The Nanaimo Operations Centre Project - Public Works Yard Design 101

Designing and creating a development plan for an active public works yard is a huge task. Visioning for the site’s necessary upgrades has been underway since some of the yard’s key buildings were determined to be high-risk during their condition and seismic inspections in 2012 and in 2018.

The original yard, built in the 1960s, looked much different than the Public Works yard today, but despite seismic safety concerns, these original buildings are still in full use today.

The yard today has a few more buildings than the 1960s, and construction trailers have been used to expand office spaces. These portables were originally meant to be temporary, but it became necessary to not only keep them long term, but to continue adding more with our city’s growth.

When the City developed the concept for a renewed public works yard, there were a lot of considerations:

1. Efficiency. Currently, our Parks and Public Works Operations teams are spread across the City at three locations. There’s the Public Works yard on Labieux Road, the Parks Annex on Nanaimo Lakes Road and the Parks Operations yard on Prideaux Street. Bringing these teams together at the Labieux yard creates greater efficiencies, houses most of our operations equipment where it’s cleaned, fuelled, maintained and repaired, and ultimately brings most of the City’s operations staff together under one roof.
2. Seismic Stability. While we don’t know when, a sizeable earthquake in our region is inevitable. In 2012 the City’s Public Works buildings underwent their first seismic study, and their condition was assessed again in 2018. Based on these studies and assessments, and because the community really needs the City to keep its fleet operational, a new fleet maintenance building is the cornerstone of Phase One of the Nanaimo Operations Centre project. A couple of the buildings will be kept and used for non-critical storage, as they are now.
3. Active Yard. It isn’t just new construction; it’s building a new facility in the midst of active daily work. Despite major construction, the City needs (and wants) to pick up your garbage on collection days, brine the roads ahead of a cold snap, service your sewers to keep them flowing, repair any broken water mains, and keep our roads clear and our intersections functioning. Building in phases with a well-developed plan keeps this possible.
4. Fleet Size. Our fleet is large, both in numbers and in some cases, mass. Our fire trucks and our sanitation trucks don’t fit in even our largest service bays, and while our heavy-equipment mechanics have found some work arounds to keep these trucks in service, these work-arounds are inefficient. The City has over 400 pieces of equipment including 200 vehicles that needs to be maintained and repaired regularly at our Public Works shops. The shop bays aren’t suitable to handle the over 4000 repair orders per year that come in, and they definitely aren’t ready for that number to grow with our city’s future growth.
5. Storm water. The original drainage system installed under our Public Works yard is now at end of life and literally crumbling away. It’s time for it to be replaced, so working the drainage system into Phase One is a priority. This will be an opportunity to make modern rainwater improvements, helping to retain runoff and improve drainage quality in the face of climate change.
6. Sustainability. With climate change upon us in a big way, the City is committed to making design choices that lead to energy efficiency with a small carbon footprint. From lighting, to insulation, to materials used in construction, responsible and durable choices will be important in the development of the Nanaimo Operations Centre.
7. Safety in Training. Our current fire training tower depends on wood burning to create a suitable training environment for our firefighters. Converting to a natural gas system isn’t a perfect solution for the environment, but it is the best option available to continue offering life-saving training for our rescuers while improving their safety and reducing exposure to the carcinogens in wood smoke. This fire training tower retrofit is planned for Phase One.
8. Growth. Our community is growing very quickly, and it seems to be well known that Nanaimo is a great place to live. While that means an increase in the number of resident taxpayers, it also means that demand on the City’s services will be greater over the coming years. The Nanaimo Operations Centre project plans include space and development for increased staff, equipment and supplies to continue to grow with the community.
9. Location. Bringing together both Parks and Public Works will mean an even busier yard, and the new design is laid out to try and avoid any ‘traffic jams’ in the yard, while keeping office staff together and away from the active work zones. An additional entrance to the yard will help reduce congestion at both the gates and in the yard’s corridors.
10. Washrooms. When the original staff building was built in the 60s, it was built with mostly men in mind. This included a very large change room with showers and plenty of space to clean up after a day of work in the elements. Today the world is much more equal, and we have some amazing and capable women on staff who deserve a decent space as well. Inclusivity is important to the City of Nanaimo, and considerations for all potential staff members will be brought forward when designing staff building washroom spaces.
11. Emergency Operations. A city the size of Nanaimo is mandated by the Province to have an accessible emergency operations centre and a backup location. The new staff building will have a multi-purpose room dedicated as a backup emergency operations and communications hub.
12. Trail vs Sidewalk. The cost of sidewalk concrete is up exponentially over the last few years. "Works and services" are a requirement for all developments. In this case that would be a sidewalk that runs along the outside of the Public Works yard. We saw better value to the community to finish and connect the trail that loops around Beban as an alternative (and more affordable) walking space away from the busy street.
13. End of Life Buildings vs Usable Infrastructure. While many of the buildings on site are at their end of life, there are a few buildings built in the 1980s and 1990s that are built well enough to keep and continue using to their full potential. These include our stores building, our truck barn and our small equipment and signs shop building. The new infrastructure at the yard is designed around this existing infrastructure.