Blatchford Deconstruction Time-Lapse

June 15, 2015

Reducing the Environmental Impact During Construction

Construction work at Blatchford began in summer 2014. During the first stage of construction, buildings on the west side of the site were deconstructed and one-third of the runways and taxiways were removed from the south end of the site.

Because Blatchford will be a leader in environmentally-friendly community design, the City is committed to reducing the impact on the environment during all phases of the Blatchford construction process.

The recycling and reuse initiatives during the first stage of construction include:

Buildings

The former airport hangars are being deconstructed instead of demolished. Through the deconstruction process, a building is slowly dismantled to allow the building materials to be sorted for recycling, reuse or waste management.

This differs from standard demolition, where the building is taken down as fast as possible with the materials likely ending up in a landfill.

In 2014/2015, six buildings were removed from the site.

The City set a goal to divert a minimum of 85% of buildings materials from the landfill. This goal was exceeded for the first stage of deconstruction with 90% of building materials diverted from the landfill.

Runways

All runways will be removed and recycled. The materials (concrete, asphalt and gravel) will be used to construct the roads in the community. Any excess materials will be sold for reuse elsewhere.