The new $120 million Cincinnati Children's/UC Health Proton Therapy Center, the second facility of its kind in the world owned by a children's hospital, finished construction this week.
The two-story, 89,549-square-foot facility features a vault for the 90-ton, superconducting cyclotron system and three treatment bays, or gantries; it also has additional space for a fourth bay to be built when needed. When the center opens in August 2017 it will be the only facility in the country with a gantry dedicated to basic research, according to the hospital.
The facility also includes clinical space for the Cincinnati Children's Cancer and Blood Diseases Institute, which is now open and completed eight months ahead of schedule. Equipment installation began three weeks ahead of schedule.
Through the use of design-assist during the pre-construction phase, the center was built within budget without sacrificing the needs of the hospital. Design software and technology advances allowed for better collaboration between the design team and the design-assist trade contractors.
[Also: University Hospitals in Cleveland first in state to treat cancer patient with proton therapy]
The successful installation of more than 500 linear feet of medical air, chilled and hot water lines, three inches of high pressure steam and conduits for fiber lines took 11 phases to complete, and was done without interrupting operations.
The joint venture team of Linbeck Group and Messer Construction Co. was able to complete the project ahead of schedule despite a variety of challenges, including two of the coldest winters in Cincinnati history.
Proton therapy is gaining in popularity nationally. Earlier this year, University Hospitals of Cleveland became the first institution in Ohio to treat a patient using the approach. The number of proton therapy centers in the United States has inched up into the mid-20s, thanks largely to refinements in the existing technology that are lowering the cost to build them.
While proton technology has been around since the 1940s, the first center in the United States wasn't built until around 1960, and it's only been during the past 10 to 15 years -- when MRIs and CT scanners became more prevalent -- that more institutions were able to take advantage of the targeting ability of protons. An increasing number of centers have come online since that time.
Twitter: @JELagasse