Slow and steady is the key as a major step in Lansdowne Park's renovation begins Friday.
The historic Horticulture Building is being moved, inch by inch, about 120 metres to the east end of the park - the biggest building move in North America this year.
“It's incredible, we've been working on this project intently for about six months now,” said Marco Manconi, the Lansdowne Park project manager. “(There’s) a lot of passion with the workers.”
The project involves 480 tonnes of steel to reinforce the building, 1,500 feet of hydraulic cables to lift it into the air and 48 dollies for the building to roll on top of.
“The building didn't know it was moving,” Manconi said. “There was that much engineering that went into understanding the building composition, its geometry and shape and how it was supposed to be moved carefully.”
“Carefully” is a good word to describe the pace the building is rolling along, taking days to move along the construction site.
“I'm in the construction business and it's cool,” said Charles Duponte, who was watching with interest on Friday. “Never seen this before.”
“It's a little quicker than seeing government actually move,” said spectator Russell Geddes.
It’s a task so unique, the city had to buy special insurance – the building is technically a ship for the length of the move.
“The only insurance we could get was from Lloyd's of London as if it were a ship,” said Graham Bird. “It's not a building right at the moment, it's a ship in their minds that we're taking to its new harbour.”
The Horticulture Building is expected to be secured in place by next week, with about a $7 million price tag for the move.
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s John Hua
