Regina Construction IV

[gecho111]

Womp womp, I just got an email that AE Wilson dog park tender was cancelled. I think it was supposed to have started construction by now but I hadn't seen any work.

Looked up tender and reason stated is that it will be rolled into a larger project at a future date.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

This will be nice.

You are joking right. I assume another 2-year project with corresponding traffic nightmares.

I note that they are replacing all the concrete overpasses with steel beam spans. I assume these will last longer? Also it sounds like they are raising the bridges like the did for 6/11 North.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

From the release:



What is the point of this? Taxpayers gain nothing from this gift to private interests. This is nothing but an accounting trick to make it seem like its better for us, but we clearly will end up paying more since the third party will demand a profit and borrows money at a higher rate than the province can.

The only way this benefits is if there a transfer of risk to the proponent. Most of the risk is in construction, but it does not say the private entity is doing that.

[StealthGirl]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

From the release:



What is the point of this? Taxpayers gain nothing from this gift to private interests. This is nothing but an accounting trick to make it seem like its better for us, but we clearly will end up paying more since the third party will demand a profit and borrows money at a higher rate than the province can.

Yeah, I thought that was a bad deal as well. I'm not against profit, but hospital parking shouldn't be a profitable venture. It should be a break even one and what private company wants that. I hope there is a lot of scrutiny on this.

[Newstart]

Originally Posted by Stormer

Commercial construction costs in Regina have been among the highest in N. America for may years.

uhhhhh say what? What is the source of this intel?

Construction costs in Regina historically and currently are anywhere from half to 1/3 what they are in British Columbia, Seattle, LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto. They are less than Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton.

Highest in North America? I'd hardly think so, unless I've missed something with the Cost Consultants and Lenders...

What I will say is it appears to be a lot of engineers love to over-engineer the living crap out of simple structures and not utilize more traditional building methods or materials used quite literally in every North American City...

Not looking to be argumentative or stir the pot but a statement that claims Regina's Commercial Construction Costs are some of the highest in North America leaves me slightly incredulous.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by Newstart

uhhhhh say what? What is the source of this intel?

Construction costs in Regina historically and currently are anywhere from half to 1/3 what they are in British Columbia, Seattle, LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Toronto. They are less than Winnipeg, Calgary, and Edmonton.

Highest in North America? I'd hardly think so, unless I've missed something with the Cost Consultants and Lenders...

What I will say is it appears to be a lot of engineers love to over-engineer the living crap out of simple structures and not utilize more traditional building methods or materials used quite literally in every North American City...

Not looking to be argumentative or stir the pot but a statement that claims Regina's Commercial Construction Costs are some of the highest in North America leaves me slightly incredulous.

I don't have stats but I have been told this by developers. I was thinking in particular about large buildings including skyscrapers. A big part of this is the need for expensive foundations due to the soil conditions.

[Stormer]

The new school where Imperial is now will free up three other school sites for infill:

https://leaderpost.com/news/design-p...inas-northwest

[gecho111]

Originally Posted by Stormer

The new school where Imperial is now will free up three other school sites for infill:

https://leaderpost.com/news/design-p...inas-northwest

With the Haultain Crossing site fully built out after 7 years I wonder if Habitat will do another big development project like that.

[UPP]

Originally Posted by djforsberg

All places where public housing, which is much needed, could go.

I don't think St. Peter School will be used for infill. It is currently largely used by O'Neill High School which is literally a stone's throw away. O'Neill's enrollment is on the upward trend so they will likely need more of the space at St. Peter going forward.

[blacktrojan3921]

Do joint-use schools actually work? I'm not sure how common they are everywhere else, but it feels like Regina is going all in on them for future school constructions.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

Do joint-use schools actually work? I'm not sure how common they are everywhere else, but it feels like Regina is going all in on them for future school constructions.

How much government funding does the Catholic system get in Saskatchewan compared to Public schools. I would absolutely find it concerning if catholic schools were getting extra funding through merging on a public school project.

[gecho111]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

Do joint-use schools actually work? I'm not sure how common they are everywhere else, but it feels like Regina is going all in on them for future school constructions.

Economies of scale I guess. Many of the old schools were small single story buildings. I imagine the new ones tend to be bigger than the sum of the schools being consolidated which provides room for growth.

I still find it kind of funny that the Harbour Landing school had 6 double-decker modular additions, plus a single added to it right from the start.

[Nathan]

Originally Posted by blacktrojan3921

Do joint-use schools actually work? I'm not sure how common they are everywhere else, but it feels like Regina is going all in on them for future school constructions.

Most other provinces either have gone away with the 2 different school system model or never really had it to begin with. So it's probably difficult to find many comparable situations.

Personally, I think it'd be more efficient to have 1 school system and then have the churches run extra religion-based classes (aka Sunday school) if there is actually a desire for it. Religious organizations are supposed to be non-profit organizations anyway.

I'd also want to remove all government funding from religious schools. The mess with the private Christian schools lately is enough of an incentive to get out of that murky situation.

[Festivus]

Originally Posted by one_brick_at_a_time

How much government funding does the Catholic system get in Saskatchewan compared to Public schools. I would absolutely find it concerning if catholic schools were getting extra funding through merging on a public school project.

In Saskatchewan all public-funded schools (both Public and Catholic) receive the same funding based on a few factors, such as student enrolment and busing costs (so rural schools will get more $ per student because of additional busing costs, etc). Some additional money is handed out for capital investments such as new schools, etc, based on specific needs. But overall, the funding is the same between the two types of divisions, there isn't any secret Vatican money coming in (as far as anyone is aware).

