The Week of January 12, 2020 — The Project Continues in the Buildings and Around the Site
Featured Image: During a rare after-hours construction site visit, Richard H. Hart, MD, DrPH, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Loma Linda University Health, explains to his guests the importance of having a connecting link between the two healthcare facilities.
The leading photo of this blog is of the five hospital towers as they stand in 2020. The smaller image in the lower-left corner is a circa 2005 photo of the three cloverleaf towers that have stood on the campus for over fifty years. O, how times have changed! From a distance, the construction project appears finished, but on the ground at grade, there are projects still in the steel stage, i.e., the connector pedestrian bridge as depicted in the featured image and the Galleria and Main Entrance Canopy. As one nears the sound walls and security fences surrounding the site, the notion of a completed project is quashed. Currently, the “Hospital Quiet Zone” is non-existent as the vibrating sounds of heavy equipment moving about float above the safety fences and sound walls. Adding to the construction orchestra is the rhythmic sounds made by the trades in their hard hats — laborers and journeymen alike — who follow the score on the architectural drawings as the project marches ever nearer to that final crescendo. After the last piece of heavy equipment is hauled off the premises, the safety walls will come down, revealing the ingress and egress to the hospitals, the parking spaces, the landscaping including zonal trees, colorful flower beds, lush lawns, and park benches. Then the day will come when the other side of the groundbreaking ceremony will take place: the long-awaited ribbon-cutting ceremony with all its pomp and circumstances. The construction noise will cease and give way to the applause of the dignitaries and guests as a chosen few cuts the ribbon.
Two Night Shots Revisited
The following images were taken on Friday night, January 10, 2020, under the brilliance of the full moon.
A One-Hundred and Fifteen-Year Evolution of the Loma Linda University Health Campus as Viewed From the Northeast Side of the Hill
Another Update on the Emergency Generator Site
A Visit to the Second Floor of the West Connector Bridge
Sealing the West Tunnel Exterior
While the exterior sides of the tunnel are exposed, drain pipes will also be installed.
Views From the West Connector Bridge
An Update on the Galleria and Main Entrance Canopy
Steel, Grade Beams, Gravel, Plastic, Blackouts, and Forms
Progress is ongoing on the northside of the podium beneath the Adult Hospital tower. With the central steel frame standing guard over what will be the main entrance to the hospital, the grade beams were poured this week. After the gravel is leveled and compacted between the concrete grade beams a yellow plastic is laid over the gravel between the grade beams. The gravel and plastic will act much as a concrete rat slab on which small concrete pier blocks are positioned for the first tier of rebar to rest. Around the perimeter of the grade beams, the carpenters are forming the Galleria footings.
After graduate school Dennis accepted a position at Loma Linda University. He worked there for 42 years in the areas of administration and financial management, also teaching accounting and management to dietetic students at the School of Public Health. Through the years Dennis has chronicled the growth of the campus, including the construction of the Drayson Center and the Centennial Complex and the razing of Gentry Gym. He is the author of "The Mound City Chronicles: A Pictorial History of Loma Linda University, A Health Sciences Institution 1905 - 2005." dEp 09.30.2016 🔨