For professional engineers in private practice For professional engineers in private practice
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011
YOUNG PROFESSIONALS FORUM WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO HIRE THE BEST EMPLOYEES? HIGH TENSION MEDIAN CABLE BARRIERS BIM - A CONSTRUCTION FIX
AFTER
HURRICANE
IGOR REBUILDING NEWFOUNDLAND’S INFRASTRUCTURE
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contents
January/February 2011 Volume 52, No. 1
Cover: NASA satellite image of Hurricane Igor on September 13, 2010 in the Atlantic Ocean. See story page 20.
features Speaking Out Young Professionals Forum II - Attracting the Best. Six panelists discuss what engineering graduates are looking for in prospective employers.
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Infrastructure After Hurricane Igor. Consulting engineers are helping rebuild Newfoundland’s battered infrastructure. By Andrew Safer
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Water Treatment Managing a Plant in 3D. Sophisticated software helps operators run a remote water treatment plant Engineers & the Law. See story page 33.
departments
in Zama City, Alberta. ISL Engineering and Land Services
24
Transportation High Tension Median Cable Barriers. How lives have been saved on the Deerfoot Trail in Calgary.
Comment
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Up Front
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ACEC Review
9
Windsor-Essex Parkway. A new highway to one of
Engineers & the Law
33
Canada’s busiest U.S. borders has been designed
Products
34
Advertiser Index
37
The Human Edge
38
EBA / Tetra Tech
26
with special features to minimize its impact. By Bronwen Parsons
28
Computers Fixing Interferences with BIM. Building Information
Next issue: School building in Alberta; Diefenbunker Fire Protection; Cameco Operations Centre.
Modeling can reduce problems on the construction site. By Jay Polding, CAD Microsolutions
January/February 2011
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engineer FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE
comment
CANADIAN
C O N S U LT I N G
Editor
Bronwen Parsons E-mail: bparsons@ccemag.com (416) 510-5119 Senior Publisher
Facing up to a wall of troubles
Maureen Levy E-mail: mlevy@ccemag.com (416) 510-5111 Art Director
Ellie Robinson
E
ngineering is a vocation for optimists. It is all about fixing and creating things, and improving the world for people’s benefit. You have to have a positive vision in order to build things and move ahead. Which is a good thing, considering the gloomy forecasts I’ve been hearing lately. Take climate change. All kinds of government departments and other organizations are doing studies about the impact of climate change on our roads, water systems and other infrastructure. But you only had to see the vast scale of the flooding in Queensland in January to know that the plans we make could be in vain. It is probably unrealistic to think that we will ever have the financial resources to build infrastructure that is robust enough to withstand the natural forces unleashed in every possible future catastrophe. Besides all that, a report just came out from some Canadian climate change researchers that paints an even grimmer picture than most. The report, published in Nature Geoscience Advance Online on January 9, says that even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases altogether now, the continuing melting of glaciers and ice sheets will raise sea levels by at least four metres over the next millennium. Oceans would flood vast lowland and coastal areas, and cause lots of other havoc. Co-author of the report, Professor Shawn Marshall of the University of Calgary, told Associated Press: “We were kind of surprised by the result, actually. Even if we change behaviour and totally change society, we’re still in store for a lot of bad scenarios. I feel a bit defeatist from it.” On a different tack — helping out in developing countries — I didn’t feel much better after attending a debate at the Engineers Without Borders conference in Toronto on January 14. We’re all used to hearing about the shortcomings of the old “colonial” approach to international aid, where western engineers ride in and build mega-infrastructure projects that don’t serve the local populations. Now I was hearing from young people who have seen some equally ambivalent results from more recent aid policies, policies that profess to be “hands off” and focused on small-scale technologies. The young engineers at the debate talked of staying in the villages of Africa in the poorest homes where the solar oven, or the pedal power machine, sits in a box in the corner of the kitchen, left unused because for various reasons the equipment wasn’t practical and didn’t meet the real needs. They talked about foreign officials coming in with arrogant attitudes and preset ideas. Still, the enthusiasm, the energy and the resourcefulness of these young people at Engineers Without Borders is hopeful and encouraging. They seem confident that they can find the right answers for helping the developing world. Even in this post-modern world, the enduring force that drives engineers and others to persevere against a wall of difficulties is the will and the desire to do good for others, whether those are people in other countries or future generations in Canada. Bronwen Parsons
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Contributing Editor
Rosalind Cairncross, P.Eng. Advertising Sales Manager
Vince Naccarato E-mail: vnaccarato@ccemag.com (416) 510-5118 Editorial Advisors
Bruce Bodden, P.Eng., Gerald Epp, P.Eng., Chris Newcomb, P.Eng., Laurier Nichols, ing., Lee Norton, P.Eng., Jonathan Rubes, P.Eng., Paul Ruffell, P.Eng., Andrew Steeves, P.Eng., Ron Wilson, P.Eng. Circulation
Beata Olechnowicz (416) 442-5600 x3543 bolechnowicz@bizinfogroup.ca Production Co-ordinator
Karen Samuels (416) 510-5190 Vice President, Publishing Business Information Group (BIG)
Alex Papanou
President, Business Information Group (BIG)
Bruce Creighton Head Office
12 Concorde Place, Suite 800 Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 Tel: (416) 442-5600 Fax: (416) 510-5134 CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER is published by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. EDITORIAL PURPOSE: Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine covers innovative engineering projects, news and business information for professional engineers engaged in private consulting practice. The editors assume no liability for the accuracy of the text or its fitness for any particular purpose. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Canada, 1 year $59.95; 2 years $89.95 + taxes Single copy $7.00 Cdn. + taxes. (GST 809751274-RT0001). United States U.S. $59.95. Foreign U.S. $83.95. PRINTED IN CANADA. Title registered at Trademarks Office, Ottawa. Copyright 1964. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner(s). ISSN: 0008-3267 (print), ISSN: 1923-3337 (digital) POSTAL INFORMATION: Publications Mail Agreement No. 40069240. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to Circulation Dept., Canadian Consulting Engineer, 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2. USPS 016-099. US office of publication: 2424 Niagara Falls Blvd., Niagara Falls, NY 14304-5709. Periodicals postage paid at Niagara Falls, NY. US Postmaster: send address changes to Canadian Consulting Engineer, PO Box 1118, Niagara Falls NY 14304. PRIVACY: From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us. tel: 1-800-668-2374, fax: 416-510-5134, e-mail: jhunter@businessinformationgroup.ca, mail to: Privacy Officer, BIG, 12 Concorde Place, Suite 800, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2. Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Member of the Canadian Business Press
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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. PAP Registration No. 11002.
to e
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Transports Quebec
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BUSINESS
The irritant of red tape Canada’s government is creating a Red Tape Reduction Commission. It will focus on small and medium-sized businesses and consult with them “to identify irritants that have a clear detrimental effect on growth, competitiveness and innovation.” The commission will be chaired by Rob Moore, Minister of State, Small Business and Tourism.
Turcot Interchange replacement project, Montreal.
CITIES
$3 billion to rebuild Turcot Interchange After years of debate and false starts, Quebec’s Ministry of Transport is set to embark on a massive reconstruction of the infamous Turcot interchange in downtown Montreal. Built in the 1960s, the interchange is a spaghetti-junction of concrete overpasses and underpasses in the southwest area of downtown. The heavily travelled interchange is critical because it connects a number of important arteries, including Autoroute 20 and the VilleMarie Expressway that crosses east-west through the city. The interchange carries over 290,000 vehicles a day. Unveiled in November, the new plan will see the reconstruction not only of the Turcot interchange, but also three others, De La Verendrye, Angrignon, and Montreal Ouest, as well as large sections of highways 20, 720 and the adjacent railway corridor. The plan includes special traffic lanes, lots of green space and areas for redevelopment around the Lachine Canal. A number of firms have worked for the Quebec Ministry of Transport on the Turcot project over the past few years. They include: Axor, Dessau, SMi,
Ethnoscop, Genivar, Tecsult, BPR, Groupe SM, Inspec-Sol, Shermont, SNC-Lavalin and Cima+. The project is expected to cost $3 billion and will be built over seven years, beginning this year. The Quebec Order of Engineers (OIQ) issued a press release over its concerns that traffic must be kept flowing during the long construction period, and urging the government to offer some relief by immediately implementing public transportation projects along the east-west axis.
