County breaks ground on health and social services campus in Vallejo 5/9/2008

County breaks ground on health and social services campus in Vallejo 5/9/2008

County and city officials gathered Friday (May 9) morning for a ground-breaking ceremony on a $38.6 million improvement to the campus that will consolidate health and social services into one convenient location.

“Today we celebrate the County’s commitment to improve the health and well being of our residents with a more customer-oriented focus. Soon we will have a state-of-the-art campus for both health care and social services,” said Supervisor John Silva, chairman of the Solano County Board of Supervisors.

The County is constructing a three-story, 58,000-square-foot Health and Social Services building in the parking lot opposite the existing building on Tuolumne Street. The new building will integrate a variety of services into one convenient location: primary care, mental health, public health, substance abuse, child welfare, employment eligibility services, Medi-Cal, food stamps and services for older and disabled adults.

“I feel like I’ve come full circle with this event,” said Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis and former Solano County supervisor, noting he had been at a similar ceremony when the existing Health and Social Services building was constructed. “This is a great opportunity for the City and the County to work together to improve the services provided to the residents.”

In addition to the new building, the County will renovate 61,700 square feet of the existing Health and Social Services building and 10,700 square feet of the adjacent Hall of Justice building.

“The campus outline is restful, relaxing and welcomes our clients with respect and pride,” said Supervisor Barbara Kondylis. “Currently our services are scattered. Once this campus is established, our clients will have easy access to our services and will no longer have to travel across Vallejo for each separate program.”

The new, expanded campus will increase the County’s ability to provide services to more clients.

• The addition of seven examination rooms in the primary clinic will increase their capacity for annual patient visits by 18 percent to 16,500 visits.

• A conference center designed for large community training opportunities is expected increase the Women, Infants and Children program by 15 percent to 47,000 visits per year.

• The integrated clinic lab will provide sample results to doctors faster.

The ceremony acknowledged another aspect of the major construction project – an economic infusion into the City of Vallejo.

“The timing of this project could not be better. This is a great boost for us in the construction industry,” said Lou Franchimon, Business Manager for the Napa-Solano Building Trades Council.

Franchimon estimates at least 80 percent of the people working on the project will come from Solano County.
Supervisor Silva encouraged the contractors “to shop Vallejo as much as possible and take this opportunity to make a difference in Vallejo,” Silva said.

The County plans to break ground soon on the other half of this “Twin Campus” project in Fairfield, where it will build a Public Health Clinic, Public Health Lab and a Forensics Lab.

The total investment in the Twin Campus project is $58.3 million.
Otto Construction, Inc. is the design builder for the Twin Campus project, which is scheduled to be complete by June 2010. This is the same design-build process that enabled the County to construct the County Government Center in Fairfield on time, on budget and without a lost time accident, Franchiman said.

“We look forward to working with Solano County on the Twin Campus projects,” said Doug Stevenson, Project Manager for Otto Construction. The company worked with Solano County to build the Health and Social Services building on Beck Avenue in Fairfield.

Residents can expect work to begin on Phase I of the project, the expanded parking area, in the next couple of weeks.

Johnson Fain is the Master Architect and Engineer for the project. TWM Architects is the Architect of Record. Swinerton Management and Consulting Inc. is the project and construction manager.

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