Cold Lake upgrades will ensure the base can fulfill the
domestic and international roles of Canada's Air Force

Further to our article in AE Today 2008 Issue 1, infrastructure upgrades at the Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Cold Lake facility are near completion. CFB Cold Lake, Alberta is undergoing a substantial infrastructure upgrade. Upgrading of existing aging infrastructure was required as the base is planning significant growth and construction of additional buildings. Defence Construction Canada (DCC) and the Department of National Defence (DND) retained Associated Engineering to design new infrastructure for the entire base operations area. The new infrastructure will meet current Department of National Defence design standards and future base growth demands.

Phase 1 and 2 of the six phase, $80 million project was tendered and awarded to Tri-City Contracting Ltd. Completed this spring, Phase 1 involved replacing all water, sanitary, storm, communication duct banks, roads, sidewalks, and lights along the main entrance road to the base.

Phase 1 - before construction	Phase 2 - TAC area construction

Phase 2, which is anticipated to be completed this fall, involves replacing a sanitary forcemain, the sanitary collection system, and installing 3000 metres of dedicated 500 millimetre diameter fire line and a 150 millimetre domestic water line in the Tactical Air Command (TAC) Area.

The DCC Construction inspectors, Skye Kaus, C.E.T. and Danny Bielesch, C.Tech., the DCC Project Manager Mario Gagnon, P.Eng., and the DND Project Manager Anne-Marie Schneider, P.Eng. maintained close communications with Associated Engineering's Project Manager, Chris Skowronski, P.Eng. and Project Engineer, Gerald Ruta, P.Eng. to identify construction issues and to ensure the base was fully functioning at all times during construction.

Special care was needed to maintain the base security requirements. In addition, detailed coordination was required to prevent any impact on and during the international training exercise ‘Maple Flag'. Maple Flag is typically a six week international air combat exercise held every spring at Cold Lake. This training provides Canadian and Allied air crews with realistic training in a modern simulated air combat environment and emphasizes air operations involving large package coalition forces. This year's exercise drew over 4,500 military personnel to the base.

Due to the proximity of buildings and existing utilities, construction was especially difficult in the TAC Area of the base. Existing utilities had to be kept live during construction to maintain services to buildings and hangars. This meant the contractor had to construct special supports when crossing utilities such as water, sanitary, steam, gas, jet fuel lines, and power.

The lasting legacy of this project has already become evident with the nearing completion of the first two phases. Over the next six years, this project will transform the base and ensure CFB Cold Lake is ready to fulfill the domestic and international roles of Canada's Air Force.

Phase 1 - after construction