rubble was no match for deep’s Calweld crane-mounted
drill.)
6. The EWG Theatre and Massey Hall continued with their
normal show schedules during the construction. Noise
restrictions had to be followed during show times and in
some cases, work had to be stopped so the shows would
not be disturbed.
7. The emergency egress route for EWG posed several logistical
challenges for the project. The EWG building has a
historic elevated fire exit projecting from the back of the
structure, which acts as the only emergency egress route
for the theatres more than 1,500 occupants.
The logistics of working around an emergency egress route
The Massey Tower site hosted an emergency escape that
projected from the EWG. At ground level, a 12-foot-wide,
fenced-off egress route had to be maintained at all times
through the jobsite in case of an emergency.
A portion of the shoring wall was located directly beneath
the overhanging escape route, requiring careful consideration
in setting up the drilling. To install the required steel
soldier piles, deep used oversized holes so that the drill mast
could just clear the overhead obstacle, while the back of the
drilled holes were far enough beneath the escape route so
that the piles could be installed at the designed locations.
The piles in this area eventually became incorporated into
the supports for a temporary walkway and bridge structure
crossing over the excavation between the two sites, serving
as the emergency egress route as the job proceeded. Drilling
of the piles below the escape route had to be done overnight
while the theatre had no occupants, as the drilling
obstructed the emergency egress route. deep had the capacity
to run a crew at night and two crews during the day in
order to accelerate the pile installation process and the project’s
overall schedule.
At the same time, the excavating contractor began excavating
on the west end of the site near the CIBC building in
order to prepare the drill platform for the next stage of the
foundation work. With the only site access off Victoria Street,
work areas became very tight and constricting. This work
had to be carefully orchestrated to allow for the productive
and safe movement of dump trucks, concrete trucks and
drill equipment.
Once the street level vertical drilling came to completion,
the next steps were critical to ensure the emergency egress
walkway and bridge would be in place within the required
timeframe. The EWG theatre accommodated a two-week
shutdown period for the initial excavation stages and temporary
bridge installation. During the shutdown period the
ground level escape route was removed, allowing the area to
be excavated and the overhead walkway to be installed.
Several activities had to be completed during this twoweek
period to allow the temporary bridge to be installed.
Several tiebacks for the shoring needed to be installed only
nine feet below the proposed bridge location. Due to the
height of the equipment, these tiebacks had to be installed
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
Excavation at Massey Tower complete and shoring walls waterproofed Drilling beside Massey Hall foundation
52 Q2 2017 www.pilingcanada.ca
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