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MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - In under two weeks, the Miami Beach Convention Center has been transformed into a field hospital and is ready to be used, if need be.
On Monday afternoon, the United States Army Corps of Engineers will be handing over the keys to the center to members of the National Guard.
The 500,000 square-foot space has been transformed and now holds 450 hospital beds.
The construction was completed in less than 14 days under the guidance and direction of Chief Engineer Col. Drew Kelly.
“We’re the experts of constructing,” said Kelly.
7News had the opportunity of talking to Kelly who said he has not had much sleep during the process.
“I’ve had a few opportunities for sleep, but it’s been a hard fight,” he said.
The project at the convention center is Kelly’s first hospital, but he said he had a team of hundreds of skilled construction workers to help.
“This is 24/7,” Kelly said.
He also received help from his project manager Ingrid Bon.
“It’s like a very fast ballet,” said Bon.
If the hospital construction was a ballet, Bon would be the choreographer determining how to lay thousands of feet of cable to make sure each of the medical pods have power and internet connection.
“We build a sort of hospital, but we built it inside a facility that was never meant to be a hospital,” said Bon.
Some may think the convention center has wide open rooms that the engineers would find easy to work with, but the team said this project has been one of their toughest to date.
They said it isn’t just placing hospital beds inside of the building, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also had to build pressurized ICU pods and install a large oxygen tank in record time.
Usually their projects are meticulously planned well-ahead of construction.
“But on this one, we were literally making a decision real-time, at 4 o’clock in the morning, as the crew is standing there saying, ‘OK, here is how we’re going to do it.’ We make the decision and keep moving,” said Kelly.
Now they are prepared to hand over the hospital to the National Guard.
“It’s been a total team effort with one goal, and that’s get it done on time,” said Kelly.
The field hospital will not be used unless hospitals across South Florida become overwhelmed with patients.
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