Accolades continue to roll in for those associated with the city's new cancer centre.
PCL Contractors Westcoast Inc. was recognized by the Vancouver Regional Construction Association for their work in putting up the BC Cancer Agency Centre for the North.
The company received one of four Silver Awards in the general contractor over $40 million category at the association's 24th annual Awards of Excellence. The event honours the construction leaders in the Lower Mainland and winners were selected for their use of innovative techniques, new materials or exceptional project management.
Project manager Chris Rasmussen said it was an honour to be recognized for the first project he headed from beginning to end.
"It's a special building because of what it's going to do when it's open - it's going to save lives," he said. "Everybody's been touched in one way or another by cancer so it's just one those buildings - it's just a great feeling."
The Silver Award winners represent true industry leaders, said association president Keith Sashaw. "We had 67 projects submitted from across the province by members of the VRCA so it was quite challenging for the judges adjudicating the individual entries and determining the winners of each."
Some of the innovations that may have helped put the $69.9-million cancer centre - slated to open later this year - can be found in the two linear accelerator vaults.
Originally the two vaults to house the $3 million radiation therapy units were supposed to have doors, Rasmussen explained. But the trend has move to doorless structures, which gives patients more peace of mind and also allows for swifter emergency access.
He also pointed to the vaults' concrete housing. When faced with difficulty getting enough material per hour for one continuous pour for the walls, the contractors worked with a cancer agency physicist to break up the process.
"They still took 12 hours each and we did them in three separate pours, but we notched the walls in such a way that radiation was not going to get out," Rasmussen said. "It was just a matter of coming up with a different way of doing things than what we've done in the past - working with what we were given and making it work."
The cancer centre project is in the running for the Gold Award against the Kelowna and Vernon Hospitals P3 project, the relocation of the Richmond IKEA and the BC Place revitalization.
The Gold Award which will be presented in Vancouver on Oct. 17.
