(Riverton, WY) – Local residents may have noticed an increase in activity this week at the Eastern Shoshone Business Park, where crews have started preparing the ground for construction of the Riverton Medical District’s planned new hospital.
“The exciting thing is there’s dirt moving,” RMD Board Member Vivian Watkins told the Fremont County Commission during a regular meeting Tuesday.
Requirements, deadlines
The “pad-ready” work began after a local entity pledged the final $1 million needed to fully fund the project, RMD Chairman Corte McGuffey said.
The USDA, which loaned $37 million to the hospital effort, wouldn’t let the RMD sign its construction contract until all of the funding was in place, he explained – and the construction contract had to be signed before the Oct. 31 deadline for use of the American Rescue Plan Act funding that came from the state.
“So we’re very thankful for the entity that stepped up (and) guaranteed that $1 million that we needed,” he said.
He added that the entity was willing to make the pledge because the RMD “knew that we could come up with $1 million – it just may take longer (than) two weeks.”
“That’s why we’re here today,” he said, asking whether the RMD would be eligible to apply for more economic development funding from Fremont County.
Commission Chairman Mike Jones invited the RMD to apply, noting that the project “certainly meets all the criteria” for economic development.
Design changes
The guaranteed maximum cost of construction for the new hospital is now $33 million, McGuffey said – a “far cry from where we were” this spring, when initial bids for the project came in over budget, at about $45 million.
The RMD has done “a lot of work (on) value engineering” since then, McGuffey said, and “we had a lot more subcontractors bid the job” the second time around.
“That kind of forced everybody else to sharpen their pencils (and) got us into the ballpark of where we needed to be,” he said.
Watkins noted that a lot of local contractors also “donated part of their work” to the project, and McGuffey agreed that was “a big factor” in reducing the costs.
“They know how important this project is,” he said.
The groundwork at the future hospital site should be completed in the coming weeks, McGuffey said.
After that, he said the RMD’s general contractor hopes to install rammed aggregate piers in the ground “before the weather gets too cold,” followed by “footings and foundation” if possible.
Visit the RMD website for more information.