FEBRUARY 2013
> INS GRADIDE < ETECH NOLO A GY pg.1 8
THE INVASION OF THE
Growing Pains
AGGREGATES ACCESS pg.28
APPS TABLETS CAN BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY DRAMATICALLY
pg.22
+
CONSTRUCTION LAW TENDER WITH CARE
pg.38 www.on-sitemag.com
PM #40069240
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VOLUME 57, NO.1 / FEbrUary 2013
cover story 22 Invasion of the APPS Tablets, iPads and mobile devices of all sorts are boosting job site productivity dramatically.
Departments Comment 5
18
Sunny forecast
8
News Industry news
14
Construction Statistics The latest news on building permits and construction employment
28
coLUmns 32 Software
16
Collaboration becomes a reality
34
Risk Transparency, construction and risk
38
Contractors and the Law Tender with care
35
Index of Advertisers
features 16
18
28
Read the winning entry to On-Siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Coldest day on the job contest.
With ongoing advancements in GPS machine control, getting good grades is faster and easier than ever before.
As access to aggregates sources move further and further outside growing cities, larger municipalities are looking to expand and grow their services.
Coldest day on the job
Grade-A technology
Growing pains
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WATCH THIS TRUCK COME TO LIFE.
The Freightliner 114SD truck enables these guys to handle demanding paving jobs with greater efficiency. It offers a 114-inch BBC cab made of corrosion-resistant aluminum, reinforced with e-coated steel. It has a contoured hood slope for superior visibility and a 50-degree wheel cut for better maneuverability. Add key weight-saving components and our proprietary SmartPlex™ Electrical System, and you’ve definitely got the latest and greatest equipment for any construction job. To learn more, visit FreightlinerTrucks.com/WorkSmart. Competitive financing available through Daimler Truck Financial. For the Freightliner Trucks dealer nearest you, call 1-800-FTL-HELP. www.freightlinertrucks.com. FTL/MC-A-1168. Specifications are subject to change without notice. Copyright © 2013. Daimler Trucks North America LLC. All rights reserved. Freightliner Trucks is a division of Daimler Trucks North America LLC, a Daimler company.
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COMMENT
Sunny forecast
F
Get the latest construction news! Follow us on Twitter @OnSiteMag
resh back from my annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for World of Concrete (WOC), I’m optimistic about what 2013 holds for Canada’s construction industry. For the past four years, I have walked the show floor chatting with our American colleagues, hearing their comments on the strength of the Canadian economy. “We love the Canadians,” said one manufacturer. “When everyone in the U.S. stopped buying, the Canadians were keeping us alive.” There’s little doubt that we faired well during the recession compared to our neighbours to the south. That said the Canadian economy is still very closely tied to the U.S. It is for this reason that I never miss the annual forecast that Portland Cement Association’s chief economist Ed Sullivan presents at WOC. This year’s forecast was delivered with more fan-fair than usual. Sunglasses were distributed to all of the journalists as Sullivan presented his “sunny” forecast. He pointed out that there are several factors indicating the U.S. economy is poised for significant growth this year. “Household debt has been declining for five years, the Euro Zone didn’t collapse, the Chinese didn’t go into recession, employment has held up and home prices are starting to rise again,” said Sullivan. He explains that recessions correct imbalances created during previous boom periods, so during a recession and in the years immediately following, businesses and individual consumers are cautious. They focus on saving and paying
down debt. They put off major purchases such as new cars, homes or commercial property. Now, according to Sullivan, “banks have never been healthier, credit quality is at a high, and credit scores are dropping.” The non-residential segment should see double-digit gains continued from 2012. Sullivan predicts 8.3 per cent growth this year in terms of cement use, and a continued growth into 2014 since the need for new schools, roads, prisons and other infrastructure is also growing. This is good news for the construction industry on both sides of the border. Large infrastructure projects create thousands of jobs for all kinds of contractors, sub-trades, architects and consulting engineers. It means increased business for equipment manufacturers and distributors too. Sullivan’s forecast was pretty “sunny,” and the skeptical journalist in me isn’t quite ready to dawn the sunglasses yet, but his optimism is contageous.
Corinne Lynds / Editor CLynds@on-sitemag.com
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CONTRIBUTORS
MEET OUR CONTRIBUTORS
www.on-sitemag.com / Fax: 416-510-5140
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EDITOR/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR | Corinne Lynds (416) 510-6821 CLynds@on-sitemag.com
“
In just a year, tablets have moved from being a novelty on the job site to a mainstream tool that many construction professionals wouldn’t be without. Here’s a look at the impact this revolution in mobile data is having on the industry and some tips on what’s hot, and what’s not.
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR | James A. Barnes ART DIRECTOR | Melissa Crook (416) 442-5600 x3260 MCrook@bizinfogroup.ca ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER | David Skene (416) 510-6884 DSkene@on-sitemag.com
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CIRCULATION MANAGER | Selina Rahaman (416) 442-5600 x3528 SRahaman@bizinfogroup.ca
“Whether you like it or not, the internet has had a
profound impact on the world, and that impact is being felt by every person, company and institution as a wave of transparency floods the planet.
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Published by BIG Magazines LP, a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. 80 Valleybrook Drive, North York, ON M3B 2S9 BIG Magazines LP Executive Publisher | Tim Dimopoulos Vice-President of Canadian Publishing | Alex Papanou President of Business Information Group | Bruce Creighton SUBSCRIPTION RATES Canada $81.00 per year, Outside Canada US$139.00 per year, Single Copy Canada $13.00. On-Site is published 7 times per year except for occasional combined, expanded or premium issues, which count as two subscription issues.
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DAVID GODKIN On GPS machine control: “Gosh, it was so neat seeing how far road grading has come since my first summer job in 1967. Lots of very smart folks behind all the changes, too.
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On-Site receives unsolicited materials (including letters to the editor, press releases, promotional items and images) from time to time. On-Site, its affiliates and assignees may use, reproduce, publish, re-publish, distribute, store and archive such unsolicited submissions in whole or in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort. DISCLAIMER This publication is for informational purposes only. The content and “expert” advice presented are not intended as a substitute for informed professional engineering advice. You should not act on information contained in this publication without seeking specific advice from qualified engineering professionals. Canadian publications Mail Sales Product Agreement 40069240 Established in 1957, On-Site is published by BIG Magazines LP a division of Glacier BIG Holdings Company Ltd. Inc. ISSN: 1910-118X We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.
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Tendering is often a complex and hurried process, and sometimes mistakes are made. These errors can be costly…
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6 / February 2013
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MEMBERS OF
Canadian Association of Equipment Distributors
Canadian Construction Association
13-02-11 3:34 PM
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Vaughn Mills to undergo $87M expansion and redevelopment The Vaughn Mills shopping centre will be receiving an $87-million upgrade courtesy of Ivanhoé Cambridge. The Montreal-based property owner, manager, developer and real estate investor announced that its shopping centre in Vaughan, Ont. will feature 250 stores, 19 major tenants and 1.1-million sq. ft. of retail space when the expansion is complete. The 150,000-sq.-ft. expansion project includes: 50 new retail concepts; three new major tenants, including the $12-million LEGOLAND Toronto Discovery Centre; a newly-designed entertainment court; renovations to the common areas and food court; a new entrance and 450 new parking stalls. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2013.
