Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/177297
Photos: Derek Lepper Transportation Management Centre by Robin Brunet alk about challenges: two years ago, Bruce McAllister and Maria Ciarniello, of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, became respectively project director and project manager of a proposed Transportation Management Centre (TMC) next to the Trans-Canada and Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam. Initially, the building was to be home to Transportation Investment Corp. (the administrative crown corporation for the Port Mann/Highway 1 Improvement Project) and the hub for the revamped Port Mann Bridge's toll transactions. It was subsequently decided that the new building would also accommodate a new multi-jurisdictional Regional Traffic Management Centre, a 'smart roads' traffic management and incident management centre that will help reduce traffic congestion in the Lower Mainland; and it provided an opportunity to centralize a variety of Ministry of Transportation regional services in a common location. The TMC building needed to be earthquake-resistant, even though its location was a boggy brownfield site. Although made of concrete, it had to be visually appealing and built to a Wood FIRST mandate as well as LEED Gold standards (not to mention designed to very high data security standards). It T Transportation Management Centre p52-55Transportation Centre.indd 53 also had to be finished in time for the opening of the new Port Mann Bridge in December 2012. "On top of all that, we needed to ensure that taxpayers would clearly see the new building as a prudent investment and an opportunity to create long term savings," says McAllister. Two years later, the TMC building has been completed under budget, and the toll collection component is fully operational. The four-storey concrete structure is clad with curtain wall and composite metal panelling, and one end is canted upwards as a visual salute to the new bridge as well as an offset to a roof garden: classy without being ostentatious. McAllister credits this enormous achievement to one thing: "A large group of seasoned professionals headed by Merrick Architecture – Borowski Sakumoto Fligg Ltd. and EllisDon Corporation, with everyone committed to a truly collaborative process." Not surprisingly, the client sought companies that had a track record for quality work in addition to timely performance. "I remember EllisDon VP David McFarlane telling me that with any project EllisDon undertook 'success was all about the people,' and I thought, 'That's easy to say,'" he recalls. "But David and his team proved to be absolutely true to his word." Merrick came on board in the early spring of 2010 in an advisory capacity as part of the provincial government's overall Gateway project. At first the TMC project was earmarked as a design-build project, but by September of that year it was changed to a much more expedient (and traditional) design and tender process – at which point, Merrick Architecture became the prime consultant with principal Graham Fligg working closely with associate and project architect Louise Webb. "Some wise choices were made early on," says Fligg. "For example, the government required that the building be designed to LEED Gold without certification, an approach that was more time- and cost-effective while still achieving an environmentally responsible product. Also, the government decided to locate the building on a property it owned: a great opportunity to repair an access-challenged brownfield site while creating local employment on a site that otherwise might have remained an urban eyesore for years." The boggy nature of the property combined with time constraints was such that driving piles – a typical early step in avoiding settlement and creating an earthquake-resistant structure – was not feasible. Instead, a floating slab with grade beams was used to address poor soil conditions. "Crews excavated down about eight metres, and then they put in engineered fill, compacted it, sunk a series of hollow pipes, filled the pipes with rock, and removed the pipe so the rocks would act as structural columns – over 500 in all," says McAllister. "This was the base for a really robust floating slab, and it was done faster than pile driving." One unusual feature custom-made for the building is an exterior lightning protection system. Since the entire province's transportation and transit systems are monitored from this location, operations need to be maintained through all types of weather and seismic events. "The system has proved its worth already," says Webb, "as the Lower Mainland has had more electrical storms in the last six months than in recent memory." Because the TMC building sits between the Trans-Canada and Lougheed highways, natural ventilation and operable windows – important ingredients of any LEED structure – could not be included in the design. Instead, double-glazed windows were used. Fligg remarks, "BKL Consultants was our acoustic advisor, and thanks to their expertise the traffic noise was drastically reduced. In fact, well-considered integration of functional design elements contributed significantly to the sustainable aspects of the building, the majority december 2012 /53 11/27/12 3:55 PM