For Humber River Hospital in Toronto, PCL Construction manufactured 360 washroom modules in an indoor facility, leveraging the efficiencies of prefabrication.
Construction is wasteful. According to reports from the United States, a third of materials that come onto a construction site go out in dumpsters?and more than half of workers? time is squandered waiting for materials, tools, and the completion of tasks by other trades.
More efficient construction methods are a no-brainer, but the industry is notoriously slow to change. It?s about to get a boost with the recent relocation of PCL Construction?s offsite service division to a 7,500-square-metre facility in Toronto. Including three construction bays and two acres of storage, this operation adds to the company?s existing capacity for producing modular components for heavy industry in three Alberta facilities and one California facility. According to PCL?s Terry Olynyk, the company?s expansion of off-site services is a way to ?hit refresh on current design-build procurement models,? optimizing design and construction processes to reduce time, cost and errors. The world of prefabricated construction goes beyond the washroom pods and classroom modules that often first come to mind? ?pods and mods? as Amy Marks, president of consultancy XSite Modular, put it at a recent symposium organized by PCL to launch their expanded facility. Instead, says Marks, there?s a continuum of off-site construction methods. These range from inte...