St. Louis-based McCarthy is serving as construction manager for the expansion, which will relocate services and provide improved wayfinding measures, making the hospital easier to navigate. Bates & Associates Architects of Springfield, Mo., is designing the project with Heideman Associates Inc. of Fenton, Mo., which is providing engineering services. The project is also implementing services from Sheet Metal Contractors of DeSoto, GWS Plumbing of Bonne Terre, Mo., and Goodwin Brothers of Festus, Mo., to provide construction services.

The new tower, with 90 private patient rooms, will tie into the south side of the existing facility. New corridors will connect the tower to the emergency department, imaging, surgical services and admitting areas. The scope of work also includes relocation of the helicopter landing pad and ambulance entrance and renovations to existing patient rooms. Once the new building opens, renovations will take place in the patient rooms in the existing building.

The overall cost of the project is estimated at more than $135 million, including about $80 million for the three-story patient tower. Relocation of the helicopter landing area, and ambulance entrance will be the first projects following the ground breaking.

“You’re probably not going to see the tower coming out of the ground until late this year or early next year,” said project manager John Farnen, executive director of strategic projects for Mercy, in a statement. “By late 2017 it should all be open.”

During the construction temporary entrances will be created while the new entries are built.

“A lot of the work will be in our main corridor, which will really help with access to services,” Farnen said in a statement. “All entries are being replaced or relocated, and every one will have a canopy.”

Each of the three floors of the new building will have 30 private patient rooms. Rather than centralized nursing stations, the new design puts the care staff closer to their patients. Efficiencies will also be gained by relocating services and the physician offices that provide specialized treatment to be in close proximity of one another.

When Mercy acquired Jefferson Regional Medical Center in 2013, the deal called for construction of the new building and private patient rooms within five years.

“Mercy has delivered on all of its promises,” said local hospital board chair Tonda Breeze in a statement. “We have added a new electronic medical records system, attracted many additional specialists and primary care physicians, and now have taken more steps toward an improved patient experience by beginning the conversion to private patient rooms.”

In addition to the new building Mercy will be adding improvements and expansion of its cancer treatment center including a new linear accelerator and aesthetic enhancements designed to improve the healing environment for patients.

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The St. Louis-based contractor McCarthy Building Companies Inc. announced the construction milestone on Dec. 20. HKS Architects, headquartered in Dallas, and St. Louis-based Archimages are serving as the project’s architects.

Following the devastation of an EF-5 tornado that hit the city in May 2011, the former St. John’s Regional Medical Center was left in ruin after it was directly hit. The tornado was recorded as the state of Missouri’s deadliest since 1947. The community quickly responded by planning the new replacement hospital, which began the planning stages in July 2011 and broke ground in January 2012.

“This is hallowed land that no longer belongs to Mercy but to the story of Joplin, of residents enduring a massive disaster by coming together to rebuild and move forward,” said Gary Pulsipher, president of Mercy Hospital Joplin, in a May 2012 statement. “We hope new uses of the campus can weave together as sort of a healing quilt for the city.”

The 260-plus private room replacement hospital will be larger than its predecessor and will include medical surgical, critical care, women’s and children’s, behavioral health and rehabilitation units. The 50-acre campus will also include a seven-story patient tower and a four-story clinic tower.

The milestone is on track with the construction team’s aggressive schedule, according to Ryan Felton, project director with McCarthy.

“In order to keep everyone on track, we have been managing quality through daily inspections, pre-installation meetings and by involving third-party building exterior consultants,” Felton said in a statement. “To date, all built-in-place mockup rooms have been completed, first installations have been verified, windows have been water tested and a thermography scan has been conducted.”

Offside roadwork, two permanent service elevators and a separate 30,000-square-foot central utility plant connected to the hospital via a 450-foot underground tunnel were also reached substantial completion. The central utility plant is expected to open in the early months of 2014.

The contractor’s 39-month schedule includes more than 750 tradesmen. In order to keep up with the aggressive schedule and ensure jobsite safety, McCarthy conducts weekly jobsite toolbox talks, weekly manager walks with all subcontractor managers and daily task hazard analysis.

“McCarthy has a strong quality assurance program that provides strong leadership and oversight of the building enclosure elements such as precast, window and roofing systems,” said John Farnen, executive director of planning, design and construction for Mercy, in a statement. “This includes inspections and testing of these systems during installation. On the Mercy Hospital Joplin, this process uncovered issues during the installation that were addressed and resolved preventing schedule delays. I am confident the McCarthy quality program will achieve the level of quality Mercy expects. McCarthy understands the importance of quality on the project and delivers it.”

The project is scheduled for completion in March 2015.

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