Ohio State Engineers Making History Through Wexner Medical Center Expansion

By Jackson Kohn

A team of 18 Ohio State engineering alumni and student interns are giving back to the university through their work on the Wexner Medical Center expansion project, the largest construction project in Ohio State’s history.

Nearly half of the 50 Turner Construction Company employees tasked with managing the project are Ohio State alumni or students, including nine construction systems managers and nine civil engineers. These Buckeyes can be found overseeing the five-part project that includes:

• Taking down several existing structures to make way for the new building;
• Updating utilities and repurposing roads around the medical center campus;
• Renovating current facilities by bringing them up to code and improving interior infrastructures;
• Constructing the new Spirit of Women Park, just south of the existing main hospital; and finally,
• The new James Cancer Hospital & Solve Research Institute and Critical Care Center that will tower more than 20 stories and cover more than 1.1 million square feet of floor space.

Although it’s the largest construction project in Ohio right now, the four engineering student interns are making their presence felt.

"One of my big focuses is to give all of our interns real responsibilities, not to give them busy work, and to make sure they have real ownership of this project," Nigel Carter, project controls manager, says.

Carter, an Ohio State civil engineering alumnus, oversees the selection and placement process for student interns on the project. He is happy to have direct interaction with three of the current interns.

"It’s just been great to work with the students, to see how eager they are to learn, and to see how eager they are to take their knowledge from the classroom and actually apply it to a real-world situation," Carter says.

Carter decided on a career in construction management after watching many of the projects on campus when he was student, including the Fisher College of Business and the Knowlton School of Architecture.

Michael Lindawan, a senior civil engineering student and building information model intern, can attest to the impact interns have on the project. Lindawan helps manage the three-dimensional modeling of the construction site and new building, which helps keep the project on schedule, lowers costs and ensures problems don’t arise.

"Getting to work on a project like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Lindawan says, "especially coming from the Ohio State College of Engineering."

Amanda Verhoff, a civil engineering student and the project’s safety intern, agrees with Carter and Lindawan.

"There’s a sense of pride knowing that you’re working on the university that you go to, and people take pride in their work, especially since it’s their alma mater," Verhoff says.

For construction updates, check out medicalcenter.osu.edu/aboutus/expansion