Veterans Hospital Hosts Topping Out Ceremony For Expansion

TAMPA, FL — With Veterans Administration executives and other dignitaries in attendance, James A. Haley Veterans Hospital hosted a topping out ceremony for the new Bed Tower construction project Thursday.

The topping out ceremony is a construction tradition dating back hundreds of years that celebrates a major milestone for the Bed Tower project. During the ceremony, the final beam was placed on top of the structure to top out this phase of construction.

The public was invited to sign the beam and become part of this project to modernize health care for Tampa Bay veterans.

The Bed Tower will be a four-story building that, when completed, will add 245,000 square feet of new space and another 5,000 square feet of renovated space to the hospital. It will include 96 medical-surgical single patient rooms and 40 intensive care unit beds. It will also include space for a new cafeteria, outdoor dining area and retail store, as well as assorted support offices.

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The total cost of the design-build project is $148.6 million. This is the first major design-build construction project managed by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers for the VA under recently approved Congressional legislation.