SNC-Lavalin wins contract to build Montreal Shriners hospital

SNC-Lavalin has signed a contract to build Montreal's new Shriners children's hospital, adjacent to a new super-hospital it is building.

The Shriners building will more than double the size of the existing facility.

No value for the contract was disclosed.

The engineering giant will also be responsible for the procurement, installation and commissioning of medical equipment.

SNC-Lavalin already provided structural engineering, civil engineering and pre-construction services for the project.

Construction will begin this month and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2015.

The current Shriners facility, the only Shriners hospital in Canada, is located onCedar Avenue and opened in 1925. The 40-bed hospital is in dire need of modernization or replacement.

The new hospital will be bigger and offer more services than originally planned. The blueprint for the 200,000 square foot building is nearly double the size and includes six storeys and more beds for patients.

It will have 22 single-patient rooms, four operating rooms, ambulatory care services and rehabilitation services, including physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

The Shriners hospital will be linked to the new Montreal Children's Hospital operated by the McGill University Health Centre.

It is one of several hospital projects being built on the Glen Yards site.

In February, Quebec's anti-corruption squad arrested former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime and Riadh Ben Aissa, ex-head of the company's construction arm,and charged them with fraud in connection with construction contracts forthe building of the multibillion-dollar McGill University Health Centre superhospital.