CHARS on track for 2017 opening

By Bill Braden

Canada’s pledge for advancing science in the polar region is quickly taking shape as the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Scheduled for completion in 2017, the station will be a year-round, multi-faceted facility, equipped to investigate environmental and resource issues in partnership with Aboriginal, academic and private sectors, nationally and internationally. The project is under construction by a joint venture of major Canadian builder EllisDon Corporation and NCC Dowland Construction Ltd., which submitted the winning bid in May 2014. Progress since then has seen steelwork erected on the main research hall, the largest of the station’s four buildings at 4,855 square meters. A maintenance and utility building is now closed in, and two triplex apartment buildings for visiting researchers have been commissioned.

Construction is already a boon to the Kitikmeot community of 1,400. After completion, CHARS will have as many as 50 full-time employees and will host a range of touring scientists and researchers. Matthew Hough, the project’s lead engineer with Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, says they have been dealing with the normal Arctic logistics – summer delivery of equipment and materials by sealift and seasonal work schedules. But there also were some community capacity issues that emerged as construction began, he says. “Other challenges the CHARS project has faced involve community infrastructure. Housing, water and power requirements all have to be met,” Hough says. Project and community leaders are working to address upgrades to all these essential community services.

Montreal architects FGMDA and NFOE worked with the community to find ways to incorporate traditional knowledge and Inuit culture into the design, both functionally and aesthetically, such as the large outdoor gathering area reflecting the Inuit qaggiq. CHARS construction has been divided into about 40 work packages to encourage smaller northern firms to bid for a share of the $142 million projects. As of July 2015, 31 packages valued at approximately $79 million had been awarded, with almost 60 percent of the work going to Inuit-owned Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. registered firms. CN