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Project stalled by rocky terrain
Moyle Drive Habitat for Humanity home to be delayed until next summer

Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Sylvie Lefort and her family will have to wait until next summer before moving into their Moyle Drive home.

Habitat for Humanity NWT, which is sponsoring a home for the family, said this week the plans must be redesigned because of problems with the rocky terrain and elevation of the site. The two-family project had been planned to be finished before Christmas, but is now delayed by six or seven months.

"We had some problems with the house design of the lot, so we are in the process of getting it redone," said Habitat for Humanity president Dave Hurley. "Hopefully by next year at this time we should be done."

Lefort's family, including her partner Ed Dithurbide and two children, celebrated a ground -breaking ceremony July 12, but it was discovered since then that the nature of the terrain would make construction more expensive. The duplex was to house another family of three in another unit.

Lefort said she learned about the project's delay earlier this summer, but added she is not too disappointed about the news.

"For us we know that it is going to happen and it doesn't really matter when it will happen," she said. "We know there are going to be bumps along the way and this is just the first one."

Hurley said it was necessary to redesign the home to keep the overall project affordable, though it was possible to move forward with the current design.

"We didn't think it was fair for the families to be given another bill for another $30,000 or $40,000, so we made the decision to delay it and work on redesigning the house with the lot itself," he said.

Highstreet Ventures Inc., which is working on Niven Heights and also constructed Copper Sky, is one of the larger donors to the project. The company is planning to put $55,000 of cash, goods and services toward the project, according to the company's website. Donations will include architectural services and framing, according to project manager Brad Procter.

He said doing foundational work in the city is notoriously "tricky" due to the elevations and contours of the rocks and the nature of the blasting required.

"The idea is to redesign the current foundation just to deal with the elevation on site a little better," he said. "Basically, this (redesign) would be to reduce the cost of the foundation. By doing so it will delay construction to next spring. With a redesign, the architect in the meantime will have to resubmit plans, go through the city again and then at that point wait for good weather."

Habitat continues to raise money to offset the costs of building the homes. Hurley isn't saying how many sponsors or how much has been raised to date, however, he says business partners were quickly informed of the changes to the project's new plans.

"When we made that decision (to redesign the homes), we went to the families first and then e-mailed our sponsors," he said. "Everybody understood the reasons why. And I think they appreciated that we let them know right away. Nobody has reneged on anything."

Hurley expects the design to be revised and completed this fall as the construction season slows down.

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