Samaritan Health Services is on a coastal building spree.

Over the past year, significant progress has been made on a pair of large hospital construction projects – one in Newport and another in Lincoln City. Crews at the former site recently completed the first of two major phases of work, while crews at the latter site are tackling rough-in, framing and mechanical, electrical and plumbing work. That new, 52,000-square-foot building will replace an existing wood-framed hospital.

The $42 million Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital project is on schedule to finish in October, within the planned budget, according to spokeswoman Mary Jo Kerlin. Following a switchover of personnel and other resources from the old building, the new hospital is set to open to the public in February 2020. The Lincoln City project was designed by HGA Architects. Skanska USA Building is serving as construction manager/general contractor.

Recently, Skanska’s crews of carpenters, laborers and cement masons were busy finishing sections of the single-story building’s roof slab, while Anning-Johnson carpenters were installing both interior and exterior metal framing. McKinstry has been tasked with MEP work, while Carr Construction performed the steel erection work. Knottworks Construction, one of the few Lincoln City-based contractors involved, carried out civil work and site concrete; later, it will perform additional concrete landscaping.

“The construction of our replacement hospital building has been a wonderful experience, largely due to the skill and professionalism of our design-build team,” said Dr. Lesley Ogden, CEO of both Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport. “I had the opportunity to be part of this project from the beginning, so I saw how our staff and community members were encouraged to provide valuable input and insight. This allowed the architects to design a building unique to our special needs in Lincoln City.”

In addition to constructing a new primary hospital, crews will remodel the existing Health Professions Education Center building to provide administrative space and physical rehabilitation services. The project also includes demolition of the existing hospital building, creation of a new main parking lot, half-street improvements on the campus’ west and south sides, as well as smaller campus improvements.

Both the front and back portions of the new hospital will have offer greater operational efficiency than those in the existing building. This will improve workflow and patients’ privacy, Ogden said.

“The number of dedicated patient rooms will be fewer than what we have currently, but the number of flexible-use spaces is greater,” she said. “The overall effect is more clinical space for better patient care.”

The new hospital is being built with sufficient seismic strength to allow immediate occupancy following a major earthquake. This is standard today for a critical care facility, according to Todd Predmore, a Skanska USA Building vice president and account manager.

In Newport, meanwhile, a $57 million project is under way for Samaritan Health Services. The team of Colorado design-build firm Neenan Archistruction and Corvallis-based T. Gerding Construction is carrying out a rebuild of Pacific Communities Hospital.

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Construction has started on a replacement for a piece of Oregon health care history.

General contractor Skanska USA Building and subcontractor Knottworks Construction are building the new $42 million Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital in Lincoln City. The existing one is said to be the last remaining wood-framed hospital in the United States.

The current hospital, near Devils Lake, has served the community since its opening in 1968. But it no longer meets local, state and federal building codes.

“A while ago we were given a waiver,” said Dr. Lesley Ogden, CEO of both Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport. “I’ve never actually seen the documentation, but that’s the lore; we were given a waiver to continue to operate. And so although the building has treated us very well – it has served its life beautifully – but it’s time for new facilities.”

The existing facility will remain in operation through the end of 2019, when the new one is expected to be ready.

The new structure is being built, of course, to seismic code for a critical care facility, Skanska USA Building Vice President and Account Manager Todd Predmore said.

“Nobody would do a critical access facility out of wood,” he said with a laugh. “There are structural requirements and there is all kinds of equipment secured from the ceiling.”

Another issued faced by coastal builders is the threat of a tsunami. Critical emergency facilities, including hospitals, cannot be built in a flood zone. Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital, however, is on a slight elevation above Devils Lake, just outside Lincoln City’s tsunami inundation zone.

Samaritan Health Services had been examining possible replacements for North Lincoln Hospital for over a decade. The major problem was financial. Officials were not confident that voters would pass a bond measure.

“We couldn’t see a way forward,” Ogden said. “The district and Samaritan weren’t sure the community could raise the amount of money needed for a full replacement hospital.”

In the end, a unique solution came about. The North Lincoln Health District, which owned the hospital property and buildings, agreed to swap its interest in those assets in exchange for a promise from Samaritan Health Services to build a new hospital.

The new hospital will actually have a smaller footprint than its predecessor. Aesthetics will invoke a woodsy, Pacific Northwest feel.

“It’s radically different,” Ogden said. “A lot of what we have here is natural beauty, so we’re trying to incorporate the feeling of you’re here in Lincoln City and there’s something special about being here.”

That refreshing change will be merely one that occupants will notice.

“The old facility has a lot of really wide corridors and circulation space that’s used for nothing more than really walking around,” Ogden said.

As such, the new layout won’t include any redundant spaces not dedicated to care of patients.

“The hospital challenged our team to think outside the box and design it differently,” Predmore said. “They wanted it to be as efficient as possible and take up as little space as possible and still be functional.”

This project is one of two at the Oregon coast being carried out by Samaritan Health Services. Approximately 28 miles south, in Newport, Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital is being rebuilt.

A partnership between Neenan Archistruction, a design-build firm from Fort Collins, Colorado, and Corvallis-based T. Gerding Construction is carrying out the $57 million project. It’s being paid for with bond money approved by voters in the Pacific Communities Health District.

The Newport project calls for renovation of some of the existing facility, a three-story addition and a seismic retrofit. Work is expected to wrap up by the end of 2019.

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