[UPP]

Originally Posted by Nathan

Most other provinces either have gone away with the 2 different school system model or never really had it to begin with. So it's probably difficult to find many comparable situations.

Personally, I think it'd be more efficient to have 1 school system and then have the churches run extra religion-based classes (aka Sunday school) if there is actually a desire for it. Religious organizations are supposed to be non-profit organizations anyway.

I'd also want to remove all government funding from religious schools. The mess with the private Christian schools lately is enough of an incentive to get out of that murky situation.

Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario have public and separate school divisions. Quebec used to as well but they shifted to English and French during the Quiet Revolution of the 1960's.

The reason why these 4 provinces have dual divisions goes back to Confederation. To appease minority religions in Ontario and Quebec who had schools in place, these schools were enshrined constitutionally when Ontario and Quebec became part of Canada (Catholic schools in Ontario and Protestant Schools in Quebec). Since then, any province with separate schools in place when they entered Confederation were constitutionally guaranteeed to continue having their schools. Saskatchewan and Alberta met this criteria. So, public separate school divisions are constitutionally guaranteed in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

To answer the question of another post, until recently, Public divisions received slightly more funding per pupil (about $300 per student) however that gap has closed and in comparable systems such as Regina Catholic vs Regina Public or Greater Saskatoon Catholic vs Saskatoon Public, the funding is virtually identical. Both divisions run very efficiently.

Finally, someone asked why Regina has so many dual-track schools. School divisions in Saskatchewan have no authority to complete capital projects on their own. This includes new school construction. About 10-12 years ago, the Ministry of Learning decided that no new Catholic school could be built without a joint public school. So, theoretically, a public school could be built alone, but not a separate one although that hasn't happened in Regina. School rebuilds, such as Sacred Heart School, Scott Collegiate, Douglas Park School, etc are exempt.

[StealthGirl]

Regina Public has some associate schools under its banner as well (Regina Christian School, Huda School, Harvest Christian Academy).

I believe some of the joint elementary schools in Regina are sharing school buses as well.

The mess with the school in Harbour Landing is that the developers were allowed to change the density of the division on the fly and the school that had been the appropriate size for the original plan couldn't handle the new plan. The coming problem that no one is really seriously looking at in Regina is that there are a ton of overflowing elementary schools and these students will all flood into the high school system where they haven't opened a new high school since 1996 (and lost one since then when Usher closed in 2008). I'm not confident that the current talk about a SE high school will come to anything; they've been talking about a SE high school for 30 years. At one point, the proposed site was where the Temple is on Wascana Gate.

[Festivus]

Originally Posted by StealthGirl

Regina Public has some associate schools under its banner as well (Regina Christian School, Huda School, Harvest Christian Academy).

I believe some of the joint elementary schools in Regina are sharing school buses as well.

The mess with the school in Harbour Landing is that the developers were allowed to change the density of the division on the fly and the school that had been the appropriate size for the original plan couldn't handle the new plan. The coming problem that no one is really seriously looking at in Regina is that there are a ton of overflowing elementary schools and these students will all flood into the high school system where they haven't opened a new high school since 1996 (and lost one since then when Usher closed in 2008). I'm not confident that the current talk about a SE high school will come to anything; they've been talking about a SE high school for 30 years. At one point, the proposed site was where the Temple is on Wascana Gate.

The proposed Catholic High School (or maybe joint use?) in the SE (Creeks area) is theoretically happening...but as always it's being massively opposed by people who live there, even though the plans were in place prior to them buying the houses. Everyone wants a school within walking distance, but not on their street.

Harbour Landing desperately needs a second set of schools, but I believe the new building is greater than four years away due to disagreement between the city and developer (developer doesn't want to give up the agreed-upon land because that would mean fewer houses sold).

At some point the city needs to take over new developments and stop allowing developers to dictate so many things.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by Festivus

The proposed Catholic High School (or maybe joint use?) in the SE (Creeks area) is theoretically happening...but as always it's being massively opposed by people who live there, even though the plans were in place prior to them buying the houses. Everyone wants a school within walking distance, but not on their street.

Harbour Landing desperately needs a second set of schools, but I believe the new building is greater than four years away due to disagreement between the city and developer (developer doesn't want to give up the agreed-upon land because that would mean fewer houses sold).

At some point the city needs to take over new developments and stop allowing developers to dictate so many things.

Pretty sure the high school would go north of Arcola. Edit: The City's concept plan says it will be on Aren's Rd. south of Chuka.

[gecho111]

Rail going in for the Cargill crushing plant already.

They've been doing piles since the spring without a single piece of structural steel up yet. Probably piles, utility runs and concrete pads will be done before buildings start going up. There must be hundreds of piles out there by now, it would be interesting to see some drone images of the site. I saw some pipeline work heading toward the site from the south, I imagine that facility will use a lot of gas.

[one_brick_at_a_time]

Originally Posted by gecho111

Rail going in for the Cargill crushing plant already.

They've been doing piles since the spring without a single piece of structural steel up yet. Probably piles, utility runs and concrete pads will be done before buildings start going up. There must be hundreds of piles out there by now, it would be interesting to see some drone images of the site. I saw some pipeline work heading toward the site from the south, I imagine that facility will use a lot of gas.

Such a great shot! Loblaw looks gigantic!