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[Daveography]

Province to open 'superlab' at University of Alberta

Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman and Alberta Health Services staff pose in front of a picture of the Edmonton super lab location. (John Shypitka/CBC)

The Alberta government will consolidate its medical laboratory services into a public corporation under Alberta Health Services next year, with a new Edmonton facility to follow.

The province is hoping lab tests will be done more quickly and efficiently in a new integrated public facility at the University of Alberta's south campus.

The new hub near the south campus LRT station is just an empty field right now, but construction is expected to begin in 2019. The land is already owned by the government, which is expected to save $30 million in land purchase costs.
The government has already committed $20 million to planning, preliminary designs and initial site work for the consolidated lab. The total cost of the project has not yet been revealed.

The new facility will change where lab results are processed but not where patients get their lab tests done, Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said on Thursday.

"We believe that we will have as of good outcomes if not better by having it incorporated within Alberta Health Services," Hoffman said.

A site plan shows the location of the proposed super lab at the University of Alberta South Campus in Edmonton. (John Shypitka/CBC)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/lab-facility-ahs-edmonton-university-1.4461445?cmp=rss

Province announces new Edmonton super lab at University of Alberta's south campus
A parcel of provincial land near the University of Alberta’s south campus has been chosen as the site for a massive, high-tech medical testing lab scheduled to open in 2022, the provincial government announced Thursday.

Health Minister Sarah Hoffman said the facility will become the new central hub for processing more than 80 per cent of the medical tests in the Edmonton region, while also serving as a training and research centre for innovations in diagnostics.

“Improvements in how these tests will be processed will increase efficiency and speed, which leads to better health outcomes,” Hoffman told a news conference at University of Alberta Hospital. “It will reposition Alberta’s lab services for the future.”

The government did not reveal a projected cost for the facility, a strategy Hoffman said was deliberate to ensure construction bids are as low as possible.

A preliminary Alberta Health Services estimate from last year pegged the project’s price tag at about $325 million. So far, the government has committed $20 million over the next two years to put toward planning, design and initial site work.

A request for proposals to build the lab has already been launched, Hoffman said, adding that construction is expected to be fully underway sometime in 2019.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/loc...ounce-new-edmonton-super-lab-for-health-tests

This is the site:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@53.5030569,-113.5260717,380m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

[Daveography]

Paula Simons: Time to put lab decision under the microscope
It was rather odd timing for a rather major announcement.

Four days before Christmas, while many of us were a bit distracted, Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services (AHS) unveiled plans for a”superlab” to handle medical tests for Edmonton and northern Alberta. The Edmonton Clinical Laboratory Hub will be able to do everything from high-volume blood tests to sophisticated genetic testing. In partnership with the University of Alberta, the lab will also be an academic centre that will integrate clinical, research and teaching functions.

The project will consolidate eight smaller sites operating in the Edmonton region, including DynaLife’s central downtown lab.

The superlab, which will include an 800-space parkade, is to be built on a 5.8-hectare site right across from the South Campus LRT station. It will be the lynchpin of the province’s plan to consolidate all lab operations, public and private, under a new AHS subsidiary.

This superlab represents the culmination of the Notley’s government efforts to reverse decades of Tory privatization of Edmonton’s lab infrastructure and services. Such outsourcing started more than 20 years ago, but reached a zenith in 2014 when AHS awarded a truly massive $3-billion, 15-year contract to an Australian company, Sonic, to build and operate a huge new Edmonton lab. But negotiations dragged on and the $3-billion contract hadn’t yet been signed when the NDP swept to power. The Sonic deal was cancelled not long after Sarah Hoffman became health minister.

Since then, the fate of Edmonton’s lab has been in limbo. Now things are speeding ahead. AHS has already put out a request for proposals to potential bidders. Hoffman says construction will be underway by next year. The lab is set to open in 2022, the same year the AHS contract with DynaLife expires. It’s an ambitious schedule. But time is of the essence, for reasons both practical and political.

http://edmontonjournal.com/business...time-to-put-lab-decision-under-the-microscope

 

[Daveography]

PERMIT_DATE December 19, 2018
JOB_CATEGORY Commercial Final
ADDRESS 11330 - 65 AVENUE NW
NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA FARM
JOB_DESCRIPTION To Construct Pilings and Excavate for a future Edmonton Lab Hub.
BUILDING_TYPE Laboratory/Research Centres (580)
WORK_TYPE (01) New
FLOOR_AREA 172,868.23
CONSTRUCTION_VALUE 8,158,000
ZONING AJ

 

[Platinum107]

Wow this thing will be massive. Any word on height or drawings @Daveography ?

 

[Daveography]

@Platinum107 Negative, and not expecting anything exciting here.

 

[Daveography]

Caught a glimpse of the design of this one while touring DIALOG's offices. Not a lot of detail, but Z-shaped when viewed from above. Concept of interior flow was interesting as well. Not much else to report, but it's a lab, so still expecting it to be pretty institutional.

 

[Daveography]

Right after I posted that, I did a quick search to see if any visuals were out there, turns out there are:

Edmonton Lab Hub

On June 20, 2019 the Government of Alberta announced the cancellation of the Edmonton ‘Lab Hub’ project. Alberta Health Services (AHS) and its subsidiary Alberta Public Laboratories (APL) look forward to working with the government on next steps for laboratory services in the province, and...

together4health.albertahealthservices.ca

 

[quit]

Looks like a slightly better version of the downtown library.

 

[darwink]

Pretty boring, but didn't expect much. Here is the building in Calgary that houses the southern Alberta lab:

 

[Moderne]

Are you sure that was Dialog and not Teeple Architects that designed that?! ?

Kidding of course.

 

[danimori]

at least the giant parking lot isn't between the lab and the LRT. Wish the lab was pushed more to the west of the site. Still better than I expected!

 

[Daveography]

Welp that didn't last long.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/construction-halted-on-edmonton-superlab-project

 

[darwink]

Wild speculation, but I bet it gets built, and leased back to Dynalife.

 

[archited]

Stupid move...

 

[Daveography]

It's official: Alberta government cancels Edmonton superlab

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-government-kills-superlab-project-1.5183546