During the peak of construction on the Inova Hospital, the project’s original electrical subcontractor suddenly defaulted and went out of business. “On Friday, there were 125 electricians on site,” Clark Construction wrote in its submission to the Best Projects competition. “On Monday, none showed up for work.”

After this abrupt setback, Clark managed to hire a replacement electrical contractor a week later. A detailed schedule that “tracked work down to individual tasks on each floor” allowed the team to view the project and validate the work through a third party. It also allowed new personnel to pick up where work halted with minimal delay. The 40-month project was also delivered six weeks early.

The $217.1-million project included two hospitals inside one 665,000-sq-ft building. Inova Women’s Hospital has 192 all-private patient rooms, 33 labor-and delivery-rooms, eight operating rooms, six C-section suites and a high-risk perinatal unit, while the Inova Children’s Hospital features its own dedicated entrance, 116 private patient rooms and Northern Virginia’s only pediatric intensive care unit.

The team also dealt with a treacherous winter by creating a special cold weather concrete as well as special temperature monitoring equipment to ensure the concrete cured properly. “This data informed a heating plan to ensure the concrete would properly cure and maintain full structural integrity even as temperatures fell to record lows,” Clark said.

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