FOCAL POINT
EDMONTON ICE DISTRICT: A PRIMER
• Covering more than 25 acres, ICE District is a dynamic mixed-use development with Rogers Place at its heart. It spans 101st Street to 104th Street, from 103rd Avenue to 106th Avenue. • Over $2 billion in projects are currently under construction, including office, residential, and retail space. • Rogers Place opened September 8. Also opening this fall are: Ford Hall, the $56.8 million, 25,000-square-foot public gathering space that serves as the gateway into Rogers Place, transporting visitors over 104th Avenue and into the arena Edmonton Tower, a 27-storey, $300 million highrise, which will be home to 2,300 City of Edmonton employees Edmonton Downtown Community Arena, a $25-million community rink owned and operated by the city, with seating for 1,000 spectators Grand Villa Edmonton Casino, a $32 million facility attached to the arena • Stantec Tower, the tallest building west of Toronto at 66-storeys — is under construction at the southeast corner of 102nd Street and 103rd Avenue. Set to open in 2018, it will be the global headquarters for engineering and consulting giant Stantec and its 1,700 Edmonton employees. Stantec designed the new $500 million project and will manage construction. • A 50,000-square-foot public plaza adjacent to the arena and a 55-storey JW Marriott hotel and luxury condos are set to open in 2018. • ICE District is connected to Edmonton's LRT and pedway systems. If you’re driving, there are 2,500 underground parking stalls, including 350 at the arena. There are another 12,000 parking stalls within a 10-minute walk. • Future residential and retail developments are planned for Phase 2 of ICE District, with openings expected in three to four years.
not getting overwhelmed by the enormity of the project. “It’s been exciting to see the entire project team work together to overcome those challenges.” This team approach helped the project wrap up on time and on budget. “It took an entire team of professionals from all career paths to make this happen, from all stakeholder groups. Speaking for PCL, we had an office and field management team of approximately 65 people at peak, all of whom had key roles and responsibilities and contributed to the success of the project,” he notes.
management. It was an education that prepared him well for the responsibilities of leading a megaproject. “The problem solving skillset is something that I think a lot of engineers take away from their studies,” he says. Working at PCL, he built on those skills, finding solutions to the construction challenges and problems that often arise on a project. Rogers Place took that to a whole new level. “The sheer scale and magnitude of this particular project added many chal- lenges that we don’t see every day,” says Mr. Widdifield. Things like organizing hundreds of workers — up to 1,250 were on site each day — and getting them the information they needed to do their jobs efficiently. And
FROM BUILDER TO SPECTATOR
Alberta Faculty of Engineering in 2004. His focus at university was structural and geotechnical engineering, and construction
Mr. Widdifield was among the 56,000 Edmontonians who packed Rogers Place
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