The four month long demolition of the old Eaton’s department store building continued this week with the salvage of steel and other scrap metals from parts of the building that have already been dismantled and the removal of rubble from the site. There was more progress on removal of the remaining cornice and the walls above the eighth floor of the building along Donald and Hargrave streets.
The exterior cladding of the annex building along all three sides - Donald, Graham and Hargrave - has been completely removed and the interior has been gutted. The demolition of the remaining steel frame and concrete slab construction of the annex will take place in mid October once the supports are installed under the cityplace walkway bridge which will remain in place and become a future link to the entertainment centre.
Dan McColman, who is directing the demolition project on site, reports that progress will be slow and steady as each of the top three floors are taken down one at a time. The tempo of activity will then pick up and progress will be more rapid until the site is cleared.
The demolition of the building will be much more visible from Portage Avenue in the coming week. A third crane has been moved into place and the exterior walls of the eighth floor and the superstructure of the elevator housing that is still standing will be removed. The other major activity in the week ahead will see the walkway bridge across Donald Street to the Somerset Building gutted and lowered to the ground.
As noted in last week’s Demolition Update, the Manitoba Public Insurance website (www.mpi.mb.ca) features a web cam view of the site looking north from MPI offices in the Cityplace building. Shaw Cable (cable channel 11) features a view of the Portage Avenue side of the site from a live camera positioned on the Air Canada Building. True North is now posting a continuing series of still photographs of the demolition activity to its website (www.truenorthproject.mb.ca).
Construction of the MTS Centre is expected to begin by January 15, 2003.
[MTS Centre Construction Demolition Archive]
