A new parking lot on the east side of the Mills Memorial hospital site, which fits approximately 70 vehicles, is now available for use.

The new gravel lot, adjacent to Tetrault Street and north of the hospital, aims to accommodate a growing number of hospital staff and reduce street parking. Because of its distance to the hospital entrance, the new lot is intended mainly for staff use. However, the spots have no restrictions.

This lot is temporary and will be removed when the area is required to accommodate the building of the new hospital – likely in the summer of 2023.

Under Construction

Completed

Starting shortly, only local residents will be able to drive or walk along a portion of Haugland Avenue, just west of the hospital, for close to two weeks as the area is being closed to the public. That’s because PCL will be upgrading the drainage and water systems in the area as part of the new Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement project. With the new facility planned to be more than twice the size of the current one, an increase in capacity in these systems is necessary.

The work is being managed similarly to other work on streets in the City of Terrace, with approvals, permits and a traffic management plan. Signage and flaggers will guide traffic and pedestrian flow during the day, while work is underway. While the general public will not be able to access the area, locals who live on the section of road on which the work is taking place, will still be able to get to their residences with the help of the traffic control on site.

PCL’s aim is to complete any work related to the new hospital, outside of the fenced construction site on the Mills Memorial property, as soon as possible. That way all future construction is contained within the site, minimizing local impacts. With Cassie Hall Elementary School just opposite the hospital, PCL waited until school was out for summer, for the sake of student safety and minimizing traffic interference, to complete these necessary upgrades.

The upgrade work on Haugland will include cutting into the street, removing the asphalt, removing fill from underneath, and installing a large storm drain pipe approximately four metres under the surface, then refilling the area and covering it with new asphalt.

A manhole in the centre of the Eby Street and Haugland Avenue intersection will also be created, to connect the new pipe to the city’s storm system, which flows north to south along Eby Street. While this work is taking place, traffic along Eby Street will likely be one-lane only - though exact details of the traffic management plan are under currently under review by the City of Terrace and subject to change.

PCL will also be installing connections to the city’s existing water and sanitary lines on Haugland Avenue.

The exact start date the street work will be posted once PCL has received all necessary approvals from the City. Hours of work will be approximately 7 am to 5:30pm, seven days a week.

The first concrete pour happened on Monday, July 12 marking a milestone event on the Mills Memorial hospital site - construction of the new hospital has begun!

To date, much of the work on site has been preparing for construction. That includes clearing the land, installing fences and other safety precautions, bringing in equipment, and digging the foundation.

A number of local workers and businesses are benefitting from the Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement Project – and the project has only just begun.

With construction activity on site for little more than a month, more than 15 local businesses have already been contracted for a variety of jobs. Local suppliers and contractors are doing work such as environmental monitoring, trucking, cleaning and watering neighbourhood streets, surveying, waste removal, fuel and septic services, and more.

Throughout the life span of the project, PCL estimates 900 jobs will be created with up to 350 workers on site at a time.

In addition to the jobs created on the site, approximately 40 more will be created to support the out-of-town workers at a workcamp on the outskirts of town.

Check out new videos feature we've added to Let's Talk Mills Memorial Replacement Project home page:

https://letstalk.northernhealth.ca/mills-memorial-hospital-replacement

We've uploaded a couple great videos to check out already - one of the Ground Blessing ceremony on May 31 and another time lapse video of all site activity in the month of June 2021.

After years of planning and anticipation, construction of the new Mills Memorial Hospital replacement project and the new Seven Sisters facility is underway. Today, we celebrated virtually - on Zoom - the start of construction with the Ministry of Health.

Some staff gathered in the cafeteria at the current Mills Memorial Hospital to celebrate the long-awaited news and watch the Zoom celebration together. We ordered special cupcakes and delivered them to all Northern Health staff in Terrace.

The new Mills Memorial Hospital will be a significant investment in the community and region. At $622.6 million, it represents the largest capital investment in Northern Health’s history.

Read: BC Gov News Release | Construction starts on new Mills Memorial Hospital

Watch: Construction start celebration video with Minister of Health

Water trucks and sprinklers are being used to help with the extreme heat and dust as the ground work preparations continue ahead of the construction of the new MMH hospital in Terrace!

Recognizing the current extreme heat concerns in the Northwest and the rest of the province, Northern Health and the contractor working on the Mills Memorial Hospital site are working on solutions to manage the heat and dust-related issues.

A water truck is on site, and sprays the roads when trucks are hauling as often as possible. Sprinklers are also being installed on site, some of which are spraying trucks down before they go onto the road. (see photo)

Last week the contractor began installing a permanent chain link fence along the west side of the site. Once the fence is in place, debris netting will be added to cover the length and height of the fence. This netting should help prevent dust and debris from blowing into yards.

We understand that construction can be inconvenient for nearby residents. We are doing what we can to listen to concerns and minimize the impacts where possible.

The Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement Project includes building a new Seven Sisters mental health residence facility and a new, state-of-the-art hospital more than twice the size of the current one. The project will allow the hospital to provide new and expanded services not currently available, and is an important investment for future generations in Terrace and communities throughout Northwest BC.

Here's Master Sweeper heading out from the Mills Memorial Hospital site on one of its regular street cleaning sessions. As trucks have been hauling soil off the site over the past three weeks, to prepare the site for construction, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc., has hired Master Sweeper to regularly clean the streets around the hospital and along the haul routes.

The Terrace Pediatric Clinic has temporarily moved from the Sleeping Beauty Pediatric Clinic to the third floor of the Park Avenue Medical Clinic.

As construction of a new, state-of-the-art facility progresses, the Sleeping Beauty Medical Clinic, located behind Mills Memorial Hospital, will need to be demolished to make way for the new hospital.

In the meantime, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc, the contractor set to build the new hospital, will use Sleeping Beauty as a temporary on-site, office location.

The new permanent location for the Terrace Pediatric Clinic will not be on the hospital grounds. However, it will be adjacent to the property in a newly leased space in the Keith Avenue Mall. The Park Avenue clinic location is only temporary while the Keith Avenue space is being designed and renovated for the Terrace Pediatric Clinic.

The Terrace Pediatric Clinic provides primary care services for children, from birth to their seventeenth birthday. The Clinic offers comprehensive, up-to-date, quality care, for a variety of medical, developmental, and mental health problems. It is a consultative service based on a referral from a family physician.

Acute care services for children ¬– for example, emergency treatment and surgeries ¬– will continue to be offered at the hospital.

While there may be some changes to how patients access services throughout the construction of a new hospital, Northern Health is planning ahead and aims to keep all services as accessible as possible to patients during this time.