By Liam Gerofsky
Decontamination of LeBreton Flats won’t get under way until next spring, says a National Capital Commission spokesperson.
The site has been heavily polluted by industrial waste dumped there over the last 100 years and by its most recent use as a temporary snow dump.
The NCC will decide how to decontaminate the soil once it chooses the contractor responsible for the area’s development, says NCC spokesperson Laurie Peters. But with winter approaching and the soil beginning to freeze, the actual process of decontamination will have to wait.
The contractor will be selected in the next couple weeks.
“Three companies are in the bidding for the construction management position,” says Peters, identifying Gespro Ont. Inc., Roche Limited Consulting Group, and PCL Constructors Canada Inc.
“Their primary responsibility will be for the construction scheduling and the budgeting of the development of the Flats,” she says.
The NCC recently announced that Dessau-Soprin Inc. was selected to provide consulting services for the redevelopment of the Flats.
The Laval-based company has a regional office in Hull. Dessau-Soprin’s services will cost nearly $9 million — the lowest bid of eight submissions.
“We will be providing engineering consulting services for the decontamination of the LeBreton Flats site, as well as designing the infrastructure such as the streets and everything under the streets like municipal sewers,” said Jean Roberge, director of environmental services at Dessau-Soprin.
Peters says the NCC will work with Dessau-Soprin and the construction management company to come up with a plan to deal with the contaminated soil. The soil can either be hauled away or buried on-site.
A two-month-old study for the NCC by Aqua Terre Solutions Inc., an environmental consultant group, of the Flats says much of the area’s topsoil would have to be decontaminated. The study did not, however, suggest whether or not to bury or haul away the tainted soil.
Based on the Aqua Terre assessment, the NCC estimates it will cost $50 million to remove the soil from the Flats and $30 million to bury it at the site. That money will come from the $99 million the federal government has set aside for the Flats development, says Peters.
Construction of the new Canadian War Museum at the northeast corner of the Flats, near to the National Library, will begin next fall. Clean-up of that section will be given priority.
Peters says decontamination of that specific location should be complete by August 2002.
“Everyone realizes that this is a huge undertaking, but that was one of the selling features of Dessau-Soprin’s proposal.
They assured us they could get it done in time,” says Peters.
Joe Geurts, the museum’s director, is confident the area decontaminated on time.
“As far as I know, the NCC hopes to have work started on the Flats in the spring, as soon as the frost melts.”
Geurts announced last month the new war museum will be designed by a consortium of architectural firms from Ottawa and Toronto.
Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects of Ottawa and Moriyama and Teshima of Toronto will take charge of the $105-million project.
Geurts said the new facility is slated to open May 8, 2005 — the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.
The NCC is holding a public information session Tuesday, Nov. 13, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Tom Brown Arenato provide an update on the Flats development.