A 'Permanente' addition to Vacaville's skyline

Construction crews are hard at work on the new Kaiser Permanente hospital on Vaca Valley Parkway. The 340,000-square- foot facility - along with a medical office building to augment the site's existing offices - has been in the planning stages since 1996, and is slated to open in early 2009.

Local officials have estimated that the new hospital and offices will create more than 1,000 jobs. Kaiser is expanding its facilities throughout Solano County, where it serves nearly 250,000 residents. (Joel Rosenbaum/The Reporter)