Through a $7.9 million investment in Budget 2010: The Right Investments — For Our Children and Our Future, the Williams Government is moving ahead with the construction of a new parking garage at the Health Sciences Complex (HSC) to help improve some of the current parking congestion at the site.

The new four-storey parking structure will be located in Area 27 of Memorial University, off Arctic Avenue, and will accommodate approximately 840 vehicles for HSC employees and Memorial University's Faculty of Medicine parking needs, which will free up spaces in the main parking lot.

"Improvements to the parking arrangement at the Health Sciences Complex will address some of the current parking needs at the facility," said the Honourable Jerome Kennedy, Minister of Health and Community Services. "Providing dedicated parking for hospital employees, students and staff at the Faculty of Medicine will in turn alleviate congestion and make spaces available in the main parking lots for patients and family members who have to visit the Health Sciences Centre."

In addition to construction of a new parking structure, a new surface parking lot is now located west of Clinch Crescent. The new lot provides over 230 parking spaces. The total cost of the parking structure and lot is approximately $16.6 million.

The Provincial Government awarded a tender to Clarke's Excavating of Paradise on July 29, 2009 to construct the new surface parking lot, which is now in use. The tender for the new parking structure was awarded to Olympic Construction of St. John's on August 24, 2009. Work has begun on the structure, which includes construction of the foundations and engineering design work. The scheduled completion date is spring 2012.

"I thank the Provincial Government for their continued investment in infrastructure at Eastern Health," said Vickie Kaminski, President and CEO for Eastern Health. "This funding will allow for upgrades to the current parking availability at Memorial University and the Health Sciences and therefore free up parking places for patients and visitors, which is great news."

The Williams Government continues to make strategic investments in health care infrastructure throughout the province. Budget 2010 provides a total of $208.9 million for health care infrastructure, which includes investments in new construction, redevelopment of existing facilities, purchase of new medical equipment and repairs and maintenance.

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