COQUITLAM THIS WEEK

David Lam Expands!

By Brady Ehler, Coquitlam Rep.

 

If you go to the David Lam Campus, you might have
noticed large pits that have been dug out of the ground
over the last couple months. More recently, you may have
noticed a massive blue fence surrounding the entire south
lawn, making the front entrance accessible only by circling
around on the parking lot side and approaching from the
west. Well, the pits in the lawn weren’t attempts at creative
landscaping; they were in fact boreholes dug by geotechni-
cal engineers, and the blue fence isn’t merely for décor, it is
there to border off the construction area for a new south
wing.

As the construction bulletins that are pasted around the
campus proudly announce, Phase II of the David Lam
Campus expansion is beginning. The fences are up, heavy
equipment and portables are being moved on site, and

construction workers are getting ready to dig in.

The expansion itself has been a long time coming; the
addition was in fact planned a dozen years ago. The David
Lam Campus had been built to accommodate an expan-
sion; there was obviously a lot of unused spaced on the
property itself, but there were also extra capacities built
into the campus’ electrical vault and heating plant when the
campus was first erected.

The process of approval went through last April and
consultant selection happened last March. The tender
closed January 31, and Vanbots Construction Inc. was the
winning bidder of the $36.1 million contract. Vanbots is a
veteran in college and university construction, and has
done work for York University, Trent, and The University
of Toronto, and has been under previous employment

 

 

from Douglas College when they built the fifth- and sixth-
floor expansions to the New West campus in 2004. The
majority of the funding ($32 million) for the project is
coming from the BC Ministry of Advanced Education,
however, $4.1 million is coming from the college itself.

The DLC expansion will consist of two new buildings
that will be connected by an atrium. The new wing will fea-
ture a three floor, 9,720 square meter health sciences build-
ing and a smaller building with a focus on communica-
tions.

The new facility will be located on the south-west side
of the college, over the pre-existing lawn. The expansion
will create space for “1,500 new students in the Health
Sciences, Academic Arts, Science, and Business programs.”
Between the two buildings, there will be a total of fourteen