[Andy6]

Found this article in the Free Press, introducing the concept of concrete piles as one of the 'latest methods' to be used in the construction of the Union Bank building:

Manitoba Free Press, April 3, 1903, p. 3, col. 2.

WILL BORE TO BED ROCK

New Methods of Construction to be Employed on the Union Bank.

Robert Green, who represents the Chicago firm of John Green, building contractors, is registered at the Vendome Hotel. He is in the city to commence operations on the new bank and office structure to be erected by the Union bank at the corner of Main and William streets. His part of the work is to bore into the earth until rock bottom is struck, so that the amount of concrete necessary for the foundations can be determined on.

This morning he will start boring, using specially prepared augurs (sic) for the purpose, and a hole will be put down at each of the corners of the building. This work will occupy about a week, and once that the depth to the rock has been found, nothing more will be done until the real work commences. Thus the new building will have the advantage of the latest methods employed. Heretofore it has been the custom to run in the concrete in solid blocks. This has been very expensive, because the whole of basement area had to be excavated. The new method is to bore holes some twenty inches in diameter over the ground to be covered, and these are filled with the liquid cement. This “concrete pile” is far superior to the old ones of wood, both because of its strength and imperishable quality and because of its greater cheapness.

Outside of Chicago the new system has never been used on large buildings, but in that city, where they have to go over 100 feet in many instances before the rock is reached, it proved satisfactory, both for its economy and for its strength.