A week after Veterans day, the New VA Medical Center will be open to the public.
On Friday, November 18, a ribbon cutting celebration will be held at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Healthcare System’s new VA Medical Center on 2400 Canal Street in the Mid-City medical center complex.
According to WVUE Fox 8, the medical center construction started in 2010, and will serve over 70,000 veterans in the region. The new center had a construction budget of $995 million, according to the official New Orleans VA website.
Dubbed Project Legacy, the medical center is 1.6 million square feet. The name symbolizes the “legacy to the Veterans in southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region,” as states on the official Project Legacy site.
The 30 acre campus is bounded by Canal, S. Rocheblave, S. Galvez Streets and Tulane Avenue.
The original VA hospital was severely damaged in Hurricane Katrina, losing vital utility and infrastructures and maintenance facilities according to the New orleans VA’s website.
Additionally, the medical center is deemed “upside-down, hurricane proof” by Businessweek in a 2014 examination of the construction project.
Stay tuned for live coverage tomorrow morning.
- New VA Medical Center in New Orleans opens Friday [Fox 8]
- News and Press Releases [New orleans VA]
- Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System [New Orleans VA]
- Designing an upside-down, hurricane-proof hospital for New Orleans [Businessweek]