Infrastructure Index

Constructing Trenton hangar like building 500 houses in two years

Under the Canada First Defence Strategy, Canadian Forces bases, wings and installations across the country are being upgraded or replaced. The idea behind the construction program is for Canada to enable its military to build on its reputation of excellence to become an even stronger, first-class, modern military.

Defence Construction Canada is at the forefront of much of that construction with concrete being poured at a pace not seen by many in decades.

Take, for example, the new Maintenance Hangar for the CC-177 Globemaster III strategic airlifter (C-17) at 8 Wing Trenton. The hangar is part of a $334 million infrastructure program announced by the Minister of National Defence, Peter MacKay, last September.

10 storeys high and the length of two Canadian football fields, the enormous hangar involves approximately 17,500m³ of concrete – equal to 43 per cent, or almost half, of the above ground concrete used in the CN Tower in Toronto.

Here are 10 other fast facts about the hangar project in Trenton:

• Building area is 97.1m x 190.9m = 18,536m² or about 200,000 sq ft;
• Largest single pour footing was 50 metres long by six metres wide by three metres deep = 900m³;
• Largest single concrete pour in one day was the 1,825m³ fire effluent tank bottom slab = 197 concrete truck loads;
• Approximately 3,000 tons steel;
• Approximately 2,000,000 person hours;
• 370 drawings and 2,800 pages of specifications;
• Two vertical lift fabric doors, approximately 60m wide x 19m high weighing 49,000 kg a piece;
• Two state-of-the-art telescoping platforms for maintenance and inspection of aircraft;
• A five-tonne overhead crane;
• $84.7M over two years is like building a $170,000 home every day for two years; or, building 200,000 sq ft in two years is like building an 800 sq ft home a day for two years. Either way, you can think of it as building 500 houses in two years.

Construction of the hangar began in spring 2010 and is expected to open in fall 2011.