There must be something in the South Okanagan air.
How else to explain how multi-million projects manage to come in on time and on budget – which is about as rare as an official sighting of the Ogopogo in Okanagan Lake.
During a media tour of the new $312 million patient town at Penticton Regional Hospital (PRH) last week, project managers announced that the hospital is almost halfway completed and they fully expect to hand over the keys to hospital officials for the new tower in the fall of 2019.
“Finishing on time is not an option … it will get done on time,” said EllisDon Construction project manager Jason Hui.
Hui admitted that the bitter cold winter – one of the longest and coldest recorded in the South Okanagan in the past 30 years – made the first few months of construction on the six-storey patient tower very difficult.
The bitter cold and very long winter was tough on the construction crews, but they persevered and they made great progress over the past four months when the weather turned blazing hot, said Hui.
With the final pouring of concrete expected to take place this week on the sixth and final floor of the patient care tower, the entire structure will soon be enclosed and crews will be able to make up significant time doing interior work such as drywall, electrical, mechanical and plumbing.
Construction on the five-storey parkade will also begin soon and building the parking structure isn’t expected to provide any significant challenges.
When the new tower is completed roughly two years from now, it will feature 84 single patient rooms covering almost 27,000 square feet.
It will also include five new operating rooms, three minor procedure rooms, two endoscopy rooms, a cystoscopy room and nuclear medicine program.
There will also be massive service improvements in cardiology, neurology, respirology and several other medical departments.
All of this is wonderful news for residents of Osoyoos, Oliver and all of the other smaller communities spread across the South Okanagan.
Because PRH is designated as a regional hospital, it will serve the needs of patients across the entire South Okanagan as well as residents in communities like Keremeos, Cawston and Hedley.
The construction of this new patient tower comes after the recent completion of the Okanagan Correctional Centre, a project with a $260 million price tag that was completed on time and on budget.
It’s exceptionally rare for major construction projects like this to meet strict deadlines and come in on budget and these two projects are a glowing example that it can be done if there is a will and a committed workforce.
As EllisDon superintendent Vince Nord pointed out during the media tour, all of the contractors hired on this project, with the exception of mechanical and electrical, are from the Okanagan Valley.
The employees who work for these sub-contractors are proving the South Okanagan can compete with the very best.
The completion of the new patient tower at PRH is going to ensure quality medical care is provided to hundreds of thousands of patients over the next several generations.
Not only is the project on time and on budget, but fundraising efforts to purchase $20 million in medical equipment once the new tower opens are also going exceptionally well.
Corey Bornn, executive director of the South Okanagan-Similkameen Medical Foundation, said more than $14-million of the stated goal has already been raised.
Bornn is confident that reaching the $20-million goal is not going to be a problem with the final target deadline still two years away.
Penticton Regional Hospital was one of the oldest and most run down facilities in the entire province and a massive upgrade was needed.
With the grand opening now only two years away, it’s an exciting time and will guarantee quality medical care will be readily available in this region for generations to come.
