The Barrie Simcoe Emergency Services Campus represents a joint venture between the City of Barrie and County of Simcoe to provide an integrated campus for police, fire, and paramedic services. This LEED Certified $85M state-of-the-art facility caters to the distinct needs of each user group while also offering economies of scale through shared facilities such as dispatch, cafeteria/dining, classrooms, meeting rooms, training facilities, and locker rooms. The City of Barrie and County of Simcoe appointed Gillam as the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) contractor for this project.

This project is the largest municipal IPD project in Ontario and involves the construction of 187,771 sq.ft. four level post-disaster emergency services headquarters complete with future expansion capabilities and a separate maintenance building. An additional six level building will be completed in Phase 2 which will provide special training and simulation rooms. The campus is built on a 23-acre site which is adjacent to residential and commercial facilities. The site falls within the MOE’s source water protection plan which required a sophisticated civil and environmental strategy to ensure all environmental protection requirements were achieved.

The project incorporates industry leading IPD/LEAN principles including:

  1. A multi-party agreement to properly align interests, including key subcontractors.
  2. Training of all project stakeholders on IPD & LEAN processes.
  3. A “Big Room” as the main forum for decision-making throughout the design and construction stage, with key project participants co-locating throughout the works.
  4. Attendance in the Big Room by a large and diverse stakeholder group.
  5. Overall, a highly collaborative and transparent working style