Support the redevelopment of industrial waterfront property.
Environmental Consulting, Contractor Supervision, Permitting, Regulatory Liaison and Sign-off, Habitat Restoration Design
The Task:
Obtain regulatory approvals to redevelop a 3 hectare site, which contained two former shipbuilding properties, into waterfront townhomes and apartment residences. A significant portion of PGL’s work involved designing a habitat area to restore and enhance the contaminated foreshore. The site is located on the north shore of the Burrard Inlet, west of Cates Park/Whey-A-Wichen.
The Client:
Polygon Cates Landing Limited (Polygon) is a Vancouver owned and operated development company specializing in constructing residential homes. In operation since 1980, Polygon has built more than 25,000 homes throughout the lower mainland of Vancouver. (www.polygonhomes.com)
The Challenge:
Both shipyards were contaminated from a long history of sand-blasting, creosoting and painting of boat and barge hulls. The Site is also adjacent to the District of Vancouver’s largest seaside park, Cate’s Park/Whey-A-Wichen.
Site operations continued during all aspects of environmental investigation. Coordination with multiple stakeholders was required, including tenants of each property, Port Metro Vancouver (PMV), the District of North Vancouver, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nation. There were also archaeological concerns with intact midden exposures.
A significant component of the project is foreshore habitat restoration. The site is comprised of freehold land, as well as land and water lots leased from PMV. PMV has stringent requirements for habitat credits in order for the lease portions of the site to be removed from their industrial land bank.
The Solution:
PGL’s in-house expertise allowed us to assist Polygon on all aspects of their project, including contaminated sites investigation, remediation planning, regulatory liaison and permitting, risk assessment, habitat restoration design, arborist services, environmental monitoring during construction, and habitat success monitoring.
PGL completed the Stage 1 and Stage 2 Preliminary Site Investigations and Detailed Site Investigation of freehold and leased areas of land, and water leased portions. Site remediation will be completed through a combination of excavation and offsite disposal, and human health and ecological risk assessment.
With the help of Creus Engineering Ltd., PGL created a foreshore habitat restoration design that will restore the foreshore ecosystem and meet PMV’s habitat restoration and habitat banking requirements.
The Result:
Our sub-tidal human health and ecological risk assessment (including tissue and toxicology testing) proved that large-scale sub-tidal dredging was unnecessary, and that apart from debris cleanup, no sub-tidal remediation was required.
Stay tuned… remediation, habitat restoration, and construction works for the residential development and habitat area are scheduled to for Summer 2015.