B
T a
ENVIRONMENT
Structural engineers taken aback Structural engineers with the American Society of Civil Engineers are objecting to changes in the draft LEED 2012 rating system. In January they announced they were “taken aback to see structural materials eliminated from the draft LEED credits for regional materials, recycled content materials, and bio-based materials.”
BUSINESS
CEBC tackles problems with RFPs Last March, Consulting Engineers of British Columbia (CEBC) set up a formal policy to help its member firms deal with requests for proposals (RFPs) that they feel place unfair burdens on consulting engineers. The policy invites the firms to notify CEBC when they encounter problems in an RFP, and CEBC’s executive committee will then consider whether to take action. The CEBC will not intervene during an actual procurement process, but afterwards board members or the executive director may take up the issue with the client, perhaps by a meeting, or a
TRANSPORTATION
Competition for Wildlife Crossings Results of a first-ever competition have been announced. “ARC: The International Wildlife Crossing Structure Design Competition” had five U.S. teams in the finalists, with a first prize of $40,000. Canadian Pacific and Parks Canada were among the competition’s sponsors. www.arc-competition.com
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phone call. Or the association may issue a general advisory to all its firms alerting them to the specific problem found in an RFP — though not naming the client. The association has to be careful not to contravene Canada’s competition laws and so will not directly advise its members to avoid future RFPs from a particular client. According to Doug Hinton, P.Eng., who headed the committee that drew up the CEBC’s policy, the association has received four requests from its member firms since last March, and in two cases “the client responded fairly positively,” Hinton says. Asked what kind of difficulties consulting engineers encounter with RFPs, Hinton explains that an example might be where the consultant is going to have to hand over its intellectual property. Or the client might expect the consultant to assume too much risk, such as requiring a firm to assume unlimited liability for a project, or to design the project “fit for a purpose,” which is a contract phrase that may cause insurance companies to invalidate their Errors and Omission insurance. If the consultants’ fee has too high a weighting in the RFP’s scoring for who wins the project, then that too is a concern, since CEBC promotes qualifications-based selection. Hinton says that before the policy was in place, members would raise such issues with clients through CEBC, but “this sets out a formal process; we have a mandate to follow.” He recognizes that for some clients
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OPG
up front
it is difficult to change procurement policies because they are so entrenched and many departments are involved. But CEBC has had positive responses, and it sees its role as “a long, ongoing effort.” WATER & ENERGY
Big Becky nears end at Niagara “Big Becky,” the largest hard rock tunnel boring machine in the world, is drilling a third tunnel to divert water from Niagara Falls to the Adam Beck Generating Station at Queenston, southern Ontario. By late December the TBM was past the 9-kilometre mark on its 10-kilometre journey as part of the Niagara Tunnel Project. The machine will emerge in a coffer dam built near the Falls. The project suffered considerable setbacks in its earlier stages. Work began in 2005, but the tunnelling design-build contractor, Strabag AG of Austria, unexpectedly encountered poor rock conditions and eventually had to change the alignment. The tunnel is now scheduled to be completed in 2012-2013 for approximately $1 billion. The massive TBM, manufactured by Robbins Company, is roughly four storeys high, 150 metres long and weighs around 4,000 tonnes. It is carving a tunnel 14.4 metres in diameter — one and a half times larger in diameter than the Chunnel between France and England. The material it is removing is enough to fill 100,000 dump trucks.
Launch of “Big Becky” for the Niagara Tunnel Project.
The water will enter the new tunnel by dropping down a 100-metre shaft drilled just upstream from the Horseshoe Falls. Much of the route then follows alongside two existing tunnels built in the 1950s that run directly below the city of Niagara Falls. Once completed, the new tunnel will carry about 500 cubic metres per second of water, adding about 1,600 gigawatt-hours to the Sir Adam Beck’s station’s annual power generation capacity. Hatch Mott MacDonald with Hatch Energy are consulting engineers providing technical reviews for the construction of the tunnel for Ontario Power Generation. continued on page 13
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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW
CHAIR’S MESSAGE
Speaking as One Industry
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ost engineers, both in public and private sectors, agree that our profession needs to have greater profile and greater influence with decision makers, especially when one considers our role in nearly every aspect of peoples’ lives. For the consulting engineering sector to have such profile and influence, we must speak clearly with one voice on important issues that impact our industry and our ability to enhance the social, economic and environmental quality of life in Canada. Associations like ACEC are critical to our collective success by allowing us to work together. It is encouraging to see ACEC’s already high visibility and recognition from government and other industry stakeholders continue to grow. ACEC is recognized as an authoritative and influential voice by decision makers
within government and within the private sector, and we are seeing the benefits — to our members, to our clients and to society in general. In this edition of ACEC Review, we showcase some recent successes by ACEC on behalf of its members. The extension of stimulus funding and the preservation of longerterm infrastructure programs have been priorities of ACEC over the past year. I have no doubt that ACEC’s effective and focused advocacy efforts were in part responsible for some very good news on infrastructure investment from the federal government. When ACEC is successful, its members are successful. I therefore encourage the industry to support ACEC so that ACEC can support the industry. Much like we characterize engineering as an investment in quality of life, ACEC is an investment in the success of our industry. WILFRID MORIN, ING., CHAIR ACEC BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MESSAGE DU PRÉSIDENT DU CONSEIL
Une industrie, une voix
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a plupart des ingénieurs, qu’ils travaillent dans le secteur privé ou public, conviennent que notre profession doit rehausser son profil et accroître son influence auprès des décideurs, particulièrement quand on considère le rôle que les ingénieurs jouent dans pratiquement tous les aspects de la vie des gens. Pour que le secteur du génieconseil ait une telle influence, nous devons nous prononcer d’une même voix sur les enjeux importants qui ont un impact sur notre industrie et sur notre capacité de contribuer à la qualité de vie sociale, économique et environnementale des Canadiens. Des associations comme l’AFIC sont essentielles à notre succès collectif puisqu’elles nous permettent de travailler ensemble. Il est encourageant de constater que l’AFIC bénéficie déjà d’une grande visibilité et d’une reconnaissance croissante auprès du gouvernement et d’autres intervenants de l’industrie. L’AFIC est en effet reconnue comme un porte-parole influent par les décideurs tant au sein du gouvernement que dans le secteur privé. De plus, nous voyons de plus en plus les bénéfices que nos efforts de
représentation procurent à nos membres, à nos clients et à la société en général. Dans cette rubrique ACEC Review, nous présentons quelques-uns des récents succès que l’AFIC a réalisés pour ses membres. La prolongation du programme de stimulants et la préservation des programmes d’infrastructure à plus long terme ont figuré parmi les priorités de l’AFIC tout au long de l’an dernier. Je n’ai nul doute que les efforts de représentation efficaces et ciblés de l’AFIC sont au moins en partie responsables des très bonnes nouvelles du gouvernement fédéral au plan des investissements dans l’infrastructure. Les succès de l’AFIC sont aussi les succès de ses membres. C’est pourquoi j’encourage l’industrie à appuyer l’AFIC pour que l’AFIC puisse appuyer l’industrie. Tout comme nous considérons l’ingénierie comme un investissement dans notre qualité de vie, l’AFIC est aussi un investissement dans le succès de notre industrie. WILFRID MORIN, ING., PRÉSIDENT CONSEIL D’ADMINISTRATION DE L’AFIC
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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW
Treating Engineering as a Commodity Undermines Potential Benefits of Trade Agreements
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overnments across Canada, including the federal government, are seeking ways to promote and expand Free Trade both interprovincially and internationally. Canadian engineering companies have been extremely successful internationally and Canada is the fourth largest exporter of engineering services in the world. Trade agreements should be an opportunity for the consulting engineering industry. However, ACEC has become concerned with a growing trend in trade negotiations that is potentially problematic for both the industry and its clients. Recent agreements such as TILMA and the New West Agree-
ment have treated professional engineering services as a commodity, especially within the onerous provisions related to procurement. The interpretation by some municipalities under these agreements has resulted in “cattle calls” and a renewed emphasis on price in the procurement of engineering services. The irony is that these new agreements have actually discouraged the adoption of the Best Practice for procuring professional services
ACEC Moves to New Office Same building, new office
The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Canada has moved to a new office within the same building. Our new address: 130 Albert Street, Suite 420 Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5G4 ACEC looks forward to serving members in the new location.
that was developed by the National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure (InfraGuide) — a collaboration of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the federal government. Even under the best of circumstances, the trade agreements impose significant additional costs on the industry and on clients with no meaningful upside for either. This is in contrast to the preceding Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) that had appropriately excluded provincially licensed professions such as engineering from needlessly onerous procurement provisions. Now there is a potential that EU trade negotiations are headed in much the same direction. ACEC is ensuring that the industry’s voice is heard by the negotiators of both international and inter-provincial trade agreements before they become official.
