February 15, 2008

Demolition/Environmental Engineering

Greenspoon Specialty Contracting faces tough challenges in Rideau Centre parking garage deconstruction

PETER KENTER

Correspondent

Ottawa aesthetes are cheering the demolition of downtown’s Rideau Centre parking garage, a six-storey concrete structure on Nicholas Street that’s seen better days. The demolition is part of a multi-million dollar reconstruction of a new six-storey garage to serve shoppers.

“It’s an extremely tight schedule,” says Kevin Mitchell, president of Greenspoon Specialty Contracting. “Work started about a month ago and we have to complete the job in eight to 10 weeks, with an $8,000 per day penalty.”

The garage itself is nothing special: “An old dull, yucky concrete garage is what it is,” says Mitchell. But it’s a rush job because the structure needs to be rebuilt in time for the Christmas shopping season.

Greenspoon will be taking down the building to grade, leaving the structure’s underground garage intact. The re-construction will take place in two phases, with four storeys to be completed first, and an additional two storeys added after the busy shopping period, increasing the total capacity of the garage. The underground section of the garage will remain open during the entire construction process.

GREENSPOON SPECIALTY CONTRACTING

Top: Greenspoon crews are bringing the Rideau Centre down to grade from the top to allow rebuilding scheduled to begin soon. Below: equipment is hoisted atop the job.

“The challenges on this job are basically the working room and the cold weather,” says Mitchell. The building is located next to the Ottawa Congress Centre and butts onto the street, so the working space for the project is extremely tight. “We started out by carefully carving out an open section, then starting on the northwest corner and moving westerly,” he says. Greenspoon has devoted eight workers and three excavators to the project, working from the top of the building down. All work is being conducted during daylight hours.

Mitchell says the building has suffered considerable spalling, but that isn’t making matters easier. “When something is weakened it might be easier to take down,” he says. “But that’s only true when the building is located in the middle of a field, not at these close quarters.”

All of the construction debris is being delivered to local concrete recyclers, a stipulation of the contract. “As we move toward more LEED type projects, our programs are moving toward that model,” says Mitchell.

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