PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
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“It’s more of an art than a science.
If they don’t put enough charges in,
the rock doesn’t fracture and it creates
more vibration, so you have to trust
your driller and blaster with their
experience,” said Hammel. Fortunately,
the company had done similar work
in the past and used lessons learned
from those projects in this one.
Another unique aspect of this project
was the stonework. Almost half of the
building’s 140,000 stones had to be
removed, numbered and reinstalled.
Laser technology was used to clean the
stones by vaporizing the contaminants
and providing a uniformly-clean
surface. When Tomlinson Group
conducted its work, they had to
ensure the recently-redone stonework
was protected with wood and fabric
to prevent damage during the blasting
and other construction.
As with any major construction
project, safety was a primary concern.
The trickiest part of the project for
Tomlinson Group was the tunnelling
operations. The company needed to
have trained employees on-site, using
proper equipment and techniques in
case a tunnel collapsed. The company
held monthly training sessions with
eight staff members to review how to
safely remove personnel in the event
of a tunnel collapse.
Now that the renovations to West
Block have been completed, Public
Services and Procurement Canada
will be turning its attention to
Centre Block, which is also in need
of rehabilitation. The West Block
now includes the interim House of
Commons (a glass-roofed structure
built into its courtyard to provide the
building with 50 per cent more space).
“Right now, they have moved the
House of Commons from Centre Block
over to West Block,” said Hammel,
while the focus shifts to rehabilitating
the Centre Block, a project expected
to take 15 years. “There are prequalification’s
out for that work already.”
Now that the project is complete,
Hammel says he is looking forward
to perhaps returning to Parliament
and working on the Centre Block
project where new challenges and
solutions await.
“Most of Parliament Hill is supplied with heating
and cooling from Cliff Street Plant so we had to
bring in additional tunnels and access shafts.
We were the prime contractor on some of this
work and then we had a subcontractor that did
some of the work on the tunnels.”
– Kyler Hammel
PILING CANADA 57
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