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The steel frame of the Shapiro Center bridge was installed over Francis Street last Saturday, connecting the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center to the Amory building. The 88-foot, 20-ton steel frame was hoisted into position by two cranes and bolted into place by iron workers.
"This is a symbolic milestone in this massive construction project with a visible connection to the Shapiro Center, and the ease with which it was put into place is a testament to our engineers, iron workers and all the men and women working on this project," said Arthur Mombourquette, BWH’s vice president of Support Service.
Construction of the 10-story, 350,000-square-foot facility remains on schedule, as the exterior wall of the building is nearly complete, and work on the interior is well underway as there are about 240 workers onsite daily.
"Next month, the tower crane will be coming down and the outside of the building will be just about complete," Jonathan Katz, senior project coordinator for BWH, said.
With the so-called curtain wall or exterior wall completed this week, crews will begin pouring the concrete decks for the floors and installing the exterior glass in the East Lobby and hoisting the last of the heavy mechanical equipment to the roof. Installation of the lobby glass is expected to begin in March and take about 20 days.
The 15,000-gallon emergency fuel storage tank was put into place on lower level 3 earlier this month, and crews have reached the fifth and sixth floors with installing mechanical duct work and framing. On the lower levels, they’re working on the block walls.
With the tower crane scheduled to be taken down March 14, it’s very busy. This week and next, it has been hoisting the air handling units to then roof, and the emergency generators will be lifted into place next week. The last of the elevator equipment will be put in place during the week of March 12.
And work on the bridge will continue for several weeks, with most of the work done on Saturdays in an effort to minimize the impact on neighborhood traffic. Steel detailing, or the installation of rebar, is underway along with prep work for the Amory building façade. Glass will be installed on the bridge in June.