ACEC Member Organizations: Consulting Engineers of British Columbia, Consulting Engineers of Yukon, Consulting Engineers of Alberta, Consulting Engineers of Northwest Territories, Consulting Engineers of Saskatchewan, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Manitoba, Consulting Engineers of Ontario, Association des Ingénieurs-conseils du Québec, Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – New Brunswick, Consulting Engineers of Nova Scotia, Consulting Engineers of Prince Edward Island, Consulting Engineers of Newfoundland and Labrador. 10
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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW
Infrastructure Investments Benefit Engineers, Clients, Economy Government Acts on ACEC Recommendations
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wo recent announcements by the federal government are welcome news for the consulting engineering sector: the extended deadline for stimulus funding; and the preservation of “pre-stimulus” commitments to infrastructure investment. Both have been key objectives in ACEC’s government relations strategy and were recommendations made by ACEC to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance last fall. Consulting engineers, contractors and their clients now have until October 31, 2011 to complete projects
funded under the Canadian Economic Action Plan. ACEC and other stakeholders applaud the announcement by Prime Minister Harper that the Government of Canada will provide flexibility on the stimulus funding deadline on projects for which funding has already been approved. Further, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty recently confirmed that “prestimulus” infrastructure programs such as the Building Canada Fund, which has been the flagship of federal infrastructure investment, will remain in place through to 2014 as originally intended. “We have the Building Canada Fund, for instance, and it will continue,” he said in an interview with the Toronto Star. “We’re not
going to cut back in that area. We don’t want to see any abrupt secession of construction activity that’s in the public realm.” ACEC believes that public infrastructure is a core business of government and is important to the social, economic and environmental quality of life in Canada. This is supported by the Conference Board of Canada in its recent series of reports Lessons from the Recession and Financial Crisis (March 2010) that concluded that of all fiscal stimulus
measures, infrastructure investment has had the largest impact on economic growth. This conclusion not only validates the government’s stimulus spending on infrastructure, but also demonstrates the value of infrastructure investment to Canada’s economic health under all circumstances. While some important progress was made through stimulus spending, Canada continues to have a significant infrastructure deficit accumulated over many decades. ACEC will be seeking opportunities to work with the Government and other stakeholders to develop a long-term infrastructure investment strategy to ensure Canada’s continued economic health.
ABOUT ACEC The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies Canada (ACEC) is a business association representing nearly 500 consulting engineering companies across Canada. ACEC is made up of 12 provincial and territorial organizations. For more information on ACEC, visit www.acec.ca.
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ASSOCIATION OF CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANIES | REVIEW
Economic Challenges Underscore Need for Agile Management and Planning The following article is provided by Deltek, a corporate partner of ACEC.
A
t every turn, professional service organizations face the challenges of maintaining profitability and productivity in a less-than-optimal economy. Luckily there are solutions designed to help project-based organizations such as consulting engineering firms perform successfully. Deltek is a provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to many ACEC members and values its relationship with ACEC. Deltek recently completed its 2010 Operating Statistics Survey. For 32
years, firms have used this survey to measure and benchmark their own performance. This year over 300 participants provided real world metrics on the overall health and performance of the project-focused professional services industry. This year’s results do suggest that the recent recession has impacted some firms in certain markets and geographical regions. Key findings of possible interest to ACEC members were as follows: • The median Average Collection Period was 67.5 days, one of the longest collection periods since the year 1986.
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• Marketing Expenses for 2009 have increased to 3.95% from 2008’s 3.60%. • Net Revenue per Total Staff fell 5.98% from 2008 to 2009. The number of firms across North America who reported that their business had declined in the last year increased from approximately 38% in 2008 to more than 53% in 2009. However it is worth noting that ACEC membership has actually grown during this same period, contrasting the economic fallout and policy response between the American and Canadian markets. Nevertheless, even with some en-
couraging signs like the extension of stimulus funding by the Canadian government, significant economic uncertainty remains. An integrated, modern ERP system designed specifically for project-based businesses may help. The best systems should help firms to: Make the Most of Staff Instead of crunching numbers, staff can get back to their core (and more profitable) tasks. In addition to staff utilization, the best ERP systems can
also help you track the best and most productive resources for recognition, promotion, or other retention efforts. Make Smarter Business Decisions With data transformed into insight, firms can more easily determine and track the most profitable clients, marketing efforts, and individual projects, so firms can prioritize and better target their efforts. Improve Cash Flow Minimizing opportunities for human error means project invoices are accurate the first time, shortening the billing cycle and time to payment. Accurate, targeted AR aging reports and Alerts can keep firms on top of their project accounting and collections processes. Communicate Integrated, consolidated, up-to-date business and project data can enable your firm to better communicate with clients, management, advisors, auditors, and staff. Internally, accounting, project management and customer relationship management systems should also be easily integrated for better communication. Be a More Attractive Partner The ability to instantly create custom financial, operating and staffing reports for executives, management and potential partners exemplifies a firm’s stability and agility. To download a copy of Deltek’s Clarity 2010 Operating Statistics Report, visit www.deltek.com/cce. To learn more about the benefits of project-based EPR systems, visit www.deltek.com/ products/vision.
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continued from page 8
Peace Bridge making its mark Construction on the new iconic bridge over the Bow River in downtown Calgary is expected to be completed by the middle of 2011. Designed by world-famous architect, Santiago Calatrava, the $22.5 million pedestrian bridge connects the Eau Claire area with HillhurstSunnyside. Calatrava of Spain has designed landmarks around the world, including the cathedral-like Galleria in Brookfield Place (formerly BCE Place) in downtown Toronto. The Peace Bridge is much different from Calatrava’s usual work. Whereas his structures tend to be white, soaring creations, Calgary’s bridge is a horizontal tube with a helical formed steel structure in bright red. In an interview with the Calgary Herald in 2009, Calatrava said the design was conceived during a winter
hydrotechnical), and O2Planning + Design (landscape). The City of Calgary’s Transportation Department is lead project manager. To see Calatrava’s video of the bridge, visit www.youtube.com/ watch?v=MBhpqur5JkA
Santiago Calatrava LLC
CITIES
Calatrava’s rendering of the Peace Bridge in Calgary.
PEOPLE
visit to the city, and he wanted it to be covered, as “a bridge that invites you to go through, even with the speed of the wind and the speed of the snowy weather.” He also said the structure is “technically demanding.” While some Calgarians have questioned why a Spanish designer and steel components from Spain were used, local consultants have played a key role in the design. The design team includes Stantec (engineer of record and construction review), Thurber Engineering (geotechnical), Matrix Solutions (environmental and
New head at CH2M HILL Canada CH2M HILL Canada has a new president. Thomas G. Searle took over in January and will Thomas G. be based in Calgary. He Searle was previously president and group chief executive of CH2M HILL’s international business and was based in Denver, Colorado. In the announcement, Searle said a priority for the company will be expanding its services in the energy seccontinued on page 14
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January/February 2011
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tor. He also said that Canada’s economy “will outperform other international regions,” and that Canada “will play a pivotal role in CH2M HILL’s global growth strategy.” Searle has overseen multi-billion projects in countries around the world. They include the expansion of the Panama Canal, the expansion of India’s Mumbai airport, and helping to oversee the development of venues and infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Searle succeeds René Massinon as the Canadian company president. CH2M HILL Canada has 1,200 employees. MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
The marriages continue ... Dayton & Knight of North Vancouver has merged with Opus International Consultants, a company of over 2,200
people. The B.C. firm is now known as Opus DaytonKnight Consultants. R.V. Anderson Associates of Toronto has acquired Kavanagh & Associates, a firm of 200 environmental and infrastructure specialists based in St. John’s, Newfoundland. The company is now known as Kavanagh Associates, a division of R.V. Anderson Associates Limited. Dessau of Montreal has bought two small Ontario firms: Atkinson, Davies of London and Premier/Levaque of Milton. GENIVAR of Montreal has acquired Tundra Engineering, a Calgary firm of 150 that specializes in the natural gas and oil industry. Genivar also bought Aquapraxis of Laval, Quebec, and Hirschfield Williams Timmins of Victoria, B.C. SNC-Lavalin, has acquired Hydrosult of Montreal. Stantec is to acquire QuadraTec, a mechanicalengineering firm based in St. John’s, Newfoundland with 50 employees.
