Runway removal kicks off renewal
Crews dig deep at former City Centre Airport
The concrete can be 70 centimetres thick at the old City Centre Airport where three excavators were digging up a runway on Wednesday morning.
It’s been a year since the last flight departed. The work done Wednesday is part of the runway removal and recycling program, a labour-intensive step toward creating a residential community for 30,000 people called Blatchford. Q: What kind of work is happening right now? A: A contractor is removing one-third of the runways and taxiways in this phase of the project. Put another way, that’s 60,000 cubic metres of materials, including concrete and asphalt, that are being dug up.
“(The materials) will ultimately be used in the future redevelopment, to build the roads and the sidewalks (at Blatchford),” said Mark Hall, executive director of the Blatchford redevelopment project. “Any excess materials that we get from this part of the program, we’ll be able to sell back to the construction industry. It’s material used in construction projects everywhere. It’s part of the big environmental focus we’ve got in the early phases of this project, in terms of reusing or recycling material that we have on the site.” Q: Have there been unique challenges in removing runways? A: When the temperature dipped to -30 C last week, work was halted for a few days at the site. But crews otherwise plan to work through January to complete this phase.
“We knew from the beginning that the depth of the runway changes as you go along it, and from the centre line to the margins of the runway,” Hall said. “At the south end (of the runway), where the planes would stand before taking off or where they would touch down, the asphalt is up to 70 centimetres thick. When you get toward the middle of the runway, that goes down to 20 centimetres.”
Underneath the asphalt is concrete that will also be ripped up and trucked to the north side of the Blatchford site, until it is ready to be used in the redevelopment. Q: What are the next steps, after the asphalt is removed? A: Crews will do more excavation in the spring for a stormwater pond. The earth dug up for the pond will then be used to level out ground for the first phase of residential development, which will include 250 units. Q: What are the timelines for the project and are they being met? A: The first residences at Blatchford are scheduled to be move-in ready in the fall of 2016, although Hall acknowledged that’s an “aggressive” schedule. So far, the project has been on track.
The Blatchford community is eventually planned to house 30,000 people, and include retail components and a transit station. “The final thing is about 20 to 25 years away. There are lots of elements to work on to get stage one done, and we have about 18 stages,” Hall said. “Some of what we do early in the program will benefit a large number of later stages. Constructing the storm pond is a big one — it provides a utility for half the area.”