Mass timber being used in industrial construction in Sudbury for the first time
CBC
A Sudbury developer says he's enjoying the questions he's getting about a new type of building his company is erecting just off one of Sudbury's main streets.
The skeleton of a large warehouse glows yellow against the sky, puzzling many people accustomed to the grey of steel.
Damian Sweeney, who represents development company Bloomington, says the structure on Cambrian Heights Drive is made of mass timber— great stretches of beams glued together and used in different directions to support the weight of the building.
Using this material for industrial and commercial purposes has been more common in western Canada, but is new to the Sudbury. .
The decision to use timber instead of steel was made a few years ago as the project got underway during COVID when steel prices soared.
Architect Patrick Danielson says the decision continues to make sense given tariffs recently imposed on steel by the United States.
As well, he said it's a readily available resource.
"Building with wood is very advantageous for us because we can source the material ourselves and the fluctuations of that availability and cost are more under our own control," he said.
Danielson also promotes the use of mass timber as environmentally sound.
"So by using wood instead of steel or concrete, you actually can sequester carbon and pull it out of the environment," he said. "So this building here is approximately equivalent to, I believe it was 50 cars off the road for a year, just by the switching materials."
As for Sweeney, he appreciates the fact that the architect has built long-term sustainability into his building's designs.
"They're very efficient in terms of heat loss and insulation building systems, and that really decreases the need for a lot of energy consumption," he said.
"And the net result is that the overall package is really attractive to somebody who cares about sustainability."
Beside the Cambrian Heights project, which is intended to be used for commercial and warehouse purposes, the team has a new building that is fully leased on Highway 69 south of Sudbury and is looking to build another in the west end of the city.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
Hundreds of members of Sandy Lake First Nation have left the remote Oji-Cree community as a major wildfire burns nearby.
A new collaboration that allows local artists to temporarily take over empty buildings in Waterloo region aims to "cut the red tape" normally associated with renting space.
The Charlottetown Library Learning Centre has added another language section to its multilingual collection.
An ambitious new plan aims to redefine the relationship between caribou and people in Yukon's Southern Lakes region, including by allowing Indigenous youth an opportunity to hunt the animals for the first time in decades.
Helicopter pilots, heavy machinery operators and railway workers are some of the people on the front lines of the Manitoba wildfire fight.
Ontario appears to be months behind launching a mandatory review of the Greenbelt, and opposition politicians and environmentalists are asking for a wide-ranging and transparent study of the protected lands to preserve their future.
WARNING: This article references sexual assault, and may affect those who have experienced them or know someone affected by them.
Former military language and cultural advisers — who at times carried out some of the most difficult and dangerous assignments of Canada's war in Afghanistan — are now suing the federal government for discrimination over the alleged failure to properly train and take care of them following their service alongside combat troops, CBC News has learned.
The 336-kilometre trail, which stretches along the coast of much of the Avalon Peninsula, has 25 different paths that people can take.
An organization that represents commercial fishermen says it's steaming ahead with a lawsuit aiming to define the terms of a moderate livelihood fishery now that a Nova Scotia-based First Nation has dropped its own lawsuit against the federal government.
Daniel DeLong was a Grade 12 student at Riverview High School in 2011 when his environmental science teacher encouraged him to get involved in his community.
A construction worker who huddled with his crew inside a smoky shipping container as a northern Ontario wildfire encircled them said he's happy to be alive and back home with his family in Brandon, about 215 kilometres west of Winnipeg.
One week after residents of Air Ronge left the northern Saskatchewan community, fleeing wildfires and adhering to mandatory evacuation orders, the mayor says many of them still don't have a place to sleep.