Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement - Terrace, BC

Don't be alarmed if you feel some shaking around 3pm tomorrow, June 22. Vibration testing is happening on the Mills Memorial hospital site to ensure future construction won't impact community, patient and staff safety. Testing is happening during the day to make sure the hospital can safely operate at the same time as construction.

A chain link fence will start going up this week along the west side of the Mills Memorial Hospital site. This fence will be permanent fixture as it is part of the final plans of the new hospital designs, which are ongoing.

Throughout construction, debris netting will be strung along the entire length and height of the fence, to help prevent dust and debris from entering adjacent neighbour yards. The netting will also provide more privacy for those neighbours.

Once the new hospital is built, landscaping plans call for vegetation to be planted along the west side of the property. At the request of neighbours, privacy slats may also be installed in the fence.

Since construction activity began on the Mills Memorial hospital site, Northern Health has been in touch with many surrounding neighbours, informing them of plans and discussing concerns about the impacts of construction. In addition to numerous emails and phone calls, we've hosted a virtual neighbourhood meeting, and continue to deliver notices to mailboxes, and post updates on this Lets Talk site and in the Northern Health Terrace/Kitimat Facebook group.

Some impacts from construction are unfortunately inevitable. Northern Health and the contractor, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc, are working hard to listen to neighbours’ concerns and minimize these impacts. Here's a few examples of what's being done to address concerns, minimize impacts and maximize safety.

• Glare shields on parking lot lights
• Water truck on site to spray down dust, on site and on roads
• Street sweeper cleaning the streets
• Speed limit signs
• ongoing noise and vibration monitoring
• Regular reminders to truck drivers and subcontractors to be mindful of neighbours

A new hospital will ultimately benefit the entire community and region. As work continues, Northern Health looks forward to ongoing conversations with neighbours, community members, Indigenous groups and local and regional stakeholders about this exciting project.

Lots of exciting preparation work has been happening on the Mills Memorial Hospital site in anticipation of the construction of a new hospital.

Over the last few weeks, the majority of the trees have been cleared from the site. Security fences have gone up around the perimeter and machines have been busy clearing the soil of stumps and roots.

Check out how different the site looks from just 10 days ago.

The trees on the northeast corner of the Mills Memorial Hospital site, the corner of Tetrault Street and Keith Avenue, will be cleared today and tomorrow, June 10 and 11.

Most trees on the site have already been cleared to prepare for the construction of a new hospital, but this patch, behind the Seven Sisters facility, was left to protect a raven who had nested there.

A sweep this morning by Triton Environmental Consultants, however, said the area is now "inactive", and that "no other bird nests or nesting behaviour were observed during the survey."

One woodpecker nest remains on the site, in the Northeast corner, in a patch of trees that will also need to be cleared once the nest is inactive.

A Northern Flicker also has a nest in a row of trees between Tetrault Street and the Mills Memorial hospital parking lot.

Work continues in the exciting anticipation of the construction of a new hospital starting soon.

As of Thursday, May 27, local residents can expect to see some activity on the Mills Memorial Hospital site. This activity is in preparation for the potential construction of a new Mills Memorial Hospital and Seven Sisters Facility in Terrace.

This week, delivery trucks will be bringing equipment and materials to the site. Starting next week, some contractors will be on site, and trucks will begin to come and go regularly.

The main traffic flow has most work vehicles accessing the site from Tetrault Street and exiting onto Haugland Avenue. Traffic in the neighbourhood may increase slightly, but is not expected to be significant.

Parking at the hospital should not be impacted at this time.

General work hours will be from 7am to 6pm, seven days a week.

Note that for this project, the City of Terrace granted an exemption to bylaw NO. 2100-2016, which regulates, prohibits, and imposes requirements on noise. So that the project can be completed faster, the exemption allows for activity on site seven days a week.

While a design build agreement for the construction of the new Mills Memorial Hospital is still in the works, we are managing the project to ensure no delay should construction proceed.

Stay tuned for more updates!

The Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement project is moving towards the final stages of procurement. Northern Health is in late-stage negotiations with a potential proponent to enter into a Design-Build Agreement. Once this agreement in place, the proponent will lead the complete design and construction of the new hospital.

Design to Date

The design of the new hospital is ongoing. Over the last year, several rounds of meetings have taken place between the proponent, MMH project team members, and facility user groups. The most recent meetings took place in February 2021 and the next round will be at the end of May.

In the meetings, physicians and staff advise on essential and standard operational and clinical design elements, and raise concerns and offer suggestions based on best practices. These meetings are essential for the bidder to be able to draft a basic design and move through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process that leads to a final agreement.

