Expansion Update

January 2010

 

Markham Stouffville Hospital's expansion project has taken another step forward as MSH President and CEO, Janet Beed, along with hospital officials and representatives from Infrastructure Ontario, announced the six companies which have been pre-qualified to build and finance the hospital's expansion and redevelopment project.

The announcement event, held on January 18th in the hospital's auditorium, also provided a quick update on the Enabling Works projects which are preparing the hospital's site for expansion.

The Enabling Works Projects, which began in Fall 2009, include relocating the existing storm and sanitary sewers, relocating the staff parking lots, constructing an access point off of 9th Line which will allow construction traffic to be separated from regular traffic and completing construction work on the courtyard adjacent to the Emergency Department to expand the ER and Rapid Assessment Zone.

The Enabling Works projects will reduce construction time for the new facility by approximately six months and ensure that the site is ready for the contractor who will be awarded the main redevelopment project.

The hospital launched its Request for Qualifications process in October 2009. The six companies who were announced yesterday as having pre-qualified for the project are:

           1). Aecon Buildings & Turner Construction Company (Joint Venture)
           2). Bondfield Construction Limited & SNC-Lavalin Construction Inc. (Joint Venture)
           3). EllisDon Corporation
           4). Obrascon Huarte Lain S.A. (OHL S.A.)
           5). PCL Constructors Canada Inc.
           6). Vanbots, a Division of Carillion Construction Inc.

These companies will be invited to submit a bid to build and finance the main expansion project during the Request for Proposals process which is expected to begin in March 2010. In the meantime, the hospital will continue work on its Enabling Works Projects and the construction of its new Health Services Building.

For more information or questions about Markham Stouffville Hospital's expansion project, please email myhospital@msh.on.ca.

Click here to read the media release from Infrastructure Ontario

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 December 2009

These past few months have been very exciting ones for our expansion project. On October 15th, in partnership with Infrastructure Ontario, the Redevelopment team released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to pre-qualify teams interested in constructing our new building and renovating our existing facility.

The RFQ process is the first step in selecting the team who will build and finance the expansion project. This process is very important because it determines which companies have the required construction experience, qualified personnel and financial ability to deliver a project of this size and complexity.

The RFQ process has now closed and the team is reviewing each company's submission to determine which ones have the required qualifications to build our new facility. Once the pre-qualified companies have been short-listed, they will be invited to submit a bid to the hospital's Request for Proposals (RFP) process, which is expected to be released in early 2010.

The RFP process will take bids from each pre-qualified company and those bids will be used to select the team that is capable of delivering the best value for service in building and financing the expansion project.

In the meantime, the Redevelopment team is continuing to work on the next steps of the expansion process in procurement of all of the new equipment for the new facility. The pre-tender submission is also complete and is expected to go to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care by the end of November. Currently, the project is on target for its projected start in mid to late 2010 and the hospital has begun its Enabling Works projects in preparation for this expansion.

An artist's rendering of our new building (North Facing View)

Enabling Works

The Markham campus has become a hub of activity as work crews try to get as many of the Enabling Works projects underway and developed before the winter season.

Over on Church Street, across from our main visitor parking lot, construction crews have already begun transforming that open area into a new parking lot for staff. They have leveled the ground, layed down asphalt and are well on their way to meeting their target completion date of late January 2010. This parking lot will be used extensively once the West staff parking lot goes under construction to lay the groundwork for the new building.

Construction is also well underway on the access road off 9th Line and on the far West Parking Lots that are to replace the parking spaces in the main staff parking lot closest to the hospital. These spaces will be removed to prepare the ground for our new building. Over to the east of our campus, near Bur Oak Avenue, crews have begun laying down the storm lines and relocating the storm pond.

The Enabling Works Projects will prepare the hospital's site for construction and will help significantly reduce the costs of the project and overall construction time by approximately six months. The projects include those listed above as well as redeveloping the courtyard adjacent to the Emergency Department, installation of some new service lines for the new building and some minor construction on both the visitor parking lot and Butternut Lane.

Construction crews have also begun work on our new Health Services Building. Though this project is not part of the Enabling Works projects, it was imperative to get it started before winter began, which is why crews began it at the same time as they did the EW projects.

The Health Services Building (HSB) similar to our current Medical Office Building, will be used for offices by the physicians we will recruit as the hospital grows. Furthermore, the building will also house the student residents of our new Family Medicine Teaching Unit once that program begins in July 2010. The HSB is expected to be complete in late fall 2010.

The start of all these projects should be an indication to staff, physicians and volunteers that our long-awaited and much needed expansion is here and moving forward. Staff have already had to make some adjustments to accommodate the construction, including some parking changes which have gone relatively smoothly. We want to remind everyone that while there may continue to be some slight inconveniences to parking and hospital access in the short term, the long term benefits of a new expanded hospital are just around the corner.

For more information on the Enabling Works projects, visit the intranet site to get the latest updates on what's happening. If you also have any questions or comments about the expansion, feel free to email them to myhospital@msh.on.ca.

Some images of our Enabling Works Projects (Construction on North Parking Lot)

Here is a short description of each of the planned Enabling Works Projects.

1. New Parking Lot North of Church Street (no colour):  The hospital will add additional parking across Church Street which will be used as staff parking and parking for the new medical office building. This is so that we have sufficient parking spaces available to meet future demand.

2. Partial Reconfiguration of Existing Visitor Lot (no colour):  By reconfiguring the visitor lot, we will be able to improve the layout of the lot and the flow of traffic within the lot.

3. New Parking Lots to the West along 9th Line (no colour):  New parking lots will be created to provide for future demand as well as replace some of the staff parking spaces that are being displaced by the new building.

4. New Internal Streets (blue): - During Enabling Works a new access road off 9th Line will be constructed to allow construction crews to access the site.  This road will also be used for future access to the Emergency Department and the rest of the campus. The access road from 9th Line is part of the Cornell Secondary Plan and has been on the books for the area as a road which would eventually connect 9th Line and Bur Oak. MSH will not be building the entire road but just the section used to access the Hospital site.

5. New Underground Services (purple/blue): During the project there will be some relocation of existing site services and installation of some new services to accommodate the new building. These new services have been re-routed to accommodate the future building.

6. Infill of the internal courtyard for the Emergency Department (red):  The courtyard infill near the Emergency Department will allow the Rapid Assessment Zone, currently located in the existing ED, to be relocated and expanded within the new space. This space will, in the future, be used for the Ambulatory Clinic expansion.

7. Storm pipe to De-commission the Storm Pond (yellow): The existing on-site storm pond will be decommissioned and diverted to an off-site storm facility.  This project will fall in line with previous plans for development in the Cornell area. Currently, this project is being completed as part of Enabling Works because the existing pond is located where the new MDE plant will be located. The MDE plant will provide heating, cooling and emergency power to the hospital. Finally, this project falls in line with future plans for the area in having storm water diverted off-site.