The construction activity on the True North site stopped for just over an hour on Wednesday, April 16th at 12 noon for an historic groundbreaking ceremony. It was held to celebrate the start of work on the largest downtown Winnipeg building project in several decades.

More than 200 invited guests and members of the media heard official greetings from Manitoba’s Premier Gary Doer, Member of Parliament for Charleswood St. James Assiniboia, John Harvard and Winnipeg’s Mayor Glen Murray. True North President and CEO, Jim Ludlow was joined in the groundbreaking by True North chairman Mark Chipman and Sherman Kreiner, President of the Crocus Investment Fund which is a founding partner in the project’s private equity group. Construction workers and equipment lost no time in reclaiming the area just minutes after the groundbreaking ceremony concluded.

The excavation has now reached its full dimension along the west perimeter of the site where the removal of the pavement and cement base of part of Hargrave Street is complete. Excavators continue to dig out seven to ten feet of earth from across the bottom of what will become the facility’s event floor. More than 70 of the 221 caissons have now been drilled and poured. Work is continuing on the excavation for the 300-foot long ramp or tunnel which will start on Carlton Street and slope down under Hargrave Street to provide service access to the entertainment centre event floor.

Next week will see the first construction crane assembled in the southeast quadrant of the site. This tower crane, when it is operational, will reach 157 feet in the air. The arm of the crane will swing clear over the roof of the Cityplace shopping and office complex. Over the next two months, similar giant cranes will be erected on each of the corners of the True North site. They’ll be used to move steel, rebar, concrete and precast columns and other large and heavy pieces of the building into place.

The tower cranes will provide the first indication on the downtown skyline that the sports and entertainment centre is about to appear.

For more information contact:
Jim Millican
Senior Vice President Marketing and Communications
True North Sports and Entertainment Limited
(204) 989 - 6813

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