Turner gets surgical with $225M University of Kentucky health education building contract

Dive Brief:

New York City-based Turner Construction is building on its experience with medical projects with a new $225 million health education facility contract.
The University of Kentucky selected Turner to build a health education building on its campus in Lexington, according to a Turner press release. The university’s four healthcare colleges will use the building. St. Louis-based architect HOK and Lexington, Kentucky-based JRA designed the project
The building will be approximately 450,000 square feet and six or seven floors high. It will include classrooms, simulation suites, conference rooms, as well as office and support space, according to the release.

Dive Insight:

David Opalka, a construction executive at Turner, told Construction Dive that during the University of Kentucky build, the team will have to pay particular attention to site logistics and just-time deliveries. The jobsite, according to Opalka, is a “tight site,” located in the heart of the Lexington campus. Opalka said the team will emphasize prefabrication and modular construction in order to cut down on labor and equipment presence, and make better use of the land area.

Turner continues a strong start to the year after maintaining its No. 1 spot on the ENR Top 400 Commercial Contractors list for the second straight year. Turner dethroned Reston, Virginia-based competitor Bechtel, which had previously held the top spot for two decades. In 2021, the company generated $14.3 billion in revenue to secure its top status.

With this project, Turner adds another medical and health-related contract to its arsenal. Other such projects include a 32,000-square-foot radiation oncology treatment center for Kaiser Permanente in California and a 70,000-square-foot medical office building for Olathe Health in Kansas. Turner is also working on a $25 million project on another University of Kentucky project at the Chandler Medical Center’s Pavilion A, Opalka said.

Groundbreaking on the health education building project is scheduled for 2023, and it is slated to be finished by the first quarter of 2026.