VA awards construction contract for new Denver medical center
The Department of Veterans Affairs has selected a contractor to build the Denver VA Medical Center replacement hospital.
The new hospital will be on the same campus as the University of Colorado Hospital complex in Aurora, site of the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. The new VAMC is estimated to cost $800 million, and construction is scheduled to be completed in 2014.
The VA selected Kiewit-Turner, of Englewood, Colo. The contract is valued at $1.313 million for pre-construction services to assist in the design of a new 206-bed tertiary care medical center with approximately 1.126 million square feet. This includes remodeling the current building on the south end of the site.
The project provides collaboration and joint operation of both the VA and Buckley Air Force Base/Department of Defense medical services on the new site. The DoD will have a separate clinic on the fourth floor of the south clinic building.
The VA will increase the number of employees at the new hospital from 1,815 to more than 2,000. Twenty-four architecture, engineering and various supporting firms will work on the new medical center.
The project includes a 120-bed tower with a 30-bed spinal cord injury unit, plus a separate 30-bed nursing home community living center. The new hospital will be close to the VA’s medical school affiliate, the University of Colorado’s hospital. Expanded telehealth, polytrauma and traumatic brain injury programs will be included.
