Project Updates

• Great Progress is Being Made at All Three Sites - 8/2011
• Hawthorne Avenue Weekend Closure - July 29, 30, 31
• What a Difference a Year Makes! 5/2011
• Invitation to Groundbreaking - 10/2010
• Save the Date for Groundbreaking - 10/2010
• Demolition Breakfast for Three - 9/2010
• Closures and Changes Around the Merritt Pavilion - 8/13/2010
• Temporary Closure of Merritt Garage Entrances - 7/13/10

Great Progress is Being Made at All Three Sites - 8/2011

Alta Bates Campus

Exterior work:
The exterior of the Alta Bates Campus will have beautiful improvements including landscaping and an exit ramp that will run the length of the hospital along Colby Street. These enhancements require demolition of the existing concrete paving in front of the building during the week of August 8. A sound blanket will be in place to help reduce the noise level during the week of demolition. The shuttle and patient drop-off area will not change during this time.


Artist’s rendering of exterior plantings and containers just before the main entrance of Alta Bates.

Interior work:
Crews have been working on the main lobby, upgrading and improving of our elevators and constructing the new Family Resource Center.

Elevator upgrades, including modern, new interiors, should be completed by the end of September. We appreciate your patience with intermittent closure of elevator service while these changes are made.

Renderings of interior of the new Family Resource Center are featured on the temporary walls and we expect completion by the end of the year. In addition to the resource center there will be a Women and Infants Education Conference Room, Ante Partum Testing Area, Reading Room and a Lactation Center.

Finally, flooring improvements to the entire lobby area will be made – with most of the work happening after hours.


Artist’s rendering of the front desk at Alta Bates.
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Summit’s Patient Care Pavilion

You can’t miss the 259-foot crane now in position on the site. Normal CALOSHA inspections were completed last week and the crane has now begun the year-long process of building the foundation and erecting the structural steel and exterior skin for the pavilion. Foundation work will wrap up in approximately two months with structural steel becoming visible in October.


View of the tower crane from below the Providence Garage.

The tower is an incredible piece of equipment with a trolley/hook attachment that can reach out 169 feet and hoist 26,460 pounds. A wireless camera is attached to the block above the hook with a computer screen in the cab so the operator can see what and where he is lifting and placing materials.


The cab of the tower crane. It takes the driver 30 minutes to climb up to this location!
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New Parking Structure

Progress on the new garage is visible every day. Now that the first deck is completed, crews are in a cycle that builds an additional deck every three weeks. With a total of six decks, we anticipate completion by late November.


The entrance of the new garage from Telegraph Avenue.

A typical week consists of adjusting the tension of the deck floor cables on Mondays, followed by concrete pours of vertical columns and shear walls on Tuesdays and Fridays and pouring a third of the deck on Thursdays. After three weeks the cycle of each deck is completed and the next deck begins.


Working on the second deck of the new garage.

If you have any questions or concerns, please call our Construction Hotline at 510-869-6840.
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Hawthorne Avenue Weekend Closure - July 29, 30, 31

The next major phase of our building project will be the installation of a 250-foot tower crane at the site of the Patient Care Pavilion on Hawthorne Avenue.

The crane will be delivered and then assembled Friday, July 29 through Sunday, July 31, and remain in place for approximately one year.

To erect the tower crane, we must close Hawthorne Avenue between Webster Street and Elm Street over the weekend from Friday, July 29, at noon until Sunday, July 31, at 11 p.m.

Webster Street and the circular driveway/patient drop off area at the hospital’s entrance will remain open.

Hawthorne will be closed from Elm to Webster and the Hawthorne/Summit intersection will be completely closed to traffic. In order to access the Providence Garage, all traffic will be required to use 30th Street to reach Summit Street.

All pedestrian routes will remain the same, with flaggers in place to assist. The vehicle and foot traffic plan for this three-day period is pictured below.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please call our Construction Hotline at (510) 869-6840. For more information on the project, please browse the web site at www.altabatessummit.org/facilities.

Click here to view a larger map



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What a Difference a Year Makes! 5/2011

A year ago on May 19, the City of Oakland gave us the OK to start rebuilding our campus, ensuring that we can meet the needs of our patients and employees with a seismically safe environment and a new parking garage that will make access easier for all. Demolition began on August 19, 2010.

Much has happened in the last 12 months. We’ve redirected traffic, demolished buildings, held a ground breaking ceremony, fed elephants, dug pits into the earth, watched equipment and cranes come and go, placed about 1,963 pilings (ranging from 35 – 85 feet deep), poured
concrete and are now preparing for the next phases in these two important projects.

• View Photos Highlighting the First Year

During the next three months:

• You will see even more excavation at the pavilion site to make way to receive reinforcing steel and concrete as part of the Patient Care Pavilion’s foundation.
• Concrete trucks will deliver and pour foundations and walls for the garage and pavilion.
• And, in late July crews will position a 259-foot tower crane where the pavilion will be built to assist in completion of the foundation and begin construction of the structural steel for the 11-floor new building (with two additional floors below ground).
• Structural steel will begin in October.
• We will also install a new traffic light at the intersection of Telegraph and Hawthorne avenues.

The new seven-level parking structure will provide 1,080 parking stalls. Excavation, shoring walls and piers into the earth are complete, the foundation now has about 3,500 yards of concrete poured, with another 5,000 yards remaining. The tall, visible rebar cages are for the columns that will support the garage structure. Completion date for the parking structure is expected in 2012 and the Patient Care Pavilion will be finished in 2014.

