600 Cement Trucks Converge at Eisenhower Medical Center
By Anonymous
More than six hundred cement trucks converged on Eisenhower Medical Center to pour 23 million pounds of concrete on Friday, July 20, laying the foundation for the new Walter and Leonore Annenberg Pavilion.
This colossal event was the largest concrete placement in the Coachella Valley to date.
Laying the foundation is an enormous undertaking and a sight rarely seen. Concrete trucks convoyed from three local concrete plants in Thousand Palms and Indio and used four pumps (with two in reserve) to evenly distribute concrete around two layers of thick rebar.
Anchor bolts, three inches in diameter and seven feet in length, were placed at all gridline locations to bolt the steel structure to the foundation.
Cold water and ice were added to the mix to prevent the concrete from overheating and combusting the wooden frames into which the concrete was poured.
Each truck had only 90 minutes from the time it left the plant to the time it poured its concrete, adding more stress to the situation.
Sample batches of concrete were pre-tested and approved by three engineering firms as well as the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Engineers were on site during the concrete pour.
In January 2007, Eisenhower Medical Center launched Campaign Eisenhower Phase II with a groundbreaking ceremony for the 250,000 square foot Annenberg Pavilion.
The $212.5 million project, slated to open in 2009, will meet the state requirements for seismic safety mandated by Senate Bill 1953 and will also address Eisenhower Medical Center’s need to address the rapid growth in the Coachella Valley.
The new Annenberg Pavilion will house 126 inpatient beds on the second, third and fourth levels with each of the patient rooms fully equipped with the latest monitoring capabilities and state-of-the- art medication dispensing technologies.
The ground level will house 34 beds in the critical care units (Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit, Cardiac Surgical Unit), while the lower level will house the hospital cafeteria, Information Systems, Environmental Services, Nutritional Services and the Materials Management departments.
Eisenhower Medical Center is a not-for-profit, comprehensive health care institution distinguished nationally in 2005 as a 100 Top Hospital by Solucient(R), the national market leader for benchmarks and trends in business health care.
The campus includes the 289-bed Eisenhower Hospital, the Betty Ford Center at Eisenhower, the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at Eisenhower, and the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower.
The medical center is renowned for its Centers of Excellence in Orthopedics, Cardiovascular at the Eisenhower Smilow Heart Center, and Oncology at the Eisenhower Lucy Curci Cancer Center.
Copyright Desert Publication, Inc. and Sharon Apfelbaum Jul 24, 2007
(c) 2007 Public Record, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.