Who’s getting paid what? Nearly half of all Canadian construction companies (49 per cent) and one third of property and facilities firms (33 per cent)
real industry standards. Job seekers and professionals can search within 10 industry sectors: general construction, road building and heavy construction, mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, high-rise residential construction, property management, leasing, operations and maintenance, facilities management and support staff.
By entering a few details, such as employment area, experience and geographic location individuals can discover their expected salary, job description, benefits and the requirements necessary to fulfill that role based on today’s market. The Salary Centre uses data from Hays Canada’s 2013 Compensation, Benefits, Recruitment and Retention Guide.
Strongco finalizes Fort McMurray land purchase for new branch plan to increase their staff levels in the next year, according to a survey conducted by Hays Canada, which polled over 3,500 respondents from 20 industries. The Hays Canada Salary Centre (www. hays.ca/salaryguide), is designed to help educate employers and potential employees about potential employment opportunities. The new Salary Centre is a starting point for Canadians looking for current information about the construction and property industry and how their employment expectations measure up against
Strongco Corp. has completed the purchase of six acres of land that will be used to build its new branch in Fort McMurray, Alta. The new branch will carry the full line of products from Volvo Construction Equipment and complementary brands as well as Manitowoc, National and Grove crane products. Construction on the 23,000 sq. ft. facility is scheduled to begin in the Spring and is slated for completion in the Spring of 2014. “Strongco’s expansion into Fort McMurray is an important step for us as it further builds on our growing presence in Alberta and gives us higher visibility in the key markets in the province,” said Bob Dryburgh, president and chief executive officer of Strongco. The new Fort McMurray branch will involve a total capital cost of $18.5 million.
8 / February 2013
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X-22
iDi. w thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s W out WiFi. No ab sy. w o ea kn so l We al er been ting has nev va s. ca ig d ex n te co Accura hen Top one faster w d b jo e th Get /X 22 ti o n in g .c o m to p co n p o si
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Ritchie Bros. HQ goes golden Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers’ international headquarters in Burnaby, B.C. was recently awarded LEED Gold certification in the new construction category. The 164,000-sq.-ft. commercial office building currently houses more than 400 employees, as well as a corporate child-care centre, fitness facility and café. It has a variety of LEED features, including: 75 per cent of work spaces receiving natural daylight, and 90 per cent having views to the exterior; copy and janitor rooms with dedicated exhaust systems; carbon dioxide monitors located throughout the building;
Construction underway for $132M York Region transit facility Politicians at the federal, provincial and municipal levels recently celebrated the start of construction for a $132-million York Region transit facility being built in Richmond Hill, Ont. The facility will maintain and store York Region Transit/Viva transit vehicles and will be built to meet LEED Silver certification. It will be constructed near Leslie Street and 16th Avenue in the Headford Business Park. The project will be built by PCL Constructors Inc. and has an expected completion date of 2015. The facility is part of a $170-million project, which includes the purchase of 39 bus rapid transit vehicles and the construction of Cornell Terminal in Markham, Ont. The start of construction for the York Region transit facility was attended by Peter Kent, Minister of the Environment and MP for Thornhill; Costas Menegakis, MP for Richmond Hill; Reza Moridi, MPP for Richmond Hill; Dr. Helena Jaczek MP for Oak Ridges-Markham; and David Barrow, Mayor of the Town of Richmond Hill.
75 per cent of construction waste was recycled or reused; automatic lighting for interior and exterior; the roof being built with reflective materials; high-efficiency plumbing fixtures and exterior irrigation system; and a large number of native drought-resistant plants used to reduce the amount of watering required. Glenlyon Building
Saskatchewan government offers up $3.4M for redevelopment project The Town of Kindersley, Sask. received a multimillion-dollar helping hand for the redevelopment of its Kindersley Exhibition Stadium and Multi-Use Facility. The first phase of the redevelopment project will cost $12 million, with the Province of Saskatchewan offering up $3.4 million in infrastructure funding support. Kindersley Exhibition Stadium was destroyed in a fire in January 2010. Since that time, the town has refurbished the events centre and built a new arena that opened in February 2012, completing the first phase of the project. The facility’s current features include: a full-size ice surface built to Hockey Canada specifications; sledge hockey accessibility; a 190-metre running track; multi-purpose meeting rooms; seven dressing rooms; the Mini-Stick Recreation Area; and 450-seat capacity with an additional standing capacity of 1,000. The facility is also equipped with a variety of energy efficient features, such as: an insulated ice surface, motionactivated lights, low-flush toilets, and an automated building system with remotely monitored preset heating and lighting controls. The town is performing a needs and operational assessment for components identified in Phase 2 of the Multi-Use Facility project, including: an indoor aquatic centre, performing arts theatre, gymnasium and convention/banquet space. Wayne Gibson, communications coordinator for the Town of Kindersley, said a firm has been hired to perform the assessment and the contract is being finalized. The assessment is expected to be complete in the spring of 2013.
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Petrowest wins $78M contract for completion of Highway 43 twinning Petrowest Corporation has been awarded a contract for the construction of the final section of the twinning of Highway 43 by Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. The final section of the twinning runs 19.9 kilometres between Valleyview and Grand Prairie, Alta. The contract includes grading, granular base course, asphalt concrete pavement, culverts and a concrete bridge. Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation won the contract through a tender process from Alberta Transportation. Construction is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2013 and be complete by the fourth quarter of 2014. The contractâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s estimated value is $78 million.
Coco Paving Inc. fined $170,000 after worker killed Coco Paving Inc., a Tecumseh road constructor, was fined $170,000 for a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a worker was killed. On June 1, 2011, Coco Paving Inc. was installing sewer and water main connections on MacKay Ave. in Windsor. Near the end of the day, the driver of a front-end loader went to retrieve dirt from a work area and take it to a stockpile farther down the street. Rather than turn the vehicle around, the driver operated it in reverse. While backing up, the front-end loader fatally struck a worker who was crossing the street. Coco Paving Inc. pleaded guilty to failing to ensure that a vehicle at a project was not operated in reverse when there was a practical alternative to doing so. The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Helen Gale. In addition to the fine, the court imposed a 25-per-cent victim fine surcharge, as required by the Provincial Offences Act. The surcharge is credited to a special provincial government fund to assist victims of crime.
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INDUSTRY NEWS
Bird Construction Inc. subsidiary awarded contract with Nalcor Energy H.J. O’Connell, a St.John’s, Nfld.based wholly-owned subsidiary of Bird Construction Inc., is part of a consortium that was recently awarded an excavation and civil works contract with Nalcor Energy. The IKC-ONE Earthworks Constructors consortium won a bulk excavation and civil works construction contract from Nalcor for work at its Muskrat Falls Hydroelectric Generating Station in lower Churchill River in Labrador. The contract includes overburden and rock excavation of the intake, powerhouse, spillway, separation wall, switchyard and converter stations, and dams at the site of the 824-MW hydroelectric generating station in central Labrador. Work on the project is expected to commence shortly and be complete at the end of 2013. The contract is valued in excess of $100 million.