Thank you to the hundreds of construction workers with DPR Construction and C. Overaa & Co., the Alta Bates Summit staff and Sutter Health representatives who have worked so hard to get us through this year. The best is yet to come!

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Invitation to Groundbreaking - 10/2010

Please join us at the groundbreaking ceremony for our Patient Care Pavilion in Oakland. The new building continues a 100 year legacy of providing exceptional healthcare to our community.

Offering the next generation in technology and seismic safety, the pavilion has all private rooms in an exquisite healing environment. The project also includes a brand new Emergency Department, a 1,000 space parking structure and additional green space.

The ceremony will be held on the lawn in front of the Health Education Center. Please allow additional time if you are not familiar with the new traffic patterns caused by construction. Valet parking is available at 3100 Summit Street.

Date: Monday, October 25, 2010

Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Location: 400 Hawthorne Avenue, Oakland

RSVP: (510) 869-8950

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Save the Date for Groundbreaking - 10/2010

Save the date for the groundbreaking of the new Patient Care Pavilion!

Date: Monday, October 25, 2010

Time: 11:00 a.m.

Location: 400 Hawthorne Avenue, Oakland

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Demolition Breakfast for Three - 9/2010

If you’re anywhere near the Summit Campus…it’s impossible not to notice that demolition is under way at 435 and 422 Hawthorne, as well as Bechtel Hall. Demolition of Bechtel Hall will be completed by the end of October.

Over the next three years about 80 trees must be removed (these trees will be replaced with new trees in green spaces surrounding our new parking structure and pavilion).

Did you know that half of the trees being removed are gourmet snacks for the elephants at the Oakland Zoo?!

Approved trees we can donate to the zoo include: Coast Live Oak, Japanese Maple, Siberian Elm, Sweetgum (liquid amber) and Blackwood Acacia.

Thanks to Ellen Carroll, Marketing Manager, these diet-approved trees have all been identified for the zoo’s four resident elephants. Because of Ellen’s research, our construction company, DPR, is working directly with the Oakland Zoo to get the trees scheduled for pick-up and delivery to the zoo’s ‘ellies.’

During the initial phase of the Bechtel demolition, several trees were removed then picked up by Oakland Zoo Browser John Briggs and served as a tasty and nutritional elephant breakfast the following morning! Many thanks to Ellen, DPR Construction and the Oakland Zoo for making this ‘recycling’ program possible!

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Oakland Zoo’s John Briggs loading up the truck of treats for the elephants at the zoo.


Female elephants M’Dunda, Donna and Lisa share the first load of trees being removed from the Summit Campus.




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Closures and Changes Around the Merritt Pavilion - 8/13/2010

As we approach demolition and then construction of our parking structure and Patient Care Pavilion, we will see major changes beginning next week.

There will be new street directions and barriers, and pedestrian traffic will be affected. The goal is to break ground for the new Pavilion this month and construction will take approximately three years – with completion in the Fall of 2013.

During the week of August 16:

Hawthorne Avenue

• Hawthorne Avenue will become a one-way street from Elm Street to Webster Street by Thursday morning.
• Heavy equipment will begin delivering concrete traffic barriers on Hawthorne. These concrete construction barriers will be placed along Hawthorne from approximately Summit Street to the vehicle exit at the main entrance of the Merritt Pavilion.
• Fencing will go up around Bechtel Hall, the site of the new Pavilion.

Pedestrian Traffic

• There will be no pedestrian traffic on Hawthorne between Summit Street to Webster Street on the Merritt Pavilion side of the street.
• A new pedestrian cross walk will be placed at the corner of Hawthorne Avenue and Summit Street.
• Pedestrian traffic on the Providence side of the street will be limited to the front of 365 Hawthorne Avenue only.
• A pedestrian walk-way between Summit Street and Webster Street is in place for foot traffic behind the construction trailers and the back of 365 Hawthorne Avenue.

Parking

• Metered parking will continue to be available on both sides of Hawthorne between Elm and Summit streets. Metered parking will not be available along Hawthorne from Summit to Webster.

Signage regarding these changes, including new directions, will be posted.

If you have questions or concerns, please call the construction information line at (510) 869-6840.

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Temporary Closure of Merritt Garage Entrances - 7/13/10

In preparation for demolition and construction of the new Patient Care Pavilion, new power lines have been installed and now we must switch over from current power sources to the new ones.

The first phase of this switchover will result in a four-hour closure of the Merritt Garage on Thursday night, beginning at midnight and ending at 4 a.m., Friday, July 16.

Access to and exit from the garage will be limited during this four hour window. Extra security officers will be posted at all current entrances to assist vehicles or pedestrians entering or exiting the building during the closure.

Evening shift and night shift employees will still park in the Merritt Garage on their regular shift. If you must get to your vehicle during this time, there will be an officer stationed at the G Level door, you can also contact Security at Ext. 7847. In addition to a security officer, a mini van will be available to drive staff (the mini van will be located at the G Level) to their vehicles.

Departments such as Emergency, Cardiac Cath and Surgery who may need emergent access to the facility can use the parking area across the street from the entrance to the Emergency Department. Please speak to your manager or the administrative nursing supervisor on duty if you are on call Thursday night.

Thank you for your patience.

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