Institutional sector leads way in construction projects.

• Author: GOULIQUER, DIANNE
• Position: Construction in Thunder Bay - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

The Thunder Bay Regional Hospital remains at the top of the list for major construction projects in the City of Thunder Bay for 2001.

The hospital, with a price tag in excess of $160 million, is slated to open in the fall of 2002. Located on property donated by Lakehead University, it will contain 375 beds and will replace the city's two existing hospitals.

Progress is ongoing at the hospital site, says Don Edwards, hospital communications director.

"We have the patient pods all closed in and the emergency department and all of the other side of the hospital site (is almost done)," Edwards says. "We expect to have all of the steel up by mid-summer, and that means the whole frame of the building will be up. They're working on the north part of the hospital now. Almost all of the south side is together.

He says the contract for the largest part of the project, valued! at $57 million, was recently awarded. A number of contracts still remain unawarded, hie adds.

The design of the hospital continues to change as construction progresses, as does the project's bottom line, says Edwards.

He estimates the project is over one-third complete. Jim Buie, manager of the City of Thunder Bay's planning and building department, says the hospital project remains one of the biggest in the city right now and has put the institutional sector in the lead for construction activity. Central Park Lodge, a long-term care facility, is another big institutional project now underway on the city's north side.

"That's roughly a $12-million job," Buie says.

Lakehead University's Advanced Technology and Academic Centre (ATAC) and a new $5.5-million Magnus Theatre are also major projects for 2001. ATAC will open in early 2003, while the 250-seat Magnus Theatre will be ready for the start of the 2001-2002 season this fall.

Bowater Inc. will finish work on its $36 million recovery boiler project this year as well.

In terms of building permits, Buie says the first quarter "isn't much of an indicator" of things to come for the year. Year-to-date totals to April 30 show the same number of building permits were issued this year as last year. Increases, however, are noted for permits for apartment blocks, duplexes, single dwellings and residential additions and alterations. Those projects are estimated at $8.43 million.

But housing starts for the city have so far fallen short of the year's forecast from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC). Market analyst Warren Philp...