2011 CALL FOR ENTRIES
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January/February 2011
e d m o n to n guelph
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WANTED:
RECHERCHONS:
“I was looking for a career that would make a difference. Here, challenges come at you fast, and when they do, you have to deal with them. With this kind of responsibility, I can make a real impact.” Sub-Lieutenant MOHAMED ALI GUDAL
« J’étais à la recherche d’une carrière qui me permettrait de faire une différence. Ici, les défis ne se font pas attendre et il faut être prêt à y faire face. Compte tenu de mes responsabilités, je sais que j’ai vraiment un impact.» Enseigne de vaisseau de 1re classe MOHAMED ALI GUDAL
ENGINEERS
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INGÉNIEURS
11-01-21 10:53
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speaking out
Young Professionals Forum II
ATTRACTING THE BEST
Six young people share thoughts on how consulting engineering companies can draw the most talented engineering graduates as prospective employees. THIS IS THE SECOND PART OF AN ONLINE DISCUSSION held late last year by Canadian Consulting Engineer between six young professionals from across the country. Part I appeared in December 2010, starting on page 26. Readers are invited to join the conversation by posting comments to the article at www.canadianconsultingengineer.com. Click on “Print Edition” to navigate to the story. Everyone is also invited to join the CCEYoungProfessionals Group at www.linkedin.com Q. IF YOU WERE HEAD OF A CONSULTING ENGINEERING COMPANY, WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO MAKE SURE YOU ATTRACTED THE MOST TALENTED AND VALUABLE YOUNG PROFESSIONALS TO WORK AT YOUR FIRM? KRISTEL UNTERSCHULTZ - As a representative for young professionals, I’ve been asked this question before and it surprises me that senior executives seem to put so much energy into trying to figure out “how to attract young talent.” I don’t think young people are all that different
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than established professionals with respect to what they are seeking. Generally, everyone wants a few key elements: 1. Good compensation and benefit package. More than being just about money, this is one of the key ways that employers demonstrate to employees that they are valued. 2. Pride. Everyone wants to be proud of what they do and where they work. This can translate to working for respected clients on interesting or high profile jobs. This can also translate to working for a company that is known for high quality work or giving back to the community. 3. Support to develop skills, try new things and explore passions. This is a biggie and I think it is sometimes overlooked by employers in the rush to compete on salaries or perks. 4. Sense of belonging and solid team dynamic. Everyone wants to have fun and liking the people you work with is a HUGE part of that. I love what I do a good 90% of the time, but at the end of the day it is honestly the people I work with who make or break my day. We feed off each other’s energy, laugh a lot and ultimately work together to create something pretty special.
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speaking out
THE PANELISTS KRISTEL UNTERSCHULTZ, P.ENG. Kristel is with Urban Systems in Edmonton and has been engaged in consulting engineering since 2005. She currently represents the Edmonton Young Professionals Group on the board of Consulting Engineers of Alberta.
JAMES KAY, P.ENG. James is with Aplin & Martin Consultants in its Kelowna, B.C. office. He has been part of the Consulting Engineers of British Columbia Young Professionals Group since its inception in 2006 and is the immediate past chair. He is also a recipient of the CEBC Young Consulting Engineer Award.
BRAD ROBINSON, P.ENG. Brad has been working in the consulting engineering industry for most of his career. Together with an associate, he recently started ARC Engineering, a mechanical engineering/LEED consulting firm located in Grimsby, Ontario.
ALEX EYQUEM, CEng, MICE Alex is the engineering director for the rail division of AECOM in Montreal. He is a former president of the FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers) Young Professional Group, and helped the Association of Consulting Engineers of Quebec (AICQ) launch a similar group.
GEOFF SARAZIN, P.ENG. Geoff is a structural engineer in Associated Engineering’s Regina office. He is the current chair of the Young Professionals Group for the Consulting Engineers of Saskatchewan.
KIMBERLY MOWAT, P.ENG. Kimberly is an associate shareholder at R.V. Anderson & Associates in Toronto. She received the 2010 ACEC-Canada Allen D. Williams Scholarship which is given to young professionals in consulting engineering.
5. Work-life balance. I almost hate using this phrase because it’s become such a buzz word. I’ve also encountered some negativity from senior execs with the impression that young people aren’t willing to “work as hard as they did in their day.” However, without wading into it too deeply, I will say that young people are willing to work hard. They will work even harder for employers who offer them flexibility to support the other priorities in their lives.
JAMES KAY - The challenge in attracting and retaining talented and valuable young professionals seems to be remembering what it is that YPs are looking for in their careers. In recruiting YPs I’m always honest and forthcoming. I share with them the exciting and innovative components of their future with our firm, but also the specifics of an average day. I outline for them what they can expect in their future with us, and what continued on page 18 January/February 2011
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their career path and progression might look like. Attracting and retaining talent is one of the biggest challenges facing our firm. We go out to universities to industry nights, career fairs, guest lectures, and student council events. We comb through alumni postings. We meet with candidates several times, and challenge them with different people, different situations, different questions. Part of remembering what’s important to young professionals is remembering what little we knew about the industry when we graduated. Without co-op or relevant work experience, it’s hard for young professionals to differentiate consulting from municipal work, contracting, utilities, or sales. BRAD ROBINSON - I have always felt that having the possibility to move up within a company is important. There should be a defined path so that an individual can set a goal, for example to become an associate or partner. I’m sure there have been times in everyone’s career where you ask “Is this it?” Engineers do what we do because of the challenge, not only for the particular project we are working on, but also for the challenge of, “Where can we go next?” Mentorship is also another key issue. To really attract young professionals, you also have to have the ability to keep older, more seasoned individuals who are willing to pass along their knowledge. I have seen companies who have focused too much on young people to the detriment of the business. The environment in which people work is important, especially in the long run. You need to provide people with an environment that fosters creativity and teamwork, and a sense of belonging. Of course the above only works if you can hire the right person to begin with. I work in the Niagara Region. The challenge has always been finding the
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right people as the bulk of the consultants are, of course, based in Toronto. I have no magical answer to this problem. I try to stay involved in groups in my area, such as the local chapter of the Professional Engineers of Ontario. This helps to build up a good contact list that we can draw on when the need arises. ALEX EYQUEM - Answering this question is a tall order. As a company, when you want to attract new employees it is important to stay focused on providing the basic needs of the individual such as salary, support, a nice place to work, a new challenge, etc. However, young professionals may not have any reference to base their decision on. How do they assess their worth from a salary point of view? More than likely by what their friends are getting. But what about assessing what is a good environment to work in? What is a good project? The reputation of the firm is one of the main factors that a young professional is going to look for. Their knowledge of the industry may be limited, and they will go with someone they have heard about. It doesn’t mean necessarily a big company; it can be a small company that is proactive in the public eye or with academia. Also, I would preferably hire a group of young professionals at the same time to create a group dynamic. I remember a few of us starting at a company at the same time, and it was a lot easier to get motivated. I formed a strong bond with people whom I still keep in touch with to this day. Finally, I would make sure that my company leads the way in transforming the industry by getting involved with professional associations and partnering with a university. Young professionals would then feel that your company is not only in the industry, but also is right in the centre of it, a company that can inspire and lead.
January/February 2011
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speaking out The Canadian Institute of Steel Construction GEOFF SARAZIN - Along with having mentors, and a good mix of senior and intermediate employees, it is important for the prospective employee to be shown what kind of position they might hold in five years or 10 years. The work-life balance is such an overused expression. Yet a good number of young professionals today have seen too many people who solely concentrate on their jobs and neglect other aspects of their lives. Young professionals do not want to follow this path. It is going to be an uphill battle to hire the “best and brightest� if you cannot compete with government jobs in terms of wages, hours, vacation time, benefits, etc. There are always exceptions to this, but I think an owner of a consulting company has to start thinking that a 60-hour work week is an exception as opposed to the standard if they want to hire the very best. KIMBERLY MOWAT -
Before recruiting young professionals, you have to understand what they value, and also understand that this will change over time. The next generation may not have the same values and motivators as the current young professionals, so you have to keep up to date. Use existing young employees as a resource. From my experiences, when young professionals are first starting out in their careers, they are not focused on compensation and perks. They tend to place higher value on learning, training, development and mentoring. I agree with the other panelists in that work/life balance should not be a bad word. We know that overtime is expected in this industry, but most young professionals do not want to spend every evening and weekend in the office. It can be demoralizing to see examples of this and to think that is the only way you can be successful. Mentoring is especially important in the first few years. A company has to be willing to invest in their young professionals to get the most out of them. CCE
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26/01/11 9:37 AM
infrastructure
AFTER HURRICANE
IGOR BY ANDREW SAFER
NEWFOUNDLAND IS REBUILDING ITS INFRASTRUCTURE AFTER IT WAS BATTERED BY A HURRICANE IN SEPTEMBER. CONSULTING ENGINEERS ARE HELPING OUT.
