Kelowna

Construction on two new hospital facilities in the Okanagan is going faster than expected.

Construction of the new Vernon Jubilee Hospital Patient Care Tower is ahead of schedule and the fourth and final raft slab foundation for the new Kelowna General Hospital Patient Care Tower will be poured in the next couple of weeks.

Cam McAlpine, communications officer for the Kelowna and Vernon Hospitals project, says they hope the roof of the VJH project will be on by early winter.

“The first floor concrete slab is over 70 percent poured. The second floor slab, what will be the main floor, is visible now from the edge of the site and is about 60 percent poured and work has begun on the third floor. It is about 25 percent complete,” says McAlpine.

He says an interesting part of the construction being worked on is the tunnel to connect the old and new buildings.

“You won’t see it from the outside, the tunnel that is being bored beneath the existing hospital to connect the old and new buildings. This tunnel will be about 2.4 metres by 2.4 metres (8 ft x 8 ft) and will be approximately 30 metres (100 feet) long. It will not be a public access route. But it will act as a service corridor between the two buildings. The work on the tunnel is being done very carefully so that it does not disrupt normal hospital operations. The tunnel is about three-quarters completed, and should be drilled clear through by the end of July. It will come out at the location of the kitchen and cafeteria.”

McAlpine says Graham Design Builders, the company doing the construction at KGH, is using a relatively new technique called a “column-hung form system.”

“It allows them to form and pour large sections of floor and support columns at one time. Once the concrete has cured, the forms supporting the floor are moved in one gigantic piece up one level to begin pouring the next floor. The first concrete pour for the second floor will take place this week. The form will then be moved up to the third floor in a couple of weeks.”

Updated images of the construction site at both projects can be seen online.

Link: Building Patient Care website