SAGINAW TOWNSHIP - The building trades last month completed the fourth phase of an eight-phase, $44 million construction project that will result in a wholesale transformation of the HealthSource Saginaw facility.

Saginaw County voters approved a 2004 bond issue to renovate and expand the HealthSource facility, which includes psychiatric care, substance abuse treatment and medical rehabilitation services. The building trades and general contractor Spence Brothers are expected to complete the project in December 2008.

In completing the fourth phase in mid-December, Spence Brothers handed over the new psychiatric portion of the facility to the hospital. The new Behavioral Medicine Center includes 41 inpatient psychiatric beds and 27 inpatient chemical dependency beds, and the new Behavioral Professional Services office suite included construction of 150 of the facility's 213 long-term care beds.

More than 100 Hardhats have worked on the project at peak employment.

"The workforce has done a good job," said Bob Beythan, who is managing the project for Spence Brothers. "It's been a challenging job, with a lot of different phases, and it has required a tremendous amount of planning."

The next phases in the project, which starts this month, will result in the demolition of the five-story central resident wing, as well as an existing psychiatric wing and offices. Phase 6 constructs the 38 inpatient bed Medical Rehabilitation Center, room for the remaining 63 long-term care beds, the "Main Street" corridor to connect the entire facility, as well as the interior construction/renovation of the administrative bank, therapy areas and main dining room.

When work is complete, the facility will operate on a single level on space currently occupied by the to-be-demolished five-story hospital building - it's the victim of having rooms that are too small and a layout that's inadequate for modern health care. The entire project consists of construction of approximately 169,310 square feet of new patient/resident/client care facilities and renovation of an additional 47,630 of existing square feet.

INSTALLING TEMPORARY steam lines in a corridor at the HealthSource Saginaw facility is Andre Alexander of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 85, working for Remer Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.

REMER, a steadfast union contractor, is in its 50th year. One of its service trucks is shown outside the new HealthSource building.

BUILT IN THE late 1920s, the original four-story hospital on the HealthSource Saginaw grounds will be demolished.