Heavy equipment began digging into the Glen Yards on Thursday morning, in what is expected to be a six-month process of excavation for the MUHC superhospital.
The first part of the 500 single-patient room medical facility is expected to open in 2014, and cost approximately $1.34 billion.
Dr. Arthur Porter has spent years shepherding the superhospital through the planning stages, and the CEO is happy construction has finally begun."First we're actually going to dig down, create the structure that will in fact be the parking decks of the institution," said Porter. "The most important thing is that the entire hospital will all be built at once, and will be delivered at once in 2014."
Getting to point where crews are actually starting work has taken more than 12 years.
Earlier this year the provincial government announced that a consortium led by SNC-Lavalin and Innisfree Ltd. will build the 300,000 square metre project.
Once completed, there will be space to treat 346 adults in individual rooms, and a children's hospital with capacity for 154 patients.
The superhospital is being built with increased efficiency in mind, and most patients will be able to get the bulk of their testing and treatment in their rooms, instead of having to be transferred from ward to ward.
The land will also be extensively landscaped, with a park and pond built on the site.
