By Todd Parke, S.E., CEO and Managing Principal
Samaritan Healthcare in Moses Lake is a 174,000 SF, 50-bed community hospital that replaced an existing 1950s facility that had reached the end of its useful life and was no longer adequately meeting the rapidly growing Moses Lake community’s needs for locally based, high-quality care. The greenfield new construction includes full-service care with an expanded emergency department; expanded specialty, surgical, and post-anesthesia care spaces; a mother and baby unit; a teaching area; and physical therapy services. PCS Structural Solutions was the structural engineer for the project, part of a GC/CM team led by ZGF and Graham Construction.
Unique Designs and Collaborative Execution
The project team collaboratively explored multiple structural concepts early in the project. These included steel moment frames, steel buckling restrained braced frames, one hybrid approach using steel moment frames and buckling restrained brace frames, a second hybrid approach using a steel building with concrete core walls, an all-concrete building with concrete walls, and an all-concrete building with concrete moment frames.
Our decision-making approach leveraged a “choosing by advantages” model supported by a decision matrix tool that helped the team arrive at an innovative structural system choice featuring DuraFuse special steel moment frames. Samaritan Healthcare is the first hospital in the world to use this unique structural technology. PCS is always exploring innovative framing opportunities and came ready with the research and confidence to implement the DuraFuse system for Samaritan Healthcare. We engaged proactively with DuraFuse and the steel fabricator through the entire design and construction process, using best practices to implement the system. Our team’s goal was to promote simplicity in systems coordination, efficient construction, and long-term resilience and flexibility for the facility and the community.
How it Works
The DuraFuse system is a pre-qualified steel moment connection that requires no field welding and concentrates seismic energy dissipation to the connection plates for ease of post-earthquake repair. In traditional special steel moment frame construction, the energy dissipation is typically concentrated in the steel beams, requiring more extensive post-earthquake repairs. Using moment frames reduces the seismic intensity on buildings, and the DuraFuse system’s connections reduce bracing to moment frame beams by nearly 50% compared to other traditional moment frame methods. For the Moses Lake Hospital, PCS crafted custom fixed base foundations, allowing for smaller steel columns and beams that could be easily picked by cranes and installed, minimizing steel tonnage, maximizing the site soil capacity, and reducing labor requirements.
The Samaritan Healthcare Hospital in Moses Lake was a successful project due to the strong collaboration between PCS Structural Solutions and DuraFuse Frames. PCS Structural Solutions brought deep technical expertise and was an excellent partner throughout the design, coordination, and construction.
Together, we developed a resilient seismic force-resisting system that met stringent performance criteria while streamlining fabrication and erection. The use of DuraFuse Frames enhanced post-earthquake functionality by minimizing structural damage through built-in repairability. This efficient and robust solution also delivered measurable construction cost and time savings to the owner.
We look forward to continuing our partnership with PCS Structural Solutions.
Michael Reynolds, DuraFuse Frames
Additional Benefits
With no interior bracing or structural walls, the design team was able to maximize use of glass to allow ample natural light into the space and streamline the distribution of MEP systems infrastructure, as ducts, piping, and electrical conduit didn’t have any walls or braces to avoid. Moment frames also use stiff beams that support vibration control—a major consideration in sensitive areas, especially surgical spaces.
Use of DuraFuse moment frames also created significant time savings in construction by reducing complexity. All bolted field connections reduced the need for welding time and associated inspection time. The simplicity in steel framing and piece count resulted in more than a month of erection time savings. The time savings was increased by the team’s collaboration in determining a building height that allowed use of three-story columns for the majority of the structure that could be picked and tilted in one lift, rather than needing two pieces welded and bolted together. This alone saved weeks of construction time and costs.
The DuraFuse system also supports long-term resilience and flexibility for facility operations and maintenance. Repairs do not require beam or column replacements in the future following a major earthquake, and the open framing bays allow hospital program adaptations to meet future needs and growth without structural obstruction.
A Beacon of Innovation and Quality Care
The facility opens to patients on March 7, 2026, and provided immediate benefit to the community. The project team’s early planning, collaboration, and creative approaches in all aspects of design and construction will provide long-term value as this vital public resource is able to expand to reliably serve Grant County for decades. PCS is honored to be part of this iconic project.
Questions? Email Todd Parke at tparke@pcs-structural.com.