Groundbreaking announced, demolition to begin on hospital property
5/16/2018
La Porte, Ind. – La Porte Hospital will break ground officially on the new hospital in August this year, but the community will start to see tangible evidence of property preparations when demolition of some hospital-owned structures begins next week.
The hospital has earmarked six homes it owns for demolition along State Street, between Teegarden and Tyler streets. The homes will be taken down to prepare land for staging and building of the new facility. The exact footprint of the new hospital has not been finalized, but officials expect to build and create space for construction staging in that general area west of the existing La Porte Hospital. No other structures have been scheduled for removal at this time.
Pavey Excavating out of La Porte has been commissioned for the demolition work, with civil engineering work by RQAW of La Porte.
“While we’re very excited to get shovels in the ground this summer, it’s encouraging to be moving forward with preparations at all the various levels of our new hospital build,” said Ashley Dickinson, CEO of La Porte Hospital. “We have been doing a lot of work on the internal side, planning the various departments inside the hospital with our architects, physicians, and staff. We’re excited to see some hard-hat work happening outside as well.”
In a unique opportunity to assist the La Porte City Fire Department with training and skill development, the hospital will allow the fire department access to some of the homes for training before they are demolished.
“We work closely with Pavey Excavating, who is always very good about helping us gain access to structures marked for demolition so we can train on them. But we don’t often have access to residential homes. We will be able to practice ventilation techniques, communication, search and rescue skills, fire hose management, and evacuation techniques,” said Zach Kanney, Training Chief at the La Porte City Fire Department. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us to practice and hone the skills we need to respond and take good care of our community.” Burning is not part of the training, but fire officials use fog machines to create realistic smoke-like situations during their skill sessions.
After the practice sessions are complete and all the houses are removed, the area will be backfilled, and leveled.
“As a professional, it means a lot to be a part of this important project in La Porte, and it’s great to be able to use our skills to bring creative ideas and innovation to a project of this scale,” said Paul Vincent, office manager at RQAW in La Porte.
Details about the community groundbreaking ceremony in August will be released on newlaportehospital.com, where the community can find updates on the project. For updates as well, the community can follow La Porte Hospital on Facebook @LaPorteHospital.
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