After eight years of planning, design and construction, the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday marked the completion of a multiphase, $120 million project to modernize care facilities at the Minneapolis Veterans Home campus.
A project team led by Kansas City, Missouri-based JE Dunn recently completed the third and final phase and residents are expected to move in starting next week. But getting there wasn’t easy. An abundance of bedrock at the site and a wet spring and summer challenged the project team from the start.
The Veterans Affairs Department on Thursday cut the ribbon on the project’s third phase, a 100-bed, four-level skilled nursing facility known as “Building 22.” Similar buildings, also with 100 beds each, opened in 2012 and 2016.
Despite the challenges, Building 22 was completed within the $57 million budget and just in time for that March move-in date, which was the goal when construction began two years ago, said Douglas Hughes, deputy commissioner of Veterans Affairs.
“I think we came in maybe with a couple of bucks to spare,” Hughes said in an interview after the event. “Our plan was always to have it [delivered] at about this time and then to move in about springtime.”
The intent of the overall project was to replace outdated facilities and create more home-like conditions at the 53-acre campus, which overlooks the Mississippi River at 5101 Minnehaha Ave. S. in Minneapolis. The number of beds remained about the same.
All three buildings are designed to meet current industry standards for skilled nursing care and privacy. Features include all private rooms and bathrooms, common areas styled like great rooms, balconies, gardens, a courtyard, an outdoor putting green and a walking path.
Buildings 21 and 22 rose on the site of the former “Building 17,” an unappealing 1970s-era edifice that was razed two years ago. Once the building came down, crews discovered the ground underneath was rockier than expected.
Representatives of JE Dunn, which oversaw preconstruction on the site and construction of Building 22, said more than 5,000 yards of bedrock was removed from the Building 17 site.
“Every last inch of the building was jackhammered into the rock,” said Doug Hackenmueller, superintendent for JE Dunn. “That was quite the challenge when we started.”
Making matters worse, there was “water running everywhere” because of heavy rain, Hackenmueller said. That required extensive use of pumps to help clean out the bottom of the pit every day and allow workers to pour concrete.
“They were going around the clock,” said JE Dunn project manager Brad Hackenmueller, Doug’s brother. “[Doug] was here early in the morning, late at night making sure all the pumps were in and making sure everything kept going so we could keep working.”
A lot of hours, people power, and material went into that work.
For Building 22, workers laid 130,000 bricks, poured 4,200 cubic yards of concrete, put in 14,200 pounds of post-tension cables and installed 514,000 pounds of rebar, according to JE Dunn.
More than 750 men and women put in 210,000 work hours. Sixty different companies were involved, and the project team nearly doubled the 10 percent participation goal for “targeted businesses,” including small companies and those owned by women, minorities and veterans.
Minnesota Administration Commissioner Matt Massman said in an interview at the event that those targeted businesses accounted for about $10 million worth of contracts in all.
Two of the subcontractors – Lino Lakes-based Bald Eagle Erectors and Minneapolis-based Aaron Carlson Corp. – are veteran-owned, ensuring that to some extent the veterans’ home was built by veterans. Bald Eagle erected the steel and Aaron Carlson provided millwork.
Massman said the project didn’t have a specific goal for veteran participation.
“We are always working to make sure we are accessing veteran-owned businesses,” he added. “But it certainly is special to have had some veteran-owned businesses that were available and able to have their specialty fit into that work that was done here.”
The project was funded with $18.9 million from the state and about $38 million from the federal government.
The Minneapolis-based Nelson Tremain Partnership had design duties for Building 22.
Design and construction teams on previous phases were Minneapolis-based Horty Elving and St. Louis Park-based Adolfson & Peterson (phase one), and Wayzata-based Mohagen Hansen and Adolfson & Peterson (phase two).
Staff photographer Bill Klotz visited the Minneapolis Veterans Home: