April 7, 2008

Calgary city council tackles construction hoarding practices

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

The City of Calgary is developing new policies for construction hoarding practices, fees and fines associated with street use, in order to improve mobility of traffic and pedestrians in the downtown area.

The term hoarding refers to the temporary plywood fencing that is erected around the perimeter of a construction site.

Typically, hoarding is used for construction sites in densely populated urban areas to prevent foot traffic from being potentially injured as a result of coming into contact with falling debris or construction equipment.

Calgary is experiencing a significant amount of building construction in the downtown and inner city areas, which encroaches into the adjacent sidewalk and roadway.

These encroachments are having a negative impact on the continuity and functioning of pedestrian, public transit and auto mobility. At a meeting of Calgary city council on Nov. 12, 2007, Alderman Druh Farrell tabled a motion to develop new construction hoarding policies, fees and fines to ensure a balance between improved downtown mobility and effective building hoarding solutions.

The motion was approved and then later confirmed by a committee.

“There were a lot of citizen complaints about how many roads and sidewalks are not available for their use, all at the same time, because of various and sundry construction projects,” said Alderman Ric McIver.

“There is a cost to citizens, who own the roads and sidewalks. The lack of public infrastructure is making life way less convenient.”

Site contractors must make an application to Traffic Engineering for hoarding permit applications prior to construction.

But, currently the relationship between the permit application and the construction process can create specific challenges on site.

Jim Beeton, project director with Ledcor, said that structures are designed to be built from property line to property line.

“Buildings are designed to take as much space as they can. There is no consideration for how to build,” he explained. “When the contractor gets involved, we say we want this lane or that lane.

Under the new hoarding application process, street use issues will be dealt with at the time when the development application is submitted.

“They will have to start looking at constructability at the design development stage,” Beeton said. “I think this will make our life (the site contractor) easier and the designer’s life harder.”

This may ultimately affect how buildings are designed, because space will have to be left on site for machinery and materials.

The new application requirements state that the contractor must provide scaled engineering drawings, which are signed and stamped by an engineer. The drawings must detail the extent of the proposed hoarding area, the proposed temporary traffic controls to be employed, the location of site fencing and the removal and/or relocation of any existing traffic control devices. Provisions also need to be made at all times for the safe passage of pedestrians past the site.

Operations involving hoisting that constitute a hazard to pedestrians that cannot be protected by any means shall not be carried out until the sidewalk/boulevard is closed. Adequate screening, fencing or scaffolding around the site is also required to protect the public from any possible hazards.

Another revised measure is to consider the impact of construction on adjacent businesses/residents.

The City of Calgary is still reviewing the rates for street use and hoarding fees. The administration has proposed a 15 per cent increase to bring the rates in line with inflation.

McIver said he is in favour of the proposed fee increases, but he believes the fines are still too low.

“We also need a huge penalty increase to give a greater incentive to finish projects on time. The question is: Are we charging enough for the use of public assets, while construction goes on?” he said. “There has to be an amount paid for exclusive use of public infrastructure, but this must come with a time limit.”

The motion to revise hoarding practices, fees and fines associated with street use was passed by council on March 19. However, council still has an opportunity to amend fee and fine amounts at the April 14 meeting.

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