Why Canada Blasted a Huge Hole Outside its Parliament

..

..

The insane engineering behind Canada's biggest ever building upgrade. For more by The B1M subscribe now - https://bit.ly/the-b1m Full story here: https://theb1m.com/video/canada-parli... Additional footage and images courtesy of Public Services and Procurement Canada, Braeson Holland, CBC News, CENTRUS, D. Gordon E. Robertson / CC BY-SA 3.0, ESO, Library and Archives Canada, National Post, Parliament of Canada, Senate of Canada and Universal Pictures. 00:00 - Intro 00:53 - Ottawa's Origins 02:00 - History of Centre Block 03:00 - Deterioration 04:08 - Digging the Pit 05:06 - Seismic Retrofit 06:17 - Securing the Tower 07:25 - Detailed Work 08:56 - The Result

TRANSCRIPT

It’s July 30th, 2020, and workers  have started digging a huge hole,  

0:06

right outside parliament,  in the Canadian capital. 

0:09

Well, when we say ‘digging’…

0:15

That date marked the launch of an  extraordinary construction project  

0:18

now taking place underneath the most  important building in the entire country.

0:23

Another blast quickly followed, then another,  and three years later the result was this — a  

0:31

gigantic pit with Canada’s answer to  Big Ben looming over the precipice.

0:36

It's all happening now because the  future of the nation’s most prized  

0:39

asset is on the line — a building that has  overseen the last century of its growth.

0:45

And this mammoth excavation has only just begun.

Ottawa's Origins

0:54

If we asked you to name the top three  Canadian cities, what would you go for? 

0:58

Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver  would probably feature.

1:01

They do have the biggest  populations by metropolitan area.

1:05

Don’t forget Ottawa, though. After all,  

1:07

it is the capital city and has been since  the country was founded in the 1800s.

1:12

Queen Victoria chose it for its position  near the border of Ontario and Quebec.  

1:17

It’s where the English and  French-speaking regions meet.

1:21

And because it was surrounded by forests,  meaning it could be defended more easily in  

1:25

case of any aggression from the United  States. As if that would ever happen.

1:30

We’re spending hundreds of billions  a year to protect it. Our military  

1:33

is at their disposal. It should be a State.

1:36

To cement their newfound federal status, Canada  needed  somewhere to house their parliament.

1:41

They decided to put it here — on a  hill overlooking the Ottawa River.  

1:45

It would consist of three separate buildings — or  

1:47

Blocks — arranged around a large  lawn with the biggest in the middle.

1:52

This ‘Centre Block’ was to be the home of  the House of Commons and the Senate Chambers,  

1:56

along with offices for MPs,  ceremonial spaces and a library.

History of Centre Block

2:00

Construction began in 1859 and was finished  

2:04

17 years later. Sadly, however, it  was to have a relatively short life.

2:08

In 1916, the building burnt down in a huge fire  — the true cause of which remains a mystery.  

2:14

Only the Library of Parliament survived.

2:17

A new Centre Block was quickly commissioned,  

2:19

finished in 1927, and this one lasted a lot  longer — in fact, it’s still standing today.

2:26

Like the original, it was built  in the Gothic Revival style,  

2:30

with gargoyles, grotesques and  friezes adorning the exterior.

2:34

But it wasn’t just a simple replica. The  giant Peace Tower was built to commemorate  

2:38

those who died in the First World War,  and is 70% taller than its predecessor.

2:44

With 53 bells inside it, the tower is just  a few metres shorter than London’s Big Ben.

2:49

Don’t try and beat us at parliamentary  buildings, guys. Stick to the hockey.

2:54

And yet, while the building might have remained  intact, over the last century it has deteriorated.

Deterioration

3:00

When surveyors inspected the iconic building, they  found eroded concrete supports, water infiltration  

3:05

in several areas and some of the structural  steel was beginning to rust and break down.

3:10

It’s also now seen as vulnerable to threats that  

3:12

must not have been seen as a  big problem back in the ‘20s. 

3:16

The structure has no earthquake protection,  and before you ask, yes, Canada does get those.

3:21

They’re usually small, but there have  been a few over magnitude 7 in the past.

3:26

Another one of those anywhere near Ottawa could be  

3:29

catastrophic for a building like this,  made from more than 24 types of stone.

3:34

Then there’s the fact it lacks the sort of  

3:37

ultra-high security you would expect  from a site of this importance. 

3:40

And despite attracting more than three million  tourists to Parliament Hill every year,  

3:45

there isn’t a great deal for them to  do or see, and it can get overcrowded.

3:50

Which is why the Centre Block  is now midway through a $5BN  

3:54

upgrade that will not just see it fully  renovated but structurally reinforced.

3:59

Delivered by Public Services  and Procurement Canada,  

4:02

it’s the largest and most complex project  of its kind in the country’s history.

Digging the Pit

4:08

You only need to gaze across that front  lawn to see the scale of what’s happening,  

4:12

because half of it is gone.

4:14

In its place, for the time being,  

4:16

is a 23-metre-deep pit stretching across  the entire length of the building.

4:21

To make it, explosives were used to cut through  the bedrock, with 40,000 truckloads needed to  

4:27

carry the material away. Blasting began  in 2020 and didn’t complete until 2023.

4:34

As for what this is all for, it’s to create room  

4:36

for a massive underground Welcome  Centre. More on that in a bit.

