Development of the Forks of the Thames Revitalization project began in March 1999 when the City of London, Ontario, Canada, prepared a concept plan for creating a children's water play area as part of the city's initiatives for downtown renewal.

After the city's Strategic Planning Committee spent nearly a year reviewing, consulting, and gathering technical input from architects, construction experts and environmental groups, many issues and concerns emerged. Design revisions on the $2 million project led to a development scheme that would improve connections between the Forks and downtown, and provide opportunity for shoreline improvements, the re-creation of the mill site, creation of the play area, infrastructure improvements to Harris Park, a tower structure to provide visibility, a focal gathering point, opportunities for concessions and washroom facilities, and additional parking.

Lafarge North America's role as partner in the construction process began in the spring of 2001 when the company's Construction Materials division was approached by one of the project's contractors, UCC Group Inc., to provide input to the concrete element of the project. (The other contractor was Pacific Paving Ltd.) Once the complexities and textures of the feature walls were identified, Lafarge's recently developed self-compacting concrete product, Agilia, became an obvious choice offering significant benefits to the project.

Agilia was developed in the late 1990s at Paris-based parent company Lafarge Group's Lyon, France, research lab and was first introduced to European contractors. In early 2000, then Lafarge Canada Inc. premiered the SCC in North America in the base columns of the 48-story Wall Centre, a commercial and residential development in Vancouver, B.C.

In creating the Thames water play area, architect PMA Landscape Architects and engineer Stephenson Engineering utilized 545 cubic meters of colored and impressed Supercrete fiber-reinforced concrete, and curved feature walls consisting of 200 cubic meters of colored and textured Agilia. All concrete came from a Lafarge plant in London. The SCC product's plastic properties — such as high deformability, enhanced flow characteristics and resistance to segregation — resulted in a finish that was especially critical given the detail of the form liner and the desired finish required.

Mock-up walls, first formed and placed prior to construction as a basis for acceptance of Agilia, approached the surface finish of P1. The mock-ups and in situ walls resulted in a consistent finish, improved aesthetics and sharp lines. The performance of the colored concrete, combined with the random stone form system, resulted in a unique appearance that melds with the existing architecture and landscape. In addition, strength results with Agilia on this project were in excess of 70Mpa (10,000 psi) in 28 days, which far exceeded the design requirements.