Calgary's Bow tower project to break Canadian record

Crews in Calgary were busy on the weekend with the country's largest continuous concrete pour of a building foundation.

The record-setting work is for the Bow office tower, which will become the new office building for oil giant EnCana. The pouring of 14,000 cubic metres of concrete enough for the foundation of 2,800 homes began Friday night and was to continue through Sunday.

"This is probably the biggest milestone we will achieve this year, and that's pouring what we call a raft slab," said Michael Brown ofdeveloper MatthewsSouthwest.

The slab will take 36 hours to pour and in the end willcover 2,787square metres (30,000 square feet) at a depth of about three metres.

"When you include reinforcing steel, the concrete supply, the pumps, everything that's happening, it's about a $10-million foundation," said Kerry Gillis, senior vice-president of Ledcor Construction.

Over the next three years, more than 500 workers will be building the 58-storey building. The projected final cost is expected to top $1.1 billion.

Mayor Dave Bronconnier has called the project on the east side of Centre Street "very ambitious" in a city with a very robust economy.

"To have a project with this size, scope and magnitude delivered on time,that is very impressive," he said.

Only two other continuous pours of concrete have ever been bigger one in Dubai for the Al Durrah Tower and another in Las Vegas for the Howard Hughes Centre.

When completed, the Calgary building will be the tallest single-tenant office tower in Western Canada.