Arkansas Children’s Hospital South Wing, Little Rock, Ark.

Cost: $84.7 million

In September 2008, construction started on Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s South Wing, a 258,000-sq-ft addition that will add 100 inpatient beds.

The four-story wing with a mechanical penthouse also will expand the hospital’s emergency department, the cardiovascular intensive care unit and the neonatal intensive care unit. The new emergency department will feature four trauma rooms, an orthopedics suite and a decontamination unit. Also a new hematology/oncology unit will open in the South Wing for pediatric cancer and blood disorder patients. Another inpatient unit in the new wing will be used to treat infants through three year olds.

On the roof of the South Wing will be a garden with benches and a play area for patients, families and the hospital’s employees.

The steel-framed building will have a glass curtain wall as well as architectural concrete precast panels on two floors, says Cliff Johnston, senior project manager for Nabholtz Construction Corp., which was awarded the $84.7 million contract.

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The poor soil conditions at the site required construction workers use 4,000 psi concrete drilled piers, some varying from 4 to 5 ft deep to 12 to 14 ft, for the foundation, Johnston says. The piers vary in diameter from 48 to 30 in.

The South Wing will sit on a mud slab with a 5 ft basement that will house the utilities. Hundreds of concrete pedestals will support the first floor, Johnston says. The floors will have metal deck sheets.

When the South Wing is completed in the fall of 2011, the hospital says it will care for significantly more patients.

Key Players

VA Medical Center Expansion, Fayetteville, Ark.

Cost: $62.5 million

The centerpiece of the $62.5 million expansionproject is a 140,000-sq-ft clinicaladdition to the Veterans Health Care Systemof the Ozarks — U.S. Department ofVeterans Aff airs in Fayetteville.The expansion will add diagnostic andancillary services and outpatient clinics to the hospital, says Doris Cassidy, associatedirector of the hospital.

The addition was designed so whenpatients come through the front door, thefi rst thing they’ll see is the lab and radiologydepartment, which will each be 6,000sq ft.

“Many time they must have lab and radiologybefore they see their primary carephysician,” Cassidy says. “So they’ll goto our lab and radiology, move into theirprimary care team and on their way outthey’ll come out by our pharmacy.”

With the design, “we tried to move theVA into the 21st century,” Cassidy says.

Crossland Construction Co. of Columbus,Kan., will use structural steel, metalstuds and concrete walls for the project, says Randy Armstrong, project managerfor Crossland.

Armstrong says he is coordinating withhospital offi cials to keep constructionnoise to a minimum.

“It will be a hospital fi rst and constructionsite second,” he says. “There will besome work that will have to be done afterhours.”

The project is expected to be completedin October 2011.

Key Players

Wastewater Treatment Facility, Little Rock, Ark.

Cost: $46 million

Little Rock Wastewater’s new $46 million treatment facility was more than 30 years in the making. In 1969, the Little Rock board of directors authorized the utility to build the treatment center, but because the public didn’t want it and because of political pressure, the project was constantly delayed.

The new treatment plant finally started moving forward and construction started in September 2008.

The treatment plant will be covered and have a brick exterior to match the theme of the nearby Pinnacle Mountain State Park.

“If you’re looking at it from a distance, you wouldn’t know it was a wastewater treatment plant,” says Bernie Isom, project manager for Max Foote Construction.

One of the challenges was building the aeration and clarifier basin because construction crews had to dig into rock, Isom says.

The aeration and clarifier basin is 300 ft long by 135 ft wide and 30 ft tall.

“It will only stick up about 12 or 14 ft above the ground,” Isom says.

The walls will be 2.5 ft thick of concrete and sit on a concrete slab that is 2.5 ft thick.

The plant will have odor control and the wastewater will be disinfected with ultra violet light instead of chemicals, which is better for the environment, says Joseph Schaffner, community relations coordinator for the utility.

The treatment plant also will be the only one in Arkansas to have a tertiary treatment process. When the treated water is released into the river, it will be “up to 10 times cleaner” than what the EPA requires.

Key Players

Marion Junior High School, Marion, Ark.

Cost: $29 million

This two-story building will house eighth- and ninth-graders for the Marion School District.

The 196,000-sq-ft building will feature an indoor basketball gym that will seat 2,300 people, says Jeff Altemus, assistant superintendent for the Marion School District.

The steel-framed building will serve up to 850 students.

The dinning room will have a stage and the room can be converted into an auditorium. The music rooms will be shaped like a jigsaw to improve the acoustics, says Farran Aspin, a project manager for Pat Kelly Magruder Architects.

The district tried to make the building as environmentally friendly as possible, Altemus says. It will have polished concrete floors to eliminate the need for stripping and waxing in the common areas and vinyl-backed carpeting in the classrooms and offices.

The building also has geothermal heat pumps for the heating and air conditioning system, Altemus says. “We didn’t set out to build a LEED building, but the items that LEED wanted that we thought were a good idea, we incorporated them into the structure.”

The structural steel building sits on concrete slabs that range in size from 4 to 8 in, says Dave Dancer, project manager for Baldwin & Shell Construction Co. of Little Rock, Ark.

The second floor sits on a 4-in concrete slab on a metal deck, says Pat Magruder, a principal of Pat Kelly Magruder Architects.

Key Players

Ouachita Baptist Student Village, Arkadelphia, Ark.

Cost: $25 million

This two-phase project will feature three buildings that includes 17 residential houses for 520 students at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark.

The first two buildings of the OBU Student Village form a circular ring with a courtyard area in the middle, says Trennis Henderson, vice president of communications for the school.

The first building measures 74,200 sq ft and each of the seven houses are connected on each of the four floors by a 20-ft-long, 6-ft-wide glass corridor.

It is expected to be finished in the fall.

The second building measures 55,100 sq ft and comes with glass corridors that connect the five houses. The rooms are “set up in a suite style so there are bedrooms, a common living area and shared bathroom facilities,” Henderson says.

The second building is scheduled to be finished by December, but it might be completed in October, says Brett Powell, OBU vice president for administrative services.

Each building will have a lobby, study room and student lounge. The first building will have a fitness room and the second building will feature a game room. A sun deck will be located on the second floor of each building.

The second phase of the project will be a third building that will be about 54,000 sq sf.

Key Players