The life of a traditional construction project often includes months, if not years, of preconstruction planning before shovels go in the ground. In summer 2020, Infrastructure Ontario, Lakeridge Health, PCL and a team of top-tier consultants and trade partners put their heads together to determine how to compress years of construction and build a new, six-storey long-term care home in just months.

What was needed to accomplish this seemingly impossible task? Strong relationships, and an expert team of professionals from multiple disciplines delivering on a precise strategy – all fueled by a relentless passion to achieve a common goal. The result? After just over a year of construction, Lakeridge Gardens, the new long-term care home at Ajax Pickering Hospital, achieved substantial performance on March 2, 2022.

The home includes 320 beds, stands six storeys tall, and covers 273,000 square feet. In addition to bringing 320 beds to the Durham Region, the home’s planning includes evidence-informed infection prevention and control measures and a modern design that prioritizes residents’ quality of life. A nine-station dialysis unit will also be housed on the first floor of the building.

To showcase the innovative collaboration behind the project and to provide insight into the strategy that enabled the home to be built in months instead of years, PCL Construction released a short documentary along with a complementary timeline and a case study.