MONTREAL - Credit rating agency DBRS is predicting that the opening of the McGill superhospital will be pushed back by about three months.
The report, released Friday, said the project would only be ready January 5, 2015, three months after the projected date of September 30, 2014.
Currently about 35 percent of the work has been completed, which represents a 16-week lag in the job, according to DBRS.
The MUHC says the majority of the hospital campus will be ready as scheduled, and that patients will start using the hospital in the summer of 2015.
The causes for the delays include adverse geotechnical conditions, changes to the adjacent Shriners Hospital and management’s longer-than-expected delay in approving technical plans and choosing equipment.
Contractors are working overtime to overcome the delays, but the DBRS report said that “the MUHC’s coordination problems are unusual for a public-private-partnership project.”
Superhospital representatives have not yet been interviewed concerning their reaction to the report.
- With a file from The Canadian Press
