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For more than 55 years PCL Construction has helped to build some of the most iconic buildings in Winnipeg, including True North Square and most recently the Inuit Art Centre at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, opening in early 2021. The company is now utilizing its decades of ingenuity, adaptability and local connections to come up with what could be considered some of its most important structures yet. The company's Special Projects division created highly mobile, medical-grade isolation pods that can house COVID-19 patients. The 20 to 40 ft. shipping containers — dubbed Quaran-Tin Pods — can host up to five hospital beds and combine easily to make multiple attached spaces to accommodate additional equipment. "It's a very quick set up. The container gets dropped off, it's levelled, it's connected to a power source, and it's up and running," explains Monique Buckberger, District Manager for PCL Construction, adding this makes the units ideal for remote locations, which has piqued the interest of the Red Cross. PCL worked with other Winnipeg subcontractors and suppliers, including Price Industries which supplied the HVAC system, to ensure the units could also be effectively heated, cooled and sterilized. "There are many other things that we have identified and are working on to assist health care providers and businesses to future-proof facilities to reduce the risk from the virus as we return to work," says Sean Barnes, Vice-President of Special Projects for PCL North America. PCL also rolled out its Citizen Care Pod, a retrofitted shipping container with integrated technology that can be rapidly deployed to expedite testing, screening, and eventually vaccination on a mass scale. Beyond COVID-19 it can be further augmented to address future public health needs. PCL is now also customizing 90 shipping containers into visitation shelters for residents living in long-term personal care homes throughout Manitoba. These pods will mean people can now reunite with their friends, families and loved ones, safely. The pods are being fabricated locally, with Manitoba trades. PCL CONSTRUCTION Building opportunities beyond the pandemic Courtesy of PCL Construction YES! WINNIPEG 35