Boston – Walsh Brothers, Incorporated was recently awarded the lateral expansion project at Children’s Hospital Boston (CHB). To address a higher volume of pediatric inpatient needs, forecasted population increases, demand for single patient rooms, emerging pediatric trends, as well as a need for expanded emergency, surgical, and radiology suites, CHB selected Walsh Brothers to manage the construction of this new 110,000sf, 10-story building addition, Payette, a long time partner of Walsh Brothers is the architect for the project.
The new expansion will provide CHB with 12 new short stay (23-hour observation) beds allowing the hospital to better utilize existing beds, provide for a critical expansion of eight beds for the Emergency Department, as well as increase in radiology capacity, and additions to surgical areas and associated new inpatient support spaces.
Additionally, the new expansion will allow for as many as 44-single-bed inpatient rooms to meet the needs of future subspecialties.
With only 7,000sf of buildable space at ground level it was quickly determined by CHB that the project would need to be both a lateral and vertical expansion that would begin in the slender ground level footprint and expand vertically, connecting and ultimately expanding existing 8 floors of clinical space.
With the project’s zero lot-line location, minimal lay down area, need to join the new construction to the existing active space, and multitude of sensitive institutional and neighborhood abutters this project presents many complex challenges.
. Walsh Brothers has already successfully installed a 20,000 gallon fuel tank to replace the existing one which was located within the footprint of the main building addition. The existing fuel tank will be decommissioned to ensure the new foundation work can commence. Walsh Brothers has developed a detailed roadmap laid out in order to execute the careful construction and join-to-old work strategies that this important project requires.
