FAYETTEVILLE – Sept. 15, 2022 – Site preparation work for the planned vertical expansion of Valley Pavilion at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center began earlier this month. Cape Fear Valley Health System announced this $110 million expansion to its flagship hospital in March. The project will add 100 beds to the facility’s capacity by building two new floors on top of the existing Valley Pavilion section of the medical center. CEO Michael Nagowski estimated that the expansion, when completed, will create an additional 187 full-time equivalent positions at the medical center.
“We recognized that we need this expansion to meet the growing needs of our community, and to provide meaningful assistance to reduce delays in our Emergency Department,” he said. “We expect that this will dramatically improve wait times in the ER.”
About 40 percent of the new beds will be designed as ICU beds, with the remaining beds designated for medical/surgery inpatient and observation. All of the beds will be located in private patient rooms. The additions will raise Valley Pavilion from five to seven stories. Not counting Behavioral Health beds, the medical center currently has 544 Acute Care beds and 78 Rehabilitation beds.
Plans also call for the inclusion of two rooftop helipads, which will allow patients to be taken by elevator directly into the hospital emergency department. Currently, the hospital’s helipad is located on the front lawn, and patients must be transported less directly from the helipad into the building. This is the first major expansion to the main campus’ central building since 2008, when the five-story Valley Pavilion opened.
“This construction is really going to benefit our community in the long run, and we know it will be worth the inconveniences it might cause for a few months,” Nagowski said. “We hope our visitors will be understanding and patient while we begin this expansion.”
Timeline of construction changes
Local drivers, pedestrians and visitors should be aware of some minimal disruptions and changes that will occur over the next three months. Though construction will take two years, there should not be further major changes around the construction project after November, until it is complete in fall of 2024.
The areas of expected change are limited to the northeast corner of the hospital campus, from the main entrance driveway on Owen Drive down to the intersection with Village Drive and down Village drive to just past the Emergency Department’s entrance and parking lot. These changes will not affect patient care. The Emergency Department entrance will remain open throughout, as will ambulance access from Village Drive. There will be no impact to sidewalks or parking on the opposite side of Village Drive, only on the hospital’s side of the street.
Visitors can find the most up-to-date information about how these changes might affect their visit at www.capefearvalley.com/visit.
Some of the highlights of the planned timeline for changes follows, weather permitting:
September: The parking deck entrance closest to the main front entrance is temporarily closed until Sept. 30, 2024. All parking deck traffic will now use the entrance facing Owen Drive, which will continue to be accessed from the existing upper section of the frontage road off the main driveway. The lower section of the frontage road that wraps around the parking deck will close permanently. Driveway access from the Emergency Department entrance side of the parking deck to the front entrance will no longer be available. Drivers on Owen Drive can expect daily lane and sidewalk closures on a small section of the street in front of the parking deck.
A new concrete bus stop pad will be installed on Village Drive, farther away from the construction activity focused on the corner. The section of the Emergency Department parking lot closest to the corner will be closed until Sept. 30, 2024, as well as the roadway between the parking lot and the ambulance bay entrance.
October: Work will begin to install a new ambulance entrance drive on Village Drive, adjacent to the existing drive. At the end of October, this new ambulance entrance drive will open, and the old ambulance entrance drive will temporarily close for renovation.
November: The main driveway will temporarily close during one weekend so that the first of two tower cranes can be installed. This closure is expected to happen from Nov. 19-20. Visitors will be redirected.
Media contact for Cape Fear Valley: Chaka Jordan, 910-615-6098 or cgjordan@capefearvalley.com.
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