March 12, 2010

JORDAN PRESS

The Kingston Dry Dock, a national historic site, is receiving a major facelift for the first time in generations.

FOCUS | Concrete & Masonry

Historic Kingston Dry Dock restored, enhanced

Workers remove aging concrete down to original cut-nose limestone

JORDAN PRESS

correspondent

KINGSTON, Ont.

Ann Blake has watched a piece of history crumble a little more each day she has walked into work. The executive director of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes has seen the cracks in the concrete become worse over the years at the Kingston Dry Dock.

The dock is attached to the museum, a national historic site whose time appeared to be up.

But very soon, the dry dock will be looking younger — new masonry and concrete work will have reversed the aging process and ensure the dry dock and the upgrades will last for decades to come.

“It’s a 50-year fix. We didn’t want something that was temporary,” Blake said.

The job has also been a learning experience for museum staff and workers from H.R. Doornekamp Construction Ltd., the company hired to do the repair work.

Workers have removed aging concrete down to the original cut-nose limestone and masonry blocks that formed the foundation of the original dry dock.

“We’re seeing things behind walls that haven’t been seen for decades,” Blake said. “We’re going to learn so much. We’ve already learned so much.”

In November, the federal government announced it was investing more than $1.6 million towards major repairs and rehabilitation work on the Kingston Dry Dock. The museum and dry dock are on Ontario Street in downtown Kingston and on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The dry dock houses the museum’s largest artifact — a decommissioned Coast Guard icebreaker, the Alexander Henry.

The government, when it made the funding announcement, said the work will “increase visitors’ safety and extend the life of the dry dock.”

The work will also allow the museum to expand in the future, something the Marine Museum — the only museum of its kind in North America — has wanted to do for years.

The government awarded the work to Doornekamp, a local contractor based in Odessa, just to the west of Kingston, to remove and replace the wall of the dry dock extension.

The original limestone dry dock was constructed in 1890 and an inland, concrete extension added in 1927. During the First World War and the Second World War, the dry dock received heavy usage and continued to grow into the 1960s when it received a bow extension to allow for larger ships.

But then things changed. Usage dropped and by the early 1970s the government had largely abandoned the dry dock. Despite falling into decline, in 1978 the dry dock was designated a National Historic Site along with the adjacent building, which has housed the Marine Museum since 1974.

In 1985, the museum placed the Alexander Henry into the dry dock. For 25 years, the Alexander Henry has been a fixture on the waterfront inside the dry dock and used as an exhibit for the museum as well as a bed and breakfast.

In 2005, a detailed inspection of the dry dock indentified a serious need for repairs to the aging structure. Now, those deficiencies are being fixed.

The first step in the construction process took place in early February when Doornekamp workers upgraded the cofferdam at the end of the dry dock. The new cofferdam will prevent water from leaking through the historic cofferdam that has been on the site for generations.

With the threat of leaks eliminated, workers could begin draining the dry dock so masonry and concrete workers could begin repairs.

The job also involves dealing with the ship. Doornekamp workers have built keel blocks for the ship to rest on once the dry dock is drained. Divers have been on the site to monitor work, determine the placement of the keel blocks and record underwater images to guide construction.

The second step in the repair process is to remove all the concrete that was placed on the dry dock during the 1927 extension. Workers then will establish where the bedrock is and install two-foot-thick rock anchors into the bedrock before replacing the concrete walls, said Ron Hewitt, project manager for Public Works and Government Services Canada.

The renovated extension will be more water resistant than the concrete previous on the dry dock, Hewitt said.

Workers won’t be doing anything to the original limestone dry dock — only replacing the concrete walls to the same design as the original structure. Hewitt said plans also include replacing the floor of the dry dock.

So far, workers have not run into any major obstacles with the historic site, Hewitt said.

“The Marine Museum has kept such tremendous records that not much gets past them,” he said. “We expected less surprises than normal.”

Hewitt said all the historical information about the dry dock has made the job easier to get done.

Workers should be done the job by the end of the month when the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes resumes its regular operating hours.

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