Centre Block Underground Services (CBUS)

Besides being the home to the Senate, the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament, the Centre Block also contains many important offices and facilities. These include the Prime Minister's Office, the Office of the Leader of the Opposition and those of other party leaders, the offices of many Senators, Ministers and Members of Parliament, House of Commons staff, several Parliamentary Committee rooms, the Parliamentary Press Gallery, and many others.

In this era of computers, fax machines and the Internet, all of these busy offices require a great deal of electricity, as well as space for advanced systems. To deal with these pressing needs, Public Works and Government Services Canada built the Centre Block Underground Services facility, known as "CBUS" for short.

Buried 12 m (39 ft. 4 in.) underground, at the northwest corner of the Centre Block, there is now a two-storey, 4,000 m² (13,123 ft²) facility. CBUS houses new high-voltage electrical transformers and emergency power generators, provides space for advanced computer and communications facilities, and provides much-needed storage space and delivery reception facilities.

The first challenge of the CBUS project was to dig the rock out. A combination of hoe-ramming and monitored and controlled blasting did the trick. In all, eight tons of explosives were used during the excavation process, which was carried out 24 hours a day, from May to September 1997.

Approximately 30,000 m³ (98,425 ft³) of rock was removed from the site. It took 3,000 double-axle dump trucks, working 24 hours a day from May to September 1997, to remove the rock.

Once the rock was removed, the way was paved to build the concrete structure, which took 570 truckloads of concrete.

The entire construction process was closely monitored by the National Research Council and the Federal Heritage Building Review Office to protect the heritage characteristics of all buildings.