Health Care: Best Project: UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital

UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital
Longmont, Colo.
Best Project

Owner: UCHealth
Lead Design Firm: EYP Architecture & Engineering
General Contractor: Haselden Construction LLC
Structural Engineer: Datum Engineers
Civil Engineer: JVA Inc.
MEP Engineer: Affiliated Engineers Inc. (AEI)
Landscape Architect: BHA Design Inc.
Key Subcontractors: Drake Williams Steel; Encore Electric; ISEC; JR Butler; Midwest Drywall; US Engineering

In just 14 months, the Haselden team took an empty site and built a state-of-the-art hospital for fast-growing northern Colorado. At times, there were as many as 450 workers on site. Still, the project logged zero lost-time accidents.

Timely completion was challenged by 22 severe weather days. In addition, the team had to contend with a historically registered irrigation ditch that ran through the site. The ditch became what Haselden called a critical path item and had to be relocated (some portions of it were replaced with box culvert) and operable by a certain date so that farmers could irrigate their land.

The project became an incubator for innovation, giving rise to increased use of prefabrication and code application. The widespread virtual design and construction collaboration led an Encore Electric team member to brainstorm the idea for the Denver VDC Cooperative, which is still growing after project completion.

The use of prefabrication transferred more than 34,000 hours from the field. That translated to 121 days cut from the schedule. Haselden attributed much of the prefab program’s success to teamwork. “We brought on our subcontractors as trade management partners early in the process to assist in completing the design,” the contractor said. “That helped eliminate the need for value engineering, which allowed us to preserve the design intent while ensuring constructibility.”

Approximately $7 million in owner-driven change orders added to the original scope so that the finished hospital could better serve the needs of the growing community. A large portion of that was finishing out nearly 10,000 sq ft of space initially planned to be shell only. The project team was able to absorb the major modification—along with several others—and still meet the original schedule.

Scott McGough, the hospital’s facilities manager, wrote to the contractor during construction, “Every time I visit the site, all my questions or opinions are fielded with consistent professionalism …. The team takes pride in their work, and it shows in the facility …. Please recognize all staff at the Longs Peak Hospital project for consistent professionalism, attention to detail [and] a caring, can-do attitude.”