Geothermal Drilling on New WellStar Hospital Completed

Brasfield & Gorrie, one of the nation’s largest privately held construction firms, recently completed the geothermal drilling for WellStar Paulding Hospital, one of the nation’s first hospitals to be conditioned solely by geothermal energy.

This is the firm’s 52nd project with WellStar, a non-profit Georgia-based health system, and the hospital being built in Hiram will be one of the first in the country to be conditioned solely on geothermal energy, according to a Brasfield & Gorrie news release.

Tapping geothermal energy offers many advantages such as reduced pollution, greater reliability and cost savings, firm officials say.

“Not only is this project breaking the traditional mold of how a hospital converts energy to power to heat and cool the building, but our project team is also introducing several innovative techniques and technologies during the construction process. We’re using mobile productivity software and iPads on site to complete site walks, facilitate meetings, and collaborate with our partners,” Tate McKee, vice president and division manager with Brasfield & Gorrie, said in the release.

The firm also boasts a positive economic impact on the hospital project—more than 2,000 workers involved throughout the construction process.

WellStar Paulding Hospital is WellStar’s first replacement facility and is expected to welcome its first patients in April 2014. Plans include a seven-story, 295,000-square-foot hospital, a 120,000-square-foot precast parking deck and a four-story, 82,220-square-foot medical office building (MOB) that will build on an existing facility. The new facility will replace the existing Paulding Hospital currently located in Dallas, and will include state-of-the-art features to better serve the community.

The project is also Brasfield & Gorrie’s seventh in participation with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) voluntary Strategic Partnership Program (OSPP) which seeks to reduce and eliminate work-related injuries through workplace safety initiatives and on-site health systems.