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The currently 12-meter deep, 20,000-square-meter wide pit gaping at the heart of Rambam’s West Campus, in between the Sammy Ofer Tower (main building) and the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, could conceivably be preparation for the building of an Olympic-size pool – for Olympian gods, not mortal athletes.
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The building site
at Rambam Health Care Campus
Photo Credit: Pioter Fliter |
In fact, it represents progress on what will be a 14-meter-deep, overall 60,000-square-meter, 3-level underground parking garage, an 8,000-square-meter section of whose deepest level can be converted within 72 hours into a 1,750-bed Underground Emergency Hospital. The national strategic necessity for an underground regional hospital fortified against missile, chemical and biological warfare became evident during the Second Lebanon War of Summer 2006.
The hybrid underground facility's reinforced ceiling will provide the foundation for an above-ground complex to include the Ruth Rappaport Children's Hospital, Joseph Fishman Oncology Hospital, a Cardiovascular Hospital (available for naming), and a Biomedical Discovery Tower to house the Legacy Heritage Clinical Research Institute at Rambam.
Currently, at and above the excavation’s rim are a concrete wall topped by tin fencing to protect the construction workers inside the pit and the pedestrian and vehicular traffic making their way around it. Below these are a shallow layer of dirt and exposed rock walls whose vertical corrugations mark the site of approximately 1,300 otherwise concealed holes; each hole, 45 cm in circumference and 14 meters deep, is filled with steel re[inforcement]-bars anchored in poured concrete and fastened by rock bolts.
Within the pit's perimeter, Caterpillar vehicles accessorized with drills, shovels and sifters have been digging down through the dolomite bedrock on which Rambam Health Care Campus is built. By February 2009, sweet groundwater at approximately sea level had been reached. Since June 2009, pumps have been working round-the-clock to drain seawater and groundwater from the site so that excavation can continue.
Meanwhile, in a related development, the expansion and fortification of Rambam's above-ground Emergency Trauma Center is at an advanced stage of implementation, with October 2009 slated for that project’s completion date.
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Architect's rendering of planned West Campus |
Underground Emergency Hospital Floor Plans |
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