New underground transformer station in downtown Toronto designed to withstand floods
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DAILY NEWS Sep 4, 2013 10:40 AM - 0 comments
New underground transformer station in
downtown Toronto designed to
withstand floods
2013-09-04
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With condominiums sprouting up in Toronto's downtown core and along the
lakeshore, Toronto Hydro is having to build a new transformer station to ensure
it can fulfill the area's energy needs. Since 2006 the population of down has
increased by over 50%, compared to a growth of 9% in the city as a whole.
Even though the downtown area already has five transformer stations, Toronto
Hydro believes that between 2017 and 2022 the load demands will be more
than they can handle.
As a result excavations are under way to construct the new Copeland 144-MVA
transformer station in Roundhouse Park near the Metro Toronto Convention
Centre and CN Tower. The park site has train locomotives and other railway
artefacts, as well as the massive roundhouse and turntable where trains were
once repaired. The roundhouse now houses a brewery, store and other
amenities.
The transformer station is being built mostly below the reconstructed machine
shop at the side of the roundhouse. The shop has been temporarily
disassembled brick by brick and will be reassembled around 2014 to house the
transformer station's controls and protection equipment. The main equipment
such as the transformers, switchgear and cabling will be located below in three
underground levels excavated to 45 feet below grade. The electrical supply will
come via a new underground cable tunnel from existing 115-kV circuits within
Hydro One's Front Street tunnel.
IBI Group is the consulting engineer for the station, and MMM Group is
consultant for the cable tunnel.
The station is being built below ground to minimize the area it takes up and to
help it blend in with the surroundings, but after floods knocked out two
transformer stations in Toronto's west end in July, questions have been raised
about the wisdom of burying the station underground.
Toronto Hydro's spokesperson, Jennifer Link, points in an e-mail out that the
sensitive control and protection equipment is located above grade. And the
underground structure is being carefully designed to withstand flooding: "A
caisson wall is being constructed for shoring. Approximately 400 [concrete
caissons] will be installed, interlocking to form the basis of the wall surrounding
the station. The station walls will rest within the caisson wall, which will be
relatively impermeable. The station exterior (walls, floor and roof) will be
concrete containing a waterproofing admixture and completely enclosed in a
waterproofing membrane. There are no penetrations in the foundation that will
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New underground transformer station in downtown Toronto designed to withstand floods
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