Who is building St. Luke’s?

Sam Fonseca and Rasta work on setting forms.

Are those locals wearing hard hats and swinging hammers on the site of the new St. Luke’s hospital?

The St. Luke’s project, one of the largest construction projects ever to come to the Wood River Valley, is springing up just south of Ketchum thanks to the efforts of many local as well as out-of-town businesses.

St. Luke’s will spend nearly $4 million on local subcontractors as part of the $30 million project, according to Bill Bodner, St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center vice president of corporate development.

"We’ve been very careful to allow all qualified contractors to bid on various projects," said Bodner.

Local subcontractors were, in many cases, too small to qualify for hospital projects, according to Bodner.

These smaller contractors do not have the ability to bond a project of this magnitude and cannot guarantee that they can handle the financial implications.

Also, the smaller contractors often do not have enough tradesmen and supervisors, according to Bodner.

The general contractor for the site is St. Luke’s itself, which has its own architecture and construction department, based in Boise.

Another possible stumbling block to local subcontractors was that St. Luke’s required bidders with hospital construction experience for certain projects.

"There’s a phenomenal level of code complexity and technical expertise needed for some of the projects," Bodner said.

Of the 25 subcontractors involved with the project, several include Wood River Valley businesses.

• Power Engineers completed all of the environmental, civil, mechanical, electrical, and structural engineering during the design of the hospital.

• Bruce Truxell, of Power Engineers, remains on-site as the project’s manager.

• Architects from McLaughlin and Associates completed the architectural design.

• John Gaeddert assisted with the planning process.

• Sawtooth Engineering did the surveying for all site work.

• Galena Engineering completed soil and asphalt testing.

• Uhrig Fencing installed the fencing that currently surrounds the site.

• Landscape architect Gregg Sturtevant designed the landscape.

• McStay Construction and Desert Sage formed a partnership to complete asphalt, sidewalk and road projects.

The Community Council appointed by St. Lukes, which includes mostly Blaine County residents, has been active in seeking local subcontractors for the project.

The council, which will oversee the operation of the new hospital, has a construction committee that sent bid packages for smaller projects to local businesses.

In some instances—such as with landscaping—an out-of-town subcontractor was chosen over a qualified local subcontractor because the bid was lower.

"I don’t think anyone would expect us to pick high bidders," Bodner said.

St. Luke’s officials expect the project to be completed in December of 2000.