CHESTER COUNTY HOSPITAL ER ACCESS

The University of Pennsylvania Chester County Hospital needed a “temporary” corridor ASAP to enable continued direct access to the Emergency Department while ongoing construction of a multi-million-dollar expansion forged ahead. The corridor was temporary only in that once expansion is completed in 2022, the corridor will be removed. Otherwise, it had to meet the strict requirements associated with permanent structures, including 2-hour rating for fire resistance, minimum 8-foot clearance wall-to-wall, and the ability to stand up to the heavy traffic. The narrow area for the hallway was virtually inaccessible due to a number of factors, including how the two hospital wings were situated. Using conventional construction methods would have been expensive and time-consuming. However, these costs and delays were avoided by building the modules off-site and craning them into the highly confined space. In fact, the ability of site preparation and off-site construction to take place simultaneously shortened the schedule to just weeks, minimizing disruption to the ongoing multi-million-dollar expansion. Building off-site provided labor efficiencies, too, with most of the work completed outside the prevailing wage standards of Chester County. The result was an approximate 20% savings overall compared to the site-built option.