Since Clark/Hunt, a Joint Venture, first broke ground on the San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC) in March of 2009, the Texas city has been eagerly awaiting the new building. Now complete, it represents the largest military hospital in the United States.

There are four entities to SAMMC: the Central Energy Plant, which is 50,000 square feet; the Consolidated Parking Structure, containing 5,000 parking spaces; the Consolidated Tower, coming in at 750,000 square feet; and the renovation of the existing hospital, which is now 350,000 square feet. The project team also built a new helipad on top of the consolidated tower. During construction, the existing hospital and helipad remained fully functional, and Clark/Hunt made it a priority to coordinate their work around what was happening with the in-use hospital.

One of the most incredible components of the hospital is the burn unit. It is one of the largest in the United States, and when construction is completed, it will be among the top burn units in the world. Military patients come to the medical center from the war, and the majority of soldiers that have been burned are patients at the existing hospital, and will be patients at SAMMC. The project team re-vamped the existing burn unit, increasing the square footage by 82,000 square feet.

For this project, all coordination was done with BIM. MEP was coordinated with BIM as was all structural from the start. The team used an As-Built BIM model, and made changes throughout the project. The project team also incorporated a multitude of sustainable elements, and the facility has set a goal of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Silver.

During construction, the Clark/Hunt team ran into a few obstacles. For example, while the elevator pit was being dug, the project team ran across bones in the ground, and later found that the bones were considered to be that of a Mastodon. The area was under surveillance by the government for about three weeks, and the team worked around the area during that time.  Each obstacle caused some complication for the team, but they worked diligently and overcame the challenges.

SAMMC is complete and the past two years have consisted of workers utilizing their skills and talents to get the project finished on time and with the highest quality. The team has been diligent in their safety measures, and has logged five million plus man-hours without a lost time incident. With about 138 staff members, communication was a constant, allowing for each member of the team to do their job effectively. SAMMC represents a job done right and the Clark/Hunt team should be proud of their hard work and dedication.