Time-lapse video captured nearly 500 cement trucks as they filed onto the Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center campus overnight on Saturday, July 29, to pour the base of Sharp HealthCare’s newest hospital, set to open in fall 2019.

Beginning Friday night, 4,700 yards of concrete covering 25,000 square feet had been poured by the end of the 12-hour project that finished on Saturday afternoon. More than 125 construction workers, in addition to the hundreds of ready mix concrete truck drivers, were on-site throughout the night; more than 90 percent of labor for the project is local (San Diego County).

“With everything we’ve done as part of this project, we’ve carefully considered the needs of patients, their families and friends, and the community,” said David Bruce, superintendent, Hensel Phelps Construction, the general contractor for the project. “Our intent in doing this overnight was to minimize traffic impacts to the hospital and community.”

The concrete pour marks the most recent milestone – and almost halfway point – for the South Bay’s first new hospital in more than 40 years (the last new hospital was the existing hospital at Sharp Chula Vista, which opened in 1975). Sharp Chula Vista broke ground on the $244 million hospital in November 2016; once open, it will add 138 large, private patient rooms; six operating rooms; a rooftop café and more to meet the needs of San Diego’s South County region – one of the fastest-growing in the nation. The project is Sharp’s largest single investment to date and is being funded through philanthropic donations to Sharp HealthCare Foundation, bonds, cash reserves and the Medi-Cal Hospital Fee Program.