Slowly but surely the work is continuing on the new power plant project underway at the Wallaceburg Site of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance.
The contractors are continuing to make excellent progress on it, pretty much right on schedule,” CKHA CFO Aaron Ryan says. “Over the next few weeks, we’ll start seeing the erection of the steel structure, the installing of the roof deck, and beginning to enclose the building. So it’ll be exciting to see the actual structure taking place.
Ground was broken on the new power plant in October and Ryan says he expects we will see completion of the project by this October.
The total cost of the project $7.3 million, with future revitalization plans dependent on funding from the Ministry of Health.
“We have been continually back and forth with the capital branch making sure we’re in communication with them, but they’re waiting on some final approvals and we’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern for the last little bit waiting to find out about funding for the next phase.”
Future plans they are still waiting to receive funding for include maintaining a 24 hour emergency department, and adding five new in-patient beds.
“The power plant that we’re building and that the Ministry has supported is definitely the type of infrastructure we need to support the next phases of the capital project,” Ryan says. “I think the fact that the Ministry is making that investment is a very positive sign that the next investment will come as well.”
