Fire Department build under strict timeline in Blyth - May 23, 2019

BY DENNY SCOTT

With the official groundbreaking of the Fire Department of North Huron Blyth Hall and Blyth Public Works Shed now in the books, a whirlwind process to have part of the structure ready is underway.

With the sale of the Emergency Services Training Centre already complete and Blyth Cowbell Brewing Company Ltd. already owning the facility and premise, there is a ticking clock for contractors to finish the new project to move fire equipment from the centre to the new structure by Nov. 30.

A site meeting was held at the site of the new facility, located between 667 and 709 Queen Street in Blyth last week, according to Director of Public Works Sean McGhee. 

“[This week] what people will see is some fencing going up and some survey crews doing preliminary studies,” McGhee said. “We’ll be expecting to see the heavy equipment show up the next week.”

McGhee said that, to prepare the lot, some significant earth-moving is necessary.

“We’re digging out the entire site, and then doing site compaction and back-filling to the proper elevation, as well as doing the foundation,” he said. “That whole process is what will take place over the next six weeks.”

McGhee said the plan is to have the site prepped for construction by the end of June, including having tie-ins to municipal services completed.

“We had always expected site prep would be taking place near the end of June,” he said. “Once the contractors get in there, they can start working towards the rest of the timeline.”

The project has been broken up in to two different phases, McGhee said, between the site prep and the build, to allow for different specialized trades to be brought in only when they’re needed.

“It makes things easy to co-ordinate timelines that way,” he said.

As far as the Nov. 30 deadline, McGhee said he believes it will be met.

“We’re keeping to it,’ he said. “Closer to the end of June... we will have some tight timelines worked out for the build teams,” he said.

Watch The Citizen for more information on the build.