SNC-Lavalin debooks project in Alberta SNC-Lavalin recently received a notice of termination from its client for a fixed-price EPC contract awarded in November 2011. The contract was for a froth treatment plant in Fort McMurray, Alta. SNC-Lavalin stated that the project will be debooked from its backlog in the fourth quarter of 2012 and does not expect the termination to have a material impact on its fourth quarter earnings.
News Briefs
> PCL Constructors recently began work on the second of seven drift tunnels for the $82.5-million Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport (BBTCA) Pedestrian Tunnel project. The tunnel shafts will form the walkway’s crown, which will create a pedestrian footpath across the western gap to the airport. The 800-ft. long walkway will be approximately 10 stories below ground and will be equipped with four moving sidewalks. The project has an expected completion date of spring 2014. > A grand opening ceremony was held on Jan. 16 for the expanded terminal facility at Charlottetown Airport. The expansion was designed to accommodate projected traffic growth at the airport while improving its level of service. Features from the $3.8-million expansion and renovations include: improved airline check-in counters; enlarged passenger queuing space; development of the departure lounge and restaurant, and the building of new airline offices and baggage handling facilities. Construction began on Sept. 11, 2011 and was complete in December 2012. > Pure Technologies Ltd. has been awarded a contract by the Regional Municipality of York in Ontario for condition assessment and project management services for a water main that provides drinking water to the region. The contract is worth approimxately $1.2 million with the work expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2013. The company has previously performed a variety of services for York Region, including pilot inspections using robotics equipment and leak detection. > The Chilliwack East Dike in Chilliwack, B.C. will receive $2.34 million worth of upgrades, courtesy of the provincial and federal governments. The upgrades are designed to increase flood protection for more than 40,000 residents living in the flood plain, while creating additional protection for critical infrastructure, including: rail lines, the TransCanada Highway, oil and gas infrastructure, utilities, hospital and care facilities, and a wastewater treatment plant. The upgrades will take place from Wing Dike to Hope River and from Orchard Slough to McDonald Road. The project is expected to begin construction in 2014-15. > Bird Construction announced it is acquiring Nason Contracting Group Ltd. for $12.8 million, plus $500,000 in closing costs. Nason, a multi-discipline construction company operating throughout Western Canada, has focused on the municipal water and wastewater treatment market for more than 45 years, starting up operations in 1965. The purchase will be funded through $8.3 million of existing working capital and $5 million of Bird Construction Inc. shares issued from its treasury. > The new Port Mann Bridge opened to the public on Dec. 1. The opening of the bridge marked the end of the first phase of the Port Mann/Highway 1 Improvement Project, the largest transportation project in B.C.’s history. Phase 1 of the project also included highway widening from 202 Street in Langley to Brunette Avenue in Coquitlam and rebuilding interchanges from 176 Street in Surrey to Cape Horn in Coquitlam. Construction work will continue through 2013 on the Port Mann Bridge to complete the bridge’s 10-lane capacity, as well as on Highway 1 widening and interchange improvements through Coquitlam, Burnaby and Vancouver.
12 / February 2013
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The Komatsu PC490LC-10 provides more power, improved operator comfort and reduced fuel consumption. The excavator experts at Komatsu can help you complete jobs more quickly, while lowering your fuel and maintenance costs. • Efficient Komatsu Tier 4 Interim engine and advanced hydraulic system maximize productivity while providing up to 5% lower fuel consumption. • Increased lift capacity with a larger machine design and a reinforced undercarriage • Komatsu CARE provides complimentary Tier 4 maintenance, including KDPF exchange filters. Contact your Komatsu distributor for details.
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$ billions 13.0
seasonally adjusted
12.0 11.0
CONSTRUCTION STATS
10.0
A selection of data reflecting trends in the Canadian construction industry
9.0 8.0 7.0
III IV I II III IV I II III IV
2007
2008
I II III IV
2009
I II III IV I II III
2010
2011
2012
Real gross domestic product edges up in October $ billions 7.8
Construction permits down in December
seasonally adjusted
7.4 7.0 6.6
The total value of building permits issued by Canadian municipalities declined 11.2 per cent to $5.7 billion in December, following a 14.5 per cent decline in November. This decrease resulted from lower construction intentions in both the residential and non-residential sectors.
6.2 5.8 5.4 5.0 4.6 4.2 3.8 3.4 3.0
Employment
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
thousands 17,700 17,500
Construction employment up in January
17,300
The number of construction workers increased for the second consecutive month, up 17,000 in January. With this increase, year-over-year employment gains were 2.6 per cent for the industry.
17,100
16,900
16,700
J
J 2008
J 2009
J 2010
J 2011
J 2012
2013
Investment in non-residential building is up Investment in non-residential building construction amounted to $12 billion in the fourth quarter, up 1.0 per cent from the previous quarter. This was the third consecutive quarterly increase and was led by higher spending for commercial and industrial buildings.
Investment in non-residential building construction $ billions 13.0
seasonally adjusted
12.0 11.0 10.0 9.0
Source: Statistics Canada 8.0
III IV I II III IV I II III IV
2007
2008
2009
I II III IV
I II III IV I II III
2010
2011
IV
2012
Get the
14 / February 2013
http:
Real gross domestic product edges up in October
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$ billions 7.8
seasonally adjusted 13-02-12 10:37 AM
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13-02-12 10:37 AM
CONTEST
On-Site’s coldest day
Jason Del Signore wins On-Site’s coldest day on the job contest There were many bone-chilling entries for this contest, but Jason’s very cold, very wet, very frustrating day on the job, won him a heated jacket from Milwaukee Tools. Congratulations! Here is Jason’s winning entry, along with some of our other favourites:
Cold, wet and frustrated It was 2009, just after the Christmas holidays, and we were to start an underground sewer job, which was of course outside. The day we started was -27 C, felt like -40 C with the wind chill. Well we started breaking ground with the excavator, and it was frozen solid for the first 2 ft. Once we broke through the frost, it became very muddy, it was muddy because below the frost, and the 6 in. of mud we found a natural spring. It started pouring out of the ground like we hit some sort of water main, (but it was all natural water). At this point we had no choice, but to pump it out, so at -27 C we put a pump in the hole and started pumping this slushy water out and every five minutes the hose would plug with ice, and finally after an hour, the hose cracked because of the cold and the hose broke and water started covering the three of us! We were soaked from head to toe in freezing water and as it was hitting us it would freeze. We tried to get out of the trench and run to the truck. We finally got to the truck, which was a few hundred feet away, to start it up and drive to a nearby coffee shop to strip down and warm up and dry off, and of course the truck battery died because it was sooo cold, and “somebody” left the rear door open, which left the interior light on. So we finally got booster cables from a good person driving by and rushed to somewhere warm, and finally got a chance to warm up and dry our clothes off. THAT WAS THE COLDEST DAY ON THE JOB! Thanks for reading. Jason Del Signore, Brantford, Ont.
