This year the impact of the hospital will be even greater, as its campus at Pine Grove Avenue and Richardson Street is expanding with the scheduled August completion of a new 175,000 square-foot South Patient Tower with 72 private patient rooms. In addition to a newly completed 17,000 square-foot hospital east addition that houses the new Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute treatment center, the hospital is offering more space and services to address the health care needs of the community. 

Hospital officials expressed delight that so many local Hardhats are doing the work - while they anticipate that the new cancer center and expanded campus will be incentives to keep Blue Water residents from traveling out of the area for their health care 

"One of the best things, and I think the employees and the patients alike are going to agree, is we will have all private rooms," said President/CEO of McLaren Port Huron Jennifer Montgomery,  "So everyone will get their own room, there will be room for families to be here with their loved ones while they're hospitalized, staff will be able to work on education with a patient, without a roommate. We're really going to make sure it's efficient for staff, with supplies closer to the patient. So this is going to be a huge improvement for everyone."

Work is proceeding under the design-build team of Barton Malow- Christman. Christman Senior Project Manager Steve Busen said the project has been employing about 120 tradespeople as the project hovers at peak employment.

The $162 million project began with a fall 2015 groundbreaking on the new cancer treatment center. McLaren Port Huron estimated about 60 percent of cancer patients in St. Clair County traveled outside of the area to receive some of their care, and approximately 40 percent left for radiation therapy.

Now the newly opened center is one of 15 Karmanos treatment sites in Michigan, offering a "sophisticated level of cancer services," the facility said, including one-stop treatment and a new, state-of-the-art linear accelerator to treat all types of cancer. The center offers 12 chemotherapy infusion bays, physician consulting space for patients and their families to meet with specialists for treatment planning, as well as examination and follow up care. It opened in July 2016.

Over on the south side of the hospital, work is proceeding on the new South Patient Tower. Work will include a partial basement to house a new central sterile department and lab as well as a new tunnel that connects to the existing basement of the main hospital.   

The first floor will include a new Emergency Department with 35 treatment bays, a new CAT scan and a relocated x-ray room. Adjacent will be a 12-bed observation unit and a new main entrance canopy and lobby addition. The second floor will include a new 18-bed intensive care ICU as well as four replacement in-patient operating rooms and associated support and storage space. 

The third and fourth floors will include two 18 bed medical/surgical units for a total of 36 private beds on each floor, in all totaling 72 new private patient rooms. A partial penthouse is located on fifth floor/roof and contains the main electrical substation, six air handling units, three air-cooled chillers, an elevator equipment room, medical gas equipment, hot water tanks and associated pumps.      

"Things have gone really gone well, we're on schedule and it's been a smooth project," said Busen. "Our trades, our subs have been doing excellent work, and we're really proud that more than half of our workforce have been local St. Clair County residents. And I know that this hospital is a real source of pride for our tradespeople; many of them come here for health care services." 

Jack Belyea, the director of construction and facilities at McLaren Port Huron, said their staff visited a number of local health care facilities to determine how to design the hallways and patient rooms in the new South tower. "One of the big things we looked at with caregivers and groups is what is the best practice for stacking the floors," he said. "And I can't say enough about best practices. We aren't the first ones to build a hospital so we went out and asked the experts."

A full-scale mockup of a typical ICU and patient room were built in the hospital's main lobby for staff and visitors to see what's coming. Busen said the mockups also "greatly helped with the formation of the final design, and it helped subs get a good feel for what they would be doing in the field and with the end product."

Beyond this project, McLaren Port Huron Hospital plans a central lobby with a new north and south tower orientation for convenient staff and visitor access. When work is complete, an additional 200,000 square feet will be added to the existing hospital facility, and another 100,000 square feet will be renovated. East Tower renovations will include redesigned, private patient rooms. Additionally, a light-filled lobby, modernized cafeteria and other amenities will be installed, with those campus renovations expected to begin in 2019.


MCLAREN PORT HURON Hospital’s campus has grown from a small three-story (now demolished) building on site since 1912, to a footprint of more than 300,000 square feet. Major expansions took place in the 1950s, 1970s, 1990s, and today. The new South Tower under construction is at left, the main existing hospital is center, and the new Karmanos Cancer Institute is at right.


INSTALLING DOMESTIC WATER mains on the second level of the McLaren Port Huron South Tower project are (l-r) Mark Nordstrom and John Norton of Plumbers Local 98. They’re working for Watson Bros Co. in what will be a post-op area.


WORKING ON A SECOND-FLOOR visitors elevator at the McLaren Port Huron South Tower expansion is Mike Klomp of Elevator Constructors Local 36. He’s employed by Otis.