Clark Construction Group � California last week reached substantial completion on the new $310-million, 400,000-sq-ft Tom and Billie Long Patient Care Tower at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.

Ratcliff, Emeryville, was project architect; Ove Arup and Partners, San Francisco, was structural engineer; and Mazzetti & Associates, San Francisco, served as MEP engineer. On the owner�s side, the project was managed by John Muir Health�s Facilities Development department with assistance from Jtec HCM, Oakland.

The project adds a five-story (plus basement), 242-bed medical tower, central utility plant and underground loading dock to the existing facility, according to the medical center.

Clark Construction says the new tower is a steel-braced frame with concrete slab over metal deck with exterior finishes, including curtain wall, storefront, punched windows, precast, stone, metal, and plaster systems. The new main lobby features a skylight with glass rotunda.

The tower�s main roof supports a helipad and primary mechanical equipment. Roofs at lower levels feature gardens with trellises. Within the new tower, Clark says it built an imaging area, three operating room suites, pharmacy, kitchen, neonatal intensive care unit, post-partum unit, pediatric unit, critical care unit, emergency department observation unit, cath labs and medical/surgical units.

The expansion and remodel project will open to patients in April.

Clark project officials say that working in close proximity to John Muir Medical Center�s existing operations was a major project challenge. To allow for the new tower, portions of the existing hospital were demolished. New structural members were slotted through the operating medical facility, which required uncovering the existing structure to interlock those members.

Portions of the new addition that were not built within the demolished space were built within six inches of the existing hospital and connected to the old facility with expansion joints.