 piers each work day. Once these are complete — although some work is done concurrently to prep the site — crews will begin work on the underground utilities such as electricity, sewer lines, storm drains and plumbing. They are also beginning installation of the grade beam rebar, and the photo below shows the site excavation and prep work for the rebar.

Temporary Pedestrian Bridge
While work is being done on the site, the current pedestrain bridge will need to shut down. To provide uninterrupted access from the parking garage to the hospital, the crews must build a temporary pedestrain bridge. One the land was excavated, crews placed the braces/beams and began the sheathing of the bridge.

Storm Drain and Fire Road
A new wall is almost complete on the north end of the site, and crews began work on the storm drain. A fire road is also under construction, and this past week the crews continued installation of the fire road retaining wall.

These are just a few highlights of the vast amount of work underway on site. We’ll have DPR Construction, the general contractor, provide more detail on the many phases of the construction.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you.

Construction continues this week as workers  focus on a temporary pedestrian bridge from the parking garage to the hospital entrance. This is a critical part of the walkway changes that make way for new access roads and fire lane to the site and to the parking garage. Work is also continuing on the relocation of the helipad, moving approximately 150 feet north.

The most noticeable work is with the large drill, crane and cement truck on site to drill and pour the piers. The work is steady, with 10 to 12 piers poured each day until all 570 are complete. We’ll post soon about the purpose of these piers and what to expect over the next month as the work advances.

George Bischalaney, President and CEO, Eden Medical Center

By George Bischalaney, President & CEO, Eden Medical Center

Health care reform is on the agenda, again. The stakes are high, but our President is determined to make some significant changes. As the discussion moves from general to specifics, special interests are staking out their positions. None of the stakeholders—hospitals included—wants to feel the impact or be at a disadvantage.

Amidst the demand for cost reduction and health care coverage for all, there is and must be continued investment in care. Physicians demand it. They expect to be able to practice with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to produce outcomes that meet national, state and local quality standards. Patients demand it. They want to know that their local hospital has the right number of well-trained staff as well as the latest diagnostic and treatment equipment, and contemporary facilities.

With this backdrop of conflicting needs, Eden Medical Center is about to begin a three-year project that will result in the replacement of the Castro Valley hospital. The project cost is estimated to be $320 million. The current 55-year-old building is anything but contemporary. With few private rooms, small operating rooms and inadequate support space for clinical services, a new hospital is very much needed.

Eden Medical Center has served the community well, but it was not designed for patient comfort and needs, more for staff needs and functionality. While our project may seem ill timed given the uncertainty of hospital reimbursement, we are required to meet California legislated standards for seismic safety in hospitals. And it truly is needed.

We’ll celebrate our long sought goal with a ground-breaking ceremony on July 1st. Then we’ll spend the next three years continuing the investment in the new buildings and equipment, while observing and hoping that decision makers do not enact legislation that essentially penalizes us for the commitment we are making. When we celebrate the grand opening and our new beginning early in 2013, it should be with the same hope and dreams as those who celebrated the first ceremony in 1954.