Quarry Park is a mixed-use community in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. For 50 years it was a

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

extraction site in the southeast quadrant of the city, surrounded by residential communities but used solely for industrial gravel production. In 2005, the land was purchased by a local development corporation and evolved into the community that it is today. With over 400 acres of community land, Quarry Park is now home to a market, a variety of

residential development A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family resident ...

s, riverside green space and corporate

office building An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific du ...

s including

Imperial Oil Imperial Oil Limited () is a Canadian petroleum company. It is Canada's second-largest integrated oil company. It is majority-owned by American oil company ExxonMobil, with a 69.6% ownership stake in the company. It is a producer of crude oil, ...

and Remington Development Corporation. Throughout Calgary, nearly 800 kilometers of pathways connect citizens to the natural landscape of the city. Because of this, Quarry Park residents have access to a 50-acre nature reserve. Built on the banks of the

Bow River The headwaters of the Bow River in Alberta, Canada, start at the Bow Glacier and Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake in Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Rocky Mountains. The glacial stream that feeds Bow Lake (Alberta), Bow Lake ...

, Quarry Park has been designed based on many

flood mitigation Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...

strategies to ensure the community does not face devastation at the hands of

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

ing. The Bow River flooded in the spring of 2013, causing major damage to many areas in Calgary and its surrounding communities. Quarry Park, despite being located in an evacuation zone, remained completely dry. The engineers of Quarry Park studied

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrology, hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as levee, dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclamation, Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a ...

s extensively, which are low-lying areas near water and often found in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and other seaside countries. Based on the engineering of polders, Quarry Park was built with an insulated, reinforced

riprap Riprap (in North American English), also known as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour (in British English) or rubble, is human-placed rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion. ...

berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of Soil compaction, compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a b ...

designed to withstand a one-in-100 year

event. Other precautions were also taken including a stormwater lift station to discharge rainwater into the Bow River, and overland

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

s to divert and filter water. All Quarry Park buildings are built to LEED gold standards and used recycled materials, including demolished and crushed asphalt, or concrete and aggregate from roads, parking lots and buildings. To manage stormwater, Quarry Park uses a linear pond and creek system that transports and cleans water before it flows back into the Bow River.

References

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