Quality Testing and Engineering, Inc., new St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, O’Fallon

By MELISSA CROCKETT MESKE
    With projected completion by the end of 2017, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital will move seven miles down the road from its current site in downtown Belleville to a new O’Fallon location at Interstate 64 and North Green Mount Road. The new site promises easier access with its proximity to the highway as opposed to access via the often-congested downtown traffic at the current facility.
    The 144-bed, $253 million facility will include an emergency department, operating rooms, an intensive care unit, and inpatient rehabilitation services. Quality Testing and Engineering, Inc. is providing construction material testing and monitoring services at the new site. Michael Widman is QTE’s project manager for the hospital development.
    “Construction material testing and monitoring involves all the raw materials that go into the site,” Widman said. This is a core service offered by Widman’s firm, and includes construction observation and testing of concrete, engineered fill, and asphalt paving. QTE’s main laboratory is approved by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, ASTM Cement and Concrete Reference Laboratory, Illinois Department of Transportation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
    Their services include testing and observation of aggregate, asphalt (conventional and superpave), floor flatness, foundation excavation, and fresh concrete pours. They also provide concrete and asphalt coring, masonry testing and structural steel observation, maturity testing of concrete, and pavement evaluation. Inspections as a part of their core construction material testing services involve the project’s reinforcing steel, spray-on fireproofing, structural steel and timber. Soil compaction and soil stabilization monitoring are also provided by QTE.
    “Right now the construction site for the new replacement St. Elizabeth’s Hospital is a bit congested as the construction design team is making up for time lost earlier on in the project; also several trades are working at the same time on-site to make up for lost time,” said Widman, “but the projected completion date is still on track.”
    QTE was founded by Widman in 2000 and has since developed an extensive portfolio of completed projects. Representative health care projects such as Highland’s new St. Joseph’s Hospital and its expansion, Greenville Regional Hospital, and numerous Cedarhurst Assisted Living locations in Southern Illinois are just a few on the list. In addition to construction material testing, the firm provides a wide variety of geotechnical, environmental, mine mapping and remediation monitoring as well as other development services.