While we haven't seen a shovel in the ground yet on the new mega hospital, there has been an enormous amount of work going on behind the scenes to make sure that the timeline for construction to begin won't be impacted.
Back in May, an important milestone for the Windsor-Essex acute care hospital project was reached when hospital officials submitted details of a campus plan, set of early block diagrams and a "functional program" document to the Ministry of Health.
The MOH will be providing feedback and work with hospital officials to ensure the final plan aligns with provincial expectations and standards for hospital care.
Brandon Bailey is the Vice President of Redevelopment at Windsor Regional Hospital, who is overseeing planning of the new hospital.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, Bailey says new hospital construction is some of the most complex in terms of infrastructure because they are once in a lifetime opportunities for a region.
He says while the process does take time, they're currently on schedule and preparing to ramp up.
"Once we come to an agreement as to what the building is going to look like, we'll work with Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Health to identify the company that will build the new hospital," Bailey continued. "And we're hoping to have that contract in place for 2025, and we expect to have shovels in the ground for 2026."
Bailey says it's a very complex project that needs to go through a ton of planning processes.
The Ministry of Health has a three stage planning process, and the submission made in May was the last step of the first stage.
"And this will really allow us to enter into the second stage which is defining the rules and requirements for the companies that will bid on the new project. When it comes to a hospital there's an arms length of codes and standards that apply to every single room in the building, so it does take a long time to plan appropriately," he stated.
Bailey only joined the hospital within the past few months, and says one thing that's really struck him is the committed nature officials have in terms of transparency and making sure community feedback powers the final design.
In terms of the design, he says they're currently at the blocking and stacking level.
"We've worked with our partners Agnew Peckham who will develop what's called the functional program, and that will tell us exactly how big each service needs to be, what programs will be included in the new facility. And our other project partner, Stantec, the architects and engineers have at a very high level placed blocking and stacking of where these things can go."
WRH is working towards the expedited timeline for the project, which will see the tendering process begin in 2025 and the contract awarded in 2026 before shovels finally get into the ground.
The acute care hospital will sit on a 60-acre site at the corner of County Road 42 and the 9th Concession in Sandwich South.
- with files from AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides