More Soldiers, Bigger Hospital
Workers are one year into constructing an Army hospital to replace an aging facility that was never intended to handle as many patients as it does today.
The Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, slated for a 2015 opening at Fort Hood in Texas, is both the largest Pentagon contract funded by the Recovery Act – $530 million – and the largest medical facility project in the military.
The original Darnall hospital opened in 1965 to serve 17,000 soldiers; an addition in 1984 expanded capacity to 39,000 troops. Today, the hospital serves roughly 45,000 soldiers as well as nearly 125,000 family members and retirees within a 40-mile radius.
The new medical center will be nearly 60 percent larger than the current facility and will include a six-story hospital, three out-patient clinic buildings, and three parking garages.
Balfour Beatty/McCarthy, based in Dallas, designed and is building the medical center.
Demolishing old building to make way for new medical center, left; drilling for placement of massive, concrete piers for foundation.
Artist’s drawing of lobby of new Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center.
5 comments