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In Medford this week, crews broke ground on one of the largest health care projects in Oregon. Portland-based Andersen Construction began excavation and foundation work for a six-story, 323,600-square-foot expansion of Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center.

The new, $420 million patient pavilion will provide critical care, cardiac care and advanced surgical space, as well as two stories of women’s and children’s health care space 鈥� including a state-of-the-art neonatal intensive care unit. After the addition is completed (spring 2023 is the target date), 79,000 square feet of the existing hospital will receive renovations.

鈥淢ost of the capital improvement and master facility plan is focused on increasing our capacity for our highest level acute patients,鈥� said Mick Zdeblick, CEO of Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center 鈥� one of three critical care facilities in the Rogue Valley operated by Asante.

International firm HDR designed the patient pavilion. Jacobs Engineering is serving as a project management consultant.

鈥淚t’s a broader team approach,鈥� Zdeblick said.

Andersen Construction will work with Ashland-based Adroit Construction, which will tackle the renovations in the existing building.

鈥淎ndersen has been great to work with because we wanted to encourage our local subcontractors and contractors to be employed on this project,鈥� Zdeblick said. 鈥淎nd Adroit is a local company that knows our campus really well.鈥�

The patient pavilion building will be fairly standard when it comes to construction typology, said Jerrod Kowalewski, a project executive with Andersen Construction.

鈥淚t’s pretty cut and dried,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey set it up well for an addition when they built the last tower expansion. I’d say, really, it’s like any hospital work. It’s the tie-ins and the making sure we’re not disrupting the daily operations.鈥�

There are several logistical challenges, however, including an expedited design process, Kowalewski said. Plus, finding enough qualified subcontractors to work on a project of this size in Southern Oregon has proved difficult.

鈥淲e got brought on right when they were on concept last fall,鈥� he said. 鈥淗DR is designing a (large) expansion in 12 months. We’re all working remotely with the user groups, so it will pose a challenge because they’re designing at the same time they’re designing the renovation phase for after this.鈥�

Andersen Construction also is benefiting from its good relationship with Pacific Electric Group, according to Kowalewski. The union-affiliated subcontractor from Medford is teaming up with Oregon Electric Group on one of the project’s critical components 鈥� a series of prefabricated ceiling systems that will equip 20 new operating rooms.

鈥淥EG has a lot of (preconstruction) prowess and prefab experience,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd the idea is to have common racks for MEPS and trying to get everyone dialed in and building in their shops up here. We’re trying to minimize on-site labor as much as possible by doing as much prefabrication as we can.鈥�

The ceiling systems come with LED lighting, all required ductwork and all the boom supports for the operating booms.

Normally, the systems required in operating rooms create a substantial amount of congestion in the ceilings, said Ben Gengler, a senior project manager with Andersen Construction. This approach, known as a single large diffuser, integrates framing of the booms into the body of the diffuser, allowing installation in one piece.

鈥淚t minimizes overhead structure,鈥� Gengler said. 鈥淎nd with 20 new ORs, taking that approach is saving us weeks of work. It’s not necessarily a cheaper approach from a construction standpoint, but from time savings and efficiency, it’s a very big savings for us.鈥�

Wilsonville-based subcontractor Western Partitions Inc., renowned for its prefabricated wall systems, is scheduled to work on the project, Kowalewski added.

鈥淲e’re also looking a lot at the fa莽ade elements and seeing what we can do there鈥� with prefabrication, he said.

The building’s shell will feature structural steel atop a concrete foundation and one level of below-grade parking.

鈥淭he steel structure and concrete are going to be very conventional,鈥� Gengler said. 鈥淲e’re using side plate in lieu of brace frame construction. It’s a more expensive assembly, and it upsizes a lot of the columns, but we realize the time savings on the installation side.鈥�

The entire project was aided by extensive use of 3-D building information modeling (BIM) and augmented reality software, Zdeblick added. These tools allowed project team members and hospital staffers to virtually inspect the new pavilion as it was designed, give feedback, and further tinker with the pieces.

鈥淗DR created floor layouts and design elements in 3-D and gave that to our clinicians,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey were literally walking through the BIM or 3-D program and critiquing it that way.鈥