Dominion Construction

On the fast┬átrack┬áThe Richmond Oval, built for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in nearby Vancouver, will benefit the City of Richmond long after the games are over, Alan Nicholson tells John OÔÇÖHanlon. When Vancouver was selected to host the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the City of Richmond, located on the south side of the Fraser River from Vancouver, made an agreement to construct the Oval to host the long-track speed skating events. ┬áRichmond decided to build a stunning facility that would meet the long-term recreational needs of the population. The guiding principle was to ÔÇ£harmoniously bring together summer and winter sports, recreation, culture, business and environment in one pristine location.ÔÇØ The Oval is an iconic landmark, just across the water from Vancouver International Airport. Its ÔÇ£heronÔÇÖs wingÔÇØ roof will be seen from the air by millions of passengers each year. The building was conceived by the architectural firm Cannon Design, who took full advantage of its situation on the bank of the Fraser River. Very early in the project, Dominion Construction, the construction manager, became involved in planning its delivery. It was particularly important that the $178 million project be completed and ready for use by the end of 2008, because Canadian Olympic speed skaters needed two full training seasons on the new track. Delay was simply not an option, says DominionÔÇÖs project manager Alan Nicholson.The good news is that the base building construction is complete, and once the Olympic Overlay is put in place, the Winter Olympics could start tomorrow, says Nicholson. After the Olympics, the oval will be converted to a multi-use sport facility that incorporates two Olympic-size ice rinks, up to eight hardwood ball-sport courts, a gymnasium, a 200-meter running track and a rubberized turf area. The speed skating oval will be covered with removable flooring and could still be used for competition.Dominion Construction has been a major force in Western Canada since 1911 and today has divisions in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario as well as British Columbia. The company provides construction services for civil, commercial, light industrial, institutional and residential projects. The Richmond Oval has to be one of the most exciting projects they have tackled recently. It has also been one of the most challenging. The land under the building is irregular in quality, a mixture of clays and silt deposited by the Fraser River for thousands of years, says Nicholson. ÔÇ£The riverbank location is pristine, but it made our job challenging from the start.┬áÔÇ£The area was formerly industrial,ÔÇØ he explains, ÔÇ£but this project will serve as the link to new commercial/residential mixed-use development. It feels like a revitalization of this part of the city.ÔÇØ The preloading and site densification took up the first six months, before the Franki piles and the twin strip footings that support the buildingÔÇÖs massive buttresses could be constructed. The importance of this work can hardly be overemphasized in a region that is seismically active. Precision engineering was required not only to overcome the forces of nature, but also to meet the extreme technical demands for an Olympic-quality skating track. The track itself was constructed to a flatness tolerance of three millimeters in three meters. Nicholson explains how this was done. ÔÇ£The ice track assembly rests on a structural slab suspended above the underground parking areas. ThereÔÇÖs about 25 millimeters of ice on top, then you have 160 millimeters of ÔÇÿsuperflatÔÇÖ concrete slab with refrigerating piping embedded in it. Below that thereÔÇÖs 150 millimeters of insulation resting on a 50-millimeter-deep sand bed, which acts as a levelling base for the entire assembly. By constructing the structural slab first, the settlement and deflection had already occurred before the ice slab assembly was started. With this carefully planned design and strict quality control measures, the floor was built twice as flat as required.ÔÇØThe ice track defines the building in its context for the 2010 Olympic Games, but it presented a design challenge when it came to adapting it for long-term use after the Games are over. ÔÇ£Flexibility is built in. I donÔÇÖt know of any other ovals that have a split use like this. After the Games the flick of a few switches can change the slab refrigeration to create two ice hockey rinks. The remaining area will be transformed with eight hardwood sports courts, judo areas and a 200-meter running track.ÔÇØThe building covers about 26,000 square meters, substantially more than the minimum Olympic requirement for a 400-meter long-track speed skating oval. The additional space allows room for commercial tenants, aerobics rooms, child-minding areas and administration space; it is the complete new-age sports complex.┬á Perhaps the buildingÔÇÖs most striking innovation, though, is its roof, one of the longest clear spans in North America. All its panels are made from lumber killed by the mountain pine beetle that has devastated the pine forests of British Columbia. ÔÇ£The project team did a lot of testing and engineering work on the roof panels and found that ÔÇÿbeetle-killÔÇÖ lumber has the same properties as regular lumber,ÔÇØ says Nicholson. ÔÇ£So this project has been a leader in reusing beetle-kill wood and showing that it is both structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing. And there is an obvious environmental benefit to using this resource.ÔÇØMany of the municipalities around Vancouver are mandating LEED compliance for all their projects, and Dominion Construction has adopted sustainable development as a key strategy, Nicholson confirms. ÔÇ£We believe that being ecologically responsible is the only way to go forward, so weÔÇÖre fostering it and making ourselves specialists. Many of our project managers and superintendents are LEED Accredited Professionals, and there is an internal push to train everyone in the company so we can build in an increasingly sustainable fashion.ÔÇØOn the Richmond Oval, a LEED coordinator was responsible for tracking all construction-related documentation, checking on-site procedures and reviewing all materials brought to the site for LEED compliance. The refrigeration demands of an ice sports facility were turned into an opportunity for heat recycling. ÔÇ£In order to cool the refrigeration fluid, you have to remove vast amounts of heat. You could exhaust that into the atmosphere, but instead it is recovered and used in the heating and air conditioning systems.ÔÇØBuilding the Oval was of course a great thing for Dominion ConstructionÔÇÖs standing, and it also made it easier to recruit the best subcontractors and trades, Nicholson admits. ÔÇ£Over the last five years the construction industry in Vancouver has been super-heated. Many of the projects have been challenged to find trades to do the work. The Oval was an exceptionÔÇöthe project appealed to many of the key players in our construction community. And having such high-caliber trades was a big part of the projectÔÇÖs success. We pulled together an all-star construction team.┬á┬á┬á ÔÇ£I believe that Richmond is going to benefit in many ways from this building,ÔÇØ Nicholson continues. ÔÇ£This area has a lot of potential. It will be one of the most photographed and filmed sites during the 2010 Games.ÔÇØ Developers are already snapping up property lots around the Oval, proving that what goes around comes around. ÔÇô Editorial research by Greg Petzold┬á