The topping out milestone in the construction of Virginia Hospital Center’s new outpatient pavilion in Arlington, Virginia, has been achieved. Representatives from Skanska USA, VHC and Skanska’s construction partners commemorated the event by signing a steel beam which was then placed atop the seven-story building.
VHC, a community-based hospital, has provided medical services to the Washington, D.C.-metropolitan area for more than 75 years. When completed, the hospital will move its outpatient services to the new 245,000-square-foot facility providing direct, easy access for patients to treatment and examination rooms for outpatient physical and aquatic therapy, an outpatient lab and pharmacy, surgery and endoscopy treatment rooms and women’s imaging suites. Portions of the main hospital will be reallocated for critical inpatient services.
In order to reach the topping out milestone:
- An average of 35 steel beams were installed each day for three months, for a total of more than 2,000 beams – weighing more than 4 million pounds
- 5.7 acres of steel decking was installed
- 8,000-cubic-yards of concrete were poured (enough to fill about 2.5 Olympic size pools)
Skanska recently completed the new onsite parking garage at VHC adjacent to the outpatient pavilion. The garage includes three levels below grade and six levels above grade to hold more than 1,600 cars and has an indoor walkway that connects to the hospital.
