Children's hospital reaches new phase of construction

Construction of the new maternal and children's hospital of Saskatchewan has reached another milestone. Two massive cranes are now in place one of them towering 72 metres over the construction site.

Crews are working on the base foundation and underground utilities of the new hospital, which isgoing up beside Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital.It's a tight fit between the construction zone and the RUH parkade.

In fact, building materials will be hoisted over the parkade and into the site which meanssome safety features are being installed.

"Over top of the parkade we're going to have a structural steel protective overhang," Craig Ayers, project director, said. "That'll be put in place so that the zone will be safe for the transfer of the material across the top of the parkade."

In late October,a forklift hit a window at the Royal University Hospital's day surgery department. The health region said no was injured.

• Safety measures coming for Sask. Children's Hospital after forklift crash

The second large crane installed today is 56 metres high. Both cranesare capable of holding well over 4,000 kilograms at the tip of the crane.

Brynn Boback-Lane, the president andCEO of the Children's Hospital Foundation of Saskatchewan,said seeing the cranes and other construction activity is important for the people who have donated to the hospital.

"I think when people see the activity on the site, they realize that the construction is real and it pulls together why we built it in the first place."

Boback-Lane said the foundation wasable to raise $50 million without any construction taking place. The foundation is hoping to raise another $25million within the next 2 years. The hospital is set to open in 2019.