Heather Wright/The Independent

Bluewater Health will be ready to call for contractors to work on the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital in March.

That according to Bob DeRaad, the vice president of clinical services appearing at Petrolia Council Monday.

DeRaad was on hand to ask the town if the hospitals contractors would be able to use a property on Blanche Street for a laydown area for the project. He expects the area will be needed for the next two to three years.

“We need to get things in place for whoever the successful contractor will be,” he said.

“We do need an area for what we call a lay-down area for contractors to put their materials and that could also be an access for vehicles for the redevelopment.

“We would need to use that property, which actually belongs to the Town of Petrolia, for 24 to 36 months.”

DeRaad says it is difficult to put an exact time frame on the construction.

“If everything goes perfectly, knowing the vintage of the building, we should be done in 24 months. But if there are unexpected obstacles, asbestos, you don’t know what you’re going to get when you open up the walls of that vintage, you could take up to 36 months,”

This week, Bluewater Health’s board is looking at a site plan agreement reached with Lambton County planners on Petrolia’s behalf. DeRaad expects that to be passed soon.

And he says the hospital is planning to put out the call for tenders in March. Hospital officials have said construction is likely to begin in the late fall.

That will give the town some time to prepare the lay-down area.

The property has a home on it now but Mayor Brad Loosley says “there is some money in the budget and we’re looking at having that removed, so it will be okay.”