Owner: Sacred Heart Health SystemSacred Heart Hospital
Architect: FreemanWhite, Inc.
Structural Engineer: O’Donnell & Naccarato Structural Engineers
Contractor: Greenhut Construction Company, Inc.
Ready Mixed Concrete Supplier: Ready Mix USA
Project Location: Pensacola, Florida
Project Size: 115,000 square feet
Project Completion: July 2014
Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida recently completed its new Bayou Tower, adding five new floors of patient care units with 112 private rooms. This vertical addition was constructed on top of the hospital’s existing three-story Heart and Vascular Institute raising the building to eight stories at a height of 220 feet. The $52-million expansion project began in April 2012 and was officially open for patient care on July 19, 2014, on time and on budget.
The structural engineer analyzed the existing steel-framed building and determined that it could support an additional five floors using structural lightweight concrete made with rotary kiln produced structural lightweight aggregate. Structural lightweight concrete has strengths comparable to normal weight concrete, yet is typically 25% to 35% lighter. Also, using structural lightweight concrete allowed the floor slabs to be thinner while providing better fire resistance. Two new exterior, vertical full-height bracing towers were necessary to resist the Gulf Coast’s hurricane-force winds. A new 2-story bridge connects the new tower and the adjacent main hospital building.