H
urricane Igor barreled through the southern, eastern and central regions of Newfoundland on September 21st, wreaking havoc beyond anything in residents’ memory. Rainfall reaching nearly 240
millimetres in some areas in a 24-hour period coupled with winds as high as 170 kilometres per hour overwhelmed roads, bridges and river systems. Extensive highway and road damage isolated 90 communities, 22 of which declared a state of emergency. An 80-year-old man on Random Island died when the driveway under his feet collapsed and washed him out to sea. Over 900 soldiers and military engineers helped to rebuild roads and bridges to reconnect communities that had been isolated. As of mid-December, 35 families remained in temporary quarters due to major damage to their homes.
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NASA photograph of Hurricane Igor over the Atlantic Ocean on September 13.
Estimates of the total damages for immediate response, repairs to municipal and provincial infrastructure, and anticipated claims settlements, have been cited at $100 million, while the Insurance Bureau of Canada has cited a figure of $65 million for private property damage. The Department of Transportation and Works’ engineering staff are dealing with the damage to provincial highways and 26 bridges. There are also four bridges that need replacing. Transportation and Public Works Minister Tom Hedderson says they “may” engage consulting engineers in the design. Meanwhile, consulting engineering firms have been busy assisting with emergency and temporary repairs and assessing damages to municipal infrastructure. Some of the design work is also underway for permanent rebuilding in the municipalities. Consulting engineers in the eye of the storm At 6:45 a.m. on September 22, Bill Mills, P.Eng., regional manager of Newfoundland and Labrador Consulting Engineers Ltd. (NLCEL)/ ADI, whose Marystown office was in the eye of the storm, received a phone call from the Marystown Town Manager. “There was a major flood threatening the road, water and sewer system,” Mills recalls. “There are two rivers and we didn’t want to lose the road completely, so we excavated the lesser of two evils to get the water to recede. We sacrificed a section of the roadway to relieve the upstream pressure.” Four major roads washed out, including an intersection that was serviced by two 1800-mm culverts. After stabilizing the critical road networks, Mills, his staff and local contractors sourced culverts and performed temporary repairs to last
through the winter. The NLCEL/ ADI staff worked 12 to 14 hour days for 21 days in a row. To replace and increase the capacity of four 1200mm culverts, Mills is currently designing a box culvert with a concrete footing on either side of the stream to provide a clear opening. Marystown Mayor Sam Synard reports that in addition to intense rainfall and high winds, unusually high tides made Igor “the perfect storm.” He estimates total damage to the municipality at between $1 and $2 million. One hundred homes in the town were flooded, causing significant damage to basements. Marystown (population 5,400) is only one of dozens of communities that suffered Igor’s wrath. NLCEL/ ADI is the engineering consultant for 14 municipalities that were directly impacted by Igor in the Burin Peninsula, western Avalon, Bonavista Peninsula, and central regions of the province. In Sunnyside (population 600) on the Avalon peninsula, water flooded over the entire 40-metre width of a dam structure, eroded the spillway, and destroyed the concrete at the base of the structure. The building was standing there like the leaning tower of Pisa, It refused to fall.” recalls Darryl Mills, NLCEL/ADI's group manager of civil engineering. In Clarenville (population 5,200) located in the Shoal Valley on the east coast, Rutter Engineering has been doing structural evaluations of damaged homes, and working on road and shoulder washouts, culvert replacements, guiderails, repaving, and, in one community, replacing water service lines. As the town engineer for 20 other municipalities, Rutter Engineering has also been selected to do repairs on over 250 washed-out sites on a 380-kilometre section of the T Railcontinued on page 22
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Above: road washed out in Amherst Cove.
Chad Fisher, Rutter Engineering
way, a provincial park located on a former railway bed, as well as repairs to nearby Lockston Path Provincial Park. “It’s a bad wind that doesn’t blow some good,” says Rutter Engineering general manager Stephen Chaytor, P.Eng. He estimates the firm has obtained $250,000 worth of Igor-related work as of mid-December. “If there’s anything positive to say about Igor, it’s been the business impact. That said, we don’t like to celebrate the financial benefits when we see first-hand the devastation and personal turmoil this has caused to many private residents.” Hatch Mott MacDonald in Clarenville and Cecon Limited in Gander are other consulting engineering firms that are busy serving municipalities and their regions in the hurricane’s wake. Repairs in St. John’s To date, the city of St. John’s has engaged Kavanagh & Associates and Kendall Engineering to assist with river stabilization, sediment removal and erosion control. Igor-related infra-
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structure work in St. John’s, estimated at $11 million, also includes replacing culverts and concrete structures, and rebuilding a retaining wall on the Waterford River. John Barry, senior project engineer in the city’s Department of Engineering, reports that a control structure upgrade to Quidi Vidi Lake was completed the night before the hurricane. Barry points out that one of the homes at the upper end of the lake normally gets flooded: “But it didn’t happen this time. We consider that a success!” Under the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements Program, the federal government will reimburse 90 per cent of the cost of infrastructure repairs and the province will pay for the remaining 10 per cent. Infrastructure enhancements that can be justified, to a maximum of 15 per cent of the replacement cost, are being allowed. As for cases requiring a greater enhancement than 15 per cent, Kevin O’Brien, Minister of Municipal Affairs says, “The provincial government
and certainly myself as the minister responsible, are prepared to make the necessary repairs and improvements. Keep in mind that these events are happening more often. We need to increase the capacity of our roads, culverts and bridges so we can withstand anything the environment can throw at us, such as Hurricane Igor. If a 25 per cent increase is determined by engineers, we’re prepared to go to that level to make sure we have the proper infrastructure in place.” In that event, the amount over 15 per cent would be cost-shared between the province (80 per cent) and the municipality (20 per cent). Minister Tom Hedderson says that “engineering for climate change is part of the discourse,” and adds, “We are depending on our engineering community to point us in the right direction and to make sure we are making the proper adjustments.” CCE Andrew Safer is a freelance writer based in St. John’s, Nfld.
January/February 2011
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water treatment
ISL Engineering and Land Services
Engineers adapted computer gaming technology to help operators run a remote water treatment plant in Zama City, Alberta.
Managing a Plant in 3D
T
he northern community of Zama City in Mackenzie County, Alberta, is home to 250 permanent residents and has a transient population of nearly 4,000. This remote community, approximately 900 kilometres north of Edmonton, receives potable water from a new water treatment plant that began operating in 2009. A level 3 facility, the plant treats well water under the influence of surface water. It has an aeration tower to strip dissolved gasses and oxidize iron, two green sand filters to remove iron and manganese, and two nanofiltration membrane units. These units remove raw water hardness of more than 800 mg/L, as well as viruses, bacteria and other pathogens.
