ST. LOUIS, Mo. — McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is placing the final steel beam during a topping out ceremony on the new $116-million Mercy Orthopedic Hospital in Springfield, Mo.
The ceremony celebrates not only the placement of the last steel beam, but also the completion of the concrete frame, as the building's frame is actually of structural concrete. McCarthy self-performed the concrete in partnership with Springfield-based DeWitt & Associates. HKS Architects, Inc. and Archimages serve as project architects.
The 200,000-square-foot, four-story hospital is located on a 120-acre greenfield site. The facility includes a complete surgery center with 10 operating rooms, 52 inpatient rooms, imaging, physical therapy, pharmacy, food center, clinical center for 20 orthopedic surgeons and central energy plant.
The project broke ground in July 2011 and will complete in August 2013. So far, it has employed 700 tradesmen, with more than 2,500 tradesmen expected to work on the project throughout construction. The project has employed 93 percent local subcontractors, with 92 percent local man-hours to date.
Technology, techniques and tools used in construction include : 3-D modeling, electronic documents, concrete lift drawings, iPads and pre-fabrication.