Dive Brief:
- Skanska USA Building announced that it has been awarded a $62 million contract for the overhaul and expansion of Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, OK.
- Skanska’s scope of work includes the renovation of 130,000 square feet of St. Francis’ current surgery space — which houses 28 operating rooms — and a 15,000-square-foot surgery addition, which incorporates seven new operating rooms. The project also includes the addition of a 27,000-square-foot "mechanical penthouse" built on top of the current surgery area of the hospital.
- Skanska said it will manage the project, which is expected to begin in April 2016 and finish in 2020, from the company’s Texas offices.
Dive Insight:
In another major renovation contract recently, Skanska announced in February that it had won the $72 million contract to renovate and expand Washington DC’s largest elementary school, Lafayette Elementary. The modernization will increase the school’s square footage from 113,600 square feet to 120,000 square feet and includes a façade restoration, an overhaul of the section built in the 1930s, a larger parking lot, new play and field areas, green roofs and additional stormwater management elements. Upon completion, slated for November 2016, the school is set to achieve a minimum certification of LEED Gold.
However, in a high-profile controversy for the construction giant, the general contractor team of Skanska-Hunt was terminated in March from the $1.4 billion Washington State Convention Center expansion. The Washington State Convention Center Public Facilities District, reportedly after talks with its management consultant Pine Street Group, has expressed its intentions to hire another contractor, but Skanska-Hunt filed a lawsuit to prevent them from doing so. Pine Street Group representatives said the relationship with Skanska-Hunt was not "the right fit," but Skanska-Hunt said the firing was "shocking and tremendously disappointing," as the company had no indication convention center officials were not happy with its work.
