the broken typewriter

Construction is underway on the replacement build of the Dawson Creek District Hospital. The new three-story building will be 25 per cent bigger than the current facility. At approximately 24,500 square metres, this enables the emergency department to double in size, increasing treatment spaces to 15, and there will be enough space for 24 additional beds in various departments.

Excavation for the foundation of the building was completed in September, with 56,000 cubic metres of material removed from the site. Concrete work on the footings and foundation are currently underway, and through the winter, construction of the concrete super-structure will begin.

Although a local company, Inland Concrete, is supplying the cement for the build, a project of this size cannot be completed solely by using local contractors and suppliers of materials, according to Dave Corcoran of Graham Design Builders which has been contracted to build the new hospital. However, the company has been trying to keep the larger portions of the build as local as possible by finding most of their suppliers and contractors in British Columbia and Alberta.

“There are still a lot of awards to go, many areas that haven’t gone for tender yet,” he said.

For example, Corcoran said they’d love to find a local landscaper. He said there are a few options for landscaping, they could get everything from a local supplier/landscaper or buy the plants themselves and hire local people to do the planting and irrigation.

“Masonry also hasn’t been awarded; we’d like to find a local there. We’re looking for people to do the sidewalks and curbs,” he said. They’ll also need a lot of bulk propane, and catering for various events, functions, and larger meetings.

During the peak of construction, there will be approximately 350-375 workers on-site.

“There will be quite a few tradespeople required, and of course all of our sub-contractors are part of the initiative in British Columbia are required to hire apprentices as well. They’re anxious to hire apprentices, and whenever we can get local, we love to get local,” Corcoran said.

“We’ve already talked to Northern Lights College, we told them we’re looking to integrate some of our work with their apprenticeship programs. Not only that but we’re giving tours, having them walk around and see what we’re doing as we’re doing it. Can be quite interesting for some of the people looking to get into those trades.”

Citing safety concerns and quality control in high-ceiling builds – the floor-to-floor distance in the build is approximately five metres – Graham is having the walls built off-site and shipped to Dawson Creek.

“We’re building what we call multi-trade racks. This allows us to build these structures off-site. Basically, it’s a steel frame, that ends up being the drywall partition,” said Corcoran. Within that space the duct work, piping, electrical etc., are installed. Each section is then shrink-wrapped, shipped, craned into the building, and bolted in place.

“It allows us to build ahead of time, we don’t have to wait for the building to be done. We can start building these as soon as we get the equipment.  Allows us to do all that work off-site. It’s safer, we don’t have to pay for LOA, it’s more cost-effective, there’s a whole bunch of advantages to it. It shortens up our schedule on-site,” he said.

This type of off-site prefabrication is becoming more common in large healthcare projects, Corcoran said, particularly in remote locations. The racks are massive, up to 35 feet long, and the two cranes that are on-site for the build were sized with these racks in mind.

Ashley Pannozzo, Community Engagement Liaison for the DCDH replacement project said that if anyone is interested in employment or apprenticeship training, business opportunities or sub-contracts to contact Dave Corcoran at dawsoncreekhospital@graham.ca. All the project information is housed on the website said Pannozzo at https://letstalk.northernhealth.ca/dcdh-replacement “Go to the website and let us know what you’re interested in. We’ll work with you. We do that quite a bit. We recognize that these are large projects and they’re not projects that appear in your communities all the time, so we look at ways to get smaller companies to participate,” said Corcoran.