East Tunnel Replacement Project

The East Tunnel distributes steam, chilled water and auxiliary services from the Cliff Central Heating Plant to the Supreme Court and the buildings in the west sector of Parliament Hill.

The tunnel was constructed in 1916 and had substantial expansion of services between 1966 and 1967. It is now deemed to have reached the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced.

Details of the East Tunnel Replacement Project:

• Public Works and Government Services Canada will provide all services previously supplied through the East Tunnel by using new connections from existing tunnel infrastructure, and these new connections will serve those buildings previously served by the East Tunnel system.
• The existing East Tunnel between the Supreme Court and the Heating Plant will be rehabilitated.  The remaining portion of the tunnel will be decommissioned and no other further use for this tunnel is anticipated.
• Following an open and competitive process and a Notice of Proposed Procurement posted on MERX™, an initial contract was awarded to the general contractor Ed Brunet and Associates Canada Inc. on September 12, 2011, in the amount of $14,871,390.00.

Schedule:

Construction started in mid-December 2011 and will continue until 2017.

Construction activities will be coordinated with numerous stakeholders to ensure minimal disruption to essential services and operations. Nevertheless, for the safety of all, fences will be installed to protect the construction zones in the front yard of the Supreme Court and various areas adjacent to the Confederation and Justice Buildings...

Noisy work will be scheduled during off-peak periods to minimize the effects on the operations of building occupants.