Calgary LRT line to be enclosed for central library construction

City officials have unveiled a plan to encapsulate a section of the LRT line east of City Hall so that a new central library can be built over top of it.

The library is slated to be built in the East Village, directly beside the Calgary Municipal Building,where the C-Train cuts an arc across the property and descends from street level into an underground tunnel.

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It's an exceptional location with just one notable challenge, the city said in a release.

Fortunately, the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) the organization charged with the revitalization of East Village and the development of the New Central Library doesn't shy away frommonumental challenges.

The process of encapsulating 135 metres of LRT track is projected to take up to 18 months at a cost of less than$25 million, which is part of the librarys overall $245 million price tag.

"Projects like this are very exciting and allow us to really leverage our creative abilities," said Brock Schroeder of Entuitive, the lead structural engineering consultant for the new library.

"Coming up with a way to build over a busy transit line without interrupting service is something that's never been done before in Calgary. Beyond creating a barrier to separate construction activity from train and passenger activity, we've developed a solution that keeps the encapsulation as narrow as possible and that will also serve as part of the permanent foundation system for the new central library."

Last year a selection committee chose a combined bid fromSnhetta, which has offices in New York and Oslo, and DIALOG, a Canadian firm with locations in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto, to design the new library.

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A detailed design of the library will be unveiled this fall. The project isexpected to be finished by 2018.

CMLC produced a video animation depicting the four-stage job of encasing the LRT tracks. On mobile? Click here to watch it.