{"id":58504,"date":"2020-04-02T17:53:37","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T21:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=58504"},"modified":"2020-04-02T17:53:37","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T21:53:37","slug":"how-to-build-a-hospital-wing-for-a-pandemic-in-just-14-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/canada\/how-to-build-a-hospital-wing-for-a-pandemic-in-just-14-days\/","title":{"rendered":"How to build a hospital wing for a pandemic in just 14 days"},"content":{"rendered":"
It started as a parking lot.<\/p>\n
Then came the swooping aluminum supports with durable,\u00a0white material\u00a0wrapped over\u00a0them.<\/p>\n Almost overnight, the painted lines were covered up\u00a0and the pavement outside Joseph Brant Hospital began its transformation into a pandemic response unit.<\/p>\n It’s a project locked in a 14-day race against COVID-19.<\/p>\n “Every day counts,” said Mark Watts, president of BLT\u00a0Construction, the company tasked with erecting the structure and keeping up with the critical\u00a0countdown.\u00a0“Every day means lives.”<\/p>\n Dr. Ian Preyra, chief of staff at the Burlington hospital, believes a “remarkable surge” in patients\u00a0is coming.<\/p>\n That’s why the hospital announced Monday it plans to spend more than $2 million putting up the temporary 93-bed facility.<\/p>\n The pandemic unit will\u00a0house patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 who would otherwise\u00a0overwhelm hospital resources over the\u00a0next two weeks.<\/p>\n “We are essentially creating surge capacity based on the worst-case scenario,” Preyra explained.\u00a0“It would be a blessing if we\u00a0didn’t have to use this space.”<\/p>\n For BLT, the race began in Calgary where Sprung Structures loaded trucks with\u00a0the crates and bundles that made up a rush shipment of the different parts needed to assemble a hospital.<\/p>\n The technical name for the type of building that’s going up is a\u00a0“tensile membrane structure,” he patiently pointed\u00a0out\u00a0\u2014 not a tent.<\/p>\n “For a hospital environment it’s graded for snow loads, high wind speeds, hurricanes,” he listed off.\u00a0“So it’s a safe building to be erecting for this type of application.”<\/p>\n This 8250 sq ft Sprung hospital structure left Calgary at 2 pm today bound for Burlington, Ontario by rush team shipment. When erected over the next week, BLT Construction will outfit this emergency structure with 100 urgently needed hospital beds. #<\/span>COVID19<\/span><\/a> #<\/span>BeatTheVirus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n