New hospital pushes toward completion: $409 million project is city's largest construction project.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: SAULT STE. MARIE

The largest construction project in Sault Ste. Marie's history is finally taking shape with the project progressing past the half-way mark.

When it opens in two years, the $409 million Sault Area Hospital in the city's north end will eliminate the two antiquated General and Plummer hospital sites on the waterfront.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In mid-March, the hospital was 60 per cent completed with the entire building expected to be enclosed by month's end.

Hospital project manager Harry Koskenoja said some portions are very advanced with painted walls and sheet vinyl flooring installed. In other areas, it's mostly undeveloped with concrete and slab.

This spring, partition walls are going up, mechanical and electrical were being roughed in and then drywall.

"Some rooms are almost finished. Others are concrete and steel."

The workforce at the site is close to peak at 500 contractors, with about 80 per cent being local tradespeople. "We try to use as many as possible."

Most of the plumbing and electrical trades are local. "They're carrying the lion's share," said Koskenoja.

With groundbreaking in August 2007, the building is moving toward substantial completion for October 2010. Patients move in the following spring.

The project construction is being overseen by a building, financing and maintenance consortium called Hospital Infrastructure Partners. It includes builders EllisDon, the Labourers' Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada and CIT Financial and Carillion Canada, the latter signed on to provide maintenance services for a 30-year contract.

Some of the local contractors who benefited include S & T Electrical, McLeod Brothers Mechanical, Avery Construction for the civil site work, and George Stone & Sons for the foundation work, Steel Speed and Lafarge.

Local designers EPOH were one of three architectural firms involved.

The three-story facility will have 289 beds and house acute care services, general rehabilitation, a mental health complex, and a cancer radiation therapy centre.

The hospital is located next to the F. J. Davey Home, a long-term care facility.

Getting to the hospital will be much easier with pending construction of a new roadway across the north end of the city

Sault Ste. Marie reeled in $10.7 million in combined federal and provincial money to extend a road across the city's north end and provide a direct link to Great Northern Road with the new hospital.

The Third Line extension project over to People's Road should...