Crane Comes Down at Transit City Condos in Vaughan

UrbanToronto.ca
July 22, 2020
Jack Landau

It's been a few weeks since the topping off of the first of the three towers in phase one of the Transit City development at SmartVMC, a nascent master-planned community now growing around the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre subway terminal just north of Toronto. Being developed by SmartCentres in partnership with CentreCourt Developments, the trio of 55-storey condominium towers designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects has now surpassed another construction milestone.

While the first crane was removed from the topped-off Tower 1 in May, the operation has now been repeated for Tower 2, with that crane's disassembly having been carried out this month. The five-day process was undertaken by construction crews from Multiplex using a derrick with a lifting capacity of 35 tonnes.

With the total weight of the tower crane roughly 90 tonnes--including its counterweights--it had to be disassembled and lowered in sections to keep the derrick's loads under its limit.

The derrick was chosen over methods such as bringing in a mobile hydraulic crane and extending it from street level, due to the tower's sheer height and because of restrictions related to the project's location less than seven kilometres from Downsview Airport. Air rights continued to play a factor in how the crane was demobilized, as the derrick encroached upon the Downsview flightpath. Multiplex managed the derrick's logistics, working in close consultation and daily liaison with airport management to ensure the operation was carried out safely: once a day's operations were completed, the derrick was brought down to the tower's roofline, before being jacked back into its operational posture the following day.

With two cranes down now, one remains active forming the final building in the first phase. Now just a few levels shy of its final height, the east tower will also have its crane removed in the near future.

As work continues inside the first three towers, construction has begun on the next phase of buildings at Transit City. Two cranes are now active on the underground levels of TC4 and TC5. Tin phase two, 45 and 50-storey CentreCourt and SmartCentres condominium towers are being constructed along with a 35-storey purpose-built SmartLiving rental building. The image below, captured in early July, shows the phase two site following the first crane's installation, just prior to the second crane being raised.

Additional information and images can be found in our Database file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.