Miami Beach, Fla. -- Two months after hosting the NFL Superbowl Experience, the Jacksonville District transformed the Miami Beach Convention Center into a 450-bed alternate care facility to treat potential COVID-19 patients. The District awarded a $22.5 million contract to Robins and Morton of Miami, Fla., to convert the 1.4 million square foot facility that normally sees huge car and boat shows into a medical facility that can treat patients affected by the pandemic.
Originally scheduled for contract completion on April 27, a meeting on the second day of construction with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, led to a new scheduled completion date of April 20. Under the direction of the Jacksonville District team on the ground in Miami Beach, the contractor completed construction on April 18, and the facility was turned over to the state of Florida on April 19, two days before scheduled.
Overview
The Miami Beach Conference Center Alternate Care Facility Project is a state and federal partnership in response to the Novel Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.
- An alternate care facility (ACF) is a site that’s temporarily converted for healthcare use during a public health emergency to reduce the burden on hospitals and established medical facilities.
- ACFs are being built based on models that predict when peak infection rates will most likely stress existing medical facilities to the maximum extent.
PROJECT LOCATION
The Miami Beach Convention Center is located at 1900 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139 (25.794762, -80.133714) The project site encompasses an area of 1.4 million sq ft. (overall)
PROJECT BACKGROUND
The Corps of Engineers awarded the $22.5 million contract (with further negotiations pending) to Robins and Morton of Miami, FL, to convert the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC) into an Alternate Care Facility (ACF) for COVID-19 patients.
- 450 beds total
- 50 isolation units with negative pressure capability and hard-lined oxygen supply
- 400 acute-care beds with hard-lined oxygen supply
- Medical pharmacy and clean supply storage
- Medical staff rest area, showers, and decontamination space
- Total patient treatment area the roughly the size of a football field
The project ended up using approximately:
- FIve miles of copper tubing
- 50 miles of electrical cable
- 100 miles of Cat 6 data cable
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District remained on site during construction to supervise performance of the contract and ensure the work met the specifications required by the Florida Department of Health.