TUCSON, Ariz. – Engineering News-Record (ENR) Southwest selected the Banner - University Medical Center tower and the Interstate 10 (I-10) interchange at Ina Road as the 2020 best Health Care and Highway/Bridge projects. ENR is the construction industry’s principal trade publication.
“Along with our partner DPR Construction, we are very proud of this project,” said Jeremy Kwapich, Sundt Preconstruction Project Manager. “Adding this new tower for Banner will allow them to help keep more Southern Arizonans healthy.”
The joint-venture team of Sundt/DPR broke ground in 2016 to construct the $275 million Banner-University Medical Center Tucson. The project included a nine-story, 670,000-square-foot tower, which replaced a 40-year-old portion of the hospital and additional renovation work. The tower includes 204 patient rooms, including 12 labor and delivery suites and 24 maternity rooms with private bathrooms and showers. The facility also has more than $50 million in new equipment and technology to improve the patient experience.
The I-10 Ina Road project included reconstructing the interchange at Ina Road as a precast concrete bridge overpass to I-10. It also included several street improvements, channel construction, drainage, retaining walls, signals, lighting, and utility relocation. Of the various improvements made, the most notable is the bridge, which will take traffic over the Union Pacific Railroad and break up delays on a heavily used four-lane road. Railroad crossings were previously at street level, causing frequent backups for daily drivers. Now drivers will have safer, faster access to and from the interstate.
“Our team is humbled by the recognition we have received on this project,” said Ryan Cannon, Project Manager for Sundt’s Transportation Group. “We worked hard to provide this improvement to have safer and faster access from I-10.”
Sundt opened its Tucson office in 1929. In the decades since, it has built notable landmarks across the Old Pueblo including nearly 60 buildings on the University of Arizona campus and the 4th Avenue Underpass. The company has three offices in Arizona: Tucson, Tempe and Phoenix.