After 16 years of stalled plans and budget problems, construction is nearly set to begin on a $170 million project to renovate the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
Final plans for the project are expected to be approved by the Los Angeles County director of public works in the next week and will be voted on by the county board of supervisors in mid-November, said project manager Steward Brehm.
The project is being paid for by L.A. County and the state of California, Brehm said.
When complete, it will introduce a new, two-story building adjacent to the current medical center that will double current emergency and operating room capacity.
The hospital’s layout and floor planning will also be updated to accommodate current technology, Brehm said.
“This is a long anticipated project, and I think it’s going to have a great impact ““ not only on improving patient care but also on improving the moral of our employees,” said Dr. Gail V. Anderson Jr., the hospital’s chief medical officer and an associate dean at the David Geffen School of Medicine.
Anderson said many of the hospital’s floor designs are modeled around technology from the early 1950s, which is when the hospital was initially constructed.
The renovations will allow staff to provide care to a large population of people, he said.
“The population of LA has grown considerably since the ’50s and ’60s. We serve an area of about 300,000 sq. miles, or about 3.2 million people,” he said.
Construction on the project is slated to begin in November, and the substantial completion date is in May 2014, Brehm said.
The Harbor-UCLA Medical Center is located in Torrance and is operated jointly by UCLA and L.A. County.
The teaching hospital, which is staffed by UCLA doctors and medical students, will remain open throughout renovations.