UTMB making headway on Ike repairs

GALVESTON — Reconstruction and repairs to Ike-damaged buildings at the University of Texas Medical Branch have started to make headway, beginning with working elevators, a coffee shop and restrooms.

Ground-floor work at the John Sealy Hospital, which started in early summer, is scheduled to wrap up in the next six months.

“These are the basic items,” said Mike Shriner, vice president

of business operations and facilities for the medical branch. “Now we can get into the long-term projects.”

The storm surge from Hurricane Ike caused an estimated $600 million in damage, flooding more than 1 million square feet of the medical branch.

With a claim of $450 million, the medical branch is the largest single claimant in Federal Emergency Management Agency history. Thus far, FEMA has provided $200 million to the reconstruction effort.

“The approval process for this money is long,” Shriner said. “It can be six months or longer, so to handle that, we’ve decided to divide and conquer.”

The rebuild has been split into four projects, academic, infrastructure, health care and research, all totaling $667 million.

Services such as the pharmacy, blood bank and kitchen will be relocated from the ground floor to an addition on the north side of John Sealy Hospital.

“We have to move those activities from the ground floor, so we will be elevating those into higher structures,” Shriner said.

The medical branch also is planning on raising the utility distribution system above ground, a $200 million project that will take three years.

“This project is going to take some engineering work and equipment,” Shriner said. “Steam and chilled water piping ran underground before Ike, but we found that after the storm it’s better to elevate that utility distribution system.”

Other plans include reopening the Primary Care Pavilion within a year and converting the first floor of the Rebecca Sealy building into office, meeting and classroom space.

Houston firms Tellepsen Brothers will handle infrastructure; Vaughn Construction will work on health care and research buildings; and Linbeck Group will work on academic buildings.

Hoping to pump funds into the local economy, the medical branch, the Galveston Chamber of Commerce and the Galveston Economic Development Partnership will be introducing the major construction companies to area subcontractors and suppliers.

“We’re not going to have everything come back at once,” Shriner said. “It’ll take some time, but overall, we’re looking at a three-year window for completion.”