Dump trucks working on biggest hospital in Canada damage road in Mississauga: city

Residents who live near ongoing construction at Mississauga Hospital say some dump trucks have caused potholes and other road damage in their neighbourhood as they come and go from the work site.

Drivers of the trucks are required to follow “approved haul routes” as determined by the City of Mississauga and must “avoid residential streets,” the city said, as they travel to and from The Queensway/Hurontario Street construction site, where what will be the biggest hospital in Canada when it opens in 2034 is being built.

“Residents reported dump trucks leaving the site and using North Service Road and residential streets, causing road damage and potholes that remain unrepaired,” Mississauga Ward 7 Coun. Dipika Damerla said in her latest newsletter to the community.

In updating constituents on hospital construction concerns voiced by the community at the latest virtual town hall-style meeting on March 23, the councillor told residents the dump trucks are to stay away from residential streets and that anyone seeing otherwise should call the city’s 311 line to report the incident.

Road damage issues have been reported to city staff

Damerla said she has asked the construction consortium and Trillium Health Partners (which oversees Mississauga’s hospitals) to ensure contractors are “following all rules, including approved routes.”

She added the road condition issues “have been flagged with city staff” and residents are encouraged to continue reporting violations to 311 “so issues can be formally tracked and addressed.”

In addition, Damerla told residents, “if you see construction trucks using neighbourhood streets, if possible get any identifiable information and pass it on to Trillium Health Partners.”

The late-March virtual town hall provided those who took part with updates on upcoming phases of work on The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital, a $13.9-billion “state-of-the-art” health-care centre that will rise up 22 storeys on the same site as the current Mississauga Hospital.

New hospital to be three times the size of current hospital

The latest public session also filled people in on expected impacts to the community as construction continues and allowed attendees to give feedback to and ask questions of members of the project team, Damerla said earlier.

The councillor has also said that as work continues on the 2.8 million-sq.-ft. hospital, which will be three times the size of the current hospital, noise, vibration and air quality readings — also concerns raised by residents — will be monitored in real time by project leaders. 

Those readings, she added, will be shared with hospital officials “so we can respond quickly if levels change or concerns arise.”

Construction began on the new hospital last June and it’s being built on the same site as the current Mississauga Hospital, which first opened at that location in 1958.

When completed in 2033 (and open to patients one year later), the new hospital will also house within it the Shah Family Hospital for Women and Children, to be the first such medical facility in Ontario.

Rendering of what The Peter Gilgan Mississauga Hospital will look like when completed. (Image: Trillium Health Partners)

Infrastructure Ontario is in charge of the new hospital project, which is moving forward as construction of the Hazel McCallion Line light-rail transit route continues on Hurontario Street only steps from the hospital.

A source of unease for those who live near Hurontario Street and The Queensway, just north of the QEW, is the ongoing work on the Hazel McCallion Line, at four years and counting, and how that may combine in a possibly troublesome way with major construction at Mississauga Hospital.

The LRT work regularly shuts down Hurontario Street lanes to traffic while work on what will eventually be the biggest hospital in Canada will bring hundreds of trucks — delivery, work and construction vehicles — each day to the site during the “peak construction period.”

Other questions/concerns raised by residents at the March 23 public session included:

• How accessibility is being addressed throughout the project.
• How patients and visitors will access the hospital during construction, and how services connected to the hospital’s J Wing will be supported.
• How parking, which already feels limited, will be addressed.
• What’s being done to address safety concerns related to unlit pedestrian walkways?

Damerla added residents also wanted to know from project leaders why older buildings at Mississauga Hospital couldn’t be renovated or reused.

They were told Trillium Health Partners did consider reusing structures, but determined that existing infrastructure did not meet “modern health-care standards and is not easily retrofitted.

“Demolition and redevelopment were determined to better support long-term care and safety.”

(Cover photo from City of Mississauga is not an image of road damage referenced in story)