Saiful Bouquet is the structural engineer for the new $650M Replacement Hospital for Kaiser Permanente in Fontana, California. The project consists of a 7-story 314-bed 481,000 sf Nursing Tower and Diagnostic & Treatment hospital building, a new 23,000 sf Central Utility Plant building and a 50,000 sf Hospital Support Building which will connect the new hospital to the existing buildings at the medical center. The connection to the existing medical center is made through a pedestrian bridge at the new hospital support building, a new non-OSHPD pedestrian tunnel and a new OSHPD patient transport tunnel which passes below the new hospital support building.
The new hospital is a second-generation Kaiser template hospital which houses a variety of specialty services including a cardiac surgery department, a 51-bed emergency department, pediatric and neonatal ICU, inpatient dialysis unit, pediatrics, ICU, labor and delivery, cardiac cath lab, and surgery. The new hospital tower is a steel structure with Buckling Restrained Braced Frames (BRBF) used as the lateral force resisting system. The building is supported on shallow reinforced concrete spread footings and localized combined footings at the braced frame locations. Overall, the team’s efforts saved Kaiser approximately $3 million dollars in construction cost and one month in the construction schedule.
The hospital tower project was on an extreme fast-track design and plan review schedule, with the steel mill order being placed within 12 months of the start of Schematic Design. The project utilized a Phased OSHPD plan review approach, now known as Collaborative Review, with multiple segments and increments. The Kaiser Fontana hospital was the first project to be completely successful with the team receiving approval on every single phase of the OSHPD plan review with no delays. Saiful Bouquet’s contributions to this effort directly saved at least one month on the design and OSHPD plan review schedule. Saiful Bouquet provided full-time on-site construction support for the project, working closely with the architect, owner, contractor and OSHPD to resolve construction issues quickly and efficiently. Saiful Bouquet’s effort during construction was a significant contribution in support of the contractor’s accelerated construction schedule and resulted in a completion of the project 4 months ahead of schedule.
“Saiful worked diligently which saved approximately three million dollars and a month on the schedule. There was absolutely no incentive for SBI whatsoever to put their reputation on the line to save the client money. Now that’s customer service and someone I want on my team!”
– Stephen Green, Project Director, Healthcare Services, McCarthy Builders
“If you need a structural engineer, I highly recommend Saiful/Bouquet. Their staff are very experienced and professional and their work is excellent.”
– Chin Lee, Principal, HMC Architects
