B.C. continues to invest in seismic school upgrades

VANCOUVER — The past year has seen $639 million in capital projects by the Province of British Columbia for schools and learning environments.  

“We are working hard to give students the best learning environments possible and that means investing in new and safer facilities that will allow students to thrive,” said Minister of Education Rob Fleming in a statement.

The capital projects include new schools, additions, upgrades and land purchases for future schools that will create more than 4,600 new student spaces and will fund upgrades and replacements of more than 9,800 student spaces at schools with high seismic risk.

“We will continue accelerating seismic upgrades, adding more student spaces and purchasing land to build new schools as we ensure British Columbians have the knowledge, skills and opportunities to help people in our province prosper,” Fleming said.

Thanks to an accelerated Seismic Mitigation Program, there are 14 other schools under construction and 18 schools proceeding to construction.

The following schools have had upgrades completed in time for the coming school year:

• Klondike Contracting has completed upgrade projects at Westview Secondary school and the 434-student Fairview Elementary school, both in Maple Ridge.
• A $1.6-million upgrade at Gibson Elementary school in Delta was completed in the spring by Unitech Construction Management Ltd., who also completed the $27.2-million upgrade for the 1,100-student Alpha Secondary school building and the $3.85-million upgrade to the 315-student Montecito Elementary in Burnaby.
• The $3.95-million upgrade to the 138-student F.W. Howay Elementary in New Westminster will be completed by GRC Columbia Roofing. 
• Heatherbrae Builders Inc. has completed the $11.6-million upgrade for the 387-student Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith Elementary in Vancouver, which will open in October.

“It has been encouraging to see the province’s considerable investment over the last year in providing our growing district much-needed school spaces, as well as seismic upgrades,” said Laurie Larsen, Surrey Board of Education chair.