Ironworkers Turn 100 / Swedish to Build New Hospital / Volvo Rents opens in Everett

Local 86 celebrates Its contributions

June marked 100 years for the Ironworkers Local 86, but thousands of projects built between the Canadian border and Chehalis, from the Hiram Chittenden Locks to the new Seattle Public Library.

One ironworker, William Matheny, even worked on three versions of the same thing, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Matheny was an apprentice on the first bridge in 1940, twisting cable. After only a few months standing, the bridge collapsed and Matheny went back to rebuild it in 1950. Now 89, he received an honorary dispatch to the start of the third bridge project. His job was to turn the earth at the groundbreaking ceremony. A platinum shovel commemorating the event now leans in the corner of his family room.

Matheny was only an ironworker for 16 years, sidelined by an injury in 1956. Not surprising, since ironworkers are considered the Marines of the construction world.

The early part of apprentice training is equal to any boot camp. The first day 50 potential Ironworkers haul rebar up and down the Local's parking lot. About half don't show up for Day Two. Drug screening and other exhausting physical labor, winnows the group down to about 10 by Day 5. "We want to make sure they really want to work hard, before they become an ironworker," said Steve Pendergrast, Local 86 business agent and third generation member of Local 86.

Hard work may be the prime characteristic of being an ironworker, but changes in technology have made that slightly easier over the years.

Pendergrast rode on a steel cable or climbed up structural steel to get the top of the building. Safety regulations now require any building over 5 stories to be equipped with an elevator. Workers are now tied off, greatly reducing workplace injuries.

For Matheny, these are welcome changes.

"The one thing I remember most about being an Ironworker is my friends that died," Matheny.

Still, nothing can beat the pride ironworkers feel when their kids point out buildings that their parent's helped build.

"It makes me feel great when I drive down the freeway with my teenage kids and they point to the bridge that Grandpa built or ask if I helped with that building."

Swedish to Build New Hospital

Seattle — Swedish Medical Center plans to build a $197 million, 175-bed hospital in Issaquah, Wash. Space for 80 acute-care beds would open in January 2009, 40 more would be added in 2012, with the final 55 coming online in 2016.

At completion, the 352,000-square-foot Swedish/Issaquah Campus would employ an estimated 600 people. The facility would provide a broad range of inpatient and outpatient medical services including oncology, cardiac care, obstetrics, neurosciences, pediatrics, orthopedics, general surgery and intensive care.

Swedish plans to fund the new hospital with financial reserves accumulated over the next several years. Earlier this year, Swedish signed a 20-year lease on a two-story building to house a new freestanding emergency-room (ER) complex. Tenant-improvement work is scheduled to start in September, with a target opening date of February 2005.

In addition to the ER, the Swedish complex will include a medical-imaging center, clinical laboratory, sleep medicine unit and offices for primary care and specialty physicians. The first of its kind in Washington state, the complex will be staffed by approximately 75 physicians, nurses, technicians and support personnel. It will be open around-the-clock to treat patients with problems requiring immediate and specialized attention. That may include chest pain, stroke, severe cuts and burns, food poisoning, broken bones, severe allergic reactions and work-related injuries.

Volvo opens Local Rental Center

The Phoinix Corporation, has opened its first Volvo CE Rents center in the Seattle metropolitan area. The new Everett equipment rental center is an independently owned and operated Volvo Construction Equipment Rents franchise within the company's rental program.

In addition to Volvo construction equipment, the center will carry a comprehensive line of essential equipment and tools for the construction, commercial, industrial, and homeowner markets. Principal Volvo products for the rental franchises include compact excavators and wheel loaders and backhoe and skid steer loaders.