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In early May, workers began pouring concrete for the 32-bed, 269,000-square-foot hospital, said Bert Bell, president of Fairbanks-based Ghemm Co.
Work on the $178 million construction contract should be complete by June 2006.
Other project construction tasks this summer will include erecting steel over the clinic and enclosing the central energy plant, which Bell hopes will permit some winter construction.
Because the project extends over years, the general contractors are setting up offices at the site.
"The bulk of the work is way out in front of us," Bell said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District awarded the contract in February to build a hospital replacing the 50-year-old Bassett Army Hospital.
The contract award, for one of the largest construction projects in Alaska, comes a year after the original bid and construction start timeline.
Construction was originally to begin in summer 2001. However, the Corps canceled the process in January 2001 without awarding a contract, citing high prices received in bids.
Last October the Corps restarted the bid process.
When the current Bassett hospital was built it had 300 beds, but changes in health care and modifications have reduced that number to 43 beds.
The new hospital will have even fewer beds since health care has evolved into outpatient rather than inpatient treatment.
Services at the new hospital will include primary and urgent care, specialty clinics, pharmacy and laboratory services, Veterans Administration services, radiology, surgery, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics and family practice.
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