[SteelTown]

Construction underway on Hamilton's new hospital

Once slated to be turned into an urgent care centre, the rebirth of the Henderson General Hospital is officially underway as construction on the six hectare (14 acre) Concession Street site began Dec. 17.

The first weeks of construction will see the hospital auditorium torn down and the front area of the hospital transformed into a construction site.

"I'd say it's full steam ahead," said Cathy Lovett, who was brought in nearly eight years ago as project leader of the $259.2 million (including demolition costs) redevelopment that is being done in two steps.

Phase 1a will see a 425,000 square foot L-shaped building rise in front of the current hospital that will stretch north-south along the Sherman Cut and east-west along Concession Street.

The new facility will be a five storey state-of-the-art hospital with 250 beds, about five more than its current allotment. Ninety of those beds will be for cancer patients and two-thirds of those suites will be single patient rooms. The the hospital's mechanical and electrical components will be housed on the top floor.

There will be eight new operating rooms and an additional cancer therapy suite that can be used as an operating room. The old operating rooms will be used for day surgery.

The new building will also include a new emergency department, intensive care unit and cardiac care unit. A new one-way road will be built opposite Upper Sherman Avenue that will lead to the emergency department to be located on the east side of the building along the Sherman Cut.

A bus stop in front of the hospital is slated to be moved west near the parking garage.

To make way for the new building, the south section of the hospital's 70 wing was torn down over the summer. A number of hospital clinics and programs were moved to other locations in the past three years.

Ms. Lovett said the first part of the project (1a) will be completed by 2010. Phase 1b, scheduled for completion by 2012, will see

the north side of 70 wing and 80 wing demolished and replaced by four floors of office and hospital support space, including a new front lobby that will be connected to the Juravinski Cancer Centre next door.

Even with all of the heavy construction work that will be done on the site in the next five years, Ms. Lovett said it will be business as usual at the hospital.

"Amid the challenge of the construction there has been no reduction in services at the Henderson," she said.

The redeveloped hospital and cancer centre will be renamed the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre in recognition of the multi-million dollar gifts to Hamilton Health Sciences from Margaret and Charles Juravinski.

Ms. Lovett said Hamilton Health Sciences and the province signed a $198 million contract with EllisDon Construction Dec. 14 that will see the contractor finance and build the new hospital by the 2010 and 2012 deadlines. The the contractor will be paid after each part of the redevelopment is completed.