St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital Redevelopment

Project Details: A stormwater management plan and the construction of a three-story tower is part of the redevelopment and expansion of the St Thomas Elgin General Hospital, located in St. Thomas, Ontario. In the initial phase of the project, an underground stormwater management system was proposed to offset the lost surface storage, mitigate sewer capacity impacts and reduce the risk of hospital flooding with perimeter grade constraints.  Ryan A. Hern, P.Eng., MCSCE, Designated Consulting Engineer for Development Engineering (London) Limited partnered with StormTrap to provide a solution for the site’s stormwater issues.

Challenges: The engineer was faced with three main challenges when planning the design of the stormwater management system for this project. First, the footprint available to accommodate the system was limited. Second, the storage depth available was restricted per receiving sewers. The third challenge was the long duration of construction traffic loading anticipated without final cover (staging) conditions.

Solutions: To provide the stormwater storage needed for the project, three StormTrap detention systems were installed on site. “The basins helped to avoid extensive and costly external infrastructure upgrades on the city streets downstream of the hospital campus,” explained the engineer. Hern affirmed that StormTrap provided the best solution needed for the project: the systems meet the total water storage capability with minimal footprint; the customized vault height proved beneficial to manage site constraints; and the system provided stability under construction loading conditions.

The installation of the stormwater management system was completed in 2016 and the three-story tower, which houses the Emergency Department, Surgical Suites, Medical Devices Reprocessing Department, Mental Health and Addiction Services Unit, will be completed in Q3 of 2018.