Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 43

The Experimental Army Signals Establish-
ment (EASE)—commonly known as the
Diefenbunker—was built in Carp, Ontario,
between 1959 and 1961 to shelter
Canada’s leaders in the event of nuclear
war. Owned and operated by the Department
of National Defence from 1959 to 1994,
the Diefenbunker was opened to the public
as a museum in 1998.
to protect the corrosion wrap on the pipe from damage.
Five compressor stations were also built, bringing the
total cost of construction to $130 million.
Project: Going Underground
Typically, DCL’s role usually ended with the construction
phase of a facility. But with the emergency government
headquarters buildings that it helped to construct
between 1959 and 1964—known as EASE (federal)
and BRIDGE (provincial)—DCL was responsible for
ongoing maintenance for a decade after completion.
At Carp, Ontario, the Experimental Army Signals
Establishment (EASE, or the Diefenbunker, after the
Prime Minister who implemented the plans for a decen-
tralized emergency government system) was designed
to resist a 5-megaton nuclear weapon detonating
1.1 miles away. Completed in 1961, the result was a
100,000-square-foot, four-storey underground structure
surrounded by a layer of carefully selected gravel some
five feet thick, the movement of which could absorb
major shocks.
More than four times as much reinforcement was
used compared to conventional heavy construction—
BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA
including 32,000 cubic yards of concrete and 5,000
tons of reinforcing steel. Concrete pours were large,
because joints between the different pours had to be
kept to a minimum—the longest pour lasted more than
45 continuous hours. The roof and base slabs were
both five feet thick and 154 feet on a side, while the
walls ranged from 2.5 to four feet thick. More than
90 miles of cable connecting the central bunker to
remote transmitter sites had to be buried in rock.
DCL managed the facility’s construction, with the
Foundation Company as the main contractor. To
minimize construction time, DCL used concurrent design
and build activities, along with the recently introduced
method of critical path project management (which DCL
and DND were among the first organizations to use for
construction planning and scheduling). A large three-
dimensional Plexiglas model also helped with allocating
space during the design process.
On the provincial front, the BRIDGE or Regional
Emergency Government Headquarters facilities (in
Nanaimo, Penhold, Shilo, Camp Borden, Valcartier
and Debert) were all completed by the end of the
1963–64 fiscal year, with a total contract value of just
over $19 million.
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