The Tampa General Hospital (TGH) project is one of Skanska’s more unique healthcare projects. It is located on an island on an extremely tight site surrounded by Tampa Bay. The project is taking four years to complete and its scope has grown significantly.
Skanska’s initial contract value with the Owner was a zero dollar agreement, so the job was bid out in phases (sitework, foundations, structure, shell and interiors) as the bid documents became available. Upon completion of all bid packages, the base building contract was $90.8 million. Additional work was added to the contract in the form of the parking garage expansion and the build-out of the interior shell areas on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors. The 4th floor build-out consists of LDRs, an IVF Center and four GYN ORs while the 5th floor build-out added 32 ICU rooms to the project. The build-out of the 6th floor is a new Digestive Diagnostic and Treatment Center. The final contract amount is $153 million which is reduced by approximately $30 million after deduction of materials purchased through the Owner Purchase Order Program.
Due to the growing cost of the project, Skanska brainstormed unique value engineering and cost-saving ideas. Steel was an extremely volatile commodity, both in price and supply. Skanska reviewed this risk with the Owner and was able to secure pre-purchased reinforcing steel in a one-time lump sum delivery to our steel fabricators shop prior to the major pricing jumps. Skanska utilized a ‘Cost Containment List’ of VE options and discussed it with the Owner to help reduce costs in order to meet the initial budget. Utilizing this list allowed open discussion and decisions made as a group as to what areas of the project could not be value engineered. One example of VE was in the interior courtyards which changed from precast to stucco. This lessened the cost while maintaining a high end exterior skin at the main exterior elevations.
Developing the project
One of the largest initial concerns for this project was the constraints of the project site. The hospital expansion is located on an existing campus with one perimeter loop roadway that had to be re-routed yet maintained 24 hours a day. This left little or no material lay down areas for project staging. Through close coordination with TGH and our Subcontractors, we were able to schedule deliveries and construction activities in a manner that minimized their impact to the operations of the existing hospital. Another initial concern was the lack of known locations for the existing underground utilities feeding the project. The old project as-builts were found to be quite different from the real field conditions. Discovery of a major Tampa Electric high voltage duct bank traversing the south portion of the site proved a major concern. Skanska was able to rephase the concrete structure erection sequences to help mitigate any major delays that the unforeseen subsurface conditions created with the original plan.
Constructing the project
Skanska worked with TGH closely through various mechanical system shutdowns over the course of the project. Over time, it was learned that each shutdown utilized two pieces of paper, one notice from Skanska to TGH and another internal shutdown notice that TGH required. The duplicate shutdown notice procedure caused to a certain a degree miscommunication and loss of information between all parties. Skanska devised a hybrid shutdown form that not only incorporated the aspects of the TGH Internal Shutdown notice but also expanded the form to include a shutdown ‘close-out’ procedure to make certain that the Owner was properly advised of any system changes made as soon as the changes were completed. This ensures the staff of TGH are properly informed on system changes so that they can determine if any other in-house work must be done after Skanska’s portion of the work was completed.
