Construction on new Marine Atlantic terminal begins
NORTH SYDNEY — Ground has been broken and construction crews are active on the Marine Atlantic grounds as part of early phases in the Crown corporation’s plans to build a new terminal.
“Over the next few months work will ramp up as the project moves into construction mode,” said Marine Atlantic spokesperson Darrell Mercer.
“What people will see right now in North Sydney is some fencing that has been erected that covers an area of our marshalling yard. That is primarily to ensure the terminal construction activities don’t impact Marine Atlantic operations.”
In August, Marine Atlantic awarded contracts to two local companies related to the construction of the new terminal building.
Sydney-based Joneljim Con- struction was named as the company to carry out site preparation, which began last week.
The contract to build the new terminal was awarded to Roclan Construction of Sydney, a division of Dartmouth-based Dora Construction.
Mercer said site preparation is expected to continue for several months.
“As we get further along, the fence will shrink in size and then we will be moving into a smaller footprint for the actual building construction activities. We are still a little ways off from actually seeing steel in the ground but, of course, site preparation work is vital to a project of this size.”
The cost of the terminal project — including design, site preparation and construction — is estimated to be $20 million.
It’s being built on the opposite side of the marshalling yard from the existing terminal building, adjacent to downtown businesses, and is expected to be opened during the 2015-16 fiscal year.
“It is a large project and once it is constructed it will provide new amenities to our customers, and be environmentally friendly. We are quite excited about what the potential of the new building will be once it is operational.”
The terminal is part of infrastructure upgrades in North Sydney that have also included construction of a new stevedore building, renovations to the docks, upgrading and expanding the marshalling yard, and improving the electrical infrastructure system.
Last October, a new administration and warehouse facility was also opened for the federal Crown corporation at 65 Memorial Dr.