Kick -off for the expansion of the Aquicole station in Rimouski

The University of Quebec in Rimouski (UQAR) grants a contract of nearly 2.9 million dollars for the expansion work of the Aquicole station of the Institute of Sea Sciences (ISMER).

The contract is granted to the company LFG Construction of Carleton-sur-Mer, the lowest tenderer.

The work must start in July to end in the fall of 2026.

The vice-rector with human resources and administration, Benoît Desbiens, explains that the expansion of around 800 square meters will be carried out on the south-east side of the current building, so that the constructions will be arranged in the form of “U”, he describes.

This expansion project, estimated at a total of $ 6.7 million, must notably allow the addition of laboratories and the installation of new equipment, including wet basins. The latter must, among other things, be used to simulate the conditions under which certain species will live in 10 to 30 years.

The Aquicole station of theKNOW is located in Pointe-au-Père. It is a satellite laboratory of the type station marine From which seawater can in particular be pumped and then be analyzed and used in carrying out research in aquaculture, marine biology and ecotoxicology.

The current premises of the aquicole station are used as much as possible of their capacity, which limits the realization of certain research projects since the researchers are too cramped there.

We have very active researchers, especially at the Institute of Sea Sciences. There are new areas of research, so that took additional laboratories.

Federal and provincial governments have in turn offered financial aid of nearly three million dollars for the completion of this enlargement project.

Fire impacts

A fire damaged part of the installations in December 2024. Equipment and the structure of the building were damaged by the blaze and by smoke.

Ulics of fountain which were used for a study also perished in the fire.

Benoît Desbiens indicates that the reconstruction costs of the part of the building that has been affected are estimated at a sum of three to five million dollars.

He adds that reconstruction work should be launched in December.

We are in preparation for a call for tenders for reconstruction. It’s a little longer because there are insurance. You have to get along on the work, the way to resume thiscontinues the vice-rector.

The researchers who worked in this portion of the building were able to continue their work elsewhere, thanks to the collaboration of other research centers.