A crowd of health care employees, construction workers and county officials watched Thursday as a 70-ton crane lifted a white 12-foot steel beam into place at the future Sutter Medical Center in Santa Rosa.
Two construction workers soon bolted down the 400-pound beam, completing the steel frame for the $284 million hospital next to the Wells Fargo Center.
Mike Cohill, president of Sutter Health's West Bay region, called the completion of the steel work a "significant milestone" for the future hospital.
Cohill recalled that in 1996 Sutter made a commitment to provide health care as part of its lease and takeover of the old county-run Community Hospital.
"This new hospital really memorializes that commitment," he said.
Cohill was on hand Thursday as Sutter celebrated the steel work with a "Topping Out" party. An estimated 300 people stopped by to sign the last beam and to lunch on sandwiches, salads and barbecued oysters.
Seated beneath a white pavilion, the crowd applauded when Cohill reported that over the past 16 years Sutter has provided $250 million in charity care to county residents.
County officials praised Sutter for providing an estimated 1,500 construction jobs with the project, and for its presence in the community. Sutter employs about 850 people in Sonoma County.
Shirlee Zane, chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors, said the new facility will open in two years, a time when an estimated 60,000 more county residents will qualify for health coverage under the federal health care law.
"It's great timing," Zane said.
The project general contractor, Unger Construction of Sacramento, provided a few facts about the materials already in place:
16,500 cubic yards of concrete, enough for a sidewalk from Santa Rosa to the San Francisco International Airport.
1,850 tons of structural steel, equal to 1.8 billion paper clips, enough to chain together and wrap around the equator.
820 tons of reinforcing steel, or rebar, which if laid end-to-end would stretch from Santa Rosa to Bakersfield.
Steel workers began construction in January and soon will be departing, said Matt McEuen, project manager for the steel installer, California Erectors of Benicia.
Much work remains for the two-story, 184,000-square-foot hospital, slated to open in October 2014. Construction workers next will enclose the building. About half that work is expected to be completed by winter.
At the same time, improvements on Mark West Springs Road and the expansion of the the Highway 101 offramp there are expected to be completed by the end of the year. Improvements at the intersection of Mark West Springs and Old Redwood Highway begin next year.
When completed, the hospital will feature
82 beds, all in private rooms, plus 24 beds in an outpatient, universal care unit.
The facility will be among the top 1 percent of California hospitals in terms of green construction, Sutter officials said.
You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com.
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