41 Issue 4 Winter Edition 2018 BUILD MANITOBA challenge. They don’t have a recycling facility, and after the railway went down, it got even more difficult – we don’t really have anywhere to put it. There’s no real waste management in Churchill, so we basically have to rent a dump truck every time we want to haul waste away.” With an eye on sustainability, a lot of attention was also paid to keeping the building footprint to a minimum, and all voids were filled with native rock for the same reason. “We haul it away, crush it, and then we bring it back and reuse it, so we’re not bringing back any foreign soil. The only thing that we have had to do that has been a bit of a challenge has been to bring in aggregate from (Quebec, due to the rail line closure), because we can’t use local aggregate due to the salt content in the stone,” notes Froese. The facility incorporates a movable fabric roof that allows researchers to better simulate natural conditions, but designing a system that can move in a place like Churchill is a major challenge. “We have to make sure that it’s not going to freeze up,” says Froese, “so everything has to be rated for winters at -45 C plus, and on top of that, we’re dealing with gale-force winds, and basically we’re trying to build a giant kite … so we had to deal a lot with how to anchor the thing to the ground so it wouldn’t take off on us.” The solution is piles around the outside, each with anchors drilled three to four metres into the bedrock, and then grouted into place. The benefits for science will only be a part of the upside of the facility when completed. “There’s a lot of economic development potential from something like this,” says Barber, “because the technologies that we develop in this facility can be used by companies that clean up contaminant and oil spills, and there is a lot of training that goes on; and we will be specifically targeting training of northern youth to get them involved in science.” The targeted opening of the CMO is the fall of 2019, with the first experiments to be conducted over the winter of 2019/2020. Since the early beginnings, Penn-Co Construction has been a leader in the Manitoba construction industry, equipping our team of skilled professionals with the vision, guidance and tools required to bring construction projects to life. For more information, please contact us: Penn-Co Construction Canada (2003) Ltd. Box 60, ZS Penner Drive, Blumenort, MB ROA OCO Toll Free: 866-326-1341 www.penn-co.com A rendering of the $14.7-million Churchill Marine Observatory.