Alberta court building makes way for park

In 2003, the province of Alberta and the City of Calgary agreed to consolidate three court systems — the Calgary Court of Appeal, the Court of Queen’s Bench and four divisions of the Provincial Court — in the new Calgary Courts Centre, the largest consolidated judicial complex in North America. As the new complex was completed, older court buildings were demolished.

Downtown Demolition in Calgary

Demolition

Alberta court building makes way for park

HAZCO has complex challenge in downtown Calgary location

In 2003, the province of Alberta and the City of Calgary agreed to consolidate three court systems — the Calgary Court of Appeal, the Court of Queen’s Bench and four divisions of the Provincial Court — in the new Calgary Courts Centre, the largest consolidated judicial complex in North America. As the new complex was completed, older court buildings were demolished.

The consolidation project has presented several opportunities for the Calgary offices of HAZCO Environmental Services which handled the demolition contracts for two of the facilities, the John. J. Bowlen Land Titles building and the Courthouse Annex building, and the Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench facility.

The Bowlen Land Titles contract, which was completed in 2004, involved a clean interior demolition and the simultaneous demolition of a four-storey structural and a four-storey concrete building on a tight deadline. As part of the contact, HAZCO installed piling and tie-back anchors to prepare the site for the construction of both a 27-storey and a 23-storey building which would replace the demolished buildings.

HAZCO’s $13–million contract for the demolition of the Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench building with CANA Construction and Alberta Infrastructure is another sort of project altogether. The 11-storey concrete-and-steel building located in the city’s busy downtown core was recently demolished to make way for a park.

“Rather than preparing the site for another building, in this case the foundation is being prepared for a four-story underground parking structure,” says Dave Desjardins, Business Development for HAZCO Environmental Services’ Calgary offices.

A sidewalk is all that separates the site from three busy downtown streets. “It’s right on the C-Train line, so special care needed to be taken to avoid any disruptions,” Desjardins says.

“There was also a historic sandstone building on the site that needed to be protected; the Alberta Court of Appeals building, built in 1914. A lot of the demolition work was undertaken at night, which is just part of the constraint of working in the downtown area. One of HAZCO’s core values is safety, not only for its workers and sub-contractors, but also for the public. It’s also paramount for the client.”

Work began in February of 2008, with an interior demolition that facilitated the asbestos removal and abatement, a common demolition task for buildings constructed during the 1960s.

The contractor next removed the building’s mechanical systems and the 10th and 11th storeys, before calling in the newest addition to its fleet, a hydraulic excavator fitted with a custom Jewell Ultra high demolition boom and hydraulic shear with a range of more than 40 metres.

“We used the new equipment to reach right up to the eighth storey and took the building down from the ground,” says Desjardins. “We can fit the Ultra high demolition attachment with various tools for demolition, including a steel shear, and concrete pulverizer.”

More than 70 per cent of the building material derived from the demolition has been recycled, including about 1,000 tonnes of steel taken to Harpers Metals, a scrap dealer in Red Deer, and 15,000 tonnes of concrete handled by Calgary Aggregate Recycling Ltd.

Now that demolition is complete and the site is levelled to grade, HAZCO is excavating about 70,000 cubic metres of soil to prepare the site for construction of the new underground parkade. The job also involves dewatering the excavation pit as Calgary’s downtown is built on a former riverbed. HAZCO subsidiary, Beck Drilling and Environmental Services Ltd. is handling the tieback anchors and temporary shoring to secure the earth in advance of construction.

“It’s an interesting project in that they’re not just putting up another skyscraper,” says Desjardins. “This is a brand new, pristine park on prime real estate, right in the middle of downtown.”