Hardy volunteers When I was younger (1984), I was working on a pipeline in northern Alberta. We had a day with a blizzard where the temperature was down to -40 C. with a wind chill at around -55 C. All construction was stopped, but the company was looking for paid volunteers to work clearing the snow out of the inside of the pipes by swabbing and capping the ends so that when the weather improved we wouldn’t lose time preparing the pipes for weld up. I remember the wind cutting right through and wherever you had exposed skin it would freeze in minutes There was not much else to do during this storm so several of us did volunteer, the company had a bus running full-time and we had two crews that went out at alternate times so that you wouldn’t get too cold. Anyway, it was cold, especially in the morning hours, the wind blowing the snow in your face trying to clear the snow from inside the pipes while you were bundled up that it was hard to move so you had to take some clothing off so you can work easier, but you sure cooled down in a hurry. One crew member did suffer minor frostbite. At the end of the day everyone was quite satisfied that we got the job done and it enable the welders to carry on when the weather cleared and we could start fit-up and welding again. I have worked many cold and windy days, but that one was unbelievably cold. Adam Roznicki
PolitiCal CHill It was so cold one day last January, I saw a politician walking with his hands in his own pocket! Sorry, couldn’t resist. Harold Valdron, Moncton, NB
GinGerbread man Walking from point A to B, if you want to call it walking had caused me to think of gingerbread men trying to make their way across a warm kitchen counter. The day had started with an alarm for loss of water in our raw water well. Ice and other debris had blocked the raw water intake.
16 / February 2013
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CONTEST
Heading out to the dam structure was a wakeup call in the -35 C temperatures. It was a simple task open one valve close the other and back flush the ice away from the face of the intake under 20 feet of water. We arrived at the dam and that is where simple ended. The valve broke as we began shutting it. We called back to the Water Treatment Plant and the water level in the reservoir was going down. We had to repair the valve and get the ice away from the intake as soon as possible. Dawning our safety gear and down the 30 feet into the pump well we went. The ice had blocked off the intake enough so a sump pump running could keep it just below waste level. Sounds like an easy job right, wrong the valve gearbox was under a foot and a half of water. We waded across the waste deep water that was 1 C and found the gearbox. Working by feel alone I removed the gearbox cover and feeling around found nothing broken so had the operator on the upper level turn the wheel. The gear moved but the valve face did not and I realized that the shear pin was broken. I then removed the gears by feel alone and removed the pieces of the broken pin. I replaced the pin and reassembled the gears and put the cover back in place. Each step was recreated in pictures in my head as
if I were working on a bench in the shop. Quite some time before this I remember not feeling my legs and my fingers in the gloves were getting harder and harder to bend. The wheel was turned and the valve was moving. Turning toward the ladder I realized that I could not bend my legs and my back was numb right to my shoulder blades. I started leaning to one side in order to twist my body to get my leg moved a couple of feet closer to the ladder and that is when the image of the march of the gingerbread men popped into my head. Wobbling like a well-balance hard-baked gingerbread man I finally got to the ladder and started the climb to the top. The pain of the thaw was unreal in the feet, knees, legs and hips, but most of all the fingers. Everything went back to normal temp and noting fell off from the cold. No shutdown of any industry or water conservation was required, we got the job done and the cold outside air was a reminder it could have been worse, we could have had to work outside in the water. Doug Campbell, City of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba
To read more Coldest Day on the Job entries visit www.on-sitemag.com
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Grade-A technology photo: Topcon
BY DAVID GODKIN
Grade-A GPS machine F control makes
orty-five years ago it was my first job; a skinny 17-year-old kid working on a 50-km stretch of dirt, soon to be Highway 103 East from Hubbards to Halifax. A simple job, too: Place a small stone on a stake at the side of the alignment to indicate a fill, a small stone and a leaf to indicate a cut. All day I’m doing that, with the foreman periodically measuring the cross slope of each graded section with a crown board, slashing an “X” in the dirt where a deeper cut was required or an “O” for more fill. Then we’d start all over again, cutting and filling until the dirt surface was as finished as we and the grader operator could make it. Prehistoric by today’s standards? You bet. In fact, these days grade checkers, surveyors and equipment operators are finding their jobs a whole lot easier not because of what’s there in the dirt at their feet but more than 20,000 km overhead: 24 satellites, each positioned so that no fewer than four transmit signals at any given
technology getting good grades faster and easier
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MACHINE CONTROL
MORE THAN A GAME OF INCHES All projects begin with a job plan, of course, but increasingly contractors are relying on 3D digital job plans loaded into a machine’s GPS control box and remotely connected to a nearby base station where satellite signals are closely calibrated to indicate the position of the machine on the ground and the grading tolerances it must work to. Instead of relying on stakes positioned every 25, 50 or 100 feet, 3D machine control “checks grade everywhere at every position and every location along the job site. So you’re not only accurate at every grade stake but every inch between all those grade stakes, too,” says Chris Mazur, North American product marketing manager for Leica’s machine control division. Working in tandem with the machine’s hydraulics and the angle sensors mounted on the bucket or blade, GPS increases productivity and accuracy, and reduces the number of passes the machine has to make to come to grade. “If I can get the grade in three passes instead of six or seven I’m going to burn a lot less fuel and save money, and I’m going to put a lot less wear and tear on my machines,” says Topcon Positioning System’s product manager Tony Vanneman. It also means less wear and tear on machine operators, and a significant reduction in the amount of engineering and staking required on job sites. “You still have benchmarks on any project, but you can literally get by with 90 per cent reduction in staking because now all that information is in the operators machine or in the field controller of the grade setter.” Trimble Navigation’s sales engineering manager Lamar Hester says GPS also helps dozer and grader operators work faster, particularly when blue topping. “They can run at a constant speed, not having to slow down, cutting it to fine grade…so they do pick up their speed when they’re operating with machine control.” Every bit as important as the hardware, software development gauges and improves work flow from the standpoint of those administering the job back at the office. Trimble’s “connected site strategy” streamlines work flows by connecting the machine in the field via the internet to the office where staff track the progress of the job, and make fresh decisions about how to proceed next. Then if they have design updates they can flow that information from the office straight out to the machine as well,” says Hester. Similarly, Topcon’s SiteLink is a site management system that automatically updates work flow, up time, volumes moved etc., which can be shared with supervisors, foremen and operators along with site plan revisions that can be immediately implemented.
Fleet diagnostics and management, fuel consumption, idle time, productivity and maintenance are determined down to the level of each machine regardless of the manufacturer.
A CASE STUDY Proponents call it the most significant single-highway investment made in Ontario history. By the time the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway is finished in 2014, trucks travelling Highway 401 from as far away as Montreal will no longer have to wind their way through the city streets and neighbourhoods of Windsor before crossing over
Deere GCS900 ATS-Dozer 010
photo: Trimble
moment to help us triangulate the length, width and elevation of our positions on the ground. This simple principle has been revolutionizing the way many contractors build roads and highways since the late 1990s. Others are less convinced—in part because of acknowledged costs, but also because of misunderstanding about what GPS can and cannot do.
to the other side of the Detroit River. A key player in the $1.5-billion parkway project is Ontario-based builder Amico Infrastructures Inc., which will construct approaches to both the brand new international bridge and inspection plaza. The main challenges, says Amico survey manager Scott Rahm, are cuts of up to 12 metres deep and approximately 3 million cubic meters of earth moved, some of it on existing streets and roadways in heavily residential neighbourhoods. “So we do have a fair number of shovels, dozers and graders. Of those 15 dozers and three graders are equipped with GPS. Without GPS, I don’t know how we could even approach doing this job.” A case in point: staking. Rahm points out that stakes are still helpful on smaller job sites, but not here where Amico runs about 200 to 250 trucks per day. “If you had stakes they’d be run over five minutes after you put them in.” The close proximity of existing roadways also makes for cramped working conditions for equipment operators. But with all the design information on machine location and blade position on their digital displays “operators don’t need
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a grade man out there 24/7 telling them every time they make a cut if they’re too deep or not too deep.” Another challenge, Rahm says, are elevations. Historically, batter boards and the keen eye of a project foreman were the principle means for ensuring proper slopes and curves. That’s less reliable on a job site that features two-dozen bridges and tunnels, and where equipment operators work from normal ground levels to 12-metres deep. To cut it once and to cut it right, says Rahm, Amico combines GPS technology with Leica’s TS-15 Total Station robotics systems “so that our tolerances are bang on.” “For the road cuts they’re running at 30 mils both on the sub grade and stone grade. But when we go to do the fine grading with the GPS and the total station it’s not a problem to get to 10 or even five mils.”
