Navy Surgeon General Visits New Naval Hospital Construction Site

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (NNS) -- Surgeon General of the Navy and Chief of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Vice Adm. Matthew Nathan, toured the replacement Naval Hospital construction site aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Oct. 18.

The new hospital is about two thirds complete and is a 500,000 square foot, multi-level facility that will included improved inpatient medical facilities, ancillary departments, specialty care clinics, operating rooms and support spaces.

The current Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton supports a patient population of approximately 151,000, and is mostly comprised of active duty service members, retired military and their dependents, and has a staff of 2,100 military and civilian personnel.

"We have to demonstrate to... the men and women who suit up, join the military [and] go in harms way, their families and those who left a legacy for us to follow, that we're going to give them every modern convenience and every evidence based building, facility and quality we can in Navy medicine," said Nathan.

The project is the largest construction contract awarded in the Department of the Navy and has a value of $455 million with funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

The project began in 2010, on a compressed timeline with an estimated completion date of January 2014. Since the project is funded by the ARRA, its funds obligated for construction are set to expire in September 2013.

"Normally a hospital of this size would take about seven years to build, we have three and a half years from breaking ground until finished to get this hospital done," said Lt. Adam Christopher, senior assistant resident officer in charge of construction. "So that's been a huge challenge, and we've stepped up our design build contractors, partners have stepped up to help us get there, and get where we are now and we're on track to meet that timeline."

With a compressed timeline the crew works on a back-to-back schedule, putting the project ahead of schedule.

"We're giving them the time they need to get their work done, and we're piggy-backing the next crews behind them and getting the logistics chain of materials so they can get work done," said Christopher. "They actually built their own work timeline, committed to it, we held them accountable to it... and that is what gained us 39 working days of FLOAT which is ahead on the schedule."

The project is expected to benefit the local community by employing 700-1,000 construction workers daily.

"This is a stimulus project, so we are actively employing about 1,000 people from the local and surrounding areas," said Cmdr. Whit Robinson, resident officer in charge of construction. "The new location of the hospital is strategically placed at the I-5 corridor which will incorporate easier access for all the folks who are living off base; the old hospital is located about 11 miles inside the base."

For more news from Navy Region Southwest, visit www.navy.mil/local/cnrsw.