Team Wraps up Construction on Fort Belvoir Community Hospital

Turner Gilbane, a joint venture between Turner Construction and Gilbane Building Company, is pleased to announce substantial completion/Beneficial Occupancy Date on the state-of-the-art, 1.27 million-square-foot Fort Belvoir Community Hospital (FBCH). The hospital was constructed for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the federal government’s Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC) Program and was designed to increase hospital and outpatient care to all service members and veterans under BRAC 2005. Designed by the architectural team HDR/Dewberry, the new world-class facility combines technology and data to advance healthcare for the U.S. military and replaces the DeWitt Army Community Hospital.  It will absorb some patients from the recently closed Water Reed Army Medical Center.

“This hospital will set a new standard for military patient care, and we’re so proud to have played a role in that,” says William J. Gilbane, Jr., president and COO of Gilbane Building Company. “It was a complex project up against the tight demands of the BRAC deadline, but the end result is truly remarkable.”

The FBCH consists of (1) nine-story main hospital building, (2) three-story clinical buildings and (2) two-story clinical buildings. The design of this unique and innovative facility includes 120 in-patient beds, 10-bed intensive care unit, 10-bed behavioral health inpatient unit, cancer center, emergency department/ICU, pharmacy, operative services center with 10 operating rooms, diagnostic centers such as pathology and radiology, cardiac catherization units, orthopedic services, physical therapy, and modular clinic space dedicated to outpatient services. In addition, the complex includes an ambulance shelter, helipad, two parking structures, central utility plant and utility tunnel. Design also includes logistics and administrative services, food services, a chapel and other amenities. 

With the normal 10-year procurement cycle needing to be reduced to a five-year process in order to meet the BRAC timeline, the FBCH was designed and constructed using Integrated/Design/Bid/Build (IDBB).  This process enabled coordination between the hospital design firm, Turner Gilbane and key partner trade contractors to increase constructability and provide accurate cost/schedule impacts of both design decisions, resulting in few design omissions and errors. Using the IDBB process enabled the Corps of Engineers to establish a construction contract on the hospital long before the traditional processes would have allowed.

The Fort Belvoir facility design includes sustainable features throughout. FBCH has achieved a LEED Silver certification and is striving to attain LEED Gold.  FBCH will reduce environmental impacts on Fort Belvoir and surrounding communities, foster conservation and sustainability practices.