Tuktoyaktuk Air Terminal Building

Williams Engineering (WE) provided structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering and consulting for a new air terminal named the Tuktoyaktuk Air Terminal with Nadji Architects and the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The Tuktoyaktuk Air Terminal Building project involved designing, tendering and construction services for the new 250 square metre single-storey air terminal and CARS (Community Airport Radio Station) office building to replace the existing, aging infrastructure. It is the sole air terminal building to service the Tuktoyaktuk community of approximately 870 people.

Mechanically, the Tuktoyaktuk Air Terminal Building was designed with many standard high-efficiency features typically used in northern facilities. Emphasis was placed on items with the best lifecycle costs for this type of building. The features include low-flow plumbing fixtures, high-efficiency oil boilers, compact architectural design, heat recovery ventilation system, hydronic heat trace on sewer lines, variable speed heating pumps, indirect domestic water heater, programmable timer controls on the ventilation system to limit its operation to occupied hours, and dual speed ventilation fan for ventilation and cooling requirements. It was important to use items such as the hydronic heat trace on sewer lines and indirect domestic water heaters to minimize the use of electricity, which is supplied to the community by diesel generators.

Electrically, energy efficient T-8 32-Watt light fixtures with electronic ballasts were used for the interior building lighting system along with standard power systems for a building of this size. A specialty communication and weather data collection console was also installed to meet the needs of the CARS operations.