A HOSPITAL ON THE EDGE

In case you wondered, the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre is not about to topple off the edge of a cliff. Yes, people do wonder. Typically, they email or write letters to The Spectator asking about the uniquely-perched former Henderson hospital whenever a new “escarpment falling down” story is published. “What kind of engineering considerations went into the rebuilding of parts of Juravinski Hospital directly on the edge of the escarpment?” asked Jim Foreman by email after reading about a new city effort to measure Mountain erosion. “It’s rather breathtaking, really.” “I hope their research and convictions in the enduring stability of that section of the Mountain is well-founded, for the sake of the patients, employees and taxpayers,” wrote Ancaster resident Beverly Myhal in a letter to the editor after a landslide. The short answer to everyone’s question comes from Carol Whiteman, a senior project manager for capital development with Hamilton Health Sciences. “The sedimentary rock is solid,” she told The Spectator. “That’s why we were able to build so close to the edge.” There has been a hospital on the brow since 1917. The former Henderson hospital stretched most of the way to the Sherman Cut decades before modern building setbacks came into play. The four-storey redevelopment finished in 2012 offers patients — particularly long-term stay candidates for bone marrow transplants — one of the best views of the lower city and harbour. The hospital is separated from the natural scarp edge by parking and Mountain Park Avenue. But the east end of the building comes to within a couple of feet of the Sherman Cut, a narrow, sheer-walled access blasted out of the escarpment rock decades ago to connect the upper city with both legs of the Sherman Access. Whiteman said hospital redevelopment planners spent “years” studying and then justifying the rationale for redeveloping what is now one of Canada’s busiest cancer centres right on the brink. She said engineers, geoscientists and other experts had to satisfy regulators and Infrastructure Ontario about everything from the stability of various rock layers to the impact of traffic vibration before the 425,000-square-foot, $180-million redevelopment got the go-ahead on its current footprint. Around 50,000 cubic metres of rock were excavated to build a foundation that was reinforced with 120 truckloads of concrete and 40 tonnes of steel rebar. The city and hospital later shared the cost of installing protective mesh over the wall of the Sherman Cut that lines up with the hospital wall above. That screen doesn’t stop weather and natural erosion from eating at the wall, of course. But the city monitors that erosion and the hospital regularly inspects its own facility and so far, no extra protective work is deemed necessary, said Sam Sidawi, Hamilton’s asset management head. In theory, the rock face underneath the hospital could be shored up with a retaining wall, if needed, he said. “But the hospital is responsible for the structural integrity of its facility,” he noted.