Improving efficiency—in more than one respect

Extensive upgrades in progress at the Kingsgate border crossing have been designed to achieve LEED Silver status

Facilities at the Kingsgate border crossing are being improved to the tune of $16 million. — Photo courtesy Bird Construction

Bird Construction is well on its way to completing $16 million worth of upgrades to the Canada Border Services Agency facility at the Kingsgate border crossing 45 minutes south of Cranbrook. Completion of the project is expected in March of 2012.

The upgrade to the busy border crossing was announced in October of 2010 by then Kootenay-Columbia MP Jim Abbott as part of the government’s Economic Action Plan, which was coming to an end at about that same time.

“This is a significant boost to the Kootenay economy and a major expansion to the infrastructure of an important border crossing in our region,” Abbott told the Cranbrook Daily Townsman at the time of the announcement.

The plan moves to action

The contract for the design and build of the project went to Bird Construction, a company based out of Calgary, Alberta. Established in 1920, Bird Construction has offices across the country and does everything from general construction to heavy civil construction, public-private partnerships and design-build projects like the Kingsgate border crossing upgrade.

Design of the Kingsgate project started in October 2010 with Kasain Architecture and was finished by the end of April 2011. Construction of the new facility, which includes a total of five buildings, began on March 5.

The five buildings in the project are the main port, a commercial inspection building, a service building, a tertiary garage and a storage facility. Scott Lachowski, project co-ordinator for Bird, said his company is undertaking the design and build of all but one of the five buildings; the other will be pre-engineered by an outside contractor.

Seeing the need for LEED

Lachowski said his company is aiming for a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver status for the project. This designation means a focus on such things as construction waste management, energy efficiency, using regional materials and recycled content in materials, and using low-emitting materials in all the glues, adhesives and caulking.

“That was a challenge—trying to get the LEED silver points,” Lachowski said, noting that the buildings need 33 to 38 points on the 70-point scale to achieve Silver status.

Other challenging aspects of this project have included keeping the border crossing operational while construction of the new facilities is ongoing, as well as the remoteness of the site, Lachowski said.

“One of the biggest challenges of the project is the logistics of it, being remote,” he said. “So we tried to use a lot of local subcontractors and support out of B.C.

“The construction site is split up into two sides so that the port can still be used (for traffic). It’s been difficult getting everything to work—it’s been logistically challenging.”

The project is on schedule for completion of the new buildings by March of 2012 and Bird Construction will then demolish the existing buildings and do some grading of the site.