REBUILDING slave lake
dialing back the past
glaze into the future
PAGE 23
PAGE 70
PAGE 79
after the wildfire
a building’s revival
new glass technologies
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We reveal the winners of Alberta’s outstanding construction projects for 2011
PLUS | ECA celebrates 80th Anniversary
PAGE 69
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Chaz Osburn
editor’s note
cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com
Let’s flip back the pages of time and look at what happened in late 2001:
• Enron Corp. filed for bankruptcy. • Hamid Karzai was sworn in as the interim leader in Afghanistan. • Shell Canada Limited’s Athabasca Oil Sands Project was still months away from starting. • The Detroit Red Wings were into a season that would see them eventually face the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup finals, giving Scotty Bowman his ninth Cup win. • Alberta Construction Magazine published its first issue recognizing the year’s top construction projects. It’s no accident that last bullet point was included. This is a milestone issue, marking the 10th anniversary of Top Projects. Who could have predicted what would have happened between late 2001 and now? The boom. The bust. The labour challenges. The spike in oil prices and what that has meant for Alberta. The growth in population for the province. The amount of construction the industry has taken on. The first Top Projects feature singled out 20 projects that then-editor Darrell Stonehouse wrote “showed off the creativity of Alberta’s design community and the inventiveness of the province’s builders.” Reviewing the 38 projects submitted for that first Top Projects issue “offered an opportunity to see where Alberta’s construction industry is headed in the future, and many of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead,” Stonehouse noted. Among his observations: • For commercial projects, there would be growth in building renovations. • In the institutional market, designers and builders would be doing more with less. • On the industrial side, logistics would become paramount as more emphasis was placed on modular construction. • In civil construction, new project delivery methods would allow value-engineering to cut costs where opportunities presented themselves. Pretty accurate. Certainly things have changed since we published the first Top Projects Awards a decade ago. But as the projects chosen by the 2011 judging panel of Randy Kraft and Jacob Coonan of KPMG LLP—the event sponsor of the inaugural Alberta Construction Magazine Top Projects Awards gala luncheon where these winners were announced— Stonehouse (yes, we convinced him to help judge) and myself illustrate, the creativity of Alberta’s design community and the inventiveness of the province’s builders are still going strong. Congrats to all those a part of the 13 Top Projects chosen this year. May your best years be still ahead. Coming next issue: The Green Issue
Alberta Construction Magazine | 7
President & CEO Bill Whitelaw • bwhitelaw@junewarren-nickles.com
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assistant editor Joseph Caouette • jcaouette@junewarren-nickles.com
editorial Assistance manager Samantha Kapler • skapler@junewarren-nickles.com
Editorial
Editorial Assistance Kate Austin, Laura Blackwood, Tracey Comeau,
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creative Print, Prepress & Production Manager
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Creative Services Contributing Photographers Creative Services Manager Designers
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OFFICES Calgary: 2nd Floor, 816-55 Avenue N.E., Calgary, Alberta T2E 6Y4 Tel: 403.209.3500 Fax: 403.245.8666 Toll Free: 1.800.387.2446 Edmonton: 6111 - 91 Street N.W., Edmonton, Alberta T6E 6V6 Tel: 780.944.9333 Fax: 780.944.9500 Toll Free: 1.800.563.2946 SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription rates: In Canada, 1-year $24 plus GST (4 issues), 2-year $39 plus GST (8 issues). In US, 1-year C$34 (4 issues), 2-year C$59 (8 issues). International subscriptions, 1-year $40 (4 issues), 2-year $71 (8 issues). Single copies $8 plus GST. Subscription inquiries: Tel: 1.866.543.7888 Email: circulation@junewarren-nickles.com Alberta Construction Magazine is owned by JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group and is published bimonthly. ©2011 1080550 Glacier Media Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher. The opinions expressed by contributors to Alberta Construction Magazine may not represent the official views of the magazine. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publisher does not assume any responsibility or liability for errors or omissions. Printed by PrintWest Postage Paid in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada If undeliverable return to: Circulation Department, 80 Valleybrook Dr., North York, ON M3B 2S9 Made In Canada GST Registration Number 826256554RT Printed in Canada ISSN 1499-6308 Publication Mail Agreement Number 40069240
8 | Winter 2011
features
23
Special feature Rebuilding Slave Lake
Devastated by May wildfire, town prepares for an intensive rebuild By Joseph Caouette
24
Rough road ahead
The long process of restoring Slave Lake’s battered infrastructure will take patience and ingenuity By Joseph Caouette
27
No sleep yet
Local contractor working around the clock to “make a difference in this town” By Joseph Caouette
29
Lending a hand
Out-of-town construction companies have a part to play in Slave Lake rebuild By Joseph Caouette
70
REduce, REuse, REJUVeNATE Dialing back the past
Revival of a piece of Edmonton’s history is music to the ears of the building’s new owners—and others By Tricia Radison
75
BUILDING BLOCKS Sprouting up
Green roofs are increasingly part of the design and construction of new buildings By Tricia Radison
79
Glaze into the future Glass technologies promise to change the way we look at the world By Diane L.M. Cook
contents
Volume 31, Number 4 Published Winter 2011
23 cover story
35
TOP PROJECTS And the winners are...
