Clark Works to Deliver Alternate Care Facility for COVID-19 Patients Near Chicago

Chicago, IL – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded Clark Construction Group a design-build contract to convert the MetroSouth Medical Center - a shuttered hospital located south of Chicago in Blue Island, Illinois - into an Alternate Care Facility (ACF). The ACF will provide medical professionals with the expanded space necessary to treat patients with COVID-19 safely. Perkins and Will is the project’s designer.

To make the facility fully operational, Clark is revitalizing the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) and retrofitting other single-patient rooms with negative pressure isolation units to meet infection control requirements. The team is also installing systems to support COVID-19 patients who require ventilators. Additionally, Clark will ensure that all critical hospital systems and infrastructure, including medical gasses, telecommunications, nurse call, electrical service, and water service, are inspected and operational.

Before closing, the MetroSouth facility operated 313 beds. The ACF project will nearly double the hospital’s capacity by providing close to 600 surge beds for COVID-19 patients. Of the nearly 600 beds, 272 will have services closely matching those of an ICU to support the most critical patients.

Work on the project began on March 30. While the challenges of an aggressive schedule and complex scope of work are further magnified by efforts to maintain safety protocols during the pandemic, the Clark team is targeting completion of the ACF on April 24. The team will continue to ramp up its operations to meet the project’s ambitious timeline.

“Clark is proud to be commissioned for such an important assignment,” said David Trolian, division president and chief executive officer of Clark’s Chicago office. “We are honored to being able to serve our community in a meaningful way during these unprecedented times.”

The MetroSouth ACF project team also includes MEP Engineer Salas O’Brien, Hill Mechanical, Titan Electric, RG Construction, and Consolidated Flooring.