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POWER LIST: ENGINEERING

Last year, as the coronavirus pandemic ramped up, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers enlisted Portland-based PAE, ZGF Architects and the Portland office of Turner Construction to convert a medical clinic into one able to serve COVID-19 patients with non-severe symptoms.

On March 8, 2020, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced a state of emergency. At that point, the state had seen 77 reported cases of COVID-19. By the time construction started April 17, the number of reported cases had risen to roughly 2,000, according to data from Oregon Health Authority.

The existing facility had an intake area and was almost set up like a field hospital in the Eugene-Springfield area, PAE principal Dave Williams said. The structure, which had sat abandoned for the past couple of years, was intended to support the hospital nearby if its intensive care unit became too busy.

The site would have been used as a temporary satellite ward; however, COVID-19 hospitalization levels did not ascend high enough for the facility to be needed.

Nevertheless, the 17,000-square-foot, 43-bed facility was built in rapid time. Typically, construction of such a project would require six to eight months, Williams said, but this one was completed within 17 days.

PAE worked to upgrade the air filtration to that national standard, install new fans, and make sure the existing systems within the clinic were functional. Williams said he was even on calls with every vendor in the area to see what parts they had in stock because of the project鈥檚 accelerated schedule.

鈥淓verything was moving so quickly,鈥� he said.

The project team worked rapidly to prepare for the worst-case scenario and to ensure the infrastructure was ready and in place for it.