The managing director of Cavalier Construction says the $100 million Princess Margaret Hospital extension is 20 percent complete.
After months of sorting through a labyrinth of old underground utilities, the site is fully prepared for vertical construction, Richard Wilson said.
The massive project, started in November of last year, is now preparing to bring a crane on-site so structural steel work can begin. The construction of the skeletal structure of the new hospital wing involves more than 400 workers.
"We are moving ahead now. We have all the basement slab poured," Wilson explained.
"Our crane was held up for two weeks because of the Customs strike. Once it gets on-site we'll be ready to keep moving. In the next month, you'll see a major difference."
The Cavalier chief estimated that 20 percent of the original $75 million budget had been spent. Earlier this year, the Managing Director of the Public Hospitals Authority Herbert Brown told Guardian Business that sum has now been bumped up to $100 million for the purchase of more medical equipment.
When the critical care block is complete, there will be nine operating theaters, more than 500 beds, a pre-op and post-op area, 18 intensive care unit private rooms and a neonatal intensive care unit.
Wilson said the company is relieved to be finished with the "major challenges" encountered in the ground from existing utilities.
The project's lead consultant, Michael Diggis, said poor mapping of the grounds led to some unexpected surprises, requiring coordination with Bahamas Electricity Corporation and the Water and Sewerage Corporation.
Wilson described the job as "intense and complex", and easily one of the top three jobs that the leading contractor has ever tackled.
Other than the critical care block, Cavalier is now going after the coveted convention center project at Baha Mar. Top executives at the mega resort revealed to Guardian Business last week that major components of the 200,000-square-foot facility will indeed go to local contractors.
"We hope to work on the Baha Mar project," Wilson said.
"Nothing is guaranteed. We will have to bid for it and it'll have to go through the whole procedure. We have worked with them over the last year. We did the Bank of Nova Scotia job for them and we're doing a sewerage waste water plant."
The bank is part of the new commercial village, constructed as part of the Bay Street diversion and creation of the Bahamian Riviera. The waste water plant is being built by Baha Mar on behalf of Breezes in exchange for a parcel of land.
Cavalier will also assist Baha Mar with the demolition of two wings of the Wyndham Nassau Resort & Crystal Palace Casino, which is expected to begin next month.

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