In November 2011, Capital Health completed the relocation and upgrading of its former hospital/healthcare facility in Trenton to a new 165 acre site at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Scotch Road. The land proposed for this development had a General Development Plan (GDP) which proposed uses for commercial office and hotel uses. VNHA was a part of the consulting team which amended the GDP to allow development to include healthcare uses including a hospital, COAH housing, and hotel and conference center. The new facility includes a 960,000 sq. ft., 367 bed state-of-the-art LEED certified hospital and 300,000 sq. ft. of medical office space. VNHA’s scope of services included overall site/civil engineering including environmental site assessment and permitting, subdivision, base surveying and engineering design of all roadways, parking, a new sanitary sewage pump station, utility infrastructure, and an integrated stormwater management system. VNHA prepared conceptual design plans, schematic design plans, preliminary/final site plan design plans, and construction plans that were used to obtain both regulatory approvals and bids to construct the project. The Site layout and grading design preserved key site features, such as an isolated wooded, wetland feature and an existing tree stands, that were critical to preserving existing site features and create a natural screen/buffer.
Complete environmental services that spanned a broad range of essential project requisites were also provided and resulted in securing all necessary local, State, and Federal approvals to construct the Project. Wetland permitting services involved preparation of a complex wetland permit plan combining wetland approvals for two separate projects, negotiating NJDEP approval of revisions to a previously issued wetland permit, and obtaining NJDEP Commissioner approval to release previously deed restricted areas for development. VNHA also obtained a Flood Hazard Area Individual Permit from the NJDEP for disturbance within the regulated flood plain and riparian zones of on-site streams and played a key role in negotiating approvals for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) financing of the Project within a schedule accelerated by finance-related deadlines. Essential to obtaining HUD financing was a Federal Section 106 Review by HUD, the State Historic Preservation Office, and the Hopewell Township Historic Commission.
VNHA performed a Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment (ESA), and coordinated intensive level archeological surveys and a plan to mitigate adverse impacts, as well as a Habitat Assessment of the Project site for the Indiana Bat, a Federal threatened wildlife species. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for municipal approval, and an analysis of impacts to the Flood Hazard Area were prepared, which led to the issuance of a Flood Hazard Area Individual Permit for the Project by the NJDEP. Since prior investigations had identified arsenic-containing soil on the site, VNHA advised the property owner and construction management firm on proper management of that soil with regards to NJDEP requirements and potential exposure to occupants of the site during and upon completion of construction of the project.
Central to the site design and an equally important credit towards the project’s pursuit of LEED Certification is the state-of-the-art stormwater management system designed with a combination of various integrated stormwater management Best Management Practice’s (BMP’s). BMP’s include a rainwater harvesting system used for irrigation; disconnected impervious surfaces, such as curbless pavement areas that drain to vegetated roadside swales or vegetated bio-swales within inverted parking lot islands; constructed wetland basins that promote biological uptake of nutrients from stormwater runoff and bio-diversity through multiple forms of plant and ecological habitats; and the use of native or adaptive landscaping throughout the project site.
The new facility was awarded U.S. Green Building Council LEED Gold Certification in December 2012.
