Alberta Infrastructure says Graham Construction didn’t properly end their contract for the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital. After the province announced Monday it had fired the company as construction manager, Graham said it had told the province it was cancelling their contract in a letter on August 17th.
It says it did so as it feels the government has failed to properly fund the project. In a statement Tuesday, Alberta Infrastructure argued that’s incorrect as there is money allocated in the provincial budget, and it didn’t consider their letter to be a valid notice of termination
Construction on the new hospital site was shut down Monday, other than at the parkade which was a separate RFP. 2day FM is waiting to hear back from Alberta Infrastructure on how workers on site were notified and whether they will be able to access any of their personal tools and equipment.
The province says it will be looking for a new construction manager right away and hopes to have one in place by late October. If so, the plan is to start up construction again in November.
There’s no word yet on a new timeline for the facility, for which the contract was awarded to Graham Construction in 2011. Work on site began in 2014. The outside shell is fully complete, and the interior is said to be 75 per cent done. Before Alberta Infrastructure issued the Notice of Default at the end of July, it was expected that the hospital would be done by the end of 2019 and would open to the public in 2020.