Our foundation is adjustable to compensate for settling and the loss of permafrost, because the building is built on discontinuous permafrost. The land where CCHRC is located was cleared for an experimental farm about 80 years ago, which increased the rate of thawing. Sensors extend through the slab foundation and underlying foam well into the permafrost to monitor any changes in ground temperature. No significant changes have been detected to date. The building site was preloaded with 1.5 times its own weight for one full year in order to compact the site as an added precaution. The soil for this came from the duck pond and was used to bring the ground floor of the RTF to final grade (and created a basement). A layer of foam under the foundation helps to insulate the ground from the building’s heat.

There are 18 jacking spread-footers; each has several jacking points (54 total). A non frost susceptible gravel backfill is compacted around each footer. The spread footers can be pushed downward as the wall is lifted to level the building after which structural foam can be injected through preinstalled tubes to fill the space between spread-footers and the grade beam. A movement of just 3mm can be detected during a building survey and the building may be jacked to fix the settlement.