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FEBRUA RY 2018 | 51 Thousand Islands Border Crossing, CBSA Facility Redevelopment PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY THE FEDERAL BRIDGE CORPORATION LIMITED; AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY IDEA INC., INTEGRATED DESIGN | ENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE Thousand Islands Border Crossing, CBSA Facility Redevelopment by LAURIE JONES N estled on Hill Island in the serene southern forests of Ontario is the newly designed Thousand Islands Border Crossing, CBSA Facility. Since 2015 the complex has undergone a massive transformation that includes increasing the traffic flow to nine com- muter lanes, four truck lanes and one bus lane, addressing commercial busi- ness on the upper floor of the new building, adding a sewage treatment plant, and reclaiming rainwater for non-potable uses. "This CBSA facility has been there for almost 60 years, so the project is a complete redevelopment of the two existing buildings," says Thye Lee, VP, engineering and construction for The Federal Bridge Corporation Limited. "The former structures were old and obsolete so that's why we had to do things in phases. We demolished a commercial building and built the new facility there. We then demolished the traffic building and continued with the rest of the project. Although it is a complete rebuild, the traffic wasn't affected. Just before we demolished the old commercial facility, we replaced it with a temporary structure that was attached to the existing traffic facil- ity. That way the CBSA was still able to handle both types of processing." The first of two phases were completed in June 2017 and the project completion was reached in November. When the project began, a small parcel of adjacent property was purchased from a customs bro- ker. "Because of the natural terrain, 100,000 tonnes of rock was blasted to make room for the new facility," says Lee. "Instead of carting all that rock off the island, which presented issues in that the nearby suspension bridge was almost 80 years old and had low weight capacity, the rocks were crushed up and used as a granular fill for the site. The rock base on the com- mercial side was essentially left as it was to avoid having to blast another six metres down. Due to the split level on the structure, both the traffic and com- mercial operations could be combined into one building." One of the challenges for the proj- ect was access to utilities. "Being on an island, the hydro was brought in 60 years ago and no one really anticipated the growth or capacity of the border crossing port," says Ryan Crowle, prin- cipal with IDEA Inc., Integrated Design | Engineering & Architecture. "Hydro One gave us very tight requirements for hydro capacity, which didn't meet our demands. So we implemented a number of saving measures in order to deal with that." The heaviest demand for power at the site is on hot summer days when air conditioning is needed and all of the lights are on. "To compensate for this draw, we put an ice storage system in," Crowle explains. "We charge the ice tank at night when the demand is low and power is cheap, and then in the day we push brine through the ice tank, which provides air-conditioning for the building, simply for the cost of running a pump during the daytime." He says they also designed a site backup gen- erator to run parallel with the utility power, or during power outages. "For other energy savings, we har- vest rainwater and use it for flushing toilets and urinals in the building and watering the landscape." He adds the facility also has on-site wastewa- ter treatment. "The old port would have a sewage truck attending at the site every second or third day for the life of the building. That was a mas- sive cost borne by the Federal Bridge Corporation Limited. As part of this project we designed a wastewater treatment plant that allows the process to be done completely on site." Near the wastewater facility is a firehouse with a diesel pump that is able to access a storage tank of 100,000 gallons of treated water. That tank feeds all the buildings and the fire hydrants that are used when the fire department needs to be called for an issue. Being surrounded by forests, fire is always a concern. Advanced lighting is another factor that makes this facility shine. "One of the most exciting things for me on the engineering side was this is one of the first sites in Ontario to use high-mast LED fixtures," says Crowle. "Traditional halogen lights use approximately 8,000 watts per pole, but the LED manufacturers always had a hard time driving them hard enough to get the light to the ground, 25 to 30 metres away. The new tech- nology is priced at a premium, but it's approximately 65 percent savings on the power. It's really great that we are one of the pioneers to use this product because it is new to the market." Blair Pearen, project manager for PCL Constructors, says the best way to describe the Thousand Islands Border Crossing facility design is it's simi- lar to a walkout basement house. "The east side of the building is a single storey and the west side is two sto- reys. Commercial business is all done on the east side of the building, with the four lanes of traffic and a four-bay warehouse." The concrete paving was installed for heavy loads of truck traf- fic and traditional asphalt was used for the main traffic lanes. Pearen says they had a rock crusher on site to use for the road bed and in addition to using the blasted rock for site fill, the larger boulders were used for landscape features. To further reuse components of the previous site, glulam beams from the old commercial building were planed and finished to make benches in the new lobby, and a repurposed granite rock wall surrounds a staff exterior dining area. Pat Loduca, project manager and lead engineer at WSP was responsible for everything site related on the project. "We designed it so that trucks coming off the bridge from the U.S. are ramped up to the commercial side. I don't know of any other border crossings that have this type of design." He explains that if trucks get sent to secondary inspection, they go to the warehouse at the back of the building where the trailers were unloaded and examined. Visitors and Canadian citizens arriving at the Thousand Islands Border Crossing will truly appreci- ate the blending of old and new at this unique, welcoming site. A LOCATION 860 Highway 137, Lansdowne, Ontario OWNER/DEVELOPER The Federal Bridge Corporation Limited ARCHITECT/MECHANICAL/ ELECTRICAL CONSULTANT IDEA Inc., Integrated Design | Engineering & Architecture GENERAL CONTRACTOR PCL Constructors Canada Inc. CIVIL/SITE SERVICES/LANDSCAPE/ STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT WSP TOTAL SIZE 77,253 square feet (building area) 539,961 square feet (total site area) TOTAL COST $60 million 3:03 PM 10:03 AM 9:33 AM

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