The West Lincoln Memorial Hospital (WLMH) redevelopment project reached Substantial Completion on September 4, 2025, marking a major milestone in strengthening healthcare infrastructure for West Niagara and its surrounding communities.

"Over the last several years, hundreds of team members, including our project team and varied construction services, subcontractors, and consultants, have worked tirelessly to bring this much-needed facility to life. Reaching Substantial Completion on the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital project is a testament to their dedication, expertise, and perseverance," said Randy Reymer, Senior Vice President & Area Manager, Southwestern Ontario, EllisDon. “In collaboration with our partners at Hamilton Health Sciences and Infrastructure Ontario, we are proud to deliver a healthcare facility that will elevate patient care and well-being across the region, leaving a lasting legacy for future generations.”

The $224 million redevelopment project, delivered through a Design-Build-Finance model led by EllisDon Infrastructure Healthcare (EDIH), has officially been handed over to Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS). This handover signifies the completion of construction and the beginning of the transition to operational readiness, with a public opening targeted for the end of November. Once open to the public, the facility will carry forward a 70-year legacy of delivering community-focused healthcare.

To demonstrate the scale of the redevelopment, crews poured approximately 13,000 cubic meters of concrete and placed roughly 14,000 cubic meters of backfill. These efforts, combined with the broader construction and design work, resulted in an almost 80 per cent increase in the hospital’s overall size.

Key features of the redeveloped WLMH include:

• 55 acute inpatient beds
• 100 per cent private rooms
• Expanded outpatient (ambulatory) care space for enhanced consultation services closer to home
• Advanced diagnostics, including X-ray, mammography, echocardiography, ultrasound, and a CT scanner
• A new 24-hour Emergency Department
• Maternal and newborn services
• Day surgical services, including endoscopy and minor procedures

“Substantial Completion marks the successful delivery of a critical healthcare asset to a community that has been actively engaged, vocal, and deeply invested from the very beginning,” said Max Murray, Senior Project Manager, Operations, EllisDon. “Our team has been able to see the interior spaces of the building come together with finishes, systems, furniture, and equipment after years of designing and planning. The hard work of so many dedicated individuals was truly rewarded by seeing an ambitious concept come together to become a community hospital.”

Building With Purpose: Committed Community Construction

An extensive undertaking that saw 270 workers on site during the peak construction period, and approximately 860,000 total working hours, the hospital was built through calculated coordination and the concerted effort between all parties on site.

Situated between two existing facilities, the project faced significant logistical constraints, with limited space for laydown areas, vehicle access, and personnel movement. These challenges made strategic scheduling, thoughtful design, and precise vendor coordination essential to ensuring construction progressed smoothly without disrupting hospital operations.

Despite these inherent challenges, EDIH successfully carried out the intricate construction while maintaining the safety of the public, patients, and staff. Deliberate, proactive planning to mitigate impacts included vibration monitoring in sensitive areas near the construction excavation, such as the laboratory and CT Suite, and modifying key areas of the existing building’s exits, such as the Emergency Department and ambulance entry points.

Also heavily involved in the WLMH project was EllisDon’s Energy and Digital Services (EDS) team, which worked alongside our construction team and was responsible for the design and configuration of most of the ICAT scope. This included the Access Control System, Audio Visual System, CCTV System, Integration Engine, Intercom System, Intrusion Detection System, Nurse Call System, Real Time Locating System and Wired Duress. It was the first time that EDS was responsible for the delivery of the overall electronic security system.

Beyond its enhanced healthcare infrastructure, the new WLMH has also been purposefully designed to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification – reinforcing EllisDon’s unwavering commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship. This involved a comprehensive approach highlighted by robust waste diversion strategies, electrochromic self-tinting glazing to regulate interior climate, a large rooftop solar panel array to reduce demand on the electrical grid, and the installation of electric vehicle charging stations. Together, these features represent the meticulous forward-thinking design of the new hospital.

Congratulations to our devoted team and partners on this much anticipated achievement.