ANC Working with Kenaidan Murphy to Deliver Modular Build of Oakville GO Station

ANC Modular Inc. (ANC) is proud to be working with the Kenaidan Murphy Joint Venture to build the new pedestrian bridges and platform access buildings for Oakville GO Station. The four buildings, bridges, elevator shafts, platform access stairs and canopies will be built as prefabricated volumetric modules in ANC’s 180,000 square foot factory in Brantford, Ontario. The modules will be certified for quality and fit before being delivered to the station and installed on site during future planned service disruptions when the site is prepped and ready to receive them.

The Oakville GO Station Renovation, part of Metrolinx’s plan to expand GO service, will help prepare the station’s capacity for trains as often as every 15 minutes during the busiest travel hours. Kenaidan Murphy, the construction manager for this Metrolinx project, has already started work on site to rebuild platforms with provisions for future electrification, the new accessible pedestrian bridges with four elevators and four staircases, new mini-platforms, canopies and shelters, a larger bus loop, and upgrades to the station building.

ANC is thrilled to help show what offsite construction can do for Ontario’s public transit and Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) sectors. Working with Kenaidan Murphy and the project’s design team, Toronto-based R.V. Anderson Associates Limited (RVA), ANC is currently working through modularizing the existing architectural drawings to suit its volumetric modular system while maintaining the original look and feel of the design.

This approach uses fully finished modular buildings as its construction method, a method known as volumetric modular construction. Each building, bridge or component from the foundation up is divided into large factory-built sections, called modules. Each module is a complete steel-framed unit, built in ANC’s CSA A277 certified factory and welded in their Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB) certified weld-shop. Modules are built exactly to the modularized architectural drawings and thoroughly inspected to ensure they meet the necessary quality standards. Once the steel structure is complete, ANC’s crews and subcontracted trades install as much of the interior and exterior finishes, building
services and fixtures in the plant as possible to reduce the amount of work on site.

Building this way also keeps the benefits close to home. The modularization of the design is handled by ANC’s in-house design and engineering coordination team, working with the project’s architects and engineers of record. Fabrication in Brantford employs a variety of local skilled trades, including CWB certified welders, and gives new workers a steady and supportive environment to train and learn alongside experienced crews. Since most of the work happens in the plant, ANC’s own crews and subcontracted trades work side by side, supported by Ontario suppliers wherever possible.

ANC also gives preference to Canadian products and suppliers wherever feasible. On Oakville GO, 80 to 85 per cent of the steel framing in the modules will be Canadian, with materials sourced from outside Canada only where Canadian manufacturers do not make them. The result is a major piece of Ontario transit infrastructure planned, built and delivered by a Canadian team and a largely Canadian supply chain.

Oakville GO opened in 1967, the same year GO Transit launched, and is currently the busiest station on the Lakeshore West line and one of the busiest on the GO network. ANC’s modular approach to building this project with Kenaidan Murphy helps the whole project, from timeline savings to reduced risk on site for workers and public safety. With more than 10,270 customers using the station every day, less work on site means less disruption for passengers. As manufacturing in the factory happens at the same time as the platform work, and finishes well ahead of installation, the modular approach protects the site schedule from production and weather delays not typically achievable through traditional construction methods. Each installation of modules is phased to coordinate with the platform construction schedule and becomes a short, planned operation rather than months of construction next to live tracks. Factory conditions also contain fewer unknowns, lowering the risk for the project team and resulting in tighter quality and energy performance controls.

“The Oakville GO Station Renovation is exactly the kind of project that ANC was built for,” said Andrew Neill, Founder, President and CEO of ANC. “Volumetric steel modular construction has an important role to play as our communities continue to invest in upgrades to our infrastructure, transit systems and more. Oakville GO is a busy site where every hour of on-site work matters. ANC’s modularization of the new platform buildings, bridges, elevator shafts, platform access stairs and canopies will help Metrolinx and Kenaidan Murphy deliver this project safer for workers, the public, and with minimal disruption to the passengers who rely on transit every day to get where they need to go. Bringing this approach to a station on the Lakeshore corridor means a great deal to all of us at ANC, and we are grateful to Kenaidan Murphy and Metrolinx for trusting us to be a part of the team and the project.”

ANC thanks Kenaidan Murphy and Metrolinx for the opportunity to bring offsite construction to one of Ontario’s most important transit hubs. The team looks forward to a safe and successful delivery.