McCarthy Building Cos., Inc. reports that it has begun demolishing the former March Air Force Base Hospital in Riverside’s Moreno Valley to make way for construction of a $3.3-billion, 200-acre medical, “health and wellness city” known as March LifeCare.
Since July 2010, McCarthy Building Companies, the March LifeCare program master construction manager, has been working with U.S. Demolition Co. to raze a total of 22 buildings on the base before construction of the new facilities can begin. Bragg Crane Co. brought in an American 125-ton crane with a 145-ft boom and jib, lifting an 8,000 lb wrecking ball for the initial work. The hospital demolition is expected to be completed in three months.
Laura Barton, McCarthy assistant project manager, says the contractor is recycling much of the materials from the old buildings. “Concrete will be crushed then compacted back into the former basement areas, and the remaining concrete and asphalt from all the demolished buildings will be processed as aggregate base for future March LifeCare campus streets,” she says.
When completed, March LifeCare will include 6 million sq ft of healthcare related structures including a 550-bed hospital, a senior continuum of over 700 beds, medical office buildings, retail, ambulatory care facilities, education, research and training facilities, plus a hotel, a healing institute and a veteran’s facility. Construction is planned in phases and will provide some 12,700 local construction jobs and employ 7,200 permanent medical-related personnel when completed, according to McCarthy.
Architectural firm Ho+k designed the master plan for the March LifeCare Campus.
