A construction manager has been selected to oversee the building of Phase One of the new acute care hospital in Windsor.
EllisDon has been chosen, marking a major step forward in the newly named Fancsy Family Hospital project.
“This announcement is another exciting and tangible step toward delivering the new state-of-the-art hospital our community has been waiting for,” said Karen Riddell, Acting President and CEO and Chief Nursing Executive of Windsor Regional Hospital. “By selecting EllisDon, we are partnering with a team that has a proven track record in delivering complex healthcare infrastructure. This early work will set the stage for the full build and bring us closer to a facility that will meet the needs of our patients, families, and staff for decades to come.”
Phase one of construction includes an administrative centre with an auditorium, a simulation training centre, classrooms, office space, parking garage and infrastructure.
That work is expected to take approximately three years to complete and those elements will be integrated with the main hospital build for one seamless campus.
Windsor Regional Hospital says a ground breaking is on track for 2026, if not sooner.
Brandon Bailey, Vice President of Redevelopment with Windsor Regional, says the work with EllisDon has started immediately.
"Ultimately when we can expect to see shovels in the ground is not until early next year, but the work is actively underway on Windsor Regional's side already, and really looking forward to welcoming another project partner to the table."
He says the site infrastructure work in this phase is crucial.
"So ensuring that we get a head start on making sure that all the necessary civil connections, the sanitary, the water, the telecoms, the gas, all those elements are in place to get ahead of schedule, and make sure that when we start the next component of this project, we're ready to hit the ground running."
He says the team is still exploring what the connection between this phase and the new hospital will look like.
"That is something that we're actively exploring and hoping to include in the overall design of the facility. We are actively exploring that, we're hoping to create convenient connections for staff and any visitors on the site between the infrastructure that we're building currently."
Bailey was unable to state the cost of the contract with EllisDon.
According to a release, EllisDon was selected through a competitive procurement process for enabling works, based on proven experience in delivering large-scale health and infrastructure projects including the Brampton Civic Hospital, which opened in 2007 and the Oakville Trafalgar memorial Hospital, which opened in 2015. In addition, they are currently working on the South Niagara Project as well as the Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital and Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children.
A separate tendering process will be initiated later this year to begin major construction on the hospital itself.
In 2014, the cost of the project at County Road 42 and the 9th Concession was $2-billion.