Virginia Hospital Center’s under-construction outpatient center has reached a new milestone.
After installing more than 2,000 steel beams, workers recently put in place the beam that tops the building’s highest point, project manager Skanska announced yesterday (Monday).
The installation “topped out” the 7-story facility adjacent to VHC’s campus at 1701 N. George Mason Drive. Representatives from Skanska, VHC and the construction company commemorated the milestone by signing this steel beam.
The hospital expects the outpatient pavilion to be complete in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to its project webpage.
“The topping-out milestone demonstrates the significant progress we have made on this important project with our final goal of providing a facility that will offer state-of-the-art care for patients in Northern Virginia,” said Dale Kopnitsky, general manager and executive vice president responsible for Skanska’s D.C. area building operations.
In mid- to late-January, Skanska expects to complete the structure of the facility, while the enclosure of the building has begun and will continue through the second quarter of 2022, a company representative said. Next month, work will begin on the interior and that will continue until December 2022.
The project, which includes a recently completed parking garage, was narrowly approved by the Arlington County Board in 2018 amid objections from some nearby residents. The 245,000-square-foot outpatient facility will feature physical and aquatic therapy rooms, an outpatient lab and pharmacy, surgery and endoscopy treatment rooms, and women’s imaging suites. After the move, the hospital will be able to add about 100 beds to its existing building.
The newly finished, 1,600-car parking garage includes three below-grade levels and six above-grade levels, as well as an indoor walkway connecting to the hospital.
A time-lapse video shows progress on the building through early summer.
Earlier this year a handful of families in the area told ARLnow they were dealing with discolored water, which they attributed to ongoing construction at VHC. Community leaders said at the time that the response to the “mini-Flint-like issue” — a reference to the Michigan city’s large-scale water crisis — had been frustratingly slow.
In response, Arlington County and VHC said they were working to resolve the discoloration, which they tied to the installation of a new water main.
Last month, Virginia Hospital Center purchased for $34.5 million a building at 1760 Old Meadow Road in McLean, where it will set up an orthopedic outpatient surgery center, Washington Business Journal reported.