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Story & Photos by Scott Schaefer

Have you ever noticed when driving by a construction site how one day there’s not much going on, then suddenly the next day there are huge walls in place?

If you drive past the new CHI Franciscan/Highline Medical Center building under construction on 1st Ave South near SW 160th soon, you may notice that suddenly there are a bunch of new, huge walls in place.
Thursday afternoon (Oct. 15) workers raised 20 very large panels into place, which will serve as walls for the new building.
Workers used a 180-ton size crane to lift the panels into place, the heaviest one weighing 87,000 pounds. That’s 43.5 tons!
The panels – which were actually cast and made on site before being lifted into place – are between 7¼ and 9¼-inches thick, and the tallest one measuring 34 feet, 11 inches. The shortest was 21 feet, 4 inches.
The new medical center will be a 48,000 square feet, $27 million facility, and will include an urgent care clinic, a primary care clinic, and a women’s health clinic. It is replacing buildings most recently used as a warehouse for Highline Public Schools, as well as a thrift store for the Salvation Army.
Scott Schaefer donned a hard hat and bright yellow vest and took these photos (click images to see larger versions/slideshow):
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Also, here’s a video showing demolition of the site that took place June 17:
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One reply on “PHOTOS: Workers install large walls at new CHI Medical Center building”

  1. My admiration goes out for the skill and expertise of construction workers who may appear to be simple hammer weilders but actually have specialized knowledge and responsibility for placing each nail and bolt in precisely the right position for a structure to take correct form. While it may look as though workers are doing just one task, every member of the team must coordinate each action to insure construction is accurate and safe. Behind the construction is the design team who designed the building down to every bolt and piece of molding. While I sit indoors at a desk orking in an internet cloud a construction team is actually out there in the weather building our physical world. Thanks for these photos because I can’t sit to watch the process or participate myself but wish I could.

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