The new Transfer Building was built on an existing 5.6 acre site in Barrie, ON. The site was an open area dump site for construction material from demolished buildings. The dumped material would be sorted and loaded onto tractor trailers, and exported to dump sites in Michigan, U.S.A.
The new building is an eight-bay superstructure building with a 3 storey-office designed within the building’s superstructure, on the east side of the building. The new Transfer area is approximately 32,000 sf of single space with a ceiling height over 35 feet high. The bay on the west side of the building is with a sloped pit area that allows 2 tractor trailers to back into the space; the trailers are lower than the main transfer floor area so that they can be loaded simultaneously.
The 3-storey office portion of the building is approximately 3,700 sf. The first floor comprised of 4 offices, a boardroom, kitchenette, universal washroom, mechanical room, electrical room and storage rooms. A lift serves all 3 floor levels. The second floor is unfinished for future office space, but has rough-ins (mechanical, plumbing, and electrical) in place for future growth. The third floor is strictly going to be used as storage with lift access and O/H door access from the transfer area.
The site was in terrible shape to have a building constructed on it since it was an existing dump site with contaminated soil and poor soil conditions. The site was totally remediated and upfilled with granular ‘B’ fill, but still required helical piers to support the reinforced slab-on-grade, due to poor bearing capacity below the granular fill.
The Owners had difficulty in getting financial backing at first, so this delayed the project for about 6 months, but after securing a second loan, the construction progressed well until its completion. The project had its difficulties but progressed to completion based on cooperation by all stakeholders.