Bonner General Hospital prepares to expand

SANDPOINT — Land preparations are underway for the expansion of Bonner General Hospital, a project that will add several new facilities to the local health care hub.

Avista crews began moving utility lines along Third Avenue and Alder Street Thursday in anticipation of hospital construction. According to hospital officials, utility realignment is expected to continue for several weeks. Drivers should anticipate some temporary traffic revisions as a result.

It’s the first steps toward construction work that will eventually raise a new, 40,000 square foot facility on the property formerly occupied by Taylor and Sons Chevrolet, a lot Bonner General Hospital purchased in 2011. Hospital officials are partnering with Parkwood Business Properties, a Coeur d’Alene-based developer of commercial properties, on the project.  

The extension facility will be three stories tall, of which the first two stories will be used for hospital functions like retail space, patient services, home health, rehabilitation, the educational department, conference rooms, a women’s health center and more. The third floor will encompass office space that can be leased out to physicians. Preliminary plans indicate the building will be L-shaped and built to high standards of efficiency.

The new facility will be located on the northeast corner of the old car lot, kitty corner from the existing hospital facilities. The remainder of the lot will be used to increase available parking.

Hospital officials plan to span the streets separating the two facilities with an enclosed sky bridge. Planners see the bridge as a means to let hospital employees and patients move between the buildings quickly and easily without dealing with bad weather or traffic. The bridge will be about 80 feet long and 14 feet wide with a 15-and-a-half-foot clearance and will stretch over the intersection at Third and Alder.

City officials cleared the hospital to begin work on their plans at the beginning of August. While the aerial use agreements involved in the sky bridge are uncommon for Sandpoint, they believe the hospital expansion will have a positive impact on available jobs, the local tax base and overall downtown vitality.