REVOLUTION…OR EVOLUTION? Brad Hoey is not convinced. When you grade and pave for airport runways you work to very fine tolerances, says the project manager for Island Asphalt Company in Victoria. GPS will give you that only if you supplement your dozer or grader with conventional laser beam technology. “GPS can tell us elevation differences but it can’t correct within the proper tolerances that we need for paving. It’s not fine enough.” Hoey’s reluctance to use GPS seems to be borne out by the rest of the industry, of which only about 30 to 35 per cent have invested in GPS technology.
“If you’re waiting for someone to give you grades and you underfill or over fill you’re going back to do the same job twice.” Tony Vanneman admits GPS manufacturers have a way to go before the contracting industry fully embraces GPS or even laserguided technology. What those who don’t use it fail to appreciate, he says, is how far these technologies have come. Today’s laser technologies, for example, are a far cry from the conventional horizontal lasers used 30 years ago and he cites TopCon’s own Laser Zone as an example: a 10-meter high “wall of light” that can cover a job site up to 1,000 feet from the transmitter. “Anywhere within that laser zone an innumerable number of machines, machine and man rovers can utilize this signal. It augments or enhances that conventional GPS-only signal and that’s how we’re able to get down to significantly tighter tolerances, whether you’re grading or asphalt or concrete paving.” Peter Robson and Len Friesen are certainly sold on the technologies. Robson is director of intelligent machine controls for Komatsu, Friesen is a commercial landscaper in Winkler, Man.
photo: Leica
MACHINE CONTROL
Friesen had used GPS in landscaping before, but decided to make an even bigger investment last year after he expanded into commercial grading. The result: a JD 200 Excavator and JD 333 Skid Steer equipped with a Topcon GPS system (the first sold in Western Canada) and two JD 650J and 700J dozers with Topcon’s 3D-MC2. This system pairs Topcon’s GX-60 control box, GPS+ antenna, MC-R3 receiver and sensors with advanced controlling software to provide position updates up to 100 times per second. A costly venture at $150,000 per machine? Sure, says Friesen, “but there’s a cost factor in not being able to do your job as well.” “If you’re waiting for someone to give you grades and you underfill or over fill you’re going back to do the same job twice.” A bonus, adds Robson, is a relatively quick return on investment in GPS technologies of “anywhere from 12 to 18 months.” Trimble’s Hester calls that “a good estimate,” but says paving contractors can do even better once their bonuses kick in. “If we’re helping you to achieve the smoothest surface out there so that you can guarantee that you’re going to get your smoothness bonus, you could see a much faster rate of return,” says Robson, all this could push more contractors towards GPS. “I don’t see why in five to six years time it wouldn’t be getting close to everybody using it.” Greater acceptance is more likely to occur as GPS improves— in particular, says Scott Rahm, in the number of satellite systems available to ensure greater global penetration of satellites signals and greater accuracy. That could mean supplementing the American Navistar and Russian GLONASS systems with the European and Chinese systems. “It tightens the accuracy more and more the longer we go, which is all we can hope for.” Rahm looks forward to a day when GPS will enable contractors to do a job in a single pass “so that you go from the initial cut right down to the millimeter.” “We’re getting better at that every day. We just hope that continues and we can get better accuracies the further we go.” David Godkin is a B.C.-based freelance writer and regular contributor to On-Site. Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.
20 / February 2013
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COVER STORY
THE INVASION OF THE
APPS TABLETS CAN BOOST YOUR PRODUCTIVITY DR AMATICALLY BY: JIM BARNES
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COVER STORY
M
obile devices such as tablets and smartphones are revolutionizing construction by simplifying communications and making time spent on the job site more productive. There have been exponential improvements in tablet technology since the first ones were introduced more than 20 years ago. Numerous alternatives are available today, with Apple’s iPad and Google’s Android platforms claiming the lion’s share of construction-related applications.
App AwAreness The key to productivity is building up a core suite of apps you know well and use routinely. Most tablets provide a basic suite of apps to handle web browsing, e-mail, note taking, calendars, maps, photography/video and so on. Many others, like to-do lists, more sophisticated
notepads, drawing applications and calculators may be inexpensive or even free to download. A tablet can give you quick access to mounds of technical documents and articles stored on Dropbox (a Cloud-based storage service) or locally on your device. These might include photos of old jobs, building code documents, estimates and agreements, tool manuals and others. “We keep all the building codes in Dropbox, and all the guys have a copy of TACBOC (provided by the Toronto Area Chief Building Officials Committee). It's a visual guide to all the building codes,” says Andy Foot, partner, Dwell Design Build Inc., Toronto. Suppliers are jumping in, too: stores like Home Depot and Canadian Tire have apps that give you thorough exposure to their inventory and manufacturers like Milwaukee Tool and Snap-On Tools provide applications that detail their product lines and provide related information.
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COVER STORY
Project management can now go way beyond a Gantt chart to detailed, annotated assessments of tasks on each job and field management. There are a number of powerful packages in this category offering varying functions, including Viewpoint Mobile Field Manager, Procore, BuildTools and Basecamp. Time tracking is a problem for many managers. Keeping tabs on staff and trade hours can be accomplished with a number of applications, with PocketClock/GPS from ExakTime as one commonly used app, along with OfficeTime, which helps individuals track billable hours and expenses. A suite of apps from HCSS lets contractors quickly record an entire time card including diaries, photographs, cost-coded employee and equipment hours and production quantities. The apps can be integrated with corporate accounting systems. A CAD viewer will let you look at DWG drawings in e-mail or online to verify details. One is Autodesk Inc.’s AutoCAD WS, which lets users view, edit and share DWG files, and supports annotation and revision. Another example is TurboViewer. Blueprint apps like iBlueprint let users create floor plans and provides quick access to blueprints on the job site. MagicPlan lets users measure, draw, and publish interactive floor plans on the Web by taking pictures. cadTouch actually lets you draw floor plans, land surfaces, facades, mechanical and structural parts, diagrams, and field notes, and then send drawings via email or FTP. It is even possible to access your desktop computer remotely, with an app like LogMeIn or GoToMyPC.
deficiencies, including notes and photos. We send the report generated by SiteWorks to the architect and he puts his cover on it and sends it back to us. So we have the deficiencies the second that we walk off the floor,” says Day. They use the Numbers app for spreadsheets. “That has really simplified maintaining inventories in the field,” says Marc Nord, superintendent. “I have the spreadsheets on the tablet, and the tablet is always with me.” It is simple to share the data with the trades. Day notes that the tablets can eliminate those quick trips to the office to grab a document you need. “If you make trips like that 10 or 20 times a day, you’ve consumed a big part of your day just going back and forth to get information.” “You don’t have to carry around a big pile of reports and drawings. It all fits in the iPad. We have never maxed out the capacity of our iPads. On that one little screen, you’ve got the entire requirements of the project,” says Day. When you compare the tablets to using pen and paper, “The time savings are just unreal,” says Nord. “Everything is right there with you in the field. It’s hard to imagine going back.”
