From GBC News:
NEWS AND EVENTS AT GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE
Waterfront campus construction starts
November 2009
Construction has started on George Brown’s new Waterfront Campus.
Workers will spend the next six months preparing the site on Queen’s Quay East for the college’s new Health Sciences building. They’re building a giant underground wall to keep out water from Lake Ontario and digging the four-storey deep hole that will contain the foundations of the building.
When completed the building will house 3,500 students enrolled in Health Sciences programs and the campus is forecast to be a global showcase for interprofessional learning.
They kicked off the project on the morning of Monday Nov. 23 by drilling a giant hole 15 metres deep - two-metres into the shale bedrock – then inserting a steel I-beam and filling the hole with concrete. This underground column – called a caisson - was the first of almost 400 that will eventually line the outside perimeter of the 50 by 100 metre site – making it impervious to water. “It was a very exciting moment for the project team’ says Terry Comeau, Executive Director of Waterfront Campus Development.
Special low-vibration drilling rigs from Germany are being used because work is being done near the aging quay wall and close to the foundations of the Corus building to the west.
There were no unpleasant surprises at the start of construction, says Comeau. In fact, the landfill that exists on the site, dating from the 1950s, was in better condition than expected.
Once EllisDon construction crews get enough of the caisson wall built – at a rate of 8 caissons a day - they’ll start to dig out the inside of the building site – sending truck after truck of soil and bedrock to landfill sites.
Environmental assessments have found some of the soil to be contaminated with “light containments†that reflect the site’s use as a marine terminal for several decades, says Comeau.
Each shipment will be tested and sent to the appropriate Ministry of Environment-approved landfill site, she says.
“We’re taking a pretty good site and making it a great site from an environmental perspective,†she says.
Working over the winter may be hard on the 20 to 30 EllisDon workers at the lakefront site – but cold weather actually makes dealing with waterlogged soil and rock easier because it partially freezes, say Comeau.
The building’s foundation will be built inside a huge hole that remains when our caisson walls are finished.
The building will begin with three levels of underground parking and an underground concourse level that will extend under the road just north of the building, and possibly into another college building that is part of a potential phase two.
While construction continues on the site, planning for the inside of the building is well underway lead by Lorie Shekter-Wolfson, Assistant Vice-President for Waterfront Development and Nerys Rau, Project Manager with the Faculty of Community Services and Health Sciences.
Academic areas and services have been assigned blocks of space within the building after extensive employee input. “It’s a very enthusiastic faculty,†says Comeau.
George Brown has been receiving a lot of support from the City of Toronto, Waterfront Toronto, and other regulatory agencies, who expedited their processes to make sure construction of the building wasn’t unnecessarily delayed, she says.
As the building design is being refined and detailed, the project will go to the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel for the second stage of approval in December, she says. “We are optimistic that our positive momentum will continueâ€, says Comeau.
http://www.georgebrown.ca/News/waterfront_construction_nov09.aspx
And the December issue of the WT Newsletter also have an article + new rendering:
http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/newsletter/viewnewsletter.php?id=4b213fad699be&template=5
AoD
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