Starting November 25, 2013 staff, patients and visitors of Vancouver General Hospital will start to notice the impacts of the Willow Chest Centre (WCC) Demolition Project in order to make way for the start of construction on the new Joseph & Rosalie Segal Family Health Centre (JRSFHC).

On November 25th hoarding will be erected at the ends of the Willow Chest Centre tunnel and at the 4 levels of the Research Pavilion, connected to WCC, to seal the building off in an effort to control the dust, noise and vibrations expected to be caused by the demolition work.

Also, a construction fence will be erected around the south side of the building, removing existing parking stalls, in order to allow for the demolition activities to safely proceed.

The initial work will consist of removing the existing hazardous material from the entire building. This work should take approximately two months.

Following the hazardous material abatement the actual demolition of the building will start in 2014. The entire site should be cleared by the end of summer, 2014.

To protect the staff on campus, an infection control plan has been developed to deal with issues in the existing building, as well as the surrounding buildings. This plan has been vetted and approved by VCH Infection Control and WorkSafeBC.

In addition to the infection control plan, a traffic management plan and a site-specific safety plan have been developed to further safeguard staff, patients and visitors on campus.

We are working to minimize your inconvenience and apologize in advance for any disruptions the demolition will cause.

For additional information or to pose questions please contact the following:

Infection Control – Rita Dekleer, Infection Control Practitioner
WCC Demolition Information – Chuck Ramsay, Project Manager
JRSFHC Portfolio Information– Samule Collins, Project Manager