The Penticton Regional Hospital expansion project is delivering on the promise of creating jobs.
Greyback Construction has been selected by EllisDon as the major contractor for formwork and placing of the concrete for the Patient Care Tower and the parkade. Construction on the project began earlier this year and is expected to finish in 2019.
Matt Kenyon, Greyback’s general manager, explains that for the most part, this is a labour contract, with the main contractor supplying all the concrete and the rebar.
If Greyback was supplying everything they normally would for this kind of contract, he said it would probably be $36-million.
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“That’s basically $12 million in direct labour,” said Kenyon. “We’ll have up to maybe 60 people on the crew there for the next two years.”
Kenyon added it would be full-time work and more for the crews. The press release projects 80 person years of employment. The Patient Care Tower concrete will be completed by fall 2017 and the parkade concrete will be completed by summer 2018.
“It’s a nice project for us to be working on, right in our own city,” said Kenyon. He added that Greyback has rented a parking lot near the city for their crews.
“That might be handy for people to know. We won’t be plugging up all the streets with our guys parking everywhere. It’s already bad enough,” said Kenyon.
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The project will require 2,100 truckloads of concrete, 2,200 tonnes of rebar and 20,000 cubic metres of cement. Stretched out, that amount of material could make a sidewalk 166 kilometres long, 120 centimetre wide and 10 cm deep.
This is not the first time Greyback has spent time upgrading areas of PRH. In 2014, the completed major renovations to the Radiography rooms, making way for new equipment.
Greyback has an extensive history in the construction industry in the Okanagan area dating back to the 1930s, and the Kenyon family has always been involved in the community.
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“Being able to contribute to the construction of the Patient Tower at the hospital is so vital to the people who live here and resonates deeply with the family values that have been instilled in the company for generations” said Kenyon.
“Having expanded health care facilities close to home will have a huge impact on families who live in the area, and we are honoured to be a part of this project.”
