McCarthy Completes $10.3M Design-Build Parking Structure at Scripps Memorial Hospital

SAN DIEGO — McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has completed construction of the new 884-space parking structure on the existing Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas campus, located at 354 Santa Fe Drive, Encinitas, Calif.

Scripps Health is the developer of the $10,278,964 design-build parking structure, which replaced a surface parking lot. The project represents the first phase of a planned $200 million expansion of the Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas campus.  Future expansion plans call for construction of a two-story, 60,000-square-foot critical care building that will house 27 emergency department beds on the first floor and 36 private acute care beds on the second floor. Farther-reaching plans include expansion for outpatient services, medical office space and additional critical care and inpatient beds to serve the community well into the future.

The new 278,000-square-foot parking structure accommodates five levels of parking, including one subterranean and one rooftop level. The structure consists of Class II cast-in-place reinforced concrete, which McCarthy self-performed. The exterior features a combination of concrete and EIFS synthetic stucco. The scope of work on this project by McCarthy also entailed related site work, including landscaping, installation of irrigation systems, and significant rerouting of existing utilities.

An official grand opening ceremony for the new parking structure was hosted by Scripps Health on April 29, 2011, and was followed by a gala reception that evening to honor the private donors, staff, physicians and community members who are making the campus expansion possible. Earlier this month, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas received a $5 million gift from a charitable Rancho Santa Fe family, bringing the total amount of philanthropic gifts raised for the hospital’s growth plan to $25 million.

“We’re exceptionally grateful to the individuals and families who have supported our organization’s mission to provide an unprecedented level of health care to the San Diego community,” said Carl Etter, chief executive of Scripps Health. “The completion of the new parking structure at Scripps Encinitas is a major milestone reached in our overall expansion plan.  We’re very pleased with McCarthy’s performance and how well this construction project turned out.”

The construction site for the new parking structure was in the heart of the existing hospital campus, and therefore posed significant ingress/egress and subcontractor scheduling challenges. According to McCarthy Project Director Robert Betz, McCarthy worked closely with Scripps Health to devise and implement a plan that minimized disruption to ongoing traffic and activities at the hospital during construction, and created a highly favorable outcome. The project was successfully accomplished within budget and a short, 12-month construction timeline.

“An interesting aspect of this construction project was that it benefited a large section of Encinitas shoreline,” said Betz. “Working with the City of Encinitas, we hauled approximately 16,000 cubic yards of excavated, good-quality sand to Moonlight Beach to replace sand lost to erosion. The operation proved worthwhile and will ultimately provide considerably more play area for beachgoers.”

International Parking Design is the architect-of-record. Jessen-Wright was the structural engineer, E3 Design Group was the electrical engineer, B&P Associates was the mechanical engineer, and Latitude 33 served as the civil engineer. M.W. Peltz & Associates was the landscape architect.

The Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas expansion is part of numerous improvements being made throughout the Scripps Health System.  McCarthy just began construction for the new 383,000-square-foot Scripps Cardiovascular Institute and adjacent 26,000-square-foot Central Energy Plant on the Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla campus, in La Jolla, Calif.  Construction of this new $456 million, state-of-the-art facility is scheduled for completion in January 2015.

Scripps Health also contracted McCarthy for the 13,796-square-foot expansion of the Scripps Mercy Hospital Emergency Department in central San Diego. This project involved realignment of Fifth Avenue, which constituted phase one. McCarthy crews have topped out steel on the new addition, named the Conrad Prebys Emergency and Trauma Center, which comprises phase two and is scheduled for completion in December of this year. Phase three will involve remodeling of the existing Emergency Department and exterior parking lot.

McCarthy is the nation’s 10th largest domestic general contractor (Engineering News-Record, May 2010) and has been one of the nation’s leading parking structure builders since the advent of the modern parking structure in the 1960s.  The company has delivered nearly 400 parking facilities throughout the United States, with parking spaces for more than 70,000 cars in California alone. The firm offers general contracting, construction management, program management and design/build services for parking structures; healthcare, educational, mixed-use, laboratory, biotechnical, retail, entertainment, industrial, multifamily and microelectronics facilities; office buildings; tenant interiors; and bridges and highways. In addition to San Diego, McCarthy has offices in Newport Beach, Sacramento and San Francisco, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; St. Louis; Dallas and Atlanta. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas is one of five acute care hospital campuses in the Scripps Health system, a non-profit health care organization based in San Diego, Calif.  In 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, Scripps was named a 100 Best Companies to Work For® by FORTUNE magazine. Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas is North San Diego County’s first certified primary stroke center, first World Health Organization designated baby-friendly hospital in San Diego, and the only CARF-accredited brain injury program in San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties.  Scripps Encinitas offers a full range of clinical and surgical services, including 24-hour emergency services; intensive care; cancer/oncology; orthopedics; neurology; urology; ophthalmology; a Level II neonatal nursery; award-winning OB/GYN and maternal and infant health services; and an ambulatory surgery center.  With more than 650 physicians, 1,400 employees and 158 beds, Scripps Encinitas has served the growing communities of San Diego’s North County since 1978.