New Site Progress
The Building Boom
(Republished from the 1 August 1952 issue of The Voxair)
2 ANS is already the largest training school in Canada, but it still is a “little fella” in comparison to what it will be. Just west of the present locale of Station Winnipeg is a bee-hive of construction activity. VOXAIR, on these pages, presents an “interim progress report’.
Nearing completion are the airmen’s barrack blocks seen in the picture above. Two barrack blocks having accommodation for 180 men in each are being erected at a cost of $380,000 each. The other two barrack blocks will accommodate 252 men in each and will cost $510,000 each. It is expected that these buildings will be completed by Christmas but the 3760,000 steam plant to supply heat to them will not be finished until a month or two afterwards.
Beyond the barrack blocks is a long, two-storey Composite Mess building, costing 8340,000 which is having the finishing touches put to its interior.
The unit supply building, at a cost of $315,000, is rapidly nearing completion, but it is not visible in this picture.
Steel framework for two new “blister” hangars has almost completed its arching, cob-web pattern. Each of these hangars will cost an estimated one and a quarter million dollars. It is expected that they will be turned over to the RCAF in November. However, the prize, the latest in hangar construction has not been started yet. Work on this hangar of cantilever construction, will not get underway until January and will not likely be completed until November of 1953. Its estimated cost is $3,000,000. 1 will resemble a huge T, three storeys high with 130 feet of roof overlapping each side of centre. Because the doors would be too heavy for the roof to hold them when aircraft are towed inside, they will fold into an underground passage directly beneath the hangar. A parking area and taxi strip connecting the hangars to the present field site are being prepared al a cost of $1,000, Plans for two more blister type hangars, valued at $1,250,000 each, have been shelved for the present. Two officers’ quarters are rapidly nearing completion, situated to the south of the airmen’s barrack blocks. One building will hold 30 at a cost of $175,000 and the other will hold 60, at a cost of $245,000. These pictures clearly show the permanence of the building under construction. All buildings have been designed by RCAF engineers in conjunction with civilian consultants, with the prime motives of economy, practicability and attractiveness. In comparison to present quarters, living in these new buildings will be like taking up residence in the Waldorf-Astoria. Where you have living quarters, you also have many expensive auxiliary services—such as roads, sewage systems, steam and electric mains. Until all the heating, plumbing and electrical installations are made, it is pointless to lay roads. As a matter of fact, a railway spur to the site is nearly completed. Many installations, including a $225,000 pump house: a 220,000 gallon concrete reservoir; a $210,000 sewage disposal plant; bulk oil storage tanks and equipment to cost $150,000 are all part of the plan — and underway.
And there are other buildings to be started later. Contracts have not yet been let for the new Ground Instruction School but it is expected that construction will begin some time this fall. Estimated cost for the GIS will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $750,000. Also included in the project is a recreation hall, but to date, we understand that arrangements have not been finalized.