Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 17/02) - Work got underway last week on the foundation for the new Aurora College campus in Inuvik.

The $600,000 contract went to GDC Civil Construction who have excavated out 1,000s of yards of peat from the site.

"There was formerly a pond in that area and there is a lot of peatmoss on it," said Aurora College President Maurice Evans.

When Grollier Hall was built in the same location, the area was covered in gravel and there were some piles driven in, but the new plan calls for a refrigerated pad to keep the ground frozen.

"With our changing climate here, we weren't so sure that piles were the way to go," Evans said. "We couldn't be sure that when the piles were driven in, that we would actually be hitting bedrock."

He said along with the peat, there were also many large boulders in the area, making pile-driving even more difficult. The company will excavate and fill the hole with gravel and compacted dirt before installing the pad.

"These thermal siphons -- like they used at the hospital and the corrections centre -- will basically keep the ground frozen," Evans said.

The new facility will hold science labs for the NRTP students, who now do their lab work at the Aurora Research Institute.

"That building was never designed as an educational facility and therefore the learning environment isn't optimal," Evans said.

He says they plan more of a "college community," where students will feel more comfortable and motivated to succeed.

The new campus has been put off due to budget constraints, but Evans says they hope to catch up over the next two summers.

"We only plan to be in this building one more year," he said.

"We are a little behind schedule already, but we're hoping that we'll be able to make up time over the course of the year."

The plan is to have the new campus open for Sept. 2003.

For housing at the new campus, there will be some renovations done to the old "Blueberry Patch."

Eighteen of the old row houses will be renovated, to provide some student and some public housing.

The territorial government funded $200,000 towards the cost of the $400,000 renovation.

There are also future plans for a new $3 million college residence building.