Skip to content

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Redevelopment Project

Unique Soil Conditions

The future location for this tower is located immediately adjacent to the emergency wing of the existing St. Joseph’s hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. HCM is a recognized shoring contractor that will take on many challenges relating to foundation design.

On this particular project, HCM took on the tasks of:

  • shotcrete shoring
  • caissons
  • micropiles
  • excavation
  • site services
  • demolition with the constraints of limited access and project complexity.

A portion of the work was to be performed indoors, which required special care towards the patients of the hospital and the HCM workers. The original design for this inside work included conventional pad footings dowelled in to existing caissons five feet below the finished floor. The soil conditions are unique on this project due to the fact that the site is situated at the bottom of the Niagara Escarpment where bedrock is on an incline. This increased the depth required for adequate bearing stratum, requiring the entire area to be excavated and the perimeter shored. To save costs to all parties involved, HCM proposed an alternate to the original design to provide hand-dug caisson caps around the existing caisson and column construction. Caissons were excavated to depths of 18 feet below the finished floor using reinforced compression rings and shotcrete shoring to reach adequate bedrock.

The above innovations were the optimal solution for this portion of work resulting in another successful hospital project by HCM on budget, on time.

Client: PCL
Location: Hamilton, Ontario

Niagara Biosolids Facility - Inside Pit

Niagara Biosolids Facility – Inside Pit

A Shotcrete Solution to a Difficult Problem Work to the existing Biosolids Facility required the installation of deep pits and foundations for proposed processing equipment. Due to the tight confines
Read More
Mount Royal University Conservatory

Mount Royal University Conservatory

Mount Royal University Conservatory Design considerations for the foundations were similar to previous projects in the area, with installation of approx. 220 cast-in-place belled piles. The project design team for
Read More
Centre 10

Centre 10

Centre 10 Two attempts had been made by others to build two high-rise condo towers on the site of the former Gaslight Square retail strip at 10th Ave and 4th
Read More

144 Park Street

144 Park Street During the bidding process, HCM proposed an innovative design-build shoring solution for the 144 Park Street project, a 19 storey condominium in the downtown core of Waterloo.
Read More

Midtown Lofts

Midtown Lofts On this project, HCM in conjunction with RWH Engineering Inc. (RWH), provided the owner with a complete design-build package and precision monitoring services for an 8.5m deep temporary
Read More
The Fuse at Evolution

The Fuse at Evolution

The Fuse at Evolution Following years of planning by the City of Calgary, construction on the anticipated East Village Development has started. The proud owners of the first land deal
Read More