Construction starting this month on Regina General Hospital parkade#Construction #starting #month #Regina #General #Hospital #parkade

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Construction is set to start this month on a long-awaited parkade at Regina’s General Hospital.

The Government of Saskatchewan announced Tuesday a private company — Link Developments Ltd. — had been selected to build the project. Three other companies (Graham Capital Partners LP, MDL Management Ltd. and Winchester Management Inc.) replied to a request for qualification back in March of this year. Link Developments Ltd. was ultimately selected, according to a press release from the province.

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At the time, it was communicated the successful party would be responsible for designing, constructing, financing, maintaining and operating the new parkade under a Design-Build-Partial Lease (DBPL) agreement.

“This milestone is significant in addressing the challenges encountered by residents, staff and other users of the Regina General Hospital parkade facility,” said Joe Hargrave, minister of SaskBuilds and procurement, in a government press release.

“Our commitment remains unwavering as we strive to deliver accessible and convenient infrastructure for the benefit of all Saskatchewan residents.”

There have been calls for expanded parking options at the hospital since the 1990s. The site, which is located on the northwest corner of the Regina General Hospital property, is currently an existing visitor parking lot according to the government.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) praised the parkade project moving ahead with Michelle Mula, interim vice president SHA, saying in a statement “with safety at the forefront of our decision making, the parkade aims to provide additional safe and accessible parking at RGH for staff, patients and visitors.”

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But, it is unclear if there will be enough space to effectively address parking needs for hospital staff. An Expression of Interest document dated Jan. 5, 2023 outlined some of the particulars of the parkade and the needs associated.

“There are approximately 1,400 staff on the wait-list for parking at RGH. It is expected that a 1,928-stall parkade would be required in order to fully eliminate the staff wait-list and account for estimated patient and visitor parking demand,” according to the document.

According to the government, “Link Developments’ proposed design includes a parking facility with a total of 1,005 stalls, consisting of 873 stalls in the parkade and 132 surface stalls, for a net increase of 686 parking stalls.”

Clarification on how many of the stalls will be available for staff specifically and the projected cost of renting the parking stalls long term were not provided.

Construction on the parkade is expected to wrap up by the end of 2024.

—with files from Brandon Harder