Green Line to demolish Lilydale by end of 2023
Community Event
On Wednesday, November 8, Green Line hosted a community event for residents to watch the first wall get torn down and celebrate with coffee and cupcakes. A crowd gathered to bid farewell to the controversial poultry processing plant and share their excitement for the changes to come in their community.
As the Green Line project continues towards the start of main construction, communities along the future LRT line will start to see changes as Early Works projects are undertaken. These projects pave the way for future Green Line transit infrastructure, help minimize project risks, and create efficiencies for construction of Green Line tracks, stations, tunnels and bridges.
One of these projects is the demolition of the Lilydale chicken factory located in Ramsay. In 2017 The City of Calgary began working with Sofina Foods to acquire the land of the former Lilydale chicken plant in the neighbourhood of Ramsay. In January 2022, The City took possession of the land and began plans for its demolition.
Currently, Green Line's contractor, Dakota Inc., is on site coordinating the demolition, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
While Green Line knows the Ramsay community is eager to say goodbye to this building, it will take some time to complete. Interior work has begun, including removal of interior materials and equipment remaining from the original operations, sorting those materials to be recycled, and preparing the building structure itself for demolition. Once that is complete, the community can expect to see more activity on the site as heavy equipment is used to break down the structure.
This will be followed by the removal of materials, clean up, and preparation of the site for its future use for the Green Line. It is anticipated that once main construction begins for the Green Line LRT, this location will be used partially for the future LRT alignment, and for construction staging.
Once the Green Line is complete, the remaining land not used for the alignment will be used for another purpose. However, the future use of this land has not yet been determined.
The City and Green Line know that demolitions are an important part of the evolution of our communities and that residents of Ramsay are eager to see the revitalization that comes with the construction of the Green Line.