Alberta’s top construction projects of 2011
Departments
70
79
13 ������������������������������������������������ Nuts & Bolts 21 ��������������������������������������� Around Canada 61 �������� People, Products & Projects 67 �������������������������������������������������� ACA Report 69 ��������������������������������������������������� ECA Report 85 ������������������������������������������������������� Trade Talk 91 ���������������������������� Business of Building 96 ������������������������������������ Safety & Security 105 ���������������������������������������������������� Legal Edge 108 ��������������������������������������������� Time Capsule Alberta Construction Magazine | 9
contributors
Calgary-based freelancer GODFREY BUDD is a veteran writer, contributing many articles for industry magazines and business periodicals on western Canada’s energy industry and Alberta’s construction sector. He reports on building envelopes, which begins on page 91.
10 | Winter 2011
TRICIA RADISON, who contributes several pieces to this issue, is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Alberta Construction Magazine and other magazines published by JuneWarrenNickle’s Energy Group. Radison is an avid reader and expert researcher. She lives in Calgary.
CANDICE G. BALL, who researched and wrote this issue’s Time Capsule, is formerly of Calgary, but now lives in Winnipeg. She has covered everything from literature and theatre to construction and oilsands. Her articles have appeared in Alberta-based publications such as Avenue Magazine and Impact Magazine, and national publications such as Canadian School Counsellor. She is a former editor of Alberta Construction Magazine.
DIANE L.M. COOK frequently writes for JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group trade publications, including Oilweek, Oilsands Review and Alberta Construction Magazine. A freelance writer, she lives in Calgary.
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nuts & bolts News briefs for the busy construction professional
PHOTOS: EVENTS EDMONTON
Caption
These artist renderings give you an idea of what the structures to be built with scaffolding will look like.
CELEBRATING COLD-WEATHER CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGY There was a time—some of you may remember those days—when construction in Alberta ground to a halt when the harsh winter weather set in. That was before coldclimate construction technology enabled workers to stick with a job no matter how low the thermometer dropped. A new six-week event called Metropolis, scheduled to kick off December 31 in Edmonton, uses cold-climate construction in a way no other public festival around the world does. Six free-standing, heated temporary structures made from Aluma Systems construction scaffolding are being assembled on Sir Winston Churchill Square and will be covered with white shrink wrap to serve as pavilions during the festival. A variety of activities including food, music, live entertainment and interactive exhibits will be offered.
These structures are truly one of a kind. Architects from Canada were invited by festival organizer Events Edmonton to design the pavilions. They are: Observation Tower: Craig Henderson, HIP Architects, Edmonton. Community Centre: Gene Dub, Dub Architects Limited, Edmonton. Children’s Pavilion: Giuseppe Albi, Edmonton. Information Technology: Taymore Balbaa, Atelier3AM, Toronto. POLAR brewHouse: Richard Isaac, Manasc Isaac Architects Ltd., Edmonton. Taste of Winter: Bill Chomik, Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd., Calgary. Giuseppe Albi, general manager of Events Edmonton, hopes Metropolis gains an international reputation in the years to come.
Table of Contents Hold on to your hat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 And while we’re on the subject of elevators…. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 A first for Canada. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Taking aim at metal thieves . . . . . . . 15 Eight ways to close the productivity gap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Pipeline project estimate: $1.2 billion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 STARS and industry team up to build magic at gala. . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Alberta Construction Magazine | 13
PHOTO: PHOTOS.com
nuts & bolts
And while we’re on the subject of elevators…
Hold on to your hat Have you noticed how slow some elevators are? You press the button and wait. And wait. And wait. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has received an order from Shanghai Tower Construction and Development Co. Ltd. to install what it says will be the world’s fastest elevators, travelling at 18 metres per second. They will be in the Shanghai Tower, now under construction in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. The current world record for elevator speed is 1,010 metres per minute, which is approximately 16.8 metres per second, according to Guinness World Records. Three sets of elevators will travel directly between the second basement level and the observation deck on the 119th floor.
Including these three units, Mitsubishi Electric Group will supply all 106 elevators for the Shanghai Tower. The 632-metre-tall skyscraper complex will house offices, hotel accommodations, commercial facilities, convention halls, exhibition halls, restaurants, and culture and tourism facilities. It is expected to be the tallest building in China when completed in 2014. Mitsubishi Electric will also install a group of four double-deck elevators that will travel at 10 metres per second between the ground floor and the hotel lobby on the 101st floor. In addition, the emergency elevator is expected to become the world’s longest-travelling elevator by operating between the third basement and the 121st floor—a distance of 578.5 metres.
