NEWS

City

DEVELOPMENT Project readies for massive concrete pour

TheresaMcManus

tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca

A convoy of cement trucks will be descending on the waterfront as part of a concrete pour for New Westminster’s tallest building.

The date of the concrete pour, however, has yet to be finalized.

A report in the July 12 city council agenda outlined plans for a concrete pour proposed for Aug. 13, but that report was pulled from the meeting’s agenda.

It included a staff recommendation for an exemption to the city’s construction noise bylaw on the day of the pour for the foundation of the west tower, as the work would take longer to do than what’s permitted in normal construction hours.

“Bosa Development have confirmed that the monolithic pour of 4,500 cubic metres for the west tower core needs to occur all at one time and is estimated to take 12 to 14 hours,” said the report. “Because the work is a monolithic pour, it means that once the pour is started it must continue to completion.”

Mike Anderson, the city’s acting manager of transportation, said the concrete pour is still in the plans – just on a different date.

“They have delayed the concrete pour,” he told the Record. “It’s expected to happen, I believe, in September. It will come back to council.”

Bosa Development is committed to implementing measures to minimize construction noise as much as possible during the pour, said the report.

“Pump trucks setting up and concrete trucks arriving on site will create construction noise,” stated the report. “The work will include coordination between the five pump trucks and approximately 429 concrete pour trucks bringing concrete supplies to the site.”

With hundreds of cement trucks set to deliver cement to the waterfront site as part of the day’s work, a variety of traffic impacts are anticipated. The staff report outlined a variety of measures being planned for the day of the concrete pour, including: Concrete trucks will access the Bosa site from Begbie Street via westbound Front Street. They’ll leave via Begbie Street and eastbound Front Street. Traffic control persons will guide vehicle movements to and from the site during the concrete pour. They’ll serve several roles:

Future project: A rendering of what the project will look like when completed. PHOTO BOSA

directing the movements of the anticipated 33 concrete trucks arriving each hour and prioritizing them to prevent congestion on Front Street; monitoring and managing any queuing on Front and Begbie streets; prioritizing access for bus and emergency vehicles, if needed; and directing the concrete trucks to theThird Avenue overpass detour if rail operations interfere with their concrete deliveries. Because this is a monolithic pour, concrete trucks will access the site via StewardsonWay, theThird Avenue overpass and Quayside Drive if a train is passing through the Begbie Street crossing. Traffic control persons will be stationed at locations where they can manage motor vehicle and cyclist traffic when trucks may be using that route. To prevent concrete truck traffic from queuing along Quayside Drive, the trucks will be staged on an empty lot west of Rialto Court and “released in an evenly timed, continuous manner to the site.” Cyclists will still be able to use Quayside Drive during the monolithic pour. (Concrete trucks will be rerouted to that route if the Begbie crossing is blocked by trains.) All sidewalks and crosswalks between the downtown and the waterfront will remain open during the construction activity.

“While the variance to extend the available hours for the concrete pour may increase the possibility of noise in the early morning and late evening, the need for continuous concrete pour is critical,” said the July 12 report. “Given the scope and duration of work, the ability to maintain walking and biking connections and the resultant impact to transportation accessibility being low, along with vehicle volumes during the exemption period being comparable or lower compared to normal construction hours, city staff consider the requested exemption to be reasonable under these circumstances.”

The original time requested for the exemption to the construction noise bylaw would have allowed the work to be done between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 13, or one day between Aug. 14 and 23 if weather conditions prevented it from being done on the proposed date.The city’s bylaw allows construction activities that create noise and impact the surrounding community to be done between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

With council on summer break until Aug. 30, no follow-up report has been considered regarding the Pier West concrete pour.

“The report was pulled as Bosa requested a date change, late in the day,” said JackieTeed, the city’s senior manager of development services, in an email. “No other aspects of the request or the work changed.”

Once the date for the construction pour is approved, residents and businesses near the site will be notified.

Details will also be posted at www.660Quay sideDr.com.

City looks to reduce humanwasteinpublicareas

TheresaMcManus

tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca

The City of NewWestminster is exploring ways to tackle the increase in human waste in public areas.

In the early days of the pandemic, the city provided portable washrooms at several locations in the city. With many businesses and faith-based organizations shuttered by the pandemic, people, including those who are homeless, had fewer washroom facilities.

A recent report to council included an update from the city’s at-risk and vulnerable persons task force. Among the items covered in the report was washroom access for precariously housed and unsheltered individuals.

“One of the most significant concerns raised is the presence of human waste in the downtown and other neighbourhoods,” said the update to council. “This issue has been aggravated by limited access to business, faithbased and non-profit toil facilities.”

According to the report, staff has conducted research into free-standing, self-cleaning toilets.

Staff are working on a report that’s expected to go to council at its Aug. 30 meeting. It will include recommendations related to toilet facilities to address the increasing presence of human waste.

In August, the city learned a number of local projects had received funding from the provincial and federal governments through the Strengthening Communities program. This included funding for the I’s on the Street program, a street-cleaning service established in 2010 that offers employment and work experience to people dealing with homelessness and mental illness and contributes to the upkeep of the neighbourhood.

“Given the increased presence of human waste and litter associated with the pandemic, the result of limited access to toilet facilities and the move to takeaway meals, the program would expand its coverage, hours and scope to address business and resident concerns,” said a report about funding requested for I’s on the Street.

In early 2020, the Peer Network started a petition urging the city to install publicly accessible washrooms in NewWestminster. The petition stated that providing porta-potties in certain areas of New West would help keep city streets clean and provide dignity to people living without homes.

The petition said the lack of public restrooms affects people experiencing homelessness because most businesses will not allow non-customers to use their restrooms, and those they can use are only open during certain hours, forcing people experiencing homelessness to use alleys, streets and bushes to relieve themselves.