Final Engineer's Report - Site Selection Study for New Children's Hospital in Central California

This report serves to identify three separate solutions for a problem presented by the Children’s Hospital Authority of Central California (CHACC). The CHACC has requested that a new children’s hospital be constructed in the Central Valley, and has approached Static Engineering to prepare an Engineer’s report to clearly explore the alternative solutions and recommend a preferred alternative. The primary problem, as set forth by the CHACC, is that the current children’s hospital in Madera is nearing capacity. Furthermore, as the current hospital serves the entire central valley, travel times to the hospital in the event of an emergency can be dangerously long. Secondary problems that will arise from the construction of this hospital include handling the new traffic generated and meeting the site development and infrastructure needs of the hospital. Three possible locations were identified: one in Visalia, one in Tulare, and one in Tipton. Each alternative was analyzed in terms of transportation issues, wet and dry utilities, environmental issues, safety issues, public services, stakeholder approval, population concerns, and cost. The primary content of each concern for each alternative is summarized in the table below. Each alternative was then rated on a scale of 1 to 10 via a selection rubric, with 10 being the highest. Alternative 1 received a score of 63, Alternative 2 received a score of 80, and Alternative 3 received a score of 75. Therefore, Alternative 2 was selected as the preferred alternative.