Health Sciences North officials hope to take the first steps toward solving the institution’s parking problems next month.
They expect to put out a request for proposals in December for a 750-spot parking garage.
Depending on the time of day, finding parking at the institution, known until recently as Sudbury Regional Hospital, can be difficult.
When the city’s three hospitals merged in 2010, it became apparent there wasn’t enough on-site parking at the Ramsey Lake Road facility.
As a temporary solution, many staff members have been parking in a York Street lot, and taking shuttle buses to and from the hospital.
The parking garage is expected to cost $20,000 to $35,000 per spot, or up to $26 million, the institution’s senior vice-president, said.
“We’re hoping it will be substantially less than that,” Joe Pilon said, speaking to Northern Life, Nov. 8, after the hospital’s monthly board of directors meeting.
The institution has already had an architect put together a concept design for the parking lot.
“We’ve told them where to locate it on the property,” Pilon said. “It’s in the south parking lot, in the southeast end. We told the architect we want a link from the parking lot directly into the hospital site, so people don’t have to walk outside to the parking garage.”
Potential bidders already responded to a request for information on the project, so the hospital has some idea of what kind of proposals they’ll get, he said.
“Some of the proponents had actually proposed pre-fab parking lots,” Pilon said.
“They’re not uncommon. They’re being done in southern Ontario, where the walls and floors are pre-fabricated in factories, shipped up in trucks and then assembled with cranes. That’s something that may or may not work. We don’t know. But we’re certainly interested in exploring that with our RFP process.”
Those responding to the request for information proposed a variety of construction timelines — anything from six to 12 months. Pilon said he hopes construction will begin on the parking facility next summer.
Because construction on the facility will temporarily take part of the hospital’s parking lot out of commission, the hospital is in the process of purchasing a 220-spot gravel parking lot on nearby Centennial Drive.
The Centennial parking lot will also make up for parking space lost as a new facility for medical learners is constructed on the Health Sciences North campus.
Pilon said he hopes this parking lot will be ready in a few months. The cost for this parking lot is not being released by the hospital until the purchase has been finalized.
Posted by Jenny Jelen