4:41

By the start of 2025, concrete was  being poured for the parts of the new  

4:44

centre that have to go in first, such  as walls, stairs and elevator shafts.

4:49

But the most complicated part of the excavation  work is yet to come. This Welcome Centre has to  

4:54

extend underneath the main building, which  currently has no basement levels at all.

4:59

So, they’ve decided to add some in now, 100  years after the building was first constructed.

5:05

At the same time, a base isolation system  

Seismic Retrofit

5:08

will be installed to give the  building earthquake protection.

5:11

To do this, the entire Centre Block  must be separated from its foundation.

5:16

Understandably, this is not simple.  Before any more excavation is done,  

5:20

the Centre Block must be fully supported.

5:23

What they’re doing, then, is placing  it all on temporary posts before the  

5:26

building is put on top of a new structural  grid of steel and reinforced concrete.

5:32

Around 800 piles are being driven into the  

5:35

ground, which will be grouped together  with steel bracing to create columns.

5:38

Workers will then excavate downwards in  between these columns and after that the  

5:43

basement levels will begin  to rise from the bottom up.

5:46

Then it’s time for those base isolators  — more than 500 of them. These will  

5:51

sit in between the bottom of the  building and the new foundation. 

5:54

Their job is to act as giant  shock absorbers in an earthquake.

6:01

Although base isolators are not new — we’ve  seen them fitted under nuclear fusion reactors  

6:05

and huge telescopes — this is the first  time they’ve been installed in this way.

6:10

It’s an enormous engineering  feat, but it’s far from the  

6:13

only big challenge that workers  on this site are having to face.

Securing the Tower

6:17

Specialists were called in to secure  the four pinnacles around the top of  

6:20

the Peace Tower while they awaited repair.

6:23

They did this by running large straps from  the base of the flagpole and wrapping them  

6:27

around each pinnacle to hold them steady. And  that meant abseiling across the clock faces.

6:33

This is important because we know what can happen  when a damaged clock tower pinnacle isn’t fixed.
 

6:41

Don’t worry, we’re not going to  show the rest because it’s horrible,  

6:44

and this only happens in small English villages.

6:48

Back to Ottawa, and while those brave  fellas were hanging out at the top of  

6:52

the tower they also fitted monitors, used to  measure vibration levels during construction.

6:57

Around 500 of these have been placed over  the whole site, because a rehabilitation  

7:02

project that ends up doing more damage  than it fixes would be … not great.

7:06

Meanwhile, further below, another team is having  

7:09

to restore the stones that make up  the exterior — all 365,000 of them.

7:16

If you thought cleaning your patio was  time-consuming then this is a whole other  

7:20

level, but fortunately they have more than  just a pressure washer at their disposal.

Detailed Work

7:26

Lasers. Yes, really. These guys are armed  with tools that use focused high-energy light  

7:32

to vaporise surface deposits, clearing away  dirt while leaving the stonework unscathed.

7:39

Inside Centre Block, the building has been  stripped right back to its structural elements,  

7:44

while efforts to restore and preserve  over 20,000 heritage assets are underway.

7:49

50 rooms are being refurbished — some  containing unique and irreplaceable works  

7:54

of art — and around 250 stained glass windows  are getting a much-needed touch-up as well. 

8:00

Then there’s the Decorative Arts team,  

8:02

who have been making their way across  the building from East to West.

8:06

They’re examining the hundreds of sculptures  that can be found almost everywhere you look,  

8:11

repairing any that have been harmed  by years of erosion and weathering.

8:15

So, there’s an incredible  amount of work being done here,  

8:18

from heavy drilling and reinforcement  down to the most detailed artistry.

8:22

But you might be wondering where all the people  

8:24

who are usually here have got  to. In other words, the MPs,  

8:27

senators and other high-ranking individuals who  tend to wear suits instead of hi-vis jackets.

8:35

They’ve had to move out — for  now. While this is all going on,  

8:38

the House of Commons has  relocated to the West Block,  

8:41

and the Senate is working out of the … well,  the Senate of Canada Building. Makes sense.

8:46

And there’s a while to go yet until they can  return — this project is set for completion in  

8:51

2031, and the Centre Block won’t fully  reopen for another year after that. 

The Result

8:56

When Mark Carney and his colleagues  are finally let back in, they — and  

9:00

the public — will be able to admire that  stunning new Welcome Centre in all its glory.

9:05

Visitors and parliamentarians will enter under  a new raised pathway outside the main building.

9:11

After passing through a secure screening  area they’ll come to the Main Hall,  

9:15

with the foundation of the Peace  Tower forming part of the design.

9:19

They’ll be able to see the top of it,  

9:20

too — through the skylights that cover the  new space, filling the hall with light.

9:25

With connections to the West and East Blocks,  

9:27

the centre will act as a secure,  accessible front door to Parliament.

9:32

As for the Centre Block itself, Canadians  will be handed back a treasure that has  

9:36

been both restored and fully modernised,  ready for another century of service.

9:43

It’s obvious why historic buildings need  to be maintained, but it’s not often you  

9:48

see a restoration project go to such lengths  as what’s currently taking shape in Ottawa.

9:53

This isn’t just about patching up  a crumbling icon; it’s a chance to  

9:57

ensure it can withstand whatever the future holds.

10:02

If you enjoyed this video and you  want to get more from the definitive  

10:05

video channel for construction, make  sure you’re subscribed to The B1M.