A shipment of panels gets ready for transport to New York. (Supplied by Delcan Building Materials)

By David Opinko

Fort Macleod company helping to build temporary hospitals in New York

Apr 2, 2020 | 12:19 PM

FORT MACLEOD, AB – New York City is among the most afflicted by COVID-19 in the world right now, but a company in Southern Alberta is helping to build the proper facilities.

CNN reported Wednesday that the city had 41,441 positive cases of the virus, including 1,096 fatalities and at least 8,400 hospitalizations.

Delcan Building Materials President Patrick De Leeuw says they were contacted by a customer of theirs in the United States who had been using their interlocking PVC panels for car washes and agricultural applications.

The customer was contracted by the U.S. Marine Corps to build four temporary hospitals in White Plains, New York.

De Leeuw believes their panels are the perfect fit for facilities like this.

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“They’re interlocking, so it’s like a tongue-and-groove system. What that means is your fastener is hidden so you have nothing sticking out, there’s no edges, there’s no nothing. Once you put your wall up, it’s just a solid wall so no bacteria or anything can really stick to anything. Because it’s PVC, it’s very easy to clean, it’s easy to disinfect.”

The company has already shipped around 52,000 square feet of panels, while another smaller load will leave their Calgary production facility Thursday.

De Leeuw says, initially, this was purely just another business order but the project became something he and his employees care about.

“Now, if we can help and this product can benefit this situation, we would love to.”

“We at Delcan would like to extend our thoughts and support to our neighbors south of the border. We are all in this together, and we hope and pray that with God’s help we will persevere through this crisis together!”

The photos below are of some of the temporary COVID-19 hospitals in New York City’s Central Park. Their construction is different from the ones Delcan Building Materials is manufacturing parts for, but they give context as to the general idea of what they might look like.

Temporary COVID-19 hospitals in Central Park. (Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Inside a Central Park temporary COVID-19 hospital. (John Nacion/NurPhoto via Getty Images)