2022 DBIA Awards: Design-Build Delivery Critical to Ireland Army Health Clinic Project Success

The Ireland Army Health Clinic, located in Fort Knox, Kentucky, has won a 2022 Design-Build National Award of Excellence, in the Healthcare Facilities category. With a final construction value of $58.3 million, the new 101,000-square-foot clinic features site improvements such as outdoor therapy gardens, extensive parking areas, stormwater treatment facilities and pedestrian plazas/terraces.

The new clinic replaces an original 462,000-square-foot community hospital. Initial plans called for a replacement of similar size, delivered under a Design-Bid-Build contract. However, updated forecasts predicted fewer patients requiring different services, initiating a building redesign and a change to Design-Build delivery, which proved to be critical to the project’s success.

While there were 28 owner-initiated and approved changes that impacted the budget and final contracted completion date, the Design-Build execution of the clinic met the targeted “first patient date” — a significant accomplishment. This was the first Army medical project in 15 years to meet the owner’s goal set for “first patient date.”

Read more about this project and the DBIA awards at dbia.org.

Project Facts
Client/Owner: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Design-Build Firm, General Contractor: Mortenson Construction

Architect: CallisonRTKL

Engineers: Walter P Moore, Jensen Hughes, EVS Inc, Smith Seckman Reid Inc, and Terracon

Specialty Contractors: M&M Interiors, Academy Energy Group LLC, Lusk Mechanical Contractors Inc, Advanced Electrical Systems Inc, Kelsey Construction LLC

Construction Duration: 25 months