Jukebox was also challenged by this area. They had to spend months driving piles to support the concrete structure, and they only ended up doing one level of underground parking. There's actually two levels of above ground parking at the Jukebox.

There area is definitely a challenge for all of the projects in the vicinity that have been proposed. The reality though is that every corner of Vancouver Island is "close to" a fault line...heck, most of BC is. But the added challenge of the soil/clay in this area makes digging down and laying a foundation particularly challenging/costly, so I can appreciate their desire to go wood instead of concrete here.

i think we know what they meant with the soil conditions and peat and some kind of former/underground creek/aquifer there. it was just an odd way of the tc phrasing it.

The TC phrased it that way because the letter from the architect phrased it that way, and the article uses quotes from the letter.

it will be interesting to see what happens to the City's repairs to this intersection as more buildings with underground parking are constructed around it. Even with only one level of underground there will be some dewatering occur as a result of perimeter drains around their foundations. highly saturated peat will compress under load as it is dewatered so there could be some settlement depending on how deep the city went with their remedial measures. Jukebox is on piles so it shouldn't impact that building but any that are built on shallow raft slabs, older buildings on standard spread footings, as well as the road sidewalk etc. near this intersection may see some settlement.