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With four months to go before the opening of the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, crews are furiously installing light fixtures, laying floors and applying final coats of paint.
“We’ve got a full-court press going on,” said Jonathan Katz, senior project coordinator for BWH. About 430 construction workers are onsite daily, with more than 200 crew members working on Saturdays.
Tradesmen will complete an inpatient floor every two weeks during the next few months. Flooring will be complete, booms installed in each patient room and the last coats of paint will go up on the sixth floor by the end of the first week of February. The seventh floor will be complete two weeks after that, with the eighth, ninth and tenth floors following in March and April.
On the lower levels, the 10 breakthroughs where the Shapiro Center connects with 75 Francis St. below ground level have been completed, and crews are working their way up from lower level 3. “The flooring, painting and major installations on lower level 3 will be complete in March,” Katz said.
In November, an MRI was delivered, installed and tested, and in December, the switch for 10,000 telephone lines was installed, both significant milestones. This month, crews are pulling wires and installing ports for the data biomedical network for patient monitors. Also in February, a SPECT/CT scanner and a Siemens CT are scheduled for delivery and installation. In March, the EP and PET/CT machines will be delivered and installed, and the remainder of the larger equipment and computers will follow in April.
Exterior landscaping and installation of granite curbing, steps, walkways and sections of the base exterior wall will begin as soon as weather permits, and the intricate finish work in the building’s two-story lobby is ongoing.
BWH anticipates receiving its certificate of occupancy from the city April 24, with DPH approval projected for two weeks later. Scheduled activities in this time period include top-to-bottom cleanup, moving in furniture and small electronic equipment and stocking a complete inventory of medical supplies.
“Considering the size and complexity of this project, the fact that we remain on target is remarkable and testimony to the hard work of so many,” said BWH COO Kate Walsh.