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Otis Elevator Company has committed to greening its escalators (OK, they’re not quite elevators, but they do get you to the top). The company introduced its energyefficient NCE escalator at Greenbuild 2011, with president Didier MichaudDaniel commenting that Otis continues “to pursue opportunities to improve our sustainability practices and offer new, innovative energy-efficient products and services.” Among the NCE’s features are: • A “ReGen” drive that captures energy generated by the escalator on the way down and delivers it back to the building for use by other systems, reducing energy consumption by up to 45 per cent compared to traditional escalators. • Power standby technology, which uses sensors that detect when passengers are not on the escalator, prompting the escalator to slow down and thereby use less energy. • LED lighting that uses 30 per cent less energy than traditional lighting. • High-efficiency lubrication that uses 98 per cent less oil than a traditional lubrication system.
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IMAGE: STANTEC
nuts & bolts
A first for Canada
Number of construction jobs added in the Houston, Texas, area between August 2010 and August 2011—the most of any metropolitan area in the United States. SOURCE: Associated General Contractors of America
In what is being called the first-of-its-kind project in Canada, Lafarge North America and Stantec Inc. have partnered to design and construct a Net-Zero energy duplex for two Habitat for Humanity The Net-Zero duplex for Edmonton. families in Edmonton. why Habitat homes are affordable. The There are several interesting aspects families’ mortgage payments are then to the project, from its innovative reinvested into building more Habitat design to its use of precast concrete. homes, which is what makes the Habitat The project will be a stepping stone for program sustainable. Families also concreating more sustainable residential tribute 500 hours of sweat equity on solutions with precast concrete, Lafarge Habitat build sites as their down payment and Stantec say. for the homes. Each unit will be two levels totalling A Net-Zero home is defined as one 1,060 square feet, plus a 500-square-foot that produces at least as much energy undeveloped basement. on site from a renewable source as it The Habitat families pay an interestuses on an annual basis, according to the free mortgage that is amortized to Net-Zero Energy Home Coalition. 25 per cent of their income—the reason
100 billion Mobile Offices Workforce Camps Storage Products Modular Buildings
Top end of estimate, in U.S. dollars, that the Middle East emirate of Qatar plans to spend over the next five years to prepare and deliver the infrastructure required to support the huge influx of visitors forecast to attend the 2022 FIFA World Cup. SOURCE: Business Monitor International
Taking aim at metal thieves Theft at construction sites has been a problem for years. But when you have the combination of the economy hitting a rough patch and higher-than-normal prices for things like scrap metal, the problem only seems to get worse. Little wonder thefts from construction sites of items like copper wire are up. In Nova Scotia, a new law targeting copper and metal thieves has been proposed. The law would require scrap metal dealers to record transactions, the name of the seller and the licence plate number of any vehicle the seller used to transport the metal. Dealers would have to keep the information for at least a year. As well, it would be against the law to buy metal or copper from people who appear to be drunk or high or who don’t provide proper identification. This is probably no surprise, but the metal recyclers and scrap metal dealers don’t like the proposed law.
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Offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Fort McMurray Alberta Construction Magazine | 15
8
nuts & bolts
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Based in Red Deer, Alberta Phone: 1-800-859-5541 Fax: (403) 347-4980 16 | Winter 2011
According to Deloitte in Canada, the country’s productivity rate is 86 per cent of the U.S. rate. Because baby boomers will soon begin to retire en masse, the problem is likely only going to get worse, threatening the country’s affluence and standard of living. But there is a fix. In fact, Deloitte recently finished a study to investigate the major causes of the productivity gap. It identifies six productivity challenges confronting business: Chronic under-investment in machinery and equipment. Protectionist policies at the federal and provincial government levels. Increasing competition for skilled people. Inefficient and insufficient support for innovation. Lack of risk capital for start-up companies. Risk aversion. So what can be done? The report includes eight recommendations for business, academia and government to help boost Canada’s performance. They are: 1. Educate, to improve attitudes towards innovation, risk-taking and the value of learning. 2. Populate, to re-tool the immigration system to lure and retain skilled workers. 3. Innovate, to improve the effectiveness of research and development. 4. Incubate, to bolster the pool of risk capital for start-ups. 5. Co-locate, to encourage businesses to “cluster.” 6. Update, to invest in equipment and machinery while the dollar is relatively high and costs are low. 7. Accommodate, to encourage the flow of foreign investment money. 8. Facilitate, to reduce trade barriers and create new markets.
nuts & bolts
Pipeline project estimate:
The estimated cost of Enbridge Inc.’s plans to twin the southern section of its Athabasca Pipeline in order to add 450,000 barrels per day of capacity from Kirby Lake to the Hardisty crude oil hub. The line is expected to be capable of accepting initial volumes by early 2015, with its full initial capacity available by 2016. The new line will include approximately 345 kilometres of 36-inch pipeline largely within the existing Athabasca Pipeline right-of-way. The new line is designed to accommodate the need for additional capacity in the Kirby area beyond the expansion of the existing 30-inch pipeline to its maximum capacity of 570,000 barrels per day announced last year. Existing Kirby area volumes will be transferred to the new 36-inch line. That will free up the smallerdiameter line to accommodate additional long-haul volumes originating from the Cheecham or Athabasca terminals further upstream on the Athabasca System. “Twinning our Athabasca system south of Kirby represents a highly efficient solution to the needs we are seeing for additional longhaul and short-haul capacity into Hardisty, [Alta.,] leveraging off the advantages of our existing asset base and right-of-way,” Stephen Wuori, Enbridge president of liquids pipelines, said in a news release. While the project is anchored by the needs of Enbridge’s current connected projects, it is readily expandable to accommodate new projects that are also expected to require pipeline capacity beginning mid-decade, he said. The twinning is also expected to deliver significant local benefits, particularly on the construction side. With the twinning project, Enbridge will have a total of $3.6 billion of planned expansions or additions to its regional oilsands system go into service between 2011 and 2015, as well as a significant portfolio of additional projects that are under development to meet oilsands growth.
