VA Awards $47.6 Million for Expansion and Renovation

VA Awards $47.6 Million for Expansion and Renovation

of Puerto Rico Facility

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in San Juan, P.R., will see its outpatient-clinic building renovated and expanded in the next two years with a construction contract of $47,559,254.

“As same-day treatment and diagnostic procedures increasingly become the forms of medical care most often needed for our Veterans, it’s imperative that VA facilities meet the need with adequate space, the best technology and comfortable environments,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We are pleased to reach a milestone toward transforming the San Juan VA Medical Center into a 21^st Century health care facility.”

The contract awarded to Walsh Construction Co. Puerto Rico will provide more than 130,000 square feet of clinical and diagnostic facilities.  The project is one of several phases of a comprehensive improvement plan for the hospital, which involves $400 million in construction. 

This phase will provide additional space for exam rooms and supporting clinical functions in the existing outpatient-clinic building. That includes new clinics for dentistry, audiology and speech pathology, diabetes and infectious diseases care and other sub-specialty and primary care.  Construction is expected to be completed in fall 2012.  It will also allow existing outpatient services to be relocated when the main hospital is renovated to include modern space and building systems and improved safety for patients and staff.

In addition to a new bed tower recently completed and an administration building now under construction, future phases will include construction of a 1,500-space parking garage and renovation of the main hospital building.  Construction of all phases of this major initiative is scheduled to be completed in fall 2015.

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