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By Mike Williscraft
NewsNow
The announcement of a short list of three bidders to respond to request for proposals to design, build and finance West Lincoln Memorial Hospital’s new build shifts the entire process in the planning home stretch.
The three teams were prequalified based on criteria identified in a request for qualifications process that began in November 2020. Selection criteria included design and construction capability, experience, qualified personnel and financial capacity to undertake a project of this size and scope.
“The RFP release last Wednesday moves the project to Stage 4 in the MOH process (with Stage 5 being the actual construction of the new hospital), so we are further down the road than we’ve ever been. We were able to have the RFP released a couple of days ahead of schedule which is fantastic, and everyone worked really hard to get us to this point,” said Bart DeVries, director of redevelopment for Hamilton Health Sciences.
“The three ProjectCo’s are now reviewing all our documentation and building their responses to our stated requirements for what we need in the building and on the site.”
The three bidders – Amico Sacyr Alliance, EllisDon Infrastructure Healthcare and Pomerleau Healthcare Partners – will submit their bids this November. Then, HHS and Infrastructure Ontario will choose the winning bid, to be announced Spring 2022.
“The release of the RFP for WLMH is a key milestone towards the new build. This is great news for West Niagara, and the speed with which we have arrived at this point from the initial commitment to a new build being made in October 2018, testifies to the huge desire to see this new build in the community,” said Niagara West MPP Sam Oosterhoff.
DeVries see the finish line ahead.
“It has taken a long time to get to this point, and there is still another 10 months or so before we start construction due to a long bid period, extensive evaluation reviews and negotiations with the preferred proponent, but we are closer than ever,” he said.