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PHOTO: Aaron parker
nuts & bolts STARS and industry team up to build magic at gala With shared values in education, safety and saving lives, members of the Alberta construction industry and STARS created the first annual Building Magic in the Air Gala insupport of STARS on October 29 at the Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe in Edmonton. Presented by the Building Trades of Alberta Charitable Foundation, the evening was filled with live entertainers including gymnasts, magicians, acrobats and entertainment by the 2011 Canadian Country Music Award–winning group of the year, Hey Romeo. “Funds raised at the gala help support STARS in providing emergency medical care and transport for the critically ill and injured,” said Gurpreet Lail, STARS director, annual giving and events. Special guests included Deputy Minister of Human Services Steve MacDonald and STARS “Very Important Patients” Brad Hainstock and John Neufeld. “It’s an overwhelming feeling knowing that I owe STARS so much for their
care,” Hainstock said. “For me, STARS is something you hope you never need, but you are eternally grateful when they are there to look after those of us who have needed them.” STARS has been providing helicopter air ambulance services in Alberta and eastern British Columbia since 1985. In this time, STARS has carried out over 21,000 missions from bases in Calgary, Edmonton and Grande Prairie, Alta. Missions include inter-hospital transfers from rural hospitals to larger hospitals for medical emergencies and traumas. They also include scene responses on highways, in remote areas and at industry work sites. On all missions, the STARS team consists of a nurse experienced in emergency care, an advanced life support paramedic with critical care skills and two pilots. Helicopter air ambulance integrates with other emergency medical services. Together with local EMS, fire departments, police and health regions, STARS works to ensure the best possible outcome for patients.
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PHOTO: Schöck Canada
million IN WORK AWARDED Aecon Group Inc.’s Lockerbie
contracts at mine sites in British Columbia and New Brunswick.
The contracts, with the Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc.
and the Potash Corporation of
Saskatchewan Inc., are expected to generate over $250 million in revenues for Aecon.
Under the first contract, Aecon
will install the interior structural
steel, equipment, piping, electrical and control systems at Thompson
Creek’s Endako Molybdenum Mine site located just west of Fraser
Lake in British Columbia. The cost-
reimbursable contract is expected to be completed this winter.
The second contract was
awarded by Potash Corporation for work at their Picadilly site in
Penobsquis, N.B. Aecon will install mechanical equipment, process and utility piping systems, as well as all electrical and control systems. The contract includes both cost-reimbursable and fixed-price components, and is scheduled to be finished at the end of 2012.
Plastic pays off A portion of the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension now under construction is not being built with concrete that uses conventional steel rebar—and for good reason. The tunnel-boring machines used for the project cannot cut through steel-reinforced concrete drilled shaft walls because the steel bars get caught in the shovels of their shields. And if that were not enough, the steel bars cannot be cut into pieces small enough to allow transport by the boring machines’ conveyor belt systems.
3,500 Number of tonnes of greenhouse gases that are expected to be saved annually due to the construction of a liquefied natural gas fuelling station in Abbotsford, B.C.
4
SOURCE: FortisBC
$
$78.5 million
been awarded two significant
million
& Hole Eastern Inc. division has
Instead, a glass fibre–reinforced polymer rebar product supplied by Schöck Canada Inc. called ComBAR is being used. The bars have a much higher tensile strength than steel rebar, according to Schöck Canada, and are easily machined and can be broken down into small bar segments by the cutter head of the tunnelboring machines. That should speed construction. The 8.6-kilometre subway extension should open in 2015.
That’s the amount Bird Construction Company spent to acquire H.J. O’Connell Ltd., an 80-year-old company that specializes in heavy construction, civil construction and contract surface mining and has operations in Newfoundland & Labrador, northern Quebec and Manitoba. Bird says the equipment and expertise in earthwork and surface mining that H.J. O’Connell brings will permit Bird to expand its civil industrial business “into new scopes of work.’’ SOURCE: Bird Construction
Amount neighbouring British Columbia spent to upgrade Highway 52/Boundary Road, which is used heavily by the oil and gas sector. SOURCE: B.C. Oil and Gas Rural Road Improvement
Alberta Construction Magazine | 21
Skyjack’s new self propelled vertical mast lift features a compact footprint and superior maneuverability. The SJ 12 has a working height of 18’. When operating in tight workspaces, a high degree steer angle allows superior functionality and flexibility by offering zero inside turning radius. The SJ 12 features a 20” traversing platform, providing increased access and the ability to reach over potential obstacles. A unique slide away platform provides easy access to components, when raised or in the stowed position. Skyjack’s standard color coded and numbered wiring system with hard-wired relay based controls help to ensure the new SJ 12 lives up to Skyjack’s reputation for quality and serviceability.
