Dust, piles of lumber and scrub trees now cover the 12-acre new hospital site, directly across the river from the General Hospital. Men are wandering around, trucks rush up and away again and there is a feeling that something is happening.
It is.
Work has started on the $4 million hospital contract. An office for Dawson and Hall, general contractors, is being put up near the site. The groundwork of constructing power lines, sewer, water and drainage facilities will take most of the summer. If weather conditions are favourable, work will continue on the five concrete
buildings of the hospital most of the year.
Glen Harris, Yukon superintendent for Dawson and Hall, yesterday said official "go ahead" had come Wednesday on the 58 houses scheduled for construction by federal government in the new subdivision. It is expected his firm will get underway as soon as possible on the project.
Meanwhile, downtown, the concrete has been poured at the Bank of Commerce site. By the end of next month Dawson and Hall hope to have the roof on, with completion of the building by early fall. The bank will present a modern appearance with stucco and vertical siding finish. The vaults, on the far west side of the building, are in plain sight now.
Work on the bridge is on schedule. The first shipment of steel is here. The balance should leave Vancouver this week. Edgar Brickerton Bridge and Structural Steel Erectors Ltd. will start erecting steel the first week in June. The job is expected to take three weeks. Bickerton steel workers, now at Takhini bridge, recently completed the Nisutlin bridge at Teslin., After the steelwork is finished, it will take five weeks to put on the conerete deck, and, it is planned, by the latter part of July the bridge will be finished.
Another Dawson and Hall job is at Mile 1202 where four new customs buildings will be completed by early fall.
Mr. Harris expects to use all available local labour on the various Whitehorse projects of Dawson and Hall. Applicants are still being accepted and 200 construction men will be needed for the jobs which will take two and one-half years to complete.