To date, the design of the hospital is approximately 60% complete, based on:

• Best practices
• Business plan
• Statement of requirements
• Services offered
• Site and location
• Local population
• Department workflows and functions
• Cultural considerations
• Clinical and operational staff input
• Indigenous, community and stakeholder input
• Budget

Working Groups created for Indigenous & community Input

Since 2018, a Capital Advisory Committee, made up of local community, stakeholder and Indigenous representatives, has provided guidance in relation to project engagement. We are in the process of forming two working groups to serve under this committee and give input into the project.

1. MMH Indigenous Advisory Working Group (IAWG)
   The purpose of the MMH Indigenous Advisory Working Group (IAWG) is to have a table for Indigenous input into design aspects of the project. The group, made up of local Indigenous and Métis Nation representatives, will provide input pertaining to considerations unique to Indigenous culture and practices to ensure the new facility is culturally safe, welcoming, respectful and relevant. The IAWG had its first two meetings at the end of April 2021. (Terms of Reference for the IAWG are available in the Documents section of this site.)
   
   
2. Community Advisory Working Group (CAWG)
   The second working group, the Community Advisory Working Group (CAWG), will include broad community representation and is in development. The purpose of this group will be to provide input into design aspects of the project to ensure the new facility is locally and culturally respectful and relevant.

Future Engagement

After a proponent is announced, the MMH project team will initiate more general staff, community and stakeholder engagement. This includes sharing more detailed information, as well as seeking commentary and feedback.

Register for Let’s Talk Northern Health!

Due to current restrictions, a lot of our engagement will be virtual. This site Let’s Talk Northern Health is an online platform for sharing project information and gathering ideas and feedback. We invite you to check out the Let’s Talk Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement project page.

Right now, we are asking some questions on the project page. We invite you to register for the site and share your thoughts. Over the course of the project, we will regularly post project updates, images, documents and engagement opportunities related to the project. This site will be where the most current project information is.

Note! Anyone can go to the Let’s Talk site and Mills project page. But to participate and post on the site, or ask a question, you must register.

Get in Touch

Email: letstalkMMH@northernhealth.ca

Or register and post a comment or question on the Let’s Talk Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement project page

A significant number of trees were recently cleared on Northern Health’s Mills Memorial Hospital site. Northern Health felled hazard trees for public safety. We also cleared necessary trees to ensure the construction of a new hospital could happen as soon as possible. While a design build agreement for the construction of a new Mills Memorial Hospital is still in the works, we are managing the project to ensure no delay.

At this time of year, birds start nesting. Once a bird has nested in a tree, legally, to protect the bird and the nest, one cannot cut down that tree or those nearby. Clearing trees now will prevent potential bird nesting, which could have delayed the clearing of trees later, and as a result, delayed the start of construction. Any delay to construction, minor or major, would add significant costs to the project.

Please be assured that plans for the new hospital include significant landscaping and revegetation.

On Friday, March 19, 2021, Northern Health gave a project update to the North West Regional Hospital District (NWRHD) Board. NWRHD is contributing $113.7 million to the project cost.

Ciro Panessa (Chief Operating Officer, Northwest Health Service Delivery Area) and Michael Hoefer (Regional Director, Capital Planning and Support Services) presented a powerpoint that included a project timeline, as well as information about the new, proposed facility.

Download a copy of the presentation here.

• More info about the North West Regional Hospital District is available here.

Working towards a Design Build Agreement

The MMH Replacement project is in the last stage of the procurement process. The procurement process started in May 2019 when the BC Government announced the approval of the business plan for Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement project. Since then, we've worked through the following phases of the procurement process.

1. Request for Qualifications (RFQ)
   • Resulted in only one qualified bidder
     
     
2. Modified Request for Proposals (RFP)
   • Design and financial negotiations happen in parallel
   • Significant oversight from the Province and the Project Board, which consists of senior executives from the Ministry of Health, health authority representatives and other stakeholders.
     
     
3. Project Board Final Approval
   
   
4. Financial Close => Design Build Agreement (We are here!)

The final proponent will be formally announced and construction will begin when the Request for Proposals process is closed and fulfilled, and a final Design Build Agreement (DBA) is signed.

Capital Projects Take Time

A major capital project is a large undertaking that takes a series of planning steps to ensure the facility is:

• designed appropriately;
• tendered and constructed for the best value;
• scheduled properly to ensure the continuity of health care at the existing hospital is maintained during the construction period.

Hospitals are highly complex facilities with many interconnected systems, services and equipment. It’s in our best interest to work through the project thoroughly to ensure that we get the facility we need, in accordance with the financial scope the government has set.