The moment was historic but not the last one the community will witness before the hospital opens its doors in 2012, Wiener said.
“I look for many more positive milestones like this,” he said of the $235 million, 475,000 square foot project that will consolidate the city’s two aging hospitals on Fountain Boulevard and High Street.
The celebration was just the latest sign the city is moving forward, said City Manager Jim Bodenmiller.
“This is just one more step today towards what we believe to be a bright future for Springfield,” Bodenmiller said. “We’ve got the white water project just starting on the second phase, Center City Park getting ready to start, the ice arena location announced and here today we’re celebrating the hospital’s topping out.”
Community Hospital Health Services Foundation executive director Faye Flack took the ceremony as an opportunity to remind attendees that the new hospital will preserve the reproductive services promised after the merger of the city’s secular and Catholic hospitals in 2004.
The ceremony also marked the beginning of a new construction phase for the project said Kevin O’Brien, Danis project director.
“We’re very pleased that the structure is up and completed in such a good time,” he said “Next will be the shell. We’re going to start masonry next week. And we’re going to start enclosing the building this winter.
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