Due to the remote location, experienced technical staff to operate the plant might not always be readily available. To operate a Level 3 plant efficiently and safely is not an easy task, given the myriad of different data types that need to be accessed quickly. Typically, water treatment plant operators have to work with a variety of cumbersome reference sources such as thick O&M manuals that do not have all the required information, dog-eared record drawings, and sometimes, if they’re lucky, dusty photographs for viewing images of now hidden components. To make things easier for the operators of the Zama water treatment plant, ISL Engineering and Land Ser-
vices developed 3DOM-IS, a 3D Operation and Maintenance Information System. Whereas Building Information Modeling (BIM) software can be used in building design, 3DOM-IS goes a step further — this interactive information system supports the client and operators in the operation and maintenance of the facility, after the engineer’s role has typically ended. Developing the project required the expertise of ISL’s environmental infrastructure engineers in addition to GIS, database and 3D visualization specialists. Along with specially written code, the 3D software engine was developed using a variety of freely available open source code, making the software easily customized to cli-
Above: the 3D model accurately depicts real-world plant conditions. The operator “walks” up to a specific component and screen-clicks it. 24
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water treatment global maintenance task sheet to be quickly accessed and displayed. These capabilities all help the facility owner respond to Alberta Environment’s requirement for water treatment facilities to have complete standard operating and emergency response procedures in place by April 2012. The 3DOM-IS system is slated to be used in other small and mediumsized water treatment plants that ISL is working on, such as the Dene Tha’ First Nation’s Chateh Water Treatment plant (due for completion in March 2011), and the new Thorsby and Drayton Valley water treatment plants. CCE
Above: 3DOM-IS_NavigationScreen.
ents’ needs. The result in Zama is a virtual replica of the water treatment plant, with 3D graphics and programming linked to the myriad of plant operations data. The system is set up to be easy to use and familiar. The operator navigates the virtual 3D facility much like a first person shooter in the computer gaming world. He “walks” up to a specific component and screen-clicks it. 3DOM-IS immediately displays the information contained in the database for that component, or for the subsystem the component belongs to. Now, the operator has quick access to the vast array of associated data: shop drawings, equipment catalogues, plant record drawings, standard operating procedures, maintenance instructions and logs, SCADA screens, and even training videos. Similar to a geographical information system, 3DOM-IS incorporates a layer system so the operator can choose which layer he or she wants to see. Within this environment, operators and trainees can get a holistic understanding of the facility and experience areas such as an underground reservoir, or the inside of a pressure filter, that they could otherwise only see during a plant shut down. The software can also easily be copied onto a laptop, enabling remote operational assistance and troubleshooting. The universally accessible PDF format is used for key downloads and is
set up to be searchable. The standard operating procedures are set up as Microsoft Word files, so these can be updated if needed. Once the file is updated, the information is automatically updated in the 3DOM-IS system. The system also enables the facility’s
Owner: Mackenzie County, Fort Vermilion, Alberta Prime consultant: ISL Engineering and Land Services, Edmonton Software development support services: Zousar Shaker and Greg Ellis, Edmonton
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Canadian Consulting Engineer
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transportation
EBA / Tetra Tech
Lives have been saved on the Deerfoot Trail in Calgary since a new type of median barrier was installed.
High Tension Median Cable Barriers
B
etween 1999 and 2005 there were seven fatal crossover collisions on an 11-kilometre segment of the Deerfoot Trail in Calgary. The six-lane divided urban freeway between 16th Avenue NE and Country Hills Boulevard carries up to 150,000 vehicles a day. Since a high-tension median cable barrier was installed in May 2007, however, there have been no crossover collisions on that section of roadway at all. This relatively new type of median barrier has proved so successful at preventing crossover collisions that Alberta Transportation has also installed it on 127 kilometres of Highway 2 between Calgary and Leduc, Alberta. EBA Engineering Consultants designed the median barrier for both projects.
Above: Pick-up truck stopped by a high-tension median cable barrier on Deerfoot Trail. Left: Cable-release end terminal. Whether hit from front or back, the upright frame is toppled, the cables are released, and the vehicle can drive over the terminal.
Masood Hassan, P.Eng., one of the project leaders at EBA, explains that non-tensioned cable barriers have been around for decades. However, they fall to the ground after being hit by a vehicle. The high-tension cable barriers, on the other hand, retain much of their tension after a hit and can take additional hits. These barriers are also
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more forgiving than the rigid concrete barriers or semi-rigid beam barriers. That is because the high tension cable barriers deflect and cushion the impact and guide a vehicle to a halt rather than bouncing it back to hit other vehicles in the same roadway. There are five proprietary hightension median cable systems approved by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), says Hassan. All the systems consist of three or four 3/4˝ thick 3/7 galvanized steel cables
strung on “weak posts” designed to break at ground level when hit. The systems vary in the design of the posts and end terminals, and in the mechanisms used to attach the cables to the posts. The systems also vary in their post spacing and test deflections i.e. how far they bend or “give” when hit. Usually only one median cable barrier is used to separate the two roadways. Where to place the single cable barrier in the median is a complicated process. Engineers must consider the FHWA’s placement-rules,
January/February 2011
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transportation
the presence of bridge piers and light posts, the width of the median, and space for the barrier’s deflection plus a safety margin between it and the nearest traffic lane. To allow competitive bidding the variations of the different systems must also be accommodated. On the Deerfoot Trail, EBA located the cable barrier 4.0 m from the inside northbound traffic lane (the yellow shoulder line) by specifying a 2.4 m maximum deflection and a 1.6 m safety margin. Over 5,000 kilometres of median cable barriers have been used successfully in the U.S., and they are also used in Europe and Australia. However, the Deerfoot Trail installation was one of the first installations in Canada. British Columbia has installed some sections, and Ontario is also testing the systems. The cost of the Deerfoot Trail high-tension cable barrier was $92/m, which compares to the provincial average of $125/m for a W-Beam steel guardrail, and $308/m for a concrete barrier. The maintenance and repair costs for 2007-2008 were $4.14/m for the high-tension cable, compared to $6.74/m for W-beam guardrails and $1.72/m for concrete barriers. While high-tension median cables are lifesaving, Hassan says that unfortunately they are not approved for medians with side slopes steeper than 1:4. They are also not suitable for narrow medians that lack the space for the CCE cable barrier to deflect. Client: Alberta Transportation Prime consultant: EBA Engineering Consultants, a Tetra Tech Company (Robyn McGregor, P.Eng., Masood Hassan, P.Eng.)
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transportation
By Bronwen Parsons
A new highway for carrying traffic to one of Canada’s busiest U.S. borders has been designed with special features to minimize its impact.
The Windsor-Essex Parkway
A
ny busy road through a community makes it difficult for pedestrians and bicycles to move around freely, but a major highway usually makes an almost insurmountable barrier to cross. Not so with the new Windsor-Essex Parkway due to start construction this summer. Built to replace an arterial road, the new 6-lane freeway and adjacent 4-lane service road will travel north from Highway 401 in southwest Ontario, through the city of Windsor to a planned new Canadian inspection plaza and international crossing over the Detroit River into Michigan. The 11 kilometre freeway has been described as unique within Ontario in terms of the scale of its community enhancement features. For example, most of the highway runs five metres below grade, so that even trucks passing along it will not be visible from the surrounding communities. There will also be earth berms and 5-metre high noise barriers strategically placed to shield the adjacent communities from traffic noise. The road will also have long tunnels covered with expanses of land to allow pedestrians, local traffic and
Above: Heritage Estates area, looking west. The 11-kilometre road passes underground for long stretches.
wildlife to pass freely over the highway. There are 11 of these strategically placed covered tunnels, which range from 120 metres to 240 metres long and provide a total of 1.8 kilometres of unobstructed area for crossing over. According to Murray Thompson, P.Eng, vice president of URS Canada, the company which led the environmental studies, “standing on these long covered sections, you will not be aware that there is a roadway underneath you.” Buffer zones beside the highway
add up to more than 300 acres of green space, which is a net gain in terms of the quality and quantity of natural habitat compared to the situation now. There will also be 20 kilometres of recreational trails. Thompson says people will be able to travel continuously from end to end beside the new highway on foot or bicycle without having to cross a road at grade. Diesel emissions from trucks and other cross-border traffic should also be reduced thanks to the new freeway. Currently trucks bound for the border
Above: Map of the parkway’s route. It will connect Highway 401 with a new border crossing over the Detroit River in Windsor. 28
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transportation
have to use Huron Church Road, which also carries local traffic and has 17 stop lights, causing the trucks frequently to have to slow down and stop. Over 300 public consultations were held to consider the Windsor-Essex Parkway’s conceptual design. Asked what were the major challenges, Thompson explains: “It’s an urban freeway, so the alignment and profile, and the traffic requirements, are constrained by the adjacent urban area.” The route threads through a variety of environments, from the relatively dense residential areas, through vacant and commercial strips, to natural areas such as the Ojibway Nature Centre. Part of the Windsor-Detroit Gateway The Windsor-Essex Parkway design was conceived and planned for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Transport Canada as a key part of a larger project known as the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC), which includes the plans for a new bridge and customs facilities. The massive project, sponsored by the U.S., Canada, Ontario and Michigan governments, is intended to ease the flow of goods and traffic over the border. The Windsor-Detroit corridor currently handles about 35% of Canada’s road goods trade, and about 12 million vehicles every year. URS Canada led the Canadian portion of the DRIC Study, which looked at all the different new crossing components and took four years to complete. Provincial as well as federal environmental assessment approvals were obtained for the project in 2009. Selected consortium to go forward In December, the Ontario government announced that agreement had been reachd with the Windsor-Essex Mobility Group to design, build, finance and maintain the parkway. The consortium has a 30-year contract at a fixed price of $1.4 billion in today’s dollars. The Windsor-Essex Mobility Group includes ACS Infrastructure Canada, Acciona Concessions Canada and Fluor Canada. Hatch Mott MacDonald is the consortium’s lead design firm. Other consulting engineering firms involved include Dillon Consulting, LEA Consulting, Black & McDonald and AMEC. In that December announcement, Ontario’s Minister of Infrastructure, Bob Chiarelli, said the project is “the most significant, single highway investment in Ontario’s history.” Progress has already been made on acquiring properties, demolitions, moving utilities and other components. It is anticipated that the parkway will be opened by fall 2014. CCE
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1-877-245-7473 ail.ca Canadian Consulting Engineer ½ page vertical – 3.375" × 10" January, 2011
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computers
By Jay Polding CAD Microsolutions
Building Information Modeling systems pre-empt costly problems arising on the construction site. Here’s a clear explanation of what’s involved.
