Grey County has approved its share of the cost for the groundwork for the redevelopment of Rockwood Terrace Long-Term Care Home in Durham.
County Council approved a staff recommendation Thursday to award its portion of a $3.2 million contract to J.T. Excavating Limited. The County is contributing $2.5 million, and the Municipality of West Grey is expected to contribute $700,000.
A County staff report says the ‘early works’ project will involve site pre-grading, road and water, sanitary sewer and stormwater infrastructure.
Staff say the work is separated into phases. Between this fall and May 2024, they’ll do the grading, servicing work and some of the road work.
County Deputy CAO Randy Scherzer told council part of the early work will help to prepare the new Rockwood Terrace site for construction, explaining, “It’s going to provide greater certainty for the future general contractor who will build the new long-term care home starting around the spring of 2024.”
The rest of the site work, which will include road paving and adding sidewalks is scheduled to be done after the long-term care home redevelopment is completed in the fall of 2026.
The Rockwood Terrace redevelopment project is pegged at about $96.7 million. Plans for the home include redeveloping the ‘Class C’ facility with 100 beds, into a ‘Class A’ facility with 128 beds. The province has mandated that all homes be upgraded to ‘Class A.’