For information call 1-800-265-2738 or visit us online at www.skyjack.com
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The smouldering remains of a house in Slave Lake that was destroyed.
Devastated by May wildfire, town prepares for an intensive rebuild
PHOTO: THE CANADIAN PRESS/IAN JACKSON
By Joseph Caouette
During a busy construction year in Slave Lake, Alta., 15 new homes might be built in town. Now imagine 25 busy years crammed into the span of 24 months—the northern Alberta town’s estimated timeline for the recovery process—and you start to see the challenge facing this town as it begins to rebuild following a devastating wildfire last May. Slave Lake lost 374 dwellings and 52 more were seriously damaged in the fire, which investigators now believe was caused by arson. Another 59 were destroyed and 32 damaged in the surrounding area. In total, 732 residents in a town of 7,000 were left without a home. Alberta Construction Magazine visited the town, located over 250 kilometres north of Edmonton, in the fall. Most of the debris
had been cleared away by then, except for the occasional burned-out car that still littered the landscape. The southeastern part of town— hardest hit by the fires—no longer appeared like a rubble-strewn war zone. It was now like a new development ready for construction to begin. There will be difficulties along the way, no doubt. There is so much activity that the town’s infrastructure is struggling to keep up. Small towns have small workforces, and finding the necessary skilled workers has proven challenging for local builders. Even more difficult has been finding accommodations for these extra workers when onetenth of the town’s population is without a home and every hotel and campsite is full. But after all that Slave Lake has been through, these are happy problems to have. Alberta Construction Magazine | 23
rebuilding slave lake PHOTO: LSLEA
This aerial photo shows what Slave Lake looked like before a wildfire destroyed a third of the town.
Rough road ahead The long process of restoring Slave Lake’s battered infrastructure will take patience and ingenuity By Joseph Caouette
24 | Winter 2011
rian Vance’s new office has a view. It just happens to be a view of his old office. It is mid-September and the chief administrative officer for the Town of Slave Lake is beginning to settle into his new office. The town has only recently moved into its new location on the second floor of the Lakeland Centre building on Main Street. Across the street are the gutted remains of the Slave Lake Government Centre. The $35.8-million building was completed in 2010 and housed—if only briefly—provincial government offices, the town hall and the library. Now the front entrance is boarded up, while a charred metal frame is all that is left of the library. Repairs and reconstruction won’t be complete until 2013. Dealing with hundreds of displaced residents is all the more challenging when the town office itself has been displaced.
“It certainly made it very difficult,” Vance says. “Of course, we lost all of our hard records. We lost approximately a month of our computer records and all our programs.” Vance believes it will take several years to gather this information and fill in the gaps. For now, the town is relying on the records of the provincial government, local utility companies and engineering firms like Stantec Inc. and Associated Engineering Group Ltd., all of which have offered up information on the town’s battered roads, sewers, and gas and water pipelines. Demolish first As the town reconstructs its records, it will also face the daunting task of restoring its infrastructure. This will be a long process requiring much patience, and it begins with demolitions.
rebuilding slave lake PHOTO: JOSEPH CAOUETTE
“ One of the things that happened as part of firefighting is that heavy equipment went in to take care of the remaining hotspots in the basements, and they did a lot of damage to the roads and sidewalks.” — Brian Vance, chief administrative officer, Town of Slave Lake
A consortium was formed between the insurance companies and the Alberta and Slave Lake governments to speed the process. “By doing that, what they were able to do was set up an assembly line operation,” he explains. “They had a magnet go through and pick out all the metal. Then they would go through the wood, pull it all out and chip it.” This massive coordination effort spared the town the chaos of hundreds of homeowners acting in isolation. “It helped the rebuild hugely because if we waited for people to do it one at a time, they’d be interfering with each other,” Vance says. “It would have taken us two years just to get to this stage.” Demolition work began late in June and was completed by the end of September. “To do this in two and a half months is just incredible,” he says. With most of the damaged areas cleared for construction in September, the frames of new homes have begun to sprout. The scars left behind by the fire are less visible now, but many areas still bear the traces of the firefighting effort, which left behind its own mark. “One of the things that happened as part of firefighting is that heavy equipment went in to take care of the remaining hotspots in the basements, and they did a lot of damage to the roads and sidewalks,” Vance says. That has been the challenge facing Roger Borchert, director of operations for the town. He oversees the day-to-day business of keeping Slave Lake’s infrastructure running smoothly—even if it is in rough shape these days. “The equipment fighting the fires walked up the middle of roads,” he says. “Some of the roads were recently repaved, so they were leaving track marks all through the area.”
