Surgical Associates of Fredericksburg, a growing medical practice comprised of 6 surgeons, 1 nurse practitioner, and a staff of over 20 professionals, made the decision to move out of their leased facilities in the Tompkins Martin Building on the Mary Washington Hospital campus to a new facility on Empire Court in Spotsylvania County.  Welford Engineering began providing engineering consulting services in the early stages of this project and helped the group determine how  much land to purchase to meet their needs, and how large a building to build.  Welford Engineering designed and permitted a first and second phase development program for their site that will ultimately provide 18,000 sf of office and out-patient surgical procedure facilities in a state of the art facility.  By using an aggressive design and permitting approach, we were able to have their facility designed and permitted only 3 ½ months after the group chose their site and building configuration.  We continued to provide services throughout construction until the facility was opened in June 2009.