Story

Kent Companies was hired to provide a turnkey concrete package as part of this $100 million two-year project that included the addition of two patient towers and major interior renovations at Spectrum Health’s Blodgett Hospital in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. Working for the project construction manager, The Christman Company, Kent Companies utilized a wide variety of its resources and talents to complete this complicated and multi-faceted job ahead of schedule and under budget.

Due to poor soils, the project included heavy grade beams and pile caps as well as twelve- and sixteen-inch structural slabs on grade containing nearly 150 tons of resteel. The project also included over 1,200 lineal feet of tall foundation walls. Rising nearly 80-foot each, Kent Companies utilized custom designed and engineered formwork system to construct five elevator and stair cores.

For the elevated levels in the patient towers, a mix of cast-in-place concrete decks and structural steel was used. Kent Companies employed metal “pans” and hand-set shoring to form three levels of cast-in-place concrete decks. Lightweight concrete was used in over 100,000 square feet of slabs on metal deck. This project allowed Kent Companies to showcase its diverse concrete talents for a key owner and key construction manager.