Commissioners discuss hospital construction, costs

MOSES LAKE — The increased cost of construction for the new Samaritan hospital was discussed publicly for the first time at a meeting of hospital district commissioners.

Joe Kunkel, the hospital’s consultant on the project, told hospital commissioners Thursday the estimate is $107 million for construction — without any of the furnishings or equipment, or what he called direct construction.

The original estimate for the direct construction was about $75 million in late 2019, when officials were sending the project to bid.

The estimated total cost was $156 million reported in September, which includes the aforementioned $107 million.

The hospital district has already arranged a $136 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the project.

Kunkel said Thursday the project architects, Portland-based ZGF Architects, are reviewing the design, and being paid an extra $609,406, in the wake of the long delay, from March 2020 to September 2021. Once the review is completed, the architects will update the project cost estimate, he said.

Architects already are incorporating some of the experiences from the pandemic, he said, citing revisions to the heating-cooling system as an example. The pandemic has provided some lessons in air circulation that decrease the chances of spreading airborne infection.

The architectural team also has identified some things that can be done to cut costs, Kunkel said, and those are being added to the design.

The plan review also includes accommodations for the new Grant County morgue, from utilities to hallway connections. The county morgue is in the current hospital, but the original design for the new hospital didn’t include a morgue.

Grant County will pay for construction of the morgue itself, Kunkel said.

Architects also will look at ways to ensure the project can obtain materials that are in short supply, such as PVC pipe, copper wire and roofing materials.

Commissioners approved the construction of a new, 50-bed hospital in October 2018. The project was nearing the bid process when the COVID-19 pandemic brought it to a halt in March 2020.

The new hospital’s current design is about 160,000 square feet and three stories. Hospital officials already have purchased the property, at the intersection of Yonezawa Boulevard and Clover Drive.