Fulton State Hospital construction reached a major milestone Thursday when workers placed the "final" beam in the new housing facility.
"It's not the actual last beam, but it's symbolically the last beam," Warren Moody, senior project manager for River City Construction, said.
Local leaders, representatives from River City Construction, the Missouri Department of Mental Health and the Fulton State Hospital gathered to sign the beam and watch it rise into place.
"We call it a topping out ceremony," Moody said. "I've been in the construction business for 20 years and have done these ceremonies about five or six times."
Atop the beam were an American flag and a small cedar tree. Moody said the flag represents America, but the tree has a more interesting story. He said the ritual of placing a tree atop a new building dates back to the eighth century and was started by Vikings.
"It's to appease the tree spirits (displaced by the construction)," he said.
Project beginnings
Fulton State Hospital CEO Bob Reitz talked about how he first got the ball rolling on the project.
"My introduction to Gov. Jay Nixon was sitting knee-to-knee with him to talk about what Biggs (Forensic Center) wasn't doing for us," he said.
Reitz said he must have been persuasive. The $211 million update to facilities at the hospital was initially approved by the state Legislature in 2014, with construction beginning in May 2015.
"In April 2015, I got the largest set of drawings and specs I've ever seen," Cody Waters, project manager for the State of Missouri, said. "Once this project started, there was only one location on the entire site that we could just build on without demolishing something."
By June 2016, the first major phase of construction - the 65,000-square-foot, $25 million Energy Control Center - had been completed. Work progressed steadily, though not without hiccups.
"We have dug up everything under the sun here," Waters said. "Asbestos has not been our friend."
He pointed out the campus dates back to the mid-1800s and includes a pre-Civil War barn.
Construction workers said Thursday the project was going smoothly while waiting in line for the barbecue lunch.
"It's a good safe job with good guys," said Ken Spears, an iron worker who helped fit the ceremonial beam into place. "It's a typical union job."
Thursday's ceremony marked progress on the new intermediate/maximum security facility, called Nixon Forensic Center. Moody said there is still plenty of work to be done on the building's interior before the planned completion date at the end of 2018.
The new facilities are already drawing attention from neighboring states, Reitz said.
"We have other states asking what we're doing here, and, 'Can we come look?'" he added.
Missouri Department of Mental Health director Mark Springer backed Reitz's statement.
"I've got one of the best jobs on Earth," Springer added. "To continue that good work, we need good facilities."
Residents will move into Nixon Forensic Center in spring 2019.