“EvEry thing is right thErE with you in thE fiEld. it’s hard to imaginE going back.”
The mArs projecT The MARS (Medical and Related Sciences) project in Toronto is The MARS project in Toronto.
Time sAver EllisDon has supplied four corporate iPads to support the Krembil Discovery Centre in Toronto. The project is a 10-story, 325,000 sq. ft. hospital addition. The assistant superintendent and the field engineers are using the tablets quite a bit. The CAD operator on site is doing coordination drawings and related tasks, notes Joe Day, project manager, A.B.E. a Joint Venture that includes EllisDon. The team is using SiteWorks for 80 per cent of what is done in terms of punch lists, recording deficiencies and collaboration, notes Day. Blue Beam Revu, useful for annotating PDFs, is also in common use. Documents in the form of PDFs or spreadsheets are uploaded to Dropbox, where they become accessible to all users. “If you have a detail that doesn’t quite work, you open up the drawing and make some notes and take some pictures and email it to the architect. That’s from standing on site, right where the problem is,” says Day. “We have a coordinator that walks with the architect to record
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COVER STORY
a million-sq.-ft. facility for research and innovation organizations. This project, too, is being accelerated with tablets. PCL has a Bring-Your-Own-Mobile-Device program. A variety of mobile devices are in use on site, ranging from laptops to smartphones. “The company has been very good about integrating all these mobile devices,” says Aaron Yohnke, construction manager at PCL Constructors Canada. The devices give staff access to PCL systems, including the Project Document Control Centre, e-mail and safety management. A large number of third-party applications are in use, and staff is encouraged to find solutions that work for them. “One of the neat ones I’ve seen the field engineers using is iAnnotate. It lets you take the plans and overlay and take pictures. When an issue comes up, you can show someone where it is in the plan with a picture and the relevant notes,” says Yohnke. FaceTime has been useful too. Yohnke says that sometimes the easiest way to handle a phone discussion is flip the video camera on and show the other party what you are talking about.
PCL has created a site known as “Technology for Builders”. It gives staff a forum to share information on the applications they use and how useful the apps are. In terms of productivity, Yohnke says it is the little things that matter, like quick e-mail searches and sending notes and photos about deficiencies to the trades. “It means you’re not waiting until the end of the day to get all this stuff in motion.” “I like to take notes in Notability at a meeting. When we stand up to walk out, I have already emailed everyone the meeting notes,” he says. Yohnke is fond of using the iPad to handle routine admin during his 45-minute train commutes. Instead of dead time, he can be productive. It is a small but important task. “The company understands how crucial this is to the future,” says Yohnke
consTrucTion-cenTric Not all apps are useful. Some, in fact, look slapped together by developers who do not know much about construction. “We’ve seen
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COVER STORY
too many apps in construction that are difficult to use and don’t work the way that contractors work,” says Carlo Perez, founder and C.E.O. of app developer Hammerati Inc., Toronto.
“Each contractor has uniquE diffErEncEs in how hE or shE opEratEs...”
“Each contractor has unique differences in how he or she operates, and no software is tailored to any construction organization out of the box,” notes Stevens. The Construction Field Productivity Cost Calculator from Stevens
Introducing
Construction Institute helps contractors assess construction field productivity, return on investment, contracting breakeven revenue and costing of overhead to direct costs for contracting. “What’s this thing called the business of construction contracting, and how is it diffrom ferent from other businesses?” asks Stevens. “There is a unique set of knowledge and calculations that a construction contractor needs. A general business approach can be very dangerous, as many people have seen over the years,” says Stevens. “The industry in the U.S. and Canada is really about the small guy… It is a huge market of contractors with one or two employees. Tablets are good for those users, because often they lack IT support and the apps tend to be affordable. As well, they are portable.” They can get useful guidelines and metrics from calculations on elements like field productivity. This is especially useful if they do not have the resources for large-scale business apps. Regardless of the size of the contractor, the effect of tablets on a job site can be dramatic. Mobile devices can almost be seen as a business lubricant, improving efficiency, speeding Innovative Software things up and minimizing friction.
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Jim Barnes is a contributing editor to On-Site. Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com
26 / February 2013
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AGGREGATES
Growing
PAINS
Locating close-to-market aggregates increasingly challenging in larger markets By Andrew Snook
A
s access to aggregates sources continues to move farther away from growing cities, larger municipalities looking to expand and grow their services and populations may find themselves between a rock and a hard place financially. The cost of moving aggregates by land starts to cost as much as the value of the aggregates themselves after about 12 to 15 kilometres, according to B.C. Stone, Sand & Gravel Association’s executive director Paul Allard. “The bottom line is every one of us consumes a truckload of gravel every year and it’s got to come from somewhere,” says Allard. “We consume about 52 to 55 million tons of aggregates a year in British Columbia—probably 40 or 50 per cent of it is used in lower mainland… with four million people you can do the math.”
Moreen Miller, CEO of the Ontario, Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (OSSGA) says these challenges are mostly regional and focus on both regional markets and regional sources. In the Ottawa area and in Northern Ontario—Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, for example—supply and demand are relatively consistent; however, in the Greater Toronto Area serious challenges present themselves. The GTA consumes about 60 million tons of resources every year. As the closest sources are being consumed, industry is being forced to move further away into areas where companies have not traditionally mined. “The GTA is experiencing what I think many North American cities have gone through in the past,” says Miller. “Cities like Chicago and Cleveland and other cities where they have in fact run
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AGGREGATES
out of close-to-market resources and they have had to ship them by other methods. We’re in a bit of a transition so that will make it difficult in Ontario in coming years.” Ed Persico, general manager of Dufferin Aggregates, a division of Holcim (Canada) Inc., says the combination of natural heritage features, land ownership and development plans make finding appropriate locations for resource extraction increasingly challenging.
