Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario hospital on time, on budget

The new Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario is on time and on budget. The structure is up and hospital officials say the new facility is about 80 per cent complete, based on the most current data.

Project progress

Occupancy planned for spring 2011

The statistics show that the construction schedule may even be just slightly ahead of schedule, but timelines for substantial completion by October 2010 remains in place.

Occupancy of the new 60,000-square-foot, three-storey facility is not expected until the spring of 2011.

Completed work on the project includes site work, including the installation of curbs and sidewalks and paving of roads and parking lots.

A heliport is also well underway.

Three interior courtyards are also completed and the commissioning of ventilation in some sections has begun.

The main lobby has been closed in and interior work is well underway.

Virtually all partition walls and most of the drywall has been installed and finishing activities such as doors and millwork, flooring, ceilings and painting have begun for the 289-bed facility.

The $400 million project is being built by a consortium including EllisDon Corp., Carillion Canada, and the Labourers Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada.

The massive construction project, along with others that are occurring at the same time in the city, has kept construction workers here busy for almost two years.

So busy in fact, that four local companies were granted approval by Human Resources Development Canada to bring in foreign plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters to fill the void of the badly needed tradesmen.

Collectively, the companies were permitted to hire just more than 100 foreign workers to fill the void after approval of the joint application between the employers, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of U.S. and Canada (Local 508) and the Sault Ste. Marie Mechanical Contractors Association.

All those workers have returned to the U.S. now, but Sault Ste. Marie Construction Association general manager Rick Thomas said the process worked well.

“They filled the gap nicely and it took the pressure off at a time when we really needed the help,” he said.

Many of the foreign workers were brought in from neighbouring Michigan.

Thomas, who said this was the first time in his knowledge that this process has been used, said red tape slowed down the process.

“The rules …are not easily enough applied and it’s hard to use for the construction industry,” he said.

“It needs to be a lot slicker if it’s going to be applied for short-term, interruptible employment, which the construction industry faces,” he said.