And the heavy equipment didn’t leave town once the fires were put out. If anything, there’s only more of it around now as part of the rebuilding process. The fires may have devastated homes, but it’s the recovery process that is ruining roads. Roads take a beating “The older infrastructure we have isn’t necessarily standing up so well because its lifespan was nearing a need for rebuild,” Borchert explains. “Every 30 seconds there’s a truck coming to the temporary housing sites that are under construction, and they’re heavily loaded with gravel or they’re heavily loaded with material coming out of those sites. “Some of our roads are taking a heck of a beating.” In normal circumstances, the town would just set to work on repairing that infrastructure. But there is nothing normal about these circumstances. It can take a lot of ingenuity to complete even the simplest jobs. Resources like manpower are tight. Even something as basic as taking down the temporary fencing around burned areas requires some wheeling and dealing in order to get done. “We don’t have the manpower to take down 14 kilometres of fencing,” Borchert says. To solve the problem, the town made the public an offer: if you want it, take it down yourself. “We’re selling the fencing off as is, where is. We’ve had quite a few people interested in it and they’re taking down the fencing as we sell it.” And that’s just a minor job. Larger jobs can be even more difficult to complete. “We tendered the rebuilding of some lanes—not one taker on it, because there were no trucks available to take on the work. There was no gravel to be had.
Roger Borchert
“We maxed the capability of the area to do the job,” Borchert says, although he remains confident the work will be done in due time. “We’ll wait and be patient and deal with it in a different fashion.” The roads may be in rough shape, but they will likely have to wait—there are other, more pressing concerns right now. “It’s one thing to know you have to go in to replace a sidewalk, but is now a proper time?” Borchert asks. “Would we be in the way of the actual construction process and holding that up while people are sitting outside their homes? “I don’t think they want us in their way while their contractors are there.” With hundreds of homes and numerous infrastructure repairs and additions required, it’s the equivalent of building a medium-sized village from scratch. The town has to take the long view on the recovery process—this can’t happen overnight. According to Vance, the town is working with a two-year schedule for the rebuild. Still, the town can only do so much. It can clear away the debris, repair the infrastructure and make sure the right development permits are issued promptly, but the future of Slave Lake ultimately rests in the hands of its citizens. “Now each individual homeowner has to rebuild his home, and there’s nothing we can really do as the town to coordinate that,” Vance says. “In the end, it’s the homeowners that set the schedule.” Alberta Construction Magazine | 25
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Photo: Bullitproof Construction
rebuilding slave lake
No sleep yet Local contractor working around the clock to “make a difference in this town” By Joseph Caouette
yson Houle is tired, but he can’t rest yet. There’s just too much to do. Any small business owner will tell you of the many hats he must wear, and Houle is no exception. As coowner of Bullitproof Construction Ltd. in Slave Lake, with his brother, Todd, and Devon Phelps, Houle might begin his day on site checking on the progress of the company’s latest project before heading out to drum up business with potential clients and then moving on to line up suppliers. There just aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done. A recent trip to Edmonton
to pick up construction materials—all part of the job—ended with Houle arriving home at 3:30 a.m. The trip takes six hours both ways, give or take a roadside nap (or three). When the fire hit Slave Lake in May, destroying half the town, Houle was on vacation in Cancun, Mexico. He returned to find his home—including Bullitproof’s offices in the basement—burned to the ground. Now he is struggling with his insurance company because the house was not reassessed following $80,000 in renovations. For a family man with an 18-monthold son and an expecting wife, those are a lot of reasons to lose sleep at night. On the day he talks to Alberta Construction Magazine, Houle admits to running on just a few hours of sleep. Not that he’s complaining. Focus is on work “We’re fortunate we’re busy,” he says. “Because of what we’re doing now, we’re
Brothers Tyson (left) and Todd Houle, co-owners of Bullitproof Construction.
not dwelling on it. We’re focused on getting people into their homes.” The Bullitproof team built the first new home in Slave Lake after the fire. It’s a modest-size structure by most standards—2,100 square feet of finished space across two levels, with an attached garage—but that’s not the point. What matters for Houle is that the rebuilding process has begun. “We’re going to make a difference in this town,” he says. “We have a chance to rebuild our town.” That excitement and enthusiasm shows in the speed with which Bullitproof completed this first home. The foundation was poured on August 23, with the owners moving in by the end of September. All told, Houle says it took 39 days from digging the basement to laying the sod. The key, Houle explains, was that the company “had pretty much everything in line before building the first house.” The owners had picked out their fixtures and other features, allowing
Alberta Construction Magazine | 27
rebuilding slave lake builders to move quickly in pulling everything together. Not that there aren’t problems along the way. Labour remains a major stumbling block in the Slave Lake recovery process, and Bullitproof has wrestled with it like everyone else in town. The company has rented three houses in town to accommodate staff and is already looking for a fourth. Local builders are also discovering the challenge in drawing upon the same limited pool of skilled tradespeople, such as plumbers, drywallers and electricians. Houle says the town is home to four plumbing and heating companies and four residential electrical companies. On top of that, his company has developed an exclusive relationship with one of the two drywall companies in Slave Lake. With so many jobs for so few tradespeople, it can be tough getting that plumber or electrician to squeeze in your project when you need them. But this is a small town, and good relationships go a long way. “Treat them good, pay them fast and maybe they’ll give you consideration,” he says.
