After years of delay and consternation, the word came Thursday: A construction agreement had finally been reached for the new Veterans Administration hospital at Fitzsimons.
It’s about time.
Announced a decade ago, the promised regional veterans hospital has hit one delay after another. Administrations changed. Plans were modified, and all the while veterans endured an outdated and overcrowded facility in central Denver.
The lack of progress was a frustration shared by many, including this editorial board.
On Thursday, after some not-so-subtle prodding from members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, the VA announced it finally struck a deal with two construction contractors, a move that will allow work to begin on the $800 million project.
Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter was the chief bulldog on the issue. He even went so far as to plan a protest later this month on the plot of dirt where the hospital is to be built.
But Perlmutter wasn’t alone. Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, both Democrats, applied pressure to break the logjam as well.
“Finally I reached a boiling point,” Perlmutter told us. “We all said, ‘This has got to get moving.’ ”
The need for a new facility has been widely acknowledged.
Denver’s existing VA hospital was built 60 years ago. The VA inspector general in 2004 issued a report describing stomach-turning conditions at the facility.
Dirty strips of gauze coated in what appeared to be body fluids were being used as pull cords for lights in the surgical intensive care unit. The report noted peeling paint and drywall in operating rooms and an open vent between a room used for biopsies and a dirty utility room. Privacy was compromised by cramped quarters.
Conditions improved after the report, but it was still clear the facility had to be replaced.
It has been more than two years since a ceremonial groundbreaking took place, complete with a visit from VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
The holdup apparently centered on an inability to reach agreement on the details of the deal.
An unfortunate ripple effect of the delay is that the hospital probably won’t be finished until 2015.
Perlmutter tells us he plans to make unannounced visits to the site to see with his own eyes how the facility is progressing. Excavation, he said, is set to start next week.
The facility will have 182 beds, and a state-of-the-art spinal cord injury care center. That’s particularly important given the types of injuries veterans have been sustaining as they have fought on behalf of this country.
Though the delays associated with this project have been maddening, the timing of this bit of good news couldn’t be better.
Happy Veterans Day, Colorado.