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The suburban site was chosen in part due to its proximity to both Anthony Henday Drive and the Queen Elizabeth II Highway, the sources said. The location is also near a proposed future LRT line expansion.

While the exact bed count must still be determined through the planning process, the future hospital is currently pegged to be Edmonton’s third largest behind the Royal Alexandra and University hospitals. Should it be constructed at the low estimate of 350 beds, it would have approximately the same capacity as the Grey Nuns hospital, but more than the Misericordia.

Sources said the government will not announce a cost estimate Tuesday, so as to avoid setting a price before putting the project out for bids.

The province’s recent spring budget revealed an initial investment of $400 million to be rolled out between 2018 and 2020, although the facility will end up costing considerably more.

The last major hospital to be built in Alberta — the South Health Campus in Calgary — had a price tag of $1.3 billion when it was completed in 2012. That facility opened with 269 beds, but was designed to be expanded in the future.

While Edmonton has received additions to existing hospitals in recent years, the capital has not seen an entirely new hospital constructed since 1988 when the Grey Nuns was completed.

A construction timeline for the new facility is unknown at this point, though such complex projects often take at least five years to complete.