SterilizAtion And morAtoriumS One of the reasons certain aggregates are becoming more difficult to locate and extract close to market is sterilization, a problem that is pretty consistent across the country. “People build things over aggregate reserves before we can extract the resources,” says Allard. In Alberta, gravel sterilization and gaining access to aggregate deposits for infrastructure projects in more populated areas, such as Edmonton, is a growing issue. “I put that on mismanagement of the resource in general,” says Teri Muhlbeier, executive director of the Alberta Sand and Gravel Association (ASGA). She says poor urban planning and intentional sterilization (building homes on top of known deposits) has made some closeto-market reserves inaccessible. Another area where aggregate removal is a challenge in Alberta is on river valleys. Although some river valleys have high-quality aggregates, most of them have moratoriums placed on them preventing extraction, says Muhlbeier.
licenSing And legiSlAtion Navigating the permit process for producing aggregates creates additional challenges for the industry. In B.C., a mining permit granted by the Province of British Columbia does not allow a company to crush, screen or wash aggregates. Those permits are granted by the local municipality. Allard says the provincial government has generally been good about providing permits, as long as companies meet the criteria they have established, and most of the roadblocks occur at the municipal level. “That’s something we’ll have to overcome somewhere down the road or it costs everyone a pile of money in the courts of B.C.,” he says. Allard says industry is currently battling with the province to make aggregates a provincial reserve instead of a municipal reserve, so the decisions related to permits are left in the hands of the province and the fate of aggregate mines are not decided by “the council of the day.” Persico says the licensing of aggregate operations has been characterized by a regulatory process that is lengthy, expensive and highly contentious. He says the industry is one of the most heavily regulated in Canada and that pits and quarries are subject to a myriad of legislation that has not been harmonized in any way. “Without a clear set of rules and a consistent process, both in terms of new licenses and day-to-day operations, the result is an often
convoluted and inefficient process; one that propagates confrontation, rather than collaboration to find solutions that not only encourage and support economic growth but do so in a sustainable manner.” Miller says she doesn’t see a lot of changes coming in regards to regulatory and legislative framework, but definitely sees the emergence of a stronger focus on corporate social responsibility. “Many communities are stepping up and saying, ‘We want industries in our community that are focused on the long-term environmental and social health of our community,’ and we’re interested in engaging in that debate.” Dufferin Acton Rehab
turning A corner One way the industry is trying to promote collaboration and sustainable practices over confrontation is with the formation of the Cornerstone Standards Council (CSC), created in August 2012 through the merger of the Aggregate Forum of Ontario (AFO) and Socially and Environmentally Responsible Aggregate (SERA). “We are an organization with a national mandate to promote best practices and responsible sourcing up and down the aggregate supply chain,” says Lorne Johnson, executive director of the CSC. He says there are a growing number of conflicts in Alberta, B.C. and Ontario between local communities and the aggregate industry; or environmental groups and First Nations and the aggregate industry. The CSC’s initial focus is in Ontario because it has been the “hot bed of conflict and descent” in the industry and is where the demand is greatest. The CSC’s board is comprised of industry, environmental NGO and community representatives, as well as Thomas Mueller, president of Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC), and few charitable foundations. The CSC purposely created a board with a balanced diversity of interests. The organization’s standards development panel is comprised of 14 individuals from various groups, including: industry-related companies, environmental groups, local communities, municipal representation, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Six Nations. The panel has been working for the last year and a half to create consensus-based, voluntary standards.
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AGGREGATES
“Our task is to help them reach consensus on standards that cover environmental and social issues for the aggregate sector,” says Johnson. The CSC is also trying to design a credible but cost-effective verification system that will allow third parties to assess a company’s compliance with those voluntary standards. He says he expects to release a draft standard for consultation with the next few months and has a goal of launching into Ontario with the standards and verification systems in the summer of 2013. “Dufferin Aggregates supports CSC with the belief that a certification system that encourages operators to push the envelope, as they explore what responsibility looks like, will create positive change for the sector,” says Persico.
“It’s one of the most innovative things that we’ve seen this sector do in many years,” says Johnson. “It’s never easy sitting down with people you have a history of disagreement with and conflict. It’s often the least instinctive thing for people to do and yet it can pay off handsomely in terms of reducing conflict and building trust.” He adds that it can also strengthen a company’s ‘social license,’ or right to operate in their communities. “If adopting these best practices and going through these transparent audits improves relationships with stakeholders and communities, and results in fewer complaints and stronger ties between the aggregate companies and the communities, then I think we will have done our job.”
the government wants aggregate producers to hire an aerial photographer to take photos before a company starts its project and afterwards, to determine how much material has been taken out compared to the amounts reported. He says there are remote-controlled helicopters and planes with six- or 10-ft.wingspans with cameras on them that can be used to help reduce costs to the aggregate producer.
CRC450X Portable Cone Plant Terex Minerals Processing Systems’ new Terex Cedarapids CRC380X and CRC450X large capacity, portable cone plants feature a variety of options, including: feed conveyors, extra length undercrusher conveyors, surge hop-
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released the CRJ3054 jaw crusher plant and CRS6203FV
Miller says there are all kinds of opportunities for new
feeder/screen plant to complement the two cone plants,
technologies in the aggregate industry. One prime
to create a large capacity closed circuit crushing and
opportunity is in the surface drilling for quarries.
screening system.
pers and overflow chutes. The company also
“The surface drills that are used to drill the holes to load the explosives into for blasting are often quite noisy, and when quarries are required to do noise studies before they’re permitted, one of the challenges that always comes up is having to shield local residences from any additional noise that may be caused by the surface drilling,” says Miller. Although blasting is a small part of the entire site, some companies have stepped up to create quieter drills, explains Miller. Another area where technology is saving aggregate producers money is high in the sky. According to Allard,
30 / February 2013
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SOFTWARE By Jacob Stoller
Collaboration becomes a reality Technology has raised the bar for information sharing
C
ollaboration is an IT industry buzzword with particular relevance in the construction sector. Construction is, after all, a collaborative undertaking where diverse stakeholders work side-by-side, often on a tight schedule, to produce a quality result in a safe and cost effective manner. The ability to share information efficiently has always been key in this business, consequently, construction software has a long history. “We and other companies began developing software for the construction industry before Bill Gates started Microsoft,” says Wayne Newitts, marketing director of Seattle-based construction software vendor Dexter and Chaney. “There was always a huge need for it because this is such a data intensive, document intensive industry.” Construction software was, until recently, constrained by information silos that made document sharing cumbersome and error-prone. “Collaboration has been talked about for 20 years, but to some extent this was an empty statement because the technology wasn’t there,” says Newitts. “Yes, you could provide mobile apps, but you couldn’t pull up a plan in the field as a construction manager and do a markup on it and send it back and submit an RFI, or approve a change order, or get the change order approval process rolling. All these things had to be done back at the office.” Thanks to a perfect storm of web-based applications, cloud computing and increasingly powerful mobile devices, a plethora of collaboration tools help construction
companies do all this and more. “They’re making project management more than a logging, tracking, guessing exercise,” says Newitts. “They’re bringing real usable information and discipline to the communication and document flow.” Exception management, or the ability to handle changes in the agreed specifications, is key here, says Joe Jagodich, CIO of EllisDon Corporation and President – Econstruction – a Division of EllisDon that is also a software vendor. “A workflow process says ‘I’ve got a change order here, I’ve got the scope of a change, now I’ve got to get it approved,’” he says. “So how many iterations does it have to go through for authorization? All of these things can be done collaboratively across an application now.” Achieving this kind of document flow is tricky in construction because it’s about more than sharing data. “Documents really define the workflow in construction,” says Newitts. “It begins with plans and specs, then gets modified with RFIs, and validated with submittals, and then bids are accepted or not. Plans get marked up constantly, and you enter the change order world, and issue management. It is all documentation.” Consequently, construction software uses document controls that go beyond the capabilities of generic collaboration tools like Microsoft Sharepoint. “Construction has very specific needs for version control and audit trails of changes,” says Newitts. “Can you identify exactly who changed what when? Can you see who read what when? Can you automatically maintain the latest document and have that be the only document that’s shared out? These [details]
may seem subtle, but they are essential to the construction industry.” Of course, for collaborative systems to work. “they need to become free-to-play systems that are intuitive and easy to learn, [and] can be accessed at no cost from a web browser,” says Newitts. The savings available through softwaredriven workflow are self-evident. A change order request posted online saves numerous iterations between approving engineers, sub-contractors, and customer representatives. Sub-contractors can be given access to their billing file so they can monitor the progress of payments without repeated phone calls to the payables department. And site supervisors have instant access to each other’s schedules so they can time site activities and avoid conflicts. What’s really changing the industry, however, is the enhanced ability to control projects. “People talk about collaboration, but it’s really the end product, making sure that you take the proactive approach with respect to overall project delivery and client satisfaction,” says Jagodich. “Collaboration is only part of a decision making framework.” Customer expectations are central here. As decision-makers get accustomed to receiving real-time information about their own operations, they expect the same for projects they are investing in. “The client says ‘hey, I’m handing all of this to you. You manage it all, but I want the information that I need so I can make decisions about how I invest.’” Jacob Stoller is principal of Toronto-based consultancy Stoller Strategies. Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.
