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Arrowhead Find Slows Construction on Cedar Falls, Iowa, Hospital

Posted on: Monday, 23 January 2006, 21:00 CST

By Jon Ericson, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Jan. 23--CEDAR FALLS -- A single arrowhead put off construction of Covenant Health System's new facility in Pinnacle Prairie.

But developers expect the hospital will soon move forward on the medical complex at Greenhill Road and South Main Street following months of delay.

Covenant plans to start construction soon on a medical building and an ambulance and public safety building.

Lockard Development President Bob Smith said construction should begin early this spring.

When the project was announced in June, officials expected work to begin last summer, and completion of the first building was set for this summer. But Chris Hyers, Covenant vice president of business development, said the hospital never had a locked-in date for opening.

"Being a growth project, it isn't on as demanding of a timetable as other things could be," said Hyers.

The opening should still be in December of this year, Hyers said.

After finding the lone arrowhead, developers needed permission to continue work from the state historical preservation organization. Once approval was granted, it had to be confirmed by the federal government.

Final approval is expected any day.

Covenant currently has plans for two building in what would eventually be a six-building complex.

The first such building will be 27,000 square feet and house occupational health and primary care physicians.

Another building will house ambulance services and serve as a remote station for police officers and firefighters.

When fully built, Covenant expects the buildings could have almost 242,000 square feet of offices, which is larger than Sartori Hospital, a Covenant facility already in Cedar Falls.

The project also faced a delay because the street layout initially set up by the city was blocked by wetlands.

"When the city put in the extension of that drive, there was a wetland that came through there," Smith said. "We had to move the wetland that obstructed that street. That process has taken an extensive amount of time."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

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Source: Waterloo Courier

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