$1.3 Billion UC Irvine Medical Campus Moves Toward 2025 Completion

Construction crews work to complete the UCI-Medical complex of Irvine, Calif., on July 13, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

IRVINE, Calif.—Hundreds of construction and architectural specialists paused for a catered barbeque lunch July 13 to celebrate progress on a “state of the art” all-electrical new University of California–Irvine (UCI) medical facility set to be completed by January of 2025.

The $1.3 billion-dollar carbon neutral medical center, located at Jamboree Road and Birch Street, will bring “unparalleled expertise” and the finest evidence-based care, according to UCI officials, and will feature a 144-bed hospital that will serve the south Orange County area.

Construction crew work to complete a new medical facility at the University of California–Irvine in Irvine, Calif., on July 13, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

It will also feature the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care and the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care,” according to UCI Health spokesperson Sophia Papa.

The facility will also have a 24-hour emergency department.

“As a key part of Orange County’s only academic health system, [the new facility] will complement the growing UCI Health outpatient care network and UCI Medical Center in Orange, home to the region’s only level one trauma center,” Ms. Papa said.

Construction crew work to complete a new medical facility at the University of California–Irvine in Irvine, Calif., on July 13, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

The affiliate hospital will also be a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, and a leading provider of specialty and critical care services, according to Papa.

This winter’s rain storms caused work delays, setting the project’s timeline back by “several months,” according to construction officials.

But crews at the lunchtime celebration were applauded for completing what they could during the “gritty” conditions the storms created.

“I have never seen such a quality of work as this in my over 20 years of experience,” said Kasie Bowden, project superintendent at Hensel Phelps, the project’s construction and development company. “This is the future of medicine, and every one of you gets to say you are a part of it.”

Workers sign an iron beam soon to be inserted into a building frame as construction crew work on a new medial facility at the University of California–Irvine in Irvine, Calif., on July 13, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times