City councillors were given a broad update Monday night on the emergency services campus project being built on Fairview Road in south-end Barrie, including whether it’s coming in on budget and sticking to the timeline.
Paolo Bovolini, the city’s facilities capital project supervisor, said it remains on schedule, with substantial completion of the first phase expected in December 2019 and a move-in date sometime in January 2020.
“We’re currently trending 0.4% under budget and trending downward in the right direction,” Bovolini said during a presentation at Monday’s general committee meeting.
The first phase, at a projected cost of $103 million, includes Buildings ‘A’ and ‘C’.
Building ‘A’ is a four-level, three-storey structure which will house headquarters for both the Barrie police and fire departments, as well as communications dispatch centre and a Simcoe County paramedic hub.
Building ‘C’, a single-storey structure, will be the police department’s fleet vehicle repair garage.
Coun. Mike McCann asked whether the project could remain on budget in a year’s time.
Bovolini added the project team doesn’t foresee any aspects of the construction that could cause the budget to be affected negatively in the current phase.
Jessica Liefl, the city’s manager of facilities and planning development, said as with any construction project in Canada, one of the big unknowns is unforeseen weather conditions in the winter months, such as severe storms and on-site snow removal.
Conversely, if more savings can be found during construction, there is a “wish list” of nine items, while also having to keep the project on budget.
Those items, outlined in a city memo, include new IT and communications equipment for Barrie police, a shared fuel depot, additional air-conditioning in the Building ‘C’ police repair garage, overflow community parking, exterior snow melting for large overhead vehicle bay doors and carports for marked police vehicles.
By bringing police, firefighters and paramedics into one central facility, the campus model is expected to save approximately $15 million, or 15%, on the project’s capital costs, plus 18% or $370,000 annually in operations and maintenance costs when compared to standalone facilities.
Building ‘B’, a police and fire department training facility to be built sometime in the future, will be part of the second phase with a projected cost of $29 million.
That would bring the total project cost to a projected $132 million.
Coun. Arif Khan said he understands “this is not a response campus, so to speak, and it’s not where the cops are going to be racing in and out of,” he also asked the project team about traffic volume in the area once the facility opens, specifically the widening Fairview Road.
Rick Pews, the city’s director of corporate facilities, said with the engineering department also working on the nearby Big Bay Point/Harvie crossing over Highway 400, more information is expected in the near future.
The emergency services project is noticeable from a few vantage points in the city, but particularly from Highway 400 between Essa Road and Mapleview Drive, due to the on-site construction cranes. One of the cranes, at the south end of the property, was removed last week and the second is expected to be gone by the end of the month, Bovolini said.
More than 1,200 concrete trucks will travelled to the site, “which is a cool fact, and we’ve also installed more than 700 tonnes of rebar to date,” said Bovolini, who also noted campus is designed to serve the growing city’s needs for the next 25 years.
The groundbreaking at the site, located on Fairview Road between Little Avenue and Big Bay Point Road, was done in November 2017 as well as early site work.
Major construction began this past March, followed by the concrete superstructure in April, which was completed last month.
Construction of the Building ‘C’ repair garage’s superstructure is expected to begin in December, while the structural steel and communications tower should also be completed.
Project officials say Building ‘A’ will be “watertight” in March 2019, while exterior finishing will begin in May and interior finishing in August.
The city has also set up a direct phone number at 705-739-4220, ext. 7911, which people can call if they have questions about the project.
