Project
We are pleased to announce that the County of Lehigh has officially started its renovation of the Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehabilitation – Allentown Facility. This project involves the construction of the approximately 145k square foot 240 bed E-Wing that will replace all of the nursing home resident rooms in the 1920s-era resident care B and C wings and a small part of the D-Wing as well. This new 4 story wing will be constructed in an “L-shape” to allow for nursing and medical management to be located in a central hub on each floor that serves two neighborhoods of 30 beds on each floor along with modern common spaces and upgraded living amenities, including bathrooms with shower facilities in each resident room that will be no larger than 2 beds to a room. This project replaces the most dated units of Cedarbrook.
Phasing of Project
To accomplish such a project and keep the campus fully operational requires very precise phasing, which has been created in a collaborative manner between the County of Lehigh and Cedarbrook team, the A&E firm, and the Construction Manager. Throughout the entirety of the project proper entrances and parking capacities are maintained. Emergency exits are also maintained as well throughout the project. Here is an overview of each phase of the project:
Phase 1A – This phase started 1/17/22 and lasts approximately 2 months over the winter, depending on weather conditions, and creates a large new parking lot where the old juvenile center once stood in the northwest corner of the below map and upgrades the side parking lot next to the D-Wing where traditionally Night shift Nursing and Day shift Administration park. There is also lot of site work that occurs in this phase as well. This phase is preparing us to lose the entirety of the existing front parking capacity.
Phase 1B – Site work continues in this phase that will last approximately 2 to 3 months, but importantly the traditional parking areas for staff in the front of the building will be relocated to the rear and side lots that have been constructed in Phase 1A. You will notice in this phase that we are routing traffic very differently (largely 1-way) around the campus.
Phase 2A – Between Spring and Summer of 2022 all traffic is being routed through the construction area in front of the building, including traffic that would traditionally flow to Brookview Parking and the other County departments that share this campus as well. Primarily in this phase we are accomplishing more site work and importantly rebuilding and widening the roadway on the east side of this map that traditionally served Brookview, the other County departments in the rear of the site, and larger deliveries.
Phase 2B – This is the actual construction phase in which the E-Wing itself along with its connections to the D-Wing and Center building actually take shape. It should run between Summer of 2022 and early Fall of 2023. In this phase traffic is being routed around the east side of the map below to reach all of the lots. In this phase the visitor and night shift parking get routed to the D-Wing parking lot. We maintain the same visitor entrance to the facility, but in this phase it is routed due west of the map to the D-Wing lot. This phase is the most difficult phase for parking. The map allows for parking capacity to meet current needs, but if those needs expand coming out of the pandemic there is a contingency plan to build a temporary lot as well.
