09-02-2014, 10:49 PM
Cambridge hospital signs $187-million expansion
September 2, 2014 | Jeff Outhit | Waterloo Region Record | Link
September 2, 2014 | Jeff Outhit | Waterloo Region Record | Link
Quote:CAMBRIDGE — Cambridge Memorial Hospital signed a $187-million contract to undertake its long-delayed expansion over five years.
The hospital is adding up to 52 beds in new construction and renovations, bringing it up to 197 beds.
Bondfield Construction won the contract to build and finance the expansion. Construction begins within days and concludes in spring 2019. The full project will cost millions more including equipment, furnishings and design.
Bondfield won out over four other bidders. It is the best bid for taxpayers, the hospital said. However, the provincial government, which is funding most of the expansion, did not release the project agreement or value-for-money report to prove this, saying the documents will be made public later.
The Cambridge expansion, planned for more than 13 years, follows expansions that have concluded at St. Mary's General Hospital and Grand River Hospital in Kitchener. Poor governance helped delay the Cambridge project as the province intervened twice to take control of the hospital away from community directors.
The hospital is expanding its emergency department, surgery services, mental health, obstetrics, rehabilitation, laboratory and diagnostic imaging. It is revamping the lobby and reception area and providing a new medical education campus.
"We can now close this chapter and turn our energies toward the real and complete transformation of our hospital," hospital president Patrick Gaskin said in a release.
Cambridge Memorial is undertaking a $50-million fundraising drive to pay for part of the expansion and to equip and furnish it. It has raised $33 million to date.
Bondfield is a family-owned construction firm that has built many public projects including six buildings at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. Bondfield built the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre in Kitchener for $28 million and it completed a $6-million project at Cambridge Memorial Hospital in 1996.