Fixing Interferences with BIM “H
ow did we miss that?!” Hopefully this statement or question is asked at a coordination meeting before the drawings head out to the construction site. It’s hard to quantify exactly how much is saved by finding the interference in advance — but in many cases the amount will be substantial. The BIM (building information modeling) process enables designers to pre-build before a shovel goes into the ground. If something is wrong, it stands out for all to see. The insurance industry knows that for every interference there is a potential claim. This is one reason why their industry is taking BIM seriously, in some cases offering discounts to firms who use BIM. Some BIM technologies that are available are Autodesk Civil3D for civil engineering and Autodesk Revit for buildings. Bentley has both BIM and Collaboration software. ArchiCAD has BIM capabilities. Keep in mind that no matter what BIM software you use, chances are it can be imported into Navisworks. Also, the IFC file format is enabling BIM models to be shared across platforms. Fixing BIM interferences rests upon three main pillars; modeling, collaboration and communication.
The principles apply to any digital design process. Modeling first The building must be modeled digitally first. The process may involve a team building the structural frame in Revit Structure, a team working in Revit Architecture building the walls, ceilings and stairs, and another team working in Revit MEP (mechanical/ electrical/plumbing) making the building systems. As these teams work, their models are cross-linked. Revit will automatically warn you when doors, windows and walls are intersecting. There is an Interference Checker tool inside Revit that compares beams to walls, or stairs to columns and other combinations. The tool can also compare objects in the various linked structural, architectural and MEP files. The Copy/Monitor tool will notify you when certain key building elements, like grids and levels, have changed. Of course, the user can usually just see where the problems are because of the 3D nature of the software. Competing software But what if the structure is done in Tekla, the architecture in Revit Archi-
in·ter·fer·ence (ntr-fîrns). Noun: (a) the act or an instance of hindering, obstructing, or impeding; (b) something that hinders, obstructs, or impedes. In construction, a common example of an interference is a mechanical duct routed through a structural member. A clearance issue isn’t classified as an interference but can cause just as many problems. A common example of a clearance problem would be a beam placed exactly at forehead level in a staircase.
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Above: Interference in Navisworks, captured with SnagIt.
tecture and the MEP systems in Bentley MEP? Also, these BIM models are rich with information and can get very large. Is there any way to just focus on collaboration and filter out some of the extra information, even if there are different types of software involved? For many years the aerospace and automotive industries have required their factories to be designed in 3D. In an automotive project you may have different software for the design of the building, manufacturing systems and processes, as well as the final product. Yet, everything and everyone must fit under one roof, without bumping into each other. For this type of challenge, Autodesk’s Navisworks imports all major CAD, BIM and Laser Scan formats. Also, its file size is amazingly small, often just a fraction of the original source file. You are able to query the imported models based upon material, layer, name or other criteria. Then you can group these queries into sets. The Clash Detective tool can then compare the interferences of sets of objects, even objects which move, like tower cranes. Navisworks only offers true interference checking in its Man-
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computers age version. The Navisworks Manage Clash Detective can provide tolerances, coordinates of clashes, and images. This information can then be exported in a detailed HTML report. All Navisworks versions have something called Collision Detection. This is used while “walking” though the model. You can set your avatar to a preset height so that you bump your head on height obstacles as you walk through the model. This, along with the gravity setting, creates a very realistic effect while walking stairs. Responsibility for errors But who is responsible for all of this interference checking? The answer is anyone and everyone. Once these problems are found they need to be fixed on the spot if it is your responsibility, or communicated to the person who should do this. SnagIt (Tech-
Above: Revit warning when a wall is conflicting with a door.
smith) is a very useful and inexpensive technology for quickly documenting an error and then sending it over email. Online screen sharing technologies like GoToMeeting can offer teams a real-time coordination meeting. When you have teams of designers finding interferences as they work it can feel like this is slowing
things down. It forces cross-discipline communication. A few years ago a junior Revit user found that a design error was causing headroom problems in the entire stairwell. This issue triggered a major redesign which made it appear that he had slowed down the project. Of course, he saved everyone money, time and reputation. Now, he’s an office-wide BIM project manager, leading jobs of his own. While the technology helped him to find the problem, it was up to him to report it. CCE Jay Polding, LEED AP is with CAD Microsolutions in Toronto. He has 15 years of design and drafting experience and is an Autodesk Certified Implementation Expert (ICE). He is the founder and moderator of the Ontario Revit Users Group (ORUG), and writes a blog, “Revit in Plain English,” which has had over 50,000 visitors to date.
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Canadian Consulting Engineer
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The Preferred High-Tension Cable Barrier System
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engineers & the law
By Stuart Rudner Miller Thomson, LLP
Staff Terminations What does the law require?
