Acute Care Short-term treatment for a severe injury, illness, urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery.
Critical Care Specialized treatment for people with life-threatenting injuries or illnesses.
Primary Care First point of contact care in the health care system usually a clinic or family doctor.
Community Care Services that help people to receive care at home instead of a hospital or long-term care facility.
Academic Health Sciences Centre A partnership between one or more universities and health care providers focussing on research, clinical services, education and training.
Integrated Care A global trend in health care aimed at reducing fragmentation of services and enabling better more coordinated and continuous care.

the new St. Pauls

Newsletter: Kicking Off The ‘Building’ Phase For The New Hospital

Newsletter: Kicking Off The ‘Building’ Phase For The New Hospital

Posted On: Wednesday March 30, 2022

Making a mark

Last March, we broke ground at Station Street, marking an important milestone in our journey to transform health care. This month, almost exactly a year later, we’ve marked another milestone – the start of the ‘building’ phase!

To celebrate, representatives from the Project Team left their handprints in the very first batch of freshly poured concrete for the foundation’s footing. They also tossed in 1894 coins (St. Paul’s Hospital’s beginning) and 2022 coins (128 years later), honouring the past, present, and future.

The concrete footing serves as the base for four columns and the very first crane that recently arrived on site.

What’s happening on site

  • Majority of excavation is wrapping up this spring. PCL Construction has dug to the glacial till to ensure the new hospital is built on stable ground to help it stand up to earthquakes and floods. 
  • Anchoring the secant wall will finish in 2022. This underground waterproofed perimeter surrounding the hospital’s foundation helps protect it from erosion, groundwater, floods, and rising sea levels.
  • Four more cranes will arrive on site. Trucks are delivering concrete used to pour floors and pillars for each level of the hospital. PCL will start with the 4-level underground parkade and work their way up.  By the end of 2022, you might even see the main floor of our new hospital peek out from the ground.
  • Road and utility infrastructure work is ongoing. Work is being done to lay the necessary underground infrastructure for water, sewer, hydro, telecommunication and gas lines, as well as new roads, sidewalks, and parkade ramps.

For the latest construction notices, check out our Construction Updates page

Construction timeline showing the past excavation work and the current and upcoming structural work for the new hospital, including the 4-level underground parkade (2022) and the first few floors rising above ground (early 2023).  

Meanwhile, another step closer to finalizing designs 

As the construction site has been getting busy, so has the Project Team to move hospital designs forward. After looking at department layouts using 2D paper mock-ups in summer 2021 and room layouts using virtual reality (VR) in fall 2021, check out how we’re using cardboard to further test room layouts:

Testing room designs with cardboard mock-ups. Read the full story here.

Next on the horizon

  • Later this year PCL will construct fully-built mock rooms with real walls, ceilings, equipment, and furniture. It will provide a good sense of what the future St. Paul’s Hospital will look like.
  • A development partner will be selected later this year to design and build our new health innovation hub on campus known for now as the Clinical Support and Research Centre (CSRC). It will be a place to share ideas, collaborate on discoveries and innovate new medical advancements. St. Paul’s Foundation is committed to raising $50 million to help this state-of-the-art facility come to life. If you’re interested in supporting this vision, learn more here

There’s lots of exciting updates and milestones to look forward to as we continue our journey to transform care. Questions about the project? Connect with us at thenewstpauls@providencehealth.bc.ca