SALEM, Ore.—CH2M Hill has won a $10 million contract to oversee construction of two new state psychiatric hospitals to replace the aging building in Salem that has been the subject of numerous reports about unsafe conditions.
The engineering and construction company founded in Corvallis will serve as project manager for both the hospitals, one in Salem and the other in Junction City, said Linda Hammond, hospital replacement administrator for the state Department of Human Services.
“What they bring to us is a level of expertise in doing things like this,” Hammond said. “They have extensive experience in hospitals and mental health facilities on their team, so they bring specialized knowledge.”
Now based in Denver, CH2M Hill reported $4.5 billion in revenue and employs more than 19,000 workers in regional offices around the world, according to the company Web site.
Last year, it won a nearly $200 million contract to oversee environmental cleanup and venue construction for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
In Oregon, the firm will manage two state hospital construction projects projected to cost $400 million to $450 million.
Plans call for construction of a 620-bed psychiatric facility serving the north Willamette Valley on the existing state hospital campus in Salem and a 360-bed facility on state-owned land in Junction City just north of Eugene to serve Southern Oregon.
Construction of the Salem facility is set to begin in 2009, with completion expected by 2011.
Design and construction of the Junction City facility is planned to begin in 2011, with completion in 2013.
Together, the two projects are the largest expansion of Oregon’s psychiatric hospital, which has suffered years of neglect. The 700-patient state hospital, which opened in 1883, is now the oldest psychiatric facility on the West Coast.
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Information from: Statesman Journal,