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RISK By David Bowcott
T
Transparency, construction and risk
he world is becoming more transparent. Facebook hit over one billion users in 2012 (that is one in seven people willing to post much of their personal information online). Twitter means any set of eyes can report via their mobile device on events or actions taking place almost anywhere in the world. Wikileaks are publishing classified documents every day. We are also seeing the rise of an open source philosophy, whereby previously hidden intellectual capital is released for all to see in hopes of fostering innovation. Whether you like it or not, the internet has had a profound impact on the world, and that impact is being felt by every person, company and institution as a wave of transparency floods the planet. There is good and bad that come with greater transparency. One school of thought is that transparency is the future as it leads to much greater honesty in the way we conduct ourselves (the belief that those that are fighting transparency must have something to hide). Others believe the information that is available on individuals, companies and institutions can be used as a weapon, and we should all tread very carefully. Whether it’s good or bad we can’t deny it has changed the way we act—as every word and action is potentially captured for the record. No occupation has felt the impact of transparency more than politicians. On the one hand they are trying to capture the vote of as many people in their riding in order to get elected, but on the other hand they’re sometimes afraid to take a stand on an issue for fear of losing their majority and thus their elected position. Just look at the
United States right now. The gridlock being experienced in Washington is related to the rise of transparency over the past 10 years, whereby every action of every politician is recorded for all to see. Without transparency politicians of the past were able to find a middle ground and their actions were not scrutinized as closely, because there simply was less information to analyse. Today, politicians are going into very serious negotiations, for instance, on whether to default on their country’s debt obligations,
“ From the construction industry’s perspective, transparency has had a huge impact on the way we are doing business.” and the Twittersphere is posting each side’s game plan forcing all players to adhere more veraciously to that game plan. Thus gridlock. Love it or hate it, transparency is here to stay. From the construction industry’s perspective, transparency has had a huge impact on the way we are doing business. More owners are investigating models that encourage greater transparency between the various parties to the development and operations of their assets. The migration away from design-bid-build to both sides of the project delivery spectrum (shared risk and broad risk transfer) is very clear. In their own unique ways both sides of the spectrum are using their specific asset delivery model to encourage greater transparency. On the broad risk transfer side of the fence P3s are using the paranoia of all
parties (the debt in particular) to force greater oversight and planning around risk. A key tenet to better oversight and planning is transparency between all parties. On the shared risk transfer side, parties are coming together in a genuine partnering framework, using open-book planning and execution practices to increase the certainty of successful delivery. The design-bid-build model is often seen as a model that fragments roles and discourages collaboration and transparency. I don’t necessarily agree with this thought process, but do agree the fragmented nature of each phase of the assets development, found in the DBB model, was exploited by some to create a more adversarial environment from which these parties gained financial benefit. Pay attention to trends in transparency, and pay particular attention to how these trends are impacting our industry. The property and casualty insurance industries loss ratios are starting to indicate a statistically significant decrease in loss ratios where projects are executed with greater transparency. As more owners see greater certainty associated with delivery models that encourage transparency, you can expect them to embrace these models and reap the benefit of this market change.
David Bowcott is senior vice-president, national director of large/strategic accounts, AON Reed Stenhouse Inc. Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.
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CONTRACTORS & THE LAW By Matthew Swanson & Bill Woodhead
T
Tender with care
endering is often a complex and hurried process, and sometimes mistakes are made. These errors can be costly, as contractors are generally required to submit an irrevocable bid along with bid security, which may be lost if the contractor attempts to withdraw the bid. Even without security, if a contractor’s bid is accepted and the contractor refuses to proceed, the contractor may be liable to the owner for damages. However, in some rare situations, contractors have been able to show that their bid was not compliant with the tender call or that it contained a patent error. Either scenario renders the bid incapable of being accepted by the owner.
than what was requested, as long as the tender contains all relevant information. These instances of non-compliance will typically be seen as trivial.
is iT The size of The misTake ThaT maTTers? When contractors raise the issue of a mistake, the courts have made it clear that the mistake must be material and
When is a bid non-complianT? When contractors raise the issue of non-compliance, the courts have indicated that the key question to be answered is whether the tender was substantially compliant. Trivial non-compliance will not avoid liability. A tender that fails to provide information that was requested by the owner’s tender call and is fundamentally necessary to undertake and complete all aspects of the project may go beyond trivial non-compliance. When a contractor’s noncompliance is beyond trivial, its bid cannot be accepted. However, the same cannot be said for a bid that omits inconsequential details or is submitted in a different format
patently obvious at the time the bid was opened and evaluated by the owner. In such situations, the bid may be incapable of being accepted, and the contractor may be under no obligation to perform. Trivial or immaterial mistakes are insufficient and avoid liability. A common example of a mistake is an error in price. If a breakdown of costs
“When a contractor’s noncompliance is beyond trivial, its bid cannot be accepted.” is provided and it’s missing essential elements of the work that are addressed throughout the bid, such as labour, materials, transportation or other costs that are related to the project, then the mistake may be material and obvious, rending the bid incapable of acceptance. Similarly, if the arithmetic within the bid contains errors that result in the total price conflicting with explicit costs, taxes, security, etc., then the bid may contain an obvious and material mistake. However, when a bid states only a total price and fails to include certain costs, it is unlikely that the bid will be considered to contain an obvious error. Contractors should take great care in preparing their bid materials to avoid having to rely on arguments of non-compliance or mistake to avoid performance in respect of a project. The courts are often reluctant to accept these sorts of arguments. They fear such arguments are raised to obscure a contractor’s real reason for refusing to honour its bid, namely that the contractor will lose money on the project. In order to minimize risk, and to avoid costly court proceedings, contractors should review the process for tending, the required elements of a bid and tender with care.
Matthew Swanson and Bill Woodhead are associate lawyers at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG). Send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.
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