Breaking New Ground—Stories from Defence Construction Breaking_new_ground | Page 70

Project: SAMSON
New strategic communications equipment arrived in the
1970s, in the form of the Strategic Automated Message
Switching Operational Network (SAMSON). DCL was
responsible for awarding contracts, inspections and
payments for SAMSON’s facilities in Penhold, Halifax
(Mill Cove), Halifax (Debert), Borden and Carp, as well
as at CFB Lahr.
A Statement of Requirements was issued in February
1973, and by the middle of that year, a senior DCL
engineer was on loan to the SAMSON project office.
Contracts worth almost $2 million were awarded in
1974–75 for building modifications, and work continued
through the 1970s. SAMSON was formally commissioned
in August 1980 and was fully automated by April the
following year. It remained in operation for just over
15 years: on September 15, 1995, the Borden Node
transmitted its last message using the system.
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Project: The Megaplex
For anyone who’s ever seen, or trained in, the
Megacomplex in St. Jean, Quebec—not far outside
Montreal—the building is an impressive sight. Known
by many as “the Megaplex,” it varies in height from 5
to 12 floors and stretches for 1,400 feet along a roughly
north-south axis. Inside, its residents find almost
everything they need: accommodation, classrooms,
dining facilities and physical training facilities. It was
one of DCL’s largest projects in the 1970s—and one of
the most problematic.
The project’s vision saw it serving as a language school,
a recruit training facility and a technical training school.
The budget was $88 million, with occupation planned
for 1977–78.
The work wasn’t finished until 1982, however, and
construction costs soared to just over $100 million,
resulting from a long and very confrontational construction
strike in Quebec, inflation, changes in building codes,
difficulties with design development, design changes,
implementation claims and litigation.
BREAKING NEW GROUND
DEFENCE CONSTRUCTION CANADA