Where he can, Houle will bring the talent under his own roof. “We’re moving everything in-house except for plumbing and heating. It makes it easier to get things done quicker,” he says, before adding, “We’re not going to bite off more than we can chew.” Young company That may be the greatest challenge of all for the young company. Bullitproof formed in 2004 when all of its founders were in their mid-20s, and even today it still feels like a young company, brimming with energy and ambition in spite of everything they’ve faced. Yet the company will have to grow in order to face the massive task of rebuilding Slave Lake. Bullitproof’s usual workload is a mixture of oilfield camp construction with residential building. The size of the company has fluctuated between 11 and 30 employees over the years, with around 30 people currently on staff and more on the way. They’ve seen highs and lows, but this is something entirely different. “In a really busy year, [the town] might build 15 houses,” Houle says. Of those, Bullitproof might handle two or three.
For the fall, the company had 12 new homes lined up, with more expected next year. “If we get all we’re looking at, that’s more than all the houses we’ve built in Slave Lake,” he says. “It’s going to be hard on us all the way through.” They’re bracing for the challenge. Bullitproof is almost a month into construction on its second house, which is expected to take around 50 days to complete. And there’s no plan to let the momentum slacken. The company wants to start a new house every 10 days, and so far it seems to be keeping pace with that plan. Speaking in mid-October, Houle says the fourth foundation has been poured, with the fifth almost ready to begin as well. “We’re not afraid to grow,” he says. By the time everything is done, he expects Bullitproof will have 40–50 employees. “This is a huge step for us.” And even if Houle has only a couple of hours of sleep behind him, it’s impossible to discern any exhaustion beneath that enthusiasm. “I’m not going to slow down,” he says.
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Photo: Joseph Caouette
rebuilding slave lake
Lending a hand Out-of-town construction companies have a part to play in Slave Lake rebuild By Joseph Caouette isitors at the new offices for the Town of Slave Lake might notice an odd decoration sitting in a corner of the lobby—an oversized cheque for $100,000 from EllisDon Construction Services Inc. The construction contractor may not currently have any projects in Slave Lake, but that doesn’t mean it can’t contribute to the recovery process. Like many other businesses around Canada who were touched by the devastation in the wake of the May wildfire that destroyed a large part of the town, employees at EllisDon took it upon themselves to raise funds for the town through the Red Cross, and the company matched the donation. It’s a simple reminder that the town can’t do it alone. Like any small town, Slave Lake has its own local builders and skilled tradespeople, but a rebuild on this scale will tax the local construction industry
to its limits. That’s where outside companies come in. “It’s going to take out-of-town builders and factory builders,” says Brian Vance, chief administrative officer for the town of Slave Lake. “It’s difficult for local builders to take on a job of this magnitude.” Larger construction firms from across the country are making their presence felt in the town. Some, like EllisDon, might provide charitable support, but others have been hired to offer their expertise on the difficult construction projects facing the town. One such company is Lay f ield Geosynthetics and Industrial Fabrics Ltd., which provides construction materials across North America. The company was called in to help on the building of a 150-unit trailer park on a muskeg on the east side of town. With winter on the way, they only had a narrow three-week window to complete the project so that it could be ready in September. Heavy rains poured down in July, saturating the marshy soil with water and complicating the already difficult job. In order to make the site suitable for building, trees had to be cleared away and
Brian Vance, chief administrative officer for the Town of Slave Lake, stands outside the boarded-up remains of the Slave Lake Government Centre.
geotextiles from Layfield were installed in order to create a working pad to build the trailer park upon. Not surprisingly, it was messy work. “It was essentially a crew of labourers rolling out each roll [of geotextile] individually, sometimes in water up to their armpits, to get the proper overlaps, and weighing the rolls down with available rocks or whatever they could find until the fill could be applied on top of it,” says Dave Redgate, manager at Seguin Construction (1979) Ltd., a Slave Lake company that worked on the project. One of the biggest single projects in the town is similarly relying on the combination of out-of-towners and local businesses: the rebuilding of the Slave Lake Government Centre, a $35.8-million complex that previously housed the local and provincial governments, as well as the town library. PCL Construction Management Inc.— one of the largest construction firms in North America—has been heading up the project, relying on a mixture of local craft workers and tradespeople, as well as Edmonton-based contractors. Mike Wieninger, operations manager for PCL’s Edmonton construction unit, Alberta Construction Magazine | 29
rebuilding slave lake
“We’ve just been very fortunate to have all the needs of the project met so far. Seeing what the town has gone through, our problems are minimal.” — Mike Wieninger, operations manager, PCL’s Edmonton construction unit
couldn’t be happier to take on the job. “It’s very satisfying,” he says. “You can see the excitement in the town when they see the rebuilding going on.” But residents will have to be patient before their town hall is restored to its former glory. The building originally took nearly
30 | Winter 2011
two years to build, and it will take almost as long to restore. Wieninger expects the project to be finished in the spring of 2013. Fortunately for the builders, much of the centre remains intact, albeit with severe water and fire damage. “Forty per cent of the building burned right down, and
there was lots of damage to the part that survived,” he says. The job will be divided into a first phase dedicated to renovations on the damaged half and a second phase focused on rebuilding the destroyed wing, which housed the library. Wieninger says the building will be opened in stages, although specific dates have not yet been set. PCL has around 10–15 staff working in town on the project, and it plans to bring in outside contractors as it needs them. But given the choice, Wieninger would like to tap the local talent pool. “The preference is local,” he says. “If local isn’t available, we’ll bring in from out of town.” While other companies may be grappling with finding skilled workers (and then finding accommodations for them), PCL has avoided such problems, Wieninger says. “We’ve just been very fortunate to have all the needs of the project met so far.” Indeed, the last thing he wants to do is complain about minor difficulties on a construction project. “Seeing what the town has gone through, our problems are minimal.”