T
here are two ways in which an employer can unilaterally end its relationship with an employee: dismissal for cause, or dismissal without cause. The difference between the two is substantial. In the vast majority of dismissals there will be no just cause. In such cases, the law requires the employer to provide the employee with either notice of dismissal or pay in lieu thereof. Employment standards legislation will typically set out a minimum amount of notice that is to be provided. Every jurisdiction in Canada has its own legislation in this regard.1 The applicable jurisdiction is based upon where the individual works, not where the employer is based. The statutory notice period generally varies based solely upon the length of service. In addition, some statutory regimes require severance pay in specified circumstances. What is reasonable notice? Our courts have established a common law obligation to provide “reasonable notice,� which is over and above the statutory minimums. There is a common myth that employers have to provide one month of notice for each year of service. Our courts, however, have explicitly stated that no such rule is to be applied, and the statistics do not bear such an assumption out. There are no black and white rules with respect to what will constitute reasonable notice in a particular situation. Rather, the courts have made it clear that each case is to be assessed based upon its own particular set of circumstances. The primary factors that are typically considered include: (a) length of service; (b) age; (c) position and character of employment; and (d) availability of similar employment. There are dozens of other factors that the courts have considered. One of the more common ones is the issue of inducement; if an individual was lured away from secure employment and then subsequently dismissed, that will be a factor. The reality is that assessing common law notice periods is not an exact science. While one judge may assess a situation and consider three months’ notice to be appropriate, another judge might consider five months to be reasonable in the circumstances. It is extremely difficult, therefore, to
1
Michael Eddenden
predict accurately what a court will consider to be reasonable notice in a particular case. That is why I recommend that employers use employment agreements that cover, among other things, obligations in the event of dismissal. Employment agreements - their impact So long as an employment contract is properly entered into, and the amount of notice it establishes does not go below the statutory minimums, the parties can contract out of the common law obligation of reasonable notice for dismissal without cause. Contracts can be written to establish shorter notice obligations than the common law and in that way the employers provide themselves with a level of certainty as to their obligations. Uncertain obligations, on the other hand, can lead to protracted negotiations and litigation. Dismissal for just cause All of the above is irrelevant if just cause for dismissal exists. Simply put, just cause relieves the employer of all of the obligations discussed above; there is no requirement to provide notice of dismissal, pay in lieu thereof, or severance pay. In any situation where an employee engages in misconduct, such as sleeping on the job (Torontonians will recall the recent case of the snoozing TTC fare collector), the employer must take a contextual approach in assessing whether just cause for dismissal exists. The contextual approach involves considering not only the misconduct in question, but also the entirety of the employment relationship. This would include the length of the employment recontinued on page 34
There are different laws in every province and territory, as well as a set for federally regulated employees. January/February 2011
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engineers & the law
continued from page 33
lationship, the nature of the employee’s position and duties, any prior discipline, and any other contextual factors relating either to the relationship or the misconduct in question. The misconduct cannot be considered in isolation. When faced with apparent misconduct on the part of an employee, it is incumbent upon an employer to conduct an appropriate investigation. In assessing whether the employment relationship has been irreparably harmed, courts and arbitrators will often consider the employee’s behaviour during the course of the investigation. An unapologetic, dishonest employee is less likely to be given a second chance than those employees who admit their wrongdoing and offer suitable apologies and assurances that it will not happen again. Context must be taken into account Because a contextual approach is required, it is entirely possible that two employees will be guilty of the exact same misconduct, but the penalties will differ in each case. For example, a long-term employee with a clean disciplinary record will typically be given more leeway than a recent hire that has already been in trouble repeatedly. Clients often comment that despite the contextual approach, “surely stealing from the company must be enough to fire someone.” In response, I often refer to the case of Bravo v. Etobicoke Ironworks Ltd., in which the plaintiff stole a few bolts and acted rudely towards his supervisor. The court held that the theft “was not of sufficient gravity that it warranted dismissal without notice,” and that the
plaintiff was therefore entitled to notice of dismissal. The court considered that the plaintiff was a good welder, had worked for the employer for over six years without incident, and that the misconduct did not give rise to a breakdown of the employment relationship. Similarly, I often ask the employers if they would fire their assistant for bringing a pen home so their child could do their homework that night. It’s all or nothing Finally, I note that there is no middle ground of “near cause.” Sometimes employers will argue that while there may not be just cause for dismissal as defined above, the employee was not a particularly good one and they should not have to pay the full notice period. Canadian courts have definitely rejected this approach, with the end result being that dismissal is “all or nothing”; either the employee is entitled to notice or they are not. I regularly monitor just cause cases throughout the country and can comfortably say that courts and arbitrators will uphold summary dismissal in appropriate circumstances. However, the onus will be on the employer to justify the decision. Employers should obtain advice from a lawyer who specializes in employment law before taking action. Stuart Rudner is a partner in Miller Thomson’s Labour & Employment Law Group, practising in Toronto and Markham. Contact srudner@millerthomson.com, or connect with him on LinkedIn and join his Canadian Employment Law Group. CCE
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CCBDA Po
human edge
Speaking Frankly
A conversation with Bob Gomes, Stantec’s CEO
B
efore taking over as president and chief executive officer of Stantec in 2009, Bob Gomes, P.Eng. had worked for the company for 20 years. He spoke to CCE about some of the changes and challenges he faces in his new role. Q. HAS YOUR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE CHANGED SINCE YOU BECAME PRESIDENT OF STANTEC?
The biggest change is that probably 40% of my time is spent dealing with the public side of the company, which is something I did not have to do as a senior vice president in charge of one of the company’s divisions. So that’s been a major change — understanding the investor side and the shareholders’ interests in Stantec, and representing the company to them. This year I think I have had over 190 individual meetings and discussions with investment or institutional shareholders. It’s been over a year now that I’ve been having these meetings and I’m still getting used to it. The other change would be just the variety of issues that I deal with that I wasn’t really involved in before. Q. WOULD YOU SAY THAT YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE DIFFERS MUCH FROM THAT OF PREVIOUS STANTEC PRESIDENTS?
Definitely different. I’m only the fourth CEO of the company. The founder of the company, Dr. Stanley, was the first CEO, and then we had Ron Triffo, and Tony Franceschini. Both Ron and Tony I would call very charismatic leaders. They were almost larger than life individuals. They just had fantastic charisma, great vision, and were very powerful strong leaders. And I think they were the kind of leaders Stantec needed at the time to get us to where we wanted to be. To move into the United States as a small Canadian firm and grow was a very difficult job. Tony, who was my predecessor, was just the perfect individual for that role. My profile is much lower key. Because of the size that we are now, the company has much more of a geographically distributed leadership team than we had in the past. Our leadership is stretched all over North America. Our COO is in Boston; our senior leaders are in Irvine, California, in Denver, in Kentucky, in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary. Together, we are all the leaders of Stantec. Q. YOU HAVE LIVED ALL YOUR LIFE IN EDMONTON. WHY?
When it’s 27 below outside while you’re talking to me, 38
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Above: Bob Gomes
that’s not fair! That is always a tough question to answer when it’s this cold. Edmonton is a great city. I was born and raised here. My family is here, and where your family is, is home. I think it’s a great city and community to raise a family in, and there are great opportunities in Edmonton and Alberta. I’ve remained an Edmontonian largely because of that. But I also realize in travelling across North America that there are a lot of great cities in the United States and Canada. I spend a lot of time in New York and Toronto and both have very vibrant downtowns and it’s very exciting to be in those cities. Edmonton is a lot more laid back, a lot smaller. But, the only other place I’m going to live is where I retire to, and that’s going to be somewhere warm without snow, so New York and Toronto don’t qualify. Q. DID YOU EVER THINK YOU WOULD BE CEO OF STANTEC?
Never! I refer to myself almost as the unsuspecting CEO. I did not set out with the goal of being CEO, but I always liked doing something more, and being able to have a bigger impact on the company. I’m certainly excited with the opportunity and am enjoying every minute of it — absolutely! CCE
January/February 2011
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CCBDA Power Quality Ad_8 14/11/09 9:52 AM Page 1
In Today’s High Tech World Reliable Power Quality Is Not the Question... It’s the Answer There has never been a time when so much is at stake in industry as there is with today’s demand for dependable power.
The power structure of many buildings constructed in the last three decades simply do not have adequate grounding or the appropriate cable size necessary to handle the power requirements of today’s sophisticated electronics and overall power consumption needs. The consequences are power outages or cutbacks that result in scrambled data, production line stoppages or even a possible fire risk. The most dependable and proven upgrades of outdated power systems have been through the use of new copper grounding and cable systems. These measures can provide a consistent flow of power for all your internal energy demands. Version 3.0 of the new Power Quality CD-Rom includes segments on the following topics: • Equipment grounding and bonding • Harmonics • Transients and lightning • Power conditioning and surge protection • Robust wiring for power quality considerations • Additional case histories Contact the CCBDA for the Power Quality information package, which includes the new CD-Rom and case studies. CANADIAN COPPER & BRASS DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION Toll Free: 1-877-640-0946 Fax: 416-391-3823 E-mail: coppercanada@onramp.ca Website: www.coppercanada.ca
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S-Frame Software ®
… for Structural Engineers
Concrete Design & Detailing CSA-A23, 3-04 & 94; ACI 318-08, 05, 02 & 99; BS 8110:1997 & 1985 CP65:1999; UBC 1997 Import loads from S-FRAME® and P-FRAME® Export to AutoCAD® , Word® and TEDDS®
Best-in-class Visual Editor and Report Generation: Interactive (click/drag), and automated design optimization; Numerical and graphical results, detailed design code explanations with relevant equations
S-Concrete
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B-Line
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#275-13500 Maycrest Way, Richmond, B.C. Canada V6V 2N8
www.S-Frame.com Sales@S-Frame.com
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There’s only one thing we leave to Proven Reliable! Helical Piers and Anchors. C3 Integrated Solutions Inc. 12220 Vickers Way, Richmond, BC British Columbia - www.c3is.ca
1.604.277.9777
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Integrated Solutions Inc. A C3 Group Company
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TOA Canada Corporation prides itself on being one of the largest worldwide companies dedicated to the development, manufacture and distribution of professional sound, communication and security products.
E XPERIENCE : Q UALITY: S ERVICE & S UPPORT:
S ELECTION :
D ISTRIBUTION :
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in, arenas, boardrooms, casinos, school environments restaurants, retail outlets, houses of worship, and more.
▀ Canadian stocking warehouse for TOA products ▀ Canadian dealer base (sales, installation & service)
Contact your local TOA representative today! design@toacanada.com • 1-800-263-7639
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