Cranes herald ProMedica Toledo Hospital expansion

13-floor tower to be added in $355M project

3/15/2017

The tallest of the cranes on site at ProMedica Toledo hospital is 315 feet. The tower cranes will be used to build a 13-story, 275-foot-tall patient-care building.

THE BLADE/ANDY MORRISON
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A pair of towering construction cranes will dominate the West Toledo horizon for the next two years as the Lathrop Co. guides ProMedica Toledo Hospital’s 13-story patient-care building skyward.

Work on the $355 million project began nearly a year ago, but up to this point most of the construction has been at surface level or below ground. The subterranean parking garage, for example, is nearly complete.

That will soon change.

Lathrop is less than a month away from beginning to erect the tower’s steel structure. Crews also will begin concrete work above the foundation.

To make that possible, Maumee-based Lathrop brought in a pair of tower cranes, the tallest of which stands at 315 feet. The shorter one reaches 275 feet — about the same height as the tower will be — but will be extended as the building rises.

“Those cranes will be used for a lot of the structure and the envelope of the building — the concrete elevator shafts, the stair shafts and structural steel, and of course the windows and terra cotta on the outside of the building,” said Craig Zander, project executive with Lathrop.

Tower cranes, which are anchored to the ground rather than on a vehicle, are commonly used for high-rise buildings or other large projects where there’s a relatively small worksite. 

It’s been a long time, though, since ones of that size have been used on a project in Toledo.

Mr. Zander said Lathrop is renting the equipment from a company in Cincinnati.

To ensure the cranes are stable, crews poured two large concrete pads and anchored them by pouring a number of caissons that stretched 90 feet into the ground. Mr. Zander said they’re designed to withstand winds up to 115 mph — nearly twice the velocity of the winds that wreaked havoc across the area last week.

Each crane can lift up to 22,000 pounds. Operators climb to the cabin near the top of each crane at the beginning of every day and stay there until their shift is over.

“The erection of the cranes is kind of an exciting milestone for us. It more than signifies the transition from playing in the dirt, if you will, to starting to come out of the ground,” said Matt Nagel, project director at Toledo Hospital.

Steel work should begin April 10, with the building topping out in October. The tower should be enclosed by spring of 2018 and ready for occupancy by the third quarter of 2019. When finished, it should have 320 patient rooms.

Mr. Nagel said many of ProMedica’s existing facilities at Toledo Hospital are nearing the end of their useful life as patient-care facilities and the new tower will be both more efficient and more in line with how modern health care is delivered.

“We’re calling it the generations of care project for a reason,” he said. “We look for this to be our home for generations to come.”

Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at tlinkhorn@theblade.com or 419-724-6134.