The $367 million redevelopment of Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake is on schedule and on budget, said project manager Brad Mackendrick Thursday, Dec. 12.
"It is a good project right now," he told Black Press Media.
A large crane that has been in place since last December will be dismantled in January 2025 and that marks an important milestone in the construction schedule, he said.
"It flags that the main structure is now complete and they will be now concentrating on building the internal layout of the building, putting in the internal walls, and continuing with electrical and mechanical infrastructure works."
Once the crane is dismantled, crews will use a smaller mobile crane for any external lifting of equipment that needs to go up on the roof or onto the floors, while most of the supplies will go in through the main floor and then up.
"They will able to also start working on the external facade of the building, the cladding, and everybody will start seeing the actual finished product starting at the end of January."
Six months ago there were approximately 75 contractors on site, currently there are about 120 and when things ramp up with the internal works there will be about 150 contractors, Mackendrick said.
Both the main mechanical and electrical companies are from outside of Williams Lake, but they bring in sub-contractors do do various work locally, he explained.
When asked if there have been any surprises along the way, he responded the only thing that changed in the project was the contractor, Graham Construction, deciding to work what is called a top-down construction method.
"It means they start internal works starting on the top level and working their way down and that actually helped speed up the progress of the project, so that was a nice surprise to see, them changing their view on the schedule."
There were a few hiccups in the beginning with construction of concrete works due to the cold climate. It slowed them down and the top-down approach was a way of speeding things up again to meet the timeline.
Mackendrick said the contractor will be looking at other sub-trades such as landscaping and is trying to source them locally.
It won't be until July 2026 that the first phase of project will be completed followed by Interior Health having four months to start the transition of moving different departments such as emergency, pharmacy and in-patient rooms into the new facility.
Around the end of 2026, they will be looking at a grand opening.
Phase two, which includes renovations to the existing hospital, is planned to begin in fall 2026 and is scheduled to be complete in early 2029.
Mackendrick has lived in B.C. for the majority of his life, growing up on the North Shore of Vancouver. As a child and teenager he spent spent time with his family at Chimney Lake, even working at the Chimney Lake Lodge.
"It's long gone, unfortunately," he said of the lodge. "It burned down in the 80s."
For 22 years he worked overseas in Australia and the U.K. doing design and project management with an architect background mostly, he said.
In 2021, he left the U.K. and moved to Williams Lake and started on the hospital redevelopment project.
"I came back home as I call it," he said.
