LA GRANDE — As the calendar turns to February, progress continues on the $72.5 million Grande Ronde Hospital capital construction project.

A freight elevator was recently installed and construction crews may be able to use beginning Feb. 7 after it has been inspected by the state, according to Reuben Clouse, superintendent of the construction project for Bouten Construction of Richland, Washington, the general contractor for the project. The elevator will be used to move materials to each of the new building’s five floors.

“It will be a big help,” he said.

The addition of the elevator, which has an exterior outdoor opening, allowed construction crews to close up the south side of the building. Previously, the side of the building was left open to provide space for materials to be brought in, Clouse said.

Two other elevators are also being added, one for patients and another for the public. The installation of the elevators should be finished sometime in March, Clouse said. The one for patients will go up to the roof where a concrete helicopter pad will be located. The helicopter pad is for patients being flown in and out of Grande Ronde Hospital.

Neither of the two elevators will be used by construction crews during the building process, which will help prevent the elevators from being damaged, Clouse said.

Work at the construction site is becoming easier for crews now that the weather is warming.

“It seems like spring is here,” Clouse said.

The National Weather Service is forecasting relatively mild weather for at least the next week with high temperatures reaching into the upper 40s. This is an abrupt change from the frigid weather that hit the Grande Ronde Valley earlier in January. Clouse said at one point all construction work on the exterior of the building was slowed significantly for several days due to freezing weather.

Inclement weather has also slowed construction because it has forced Interstate 84 to be closed for extended periods, delaying workers coming to La Grande from outside the area. This, though, has not put construction crews behind schedule, Clouse said, because weather-related delays were anticipated.

“We are on schedule,” he said.

The project involves the construction of a multi-level building with more than 90,000 square feet of space. The heart of the building will be a surgery center floor. There will also be levels for a dietary nutrition center, a loading dock and a maintenance center.

Clouse said the building project, which started in the spring of 2022, should be finished sometime in August. The building will then be handed over to Grande Ronde Hospital to begin providing services to patients.

Present work at the construction site includes the installation of sheetrock in the interior. Most of the sheetrock will be added to the first two levels. The installation of light fixtures and air vents is also underway. The interior work will include the installation of a kitchen in the nutritional center.

Clouse said original plans called for the kitchen to be installed after the project was completed. However, it was later determined the kitchen should be installed while the other interior work is also being done because the kitchen area will be under the surgery center floor.

“Noise and vibrations could have impacted surgeries,” he said.

Sunset Drive, which runs in front of Grande Ronde Hospital, has been closed since the start of the project from H Avenue to K Avenue and will remain so until the end of the work. Clouse said Sunset Drive will likely be open again in late July or early August.