Webcams offer bird’s-eye view of health complex construction

Members of the public can now view construction of the new health-care complex and Walker Family Cancer Centre from their computers thanks to the installation of four web cameras at the construction site by Plenary Health Niagara.

Plenary Health Niagara is the company designing, building, financing and maintaining Niagara Health System’s new facility being constructed at First Street and Fourth Avenue in west St. Catharines.

Snapshots taken from the webcams are broadcast to the project’s website from a time-lapsed streaming video, which display and update every 20 minutes, seven days a week between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. eastern standard time.

The images are now live on Plenary Health Niagara’s project website.

In addition to watching the health complex progress, visitors to the project website can find the latest facts and figures about the project, view aerial monthly progress photographs and learn more about the important design features being incorporated into the new facility.  

On schedule to open to patients in 2013, construction of the health-care complex and Walker Family Cancer Centre began in April of this year.

Contacts

Caroline Bourque Wiley
Niagara Health System
905-378-4647, ext. 43113

Mike Marasco
Plenary Health Niagara
604-897-6933

Quotes

Jim Bradley, MPP for St. Catharines 
“It is terrific to be able to watch our vision turning into a reality. Families in Niagara are getting a state-of-the-art facility. The hospital construction will create thousands of jobs now, and soon it will deliver critical services that will enhance the quality of care for hundreds of thousands of people across the region for many years to come.”

Mike Marasco, CEO Plenary Health
“The exciting advantage of using webcams is that the public is enabled to become a part of the construction process from a computer without the necessity to come out to the construction site. 
There are also key advantages from a project management perspective in using webcams for large, multi-stakeholder projects such as this. Webcams improve communication, provide the ability to review daily progress and visually confirm jobsite conditions.”

Debbie Sevenpifer, NHS President and CEO
"It's very exciting to be able to watch the progress as the construction of our new health centre proceeds. With the webcams, patients and residents of Niagara can watch the transformation of the construction site taking place as the state-of-the-art health-care facility is built to benefit our families and loved ones for generations to come.”

About our New Health-Care Complex and Walker Family Cancer Centre

Being built on a 32-acre section of a 40-acre site in St. Catharines, the approximately 970,000 square feet building will be environmentally friendly and has been designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.  Environmental features include energy efficient lighting, cooling and heating, which will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The 375-bed replacement facility for the aging St. Catharines General and Ontario Street sites of the NHS will offer acute and critical inpatient services, surgical, emergency and ambulatory services available under one roof for the residents of St. Catharines, Thorold, Niagara-on-the Lake and the area. The facility will feature 80 per cent single patient rooms, the most available in a community hospital in Ontario.

Plenary Health Niagara was selected as the company to design, build, finance and maintain the Niagara Health System’s new health-care complex.

Economic Benefits

The new health-care complex project will provide a sizeable boost to the regional and Ontario economies during construction by directly and indirectly supporting and creating approximately 5,400 jobs, many of which will be in the Niagara region. At the peak of construction activity, about 1,000 workers are expected on the site daily.

In addition, approximately 200 new health-care jobs will be created once the facility opens to support the new regional services in cancer, cardiac and mental health disease. 

PCL, the general contractor for the project, has been using local sub-trades extensively, with the majority of on-site labour going to tradespersons in the Golden Horseshoe area.

PCL will continue to call for tenders from pre-qualified sub contractors for the project, with the majority of tendering activity taking place in early 2010. Firm commitments for portions of the work have already been made during the proposal stage of the project to subcontractors who participated in developing the lump sum construction cost.

Important Construction Dates: