Children's hospital reaches new phase of construction
2 large cranes now visible in skyline around hospital
Construction of the new maternal and children's hospital of Saskatchewan has reached another milestone. Two massive cranes are now in place — one of them towering 72 metres over the construction site.
Crews are working on the base foundation and underground utilities of the new hospital, which is going up beside Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital. It's a tight fit between the construction zone and the RUH parkade.
In fact, building materials will be hoisted over the parkade and into the site which means some safety features are being installed.
"Over top of the parkade we're going to have a structural steel protective overhang," Craig Ayers, project director, said. "That'll be put in place so that the zone will be safe for the transfer of the material across the top of the parkade."
In late October, a forklift hit a window at the Royal University Hospital's day surgery department. The health region said no was injured.
Brynn Boback-Lane, the president and CEO of the Children's Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan, said seeing the cranes and other construction activity is important for the people who have donated to the hospital.
"I think when people see the activity on the site, they realize that the construction is real and it pulls together why we built it in the first place."
Boback-Lane said the foundation was able to raise $50 million without any construction taking place. The foundation is hoping to raise another $25 million within the next 2 years. The hospital is set to open in 2019.