Another positive update regarding the new Windsor/Essex Acute Care Hospital Project.
At the Windsor Regional Hospital board of directors meeting on Thursday evening, President and CEO David Musyj detailed how work on the project is progressing at an accelerated rate.
Since the start of this year, Musyj says four directors have been recruited to support planning in the areas of Operational Readiness, Planning and Design, Project Delivery, and Information, Communication & Automation Technology (ICAT).
The expanded team of subject matter experts has WRH well-positioned to move forward into the next planning stage, and meet the timeline outlined in Infrastructure Ontario's latest market update.
That has the tendering process to select a final design-builder for the hospital set to begin in 2025, with construction to follow soon after in 2026.
Musyj says right now there is significant discussion between hospital officials, Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Health.
"What we did is we submitted our 1.3, which outlines our functional programming and block drawings for the hospital, some design. They're reviewing that, one that gets reviewed and hopefully approved, then we're getting ready to put together the tender documents," he said.
He says that would have them in position to go to tender in 2025.
After a series of engagement sessions, meetings with program leadership, an analysis of the current state of technology and a market scan of new and emerging trends in hospital technology, Angus Connect is nearing the final stages of work developing the plan.
Musyj says this stage will include engagement with patient representatives for the project before completing a final vision and roadmap for ICAT implementation in the new facility.
He says on the property right now there's some work being done.
"To prep the property to get in position for that. A lot of activity, but over the next 12 to 24 months definitely, this hospital is going to get built. A lot of activity in the background to move this project forward."
The ongoing site preparation work is being led by Infrastructure Ontario, and the gravel lot at the corner of County Road 42 and the 9th concession is being expanded to accommodate an increased presence of workers expected onsite throughout this summer.
However, space is being maintained for traditional Lafferty corn sales.
When they're ready to go to tender, officials will take their design to get pricing on.
Then when a contractor is selected, they will work together to refine the plan to come up with a final product.
Musyj says through that process they can hear about new or different ideas, and the plan could evolve over time.
"In general we have the idea that it's going to be about 1.9 million square feet entity/organization, with at least eight stories. We're being told it will end up being the 3rd largest construction job in the province of Ontario for a hospital," he said.
For reference on the overall size of the new hospital, Musyj explained that if you combined the Met and Ouellette campuses you'd get 1.3 million square feet in total.
He added that all parties working on the project are committed to working together to complete the required due diligence to move it forward as soon as possible.