Transportation Award of Excellence
Waaban Crossing Hatch and Systra IBT project development, design and construction. • Project decisions must be unanimous between the parties and made in consideration of project outcomes. • The agreement precludes the parties from submitting claims against each other. • The consultant and contractor are paid all of their costs (excluding profit) by the owner. • Profit is put at risk and earned by meeting project goals; e.g. meeting a timeline, obtaining approvals and permits or achieving local purchasing targets.
North America’s first IPD bridge The most significant innovation for the project was the IPD approach, which was wholeheartedly adopted by the city, the engineers (Hatch and Systra), the contractor (Kiewit) and its trade partners (Bauer and Walters Group). While IPD had been used for building construction, this was the first time it would be used in North America for a bridge. In the IPD model, all parties—including owner, engineer and constructor—sign a joint contract that incentivizes them to set aside their individual interests and act as a team to make the decisions that are best for the project. The agreement achieves collaboration in several ways: • All parties are fully involved in
This approach let the team work together during the project validation period, from 2018 to 2019, to modify and refine the bridge design concept and construction methodology from those in an earlier environmental assessment (EA), with the goal of bringing the target cost within the budget of $180 million. Major cost-saving innovations were conceived during the validation period. The approach span substructure design was simplified from the V-piers proposed in the EA to modified conventional vertical piers and pier caps, with a less ‘heavy’ and more ‘open’ appearance. The steel approach spans were replaced by 48-m long precast concrete Nebraska University (NU) girders. These were the longest girders that could be manufactured
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CANADIAN CONSULTING ENGINEER
“One of the first integrated project delivery (IPD) undertakings outside buildings, this will be huge for people in Kingston.” – Jury
(with minor modifications to the precast plant), delivered by road and lifted into place on-site. Indeed, they were the largest concrete girders ever produced in Ontario! Since providing a temporary trestle in the river from which to construct the new bridge would represent a significant cost, a hybrid approach was selected instead, using a combination of a causeway in the shallow areas, a trestle in the deeper areas and a temporary liftbridge over the navigation channel. The resulting concept included the 1.2-km bridge with onshore approach roads providing connections at John Counter Boulevard on the west side of the river and Gore Road on the east side. A bridge deck cross-section width of 15.6 m would accommodate a two-lane roadway and a multi-use trail on the south side, separated from the roadway by a traffic barrier and widening out into two observation lookouts above the main span piers. Local benefits The city’s vision was to provide an iconic structure that would give residents a sense of pride, attract tourism and respect the natural environment. The more specific September/October 2023
PHOTOS COU RT E SY H ATC H.
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or many years, the City of Kingston, Ont., recognized a new, third crossing of the Cataraqui River was needed to connect communities on both sides and to accommodate regional growth. In 2018, with funding secured, the city implemented the project using an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) model and signed a contract with Hatch, Systra IBT and Kiewit. Together, despite the pandemic, this team completed the 1.2-km long bridge on time and under budget. It is Kingston’s largest infrastructure project to date.
