A major building permit for the Royal Inland Hospital’s new patient care tower will be hitting city hall’s desk this month.

Building and engineering development manager Jason Dixon says a permit for the tower’s foundation is one of several major building permits in the cue.

“That substructure foundation permit is basically ready to go now, we have just a couple paperwork-type items we’re working on. So that will definitely go out in May, and that is only a portion of the project. We’ve done a site-servicing permit, we’ll get their substructure foundation out (this month), and we’ll see other permits for that project as time goes forward.”

He says the value of that substructure permit at RIH is one of the pieces of information that still needs to be finalized before the permit is issued.

The $417-million-dollar patient care tower is expected to be finished in 2022.

Dixon says building permit activity as a whole is ramping up at city hall. The city approved $32 million worth of permits in April, doubling the year-to-date value of building permits issues to more than $64 million.