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JBSA News
NEWS | Jan. 4, 2012

Concrete pour underway for parking garage

By Linda Frost 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs

Work crews started pouring the first concrete Dec. 9 on the new Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center parking garage.

The concrete pouring marks the first substantial pour for the $26 million project on the Lackland medical campus. The structure will have three levels of parking with spaces for 1,028 vehicles.

The parking garage is part of the first phase of construction for the new 681,000-square foot WHASC ambulatory surgical center, expected to be completed in 2015.

"I consider this a good news milestone to start seeing some above ground vertical construction and get the project out of the ground," said Lt. Col. Doug Harper, program manager, Lackland Project Health Facilities Office.

It took 30 trucks to deliver 269 cubic yards of concrete on the 2nd floor of the garage, covering just over 10,000 square feet.

In all 35,000 cubic yards of concrete will be used to build the structure - a total of 36 pours.

A 54-member crew started work in the pre-dawn hours at 3 a.m. to avoid traffic due to the high volume of concrete that was delivered. Since Lackland was the only major customer at that hour, the early start also ensured each batch of concrete had the same consistency of materials from truck to truck, according to construction officials.

The construction company encountered a two-day weather delay associated with cold weather which impacts the concrete. Company officials opted to wait until conditions were optimal to ensure the best possible product.

When the parking garage is complete, it will have over 300,000 square feet of concrete. That amount is enough to construct a two-lane road seven miles long. It is scheduled for completion in summer 2012.

The medical construction projects on Lackland Air Force Base are part of the San Antonio Military Health System's objective to improve its military health care facilities and provide better access to care and treatment for its beneficiaries and their family members.