Nanaimo’s Public Works Yard houses staff and services that are key to City operations. From the water coming out of your tap to the roads, sidewalks, trails and bike lanes that get you where you need to go, to acting as a back up Emergency Operations Centre and countless things in between, the Public Works Yard is fundamental to keeping the community running.

A facility this important to our community needs to work for our crews so they can efficiently and effectively serve the public. Currently, some of the buildings are roughly 60 years old and were built when our population was a fraction of what it is today. They no longer are fit for their purpose and don’t meet the operational needs of the staff that serve our community.

The solution? Rebuild two buildings that are in need of replacement the most - the Fleet and the Crew and Administration buildings.

This is the cornerstone of City operations. It’s where the 285 fleet vehicles are maintained and repaired. Our fleet inventory ranges from small vehicles such as cars that City staff use to travel between City facilities and the lawn mowers that keep our green spaces manicured to heavy duty vehicles and machinery like the fire trucks that are critical to getting our fire fighters to emergencies and construction equipment that dig up streets so crews can fix a leaking water main or install a new one.

Why does the building need to be rebuilt?

Right now, the Fleet services building is one of the oldest in the yard, roughly 60 years old, and isn’t the right size for the population we have and the type of equipment we use. For example, fire trucks being built today don’t fully fit in the building. This can make it more difficult to efficiently maintain these critical pieces of equipment

What’s the plan?

A new Fleet building will be designed to post-disaster standards meaning it will withstand a natural disaster so crews can continue working during an emergency. The building will feature seven larger bays so vehicles like garbage and fire trucks can fully fit in the bay and three automotive bays for light-duty vehicles. It will also have space for storage, changerooms and some offices.

The heart of the Yard, the Crew and Administration building is where work crews meet up at the start of their shifts and where many staff groups are housed including Administration staff who respond to public questions and requests and create work orders for a number of areas including street cleaning, roads, utilities and garbage and solid waste.

What’s wrong with the building?

The building is actually a hodgepodge of different buildings with many being temporary trailers that are well beyond their useful life and aren’t up to building code. The building is short on space and short on facilities for a modern workforce (e.g. changerooms for female workers).

What’s the plan?

A new Crew and Administration building will house not only Public Works staff and work crews, it will also house staff from Parks Operations, Facilities Operations, Supply Chain Management and IT. In total, about 246 staff from various departments will come together under one roof. The building will feature updated office, meeting and training spaces along with crew spaces (tailboard space, mudroom and locker/changerooms), workshops and essential operational support areas. It will also be post-disaster rated, meaning it will withstand a natural disaster so crews can continue providing essential services including post-disaster clean up.

The two new buildings will be located in different places from where the current ones are located so as to provide minimal disruption to staff and the services they provide. New parking lots for staff, visitors and fleet vehicles will be added and the salt and brine facilities will be moved. Once the new buildings are complete, the existing Fleet building will be turned into a temporary storage facility and the existing Crew and Administration building will be demolished. We will keep all buildings that continue to be useful and repurpose them for other needs (e.g. existing Purchasing building will be repurposed once Supply Chain Management staff move into the new Crew and Administration building).

Using the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach, we are able to get a more accurate costing for the project. IPD is a collaborative approach where the client (in this case, the City), designer (Kasian) and contractor (Knappett Projects Inc.) share risks and rewards under a single multiparty agreement. All participants work together from project inception to optimize outcomes.

Through this process we were able to come up with an accurate design, timeline and budget. Here's a breakdown of how much it will cost:

The funding will come from various sources including:

• $726,350 from the General Asset Management Reserve Fund
• $89,550 from the Sewer Operating Reserve
• $179,100 from the Water Operating Reserve
• $76,680,000 in long-term borrowing

For more information and projected tax rates, please see the Council report on the borrowing bylaw located in the Documents section.