The cost of the project was $1,681,000. About 300 carloads of material were used, including approximately 3,000,000 feet of lumber. The largest number of laborers employed at any one time was 1,795, with a working day, as a rule, of nine hours, union and nonunion labor being employed without discrimination. Water supply, sewer construction, roads, 330 feet of railway siding, sewage disposal plant, electrical installation, and boiler houses, all had to be built. The work was all completed early in July, 1918. In addition to the bed capacity of the hospital, accommodations were provided for a hospital personnel of 224.
One of the largest hospitals involving entirely new construction is General Hospital No. 21, Denver, Colo. This is also a hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis cases. The construction is permanent, hollow tile and stucco, and the hospital facilities are sufficient to accommodate 2,000 beds for recuperative and curative work. The plant consists of hospital wards, tuberculosis wards, officers' quarters, nurses' quarters, mess halls, storehouses, laundry, schoolhouse, power house, water and sewer installation, and all of the necessary utilities for the adequate operation of a completely self-contained unit.
The original authorization covered only 1,000 beds. Subsequently there was authorized an addition equally as large, and the entire project was completed on March 1, 1919. The actual capacity of the hospital is in excess of the capacity estimated when the work was begun, and it is estimated that 2,486 patients can be cared for, the cost per bed running less than $1,350. In view of the nature and character of the permanent construction involved, and the fact that this is a military hospital with the usual numerous construction details not found in civilian hospitals, the construction at this figure is regarded as exceptional.
INCIDENTS OF THE WORK.
When the Government undertook the whole enormous military construction program, it was found that there were few builders in the United States who had equipment enough to handle the bigger jobs. Consequently the Construction Division adopted the policy of acquiring equipment of various sorts, usually paying rent for it. Such equipment included locomotive cranes, concrete mixers, locomotives for trench machines, road machinery, and other heavy apparatus. This equipment was rented under an agreement that whenever the rent paid had aggregated the cost of the article rented, the latter should become the property of the Government. In this way the Government has acquired property of this sort worth about $3,000,000.
The Construction Division at all times procured raw materials for the contractors engaged upon the projects. During the summer of 1918 the division was procuring material at an average rate of nearly $1,000,000 per day.
There were many interesting incidents in connection with this activity. In the summer of 1917, when the cantonments were going up, it became necessary to provide some 60,000 stoves and heaters, yet there were not that many stoves for sale in the country including all existing stocks, nor was the capacity of the various stove works sufficient to make up the number in the three months' period before the soldiers would be going to the camps. Accordingly, officers of the division were sent out to make addresses to the workmen at the stove factories, and as a result of such efforts the companies speeded up their output until they were able to supply all of the camps with heating facilities by October 1, 1917. In this effort the Government went into the market and procured the pig iron, coke, and other supplies for the stove foundries.
The Construction Division was also able to obtain 15,000 Army kitchen ranges in three months, although that number is a normal year's output of the entire manufacturing facilities of the country.