PCL lends expertise to Citizen Care Pod
PCL Construction is part of a team of Canadian businesses that has designed and built customizable mobile COVID-19 testing units.
Launched on June 16, the Citizen Care Pod is a smart screening and testing pod that integrates intelligent technology in a modular design. Each pod is customizable, and outfitted with the capabilities to enable turnkey mobile COVID-19 testing in high-traffic environments. The goal of the service is to not only provide relief to hospitals, but also empower businesses and communities to be leaders in health promotion and disease prevention.
“The Citizen Care Pod is a turnkey solution that accelerates recovery for businesses and public institutions, such as airports, offices, sports and entertainment complexes, and construction sites,” says Carl Demarco, the co-founder of Citizen Care Pods Corporation.
PCL’s role in the project is in part as constructor of the units. The company is using modular construction methods to manufacture and assemble the pods. It is retrofitting shipping containers with customizable options to support rapid delivery and installation to any site, including high-traffic or remote locations.
Each pod is a retrofitted 20-foot or 40-foot shipping container that is equipped with four to 10 testing stations that separate front-line testing administrators from patients to be tested or screened.
PCL has also brought its Job Site Insights technology system to bear on the project. The software is being used to monitor climate conditions such as temperature, pressure and humidity within the pod, and can notify occupants when thresholds are exceeded.
Supplementing Job Site Insights is the Insight Connected Platform, which enables care givers to monitor wait times and crowd sizing via a single dashboard.
“At PCL, we anticipate challenges and are proactive in developing solutions that make construction safer, more efficient and more sustainable,” says PCL’s vice-president and district manager Kelly Wallace. “The Citizen Care Pod’s modular construction and integrated technology make it a sustainable, plug-and-play solution that can be rapidly deployed to support the safe reopening of our economy.”
PCL is manufacturing the Citizen Care Pods at two Canadian facilities: in Etobicoke, Ontario and Nisku, Alberta, as well as at a handful of locations across the United States. Using modular enables the company to build and prepare units for quick installation, cut down costs using economies of scale, standardize work and automate processes, and reduce embodied energy and waste.
Each completed pod can be installed with a forklift or positioned in place from a flatbed truck.
Also working alongside on the project are WZMH Architects. Partner Zenon Radewych co-founded Citizen Care Pods Corporation with Demarco.
“Even though the benefits of the Citizen Care Pod are far-reaching, the design and construction process was uniquely local because we could only use local materials and parts,” says Radewych. “The story of the Citizen Care Pod is really a story of the entrepreneurial spirit during the coronavirus pandemic.”
The creators believe Citizen Care Pod has applications beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. It can include capabilities for testing and screening for flu season and viral outbreaks, delivering vaccines, and can be further augmented to address future public health needs.
Citizen Care Pods Corporation is in negotiations with a national lab diagnostics company to deliver a reliable testing experience for Citizen Care Pod patients.