May 27, 2010

FEATURE | Steel

Georgian College adds 165,000 square feet of space

PETER KENTER

correspondent

Construction has been substantially completed on the steel framing of the new Centre for Health and Wellness at the Barrie Campus of Georgian College.

The 165,000-square-foot building is the largest project in the college’s history and is designed to house laboratories, technology-enhanced classrooms and teaching health clinics. The first phase of expansion will provide spaces for 1,800 additional Health Sciences students in September 2011, and eventually serve 3,000.

Work on the concrete footings, foundations and steel frame represents the first phase of the project, which has now issued a second-phase tender for the building envelope and interiors, landscaping, roads and outside elements. The main contractor for the initial phase of construction was Bondfield Construction of Concord and the steel sub-contracting firm was Line Steel of Barrie.

Tree removal and the installation of a new electrical transformer are also complete, as are most of the storm and sanitary sewers. Electrical, gas and additional storm and sanitary sewer services are currently under construction.

The centre received federal and provincial funding of $40 million through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program and the Ontario budget. An additional $10.5 million was raised through municipal, corporate and personal contributions. The total project capital cost is estimated at $65 million.

PAUL PRICE

“This is a very complicated building being built in a very short amount of time,” says John Labrie, Director, Physical Resources at Georgian College. “From the day the staff groups started planning to the time all the steel was up is less than a year. As of today, the steel frame is essentially done and the floor decking is about 95 per cent finished.”

Labrie says that steel was chosen as a construction material both for the speed with which the building could be erected, and because of its inherent flexibility.

“Our buildings and our needs change frequently,” says Labrie.

“If you build concrete supporting walls like the hospital next door, you’re pretty much committed to that lay-out for the next 20 years. We need the freedom to move non-supporting walls to achieve maximum flexibility. What’s designated a classroom today, can be a cafeteria five years from now, and offices another five years after that.”

PAUL PRICE

The steel sub-contractor committed considerable resources to the accelerated construction schedule.

“This has been a very fast-track project,” says Ravi Lali, vice-president of operations with Line Steel.

The company assigned as many as 16 workers to the site during a two-month construction period.

“There were some challenges with the second and third floors, which have an offset along one wall,” he says. “The way that the structure was created, it had to fit within parameters that would not disturb the natural area. There were some old trees that had to remain where they were and the project had to be built around them. That’s becoming a very common feature of construction projects.”

DOUG CRAWFORD

The plan for Georgian College includes a connecting bridge link allowing students to move from any building to the next while remaining indoors. In April, a 92-foot pedestrian bridge was erected connecting the new building to the Administration Centre. The bridge is a functional element, and doesn’t provide support for either building.

“We fabricated those trusses and every last piece of steel used on the job in our shop, then shipped them to the site,” says Lali.

“The steel connection extended about 12 feet deep into the old building to tie into the original steel structure.”

Because of the federal stimulus funding component, construction on the Centre must be substantially completed by March 31, 2011.

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