“It’ll kind of look like the bridge to nowhere for a while, said David Verinder, chief operating officer of the hospital, which is entering the hyper-active part of its $250 million overhaul.
Construction on the bridge will start in September, three months before construction manager Skanska USA starts work on the crown jewel of the project, the new nine-story Courtyard Tower. The bridge, as hospital bridges do, will connect each floor of the East Tower to each floor of the new tower.
The nearly three-year-old, multi-phase construction project still has another three years before completion. Earlier phases may have appeared busier because they included very visible projects, including demolition of the power plant and the Ortho Building fronting U.S. 41 and construction of a new $63 million energy plant toward the west end of the hospital campus.
While much of the work going on this year has been less visible, there’s been more of it, evidenced by onsite construction employment growing from 259 to its current level of 316.