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And the winners are... Alberta Construction Magazine created the annual Top Projects feature in 2001 to recognize the creativity and inventiveness of our construction community. The process of identifying potential 2011 projects began June 1 with an annual call for entries in four categories— commercial, industrial, institutional and civil. After receiving 37 submissions, a panel of four judges carefully reviewed the nominations and chose 18 finalists. Then came the hard part of narrowing down that list to winners and runners-up in each of the four categories based on the following criteria: Design functionality and appearance. C onstruction process (on time, on budget, innovative tools or building methods, etc.). U sage of u nique or i nnovat ive construction materials.
roject delivery method (stipulated bid, P design-build, construction management, P3, etc.). A ny other unique features that made the project stand out, such as the use of recycled materials, innovative technology, etc. Ten years ago, Alberta Construction Magazine reported that those first winning projects stood as “a proud reflection of the creativity and inventiveness of our construction community.” There is no argument that much has changed in a decade, but as the projects on the next 23 pages illustrate, there’s no question that is still true.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 35
1
Eighth Avenue Place commercial winner
2
at a glance Location: Calgary Cost: Not disclosed Project delivery method: Guaranteed maximum price Contractor: EllisDon Construction Services Inc. Architect: Pickard Chilton, Kendall/Heaton Associates Inc., Gibbs Gage Architects Structural engineer: Read Jones Christoffersen Mechanical engineer: Hemisphere Engineering Electrical engineer: Stebnicki Robertson & Associates Ltd.
The 49-storey east tower of Eighth Avenue Place— the third-tallest building in downtown Calgary—boasts a number of environmentally friendly features, starting with the envelope. 36 | Winter 2011
3
A unitized curtain wall system with dual-pane glass that has solar screening coatings and thermally separated interior and exterior aluminum mullions prevents heat transfer. The mullion system was custom-designed and fabricated for the building. Eighth Avenue Place also has a building management and control system that monitors the carbon dioxide level in the tower and the carbon monoxide level in the parking garage. When levels go higher than desired, air is brought in just until the level reaches the right point. The system also monitors temperature and lighting. It will make automatic adjustments to ensure air quality and operators can make adjustments from a computer, in the building or remotely. The first pre-certified commercial Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum high-rise in Canada, Eighth Avenue Place is also topped with what may be the largest green roof in the country. The 30,000-square-foot green roof mitigates the heat island effect in summer and retains and treats stormwater, reducing the amount of water discharged into the municipal stormwater system. Other features include: Low-flow washroom components that reduce water use by 40 per cent. Low-emitting paints, adhesives and solvents. Environmentally sensitive refrigerants. 3 00 stalls for bicycle parking with adjacent showers. Kim Rishel, manager of sustainable building services, western Canada, for EllisDon Construction says the sustainability of Eighth Avenue Place was a combined effort. “It’s that collaborative, integrated design process where you have everybody working together all the time,” Rishel says. Eighth Avenue Place is also noteworthy because it’s the first high-rise building in Calgary since 1984 that consists of a concrete core with a structural steel frame. The core was poured using self-climbing formwork. The entire project consists of the tower, a Plus 15 connected podium, a six-level parkade and a winter garden.
top projects
1. At 312.3 metres tall, Eighth Avenue Place was built on the former site of the Penny Lane Shopping Centre. 2. In addition to a winter garden, the Calgary high-rise also offers 52,000 square feet of retail space. 3. This view shows the interior of Eighth Avenue Place bathed in natural sunlight. photos: Ellisdon
Alberta Construction Magazine | 37
top projects
EPCOR Tower commercial runner-up
at a glance Location: Edmonton Cost: $335 million
PHOTO: AARON PARKER
The $335-million EPCOR Tower is the first new office tower in Edmonton’s core in two decades.
The EPCOR Tower taking shape in 2010.
The tower is expected to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold with features like high- performance glass to reduce heat loss and gain. Designed by Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd., the envelope includes balconies—a rarity in office buildings and a nice change for occupants who can also enjoy
the spacious feeling of 13’6” f loor-tofloor heights. The project included the installation of an LRT line under the four-level parkade before the construction of the tower foundation and parkade. Although the logistics of building downtown are always challenging, the tower was completed three months ahead of schedule. Const r uct ion ma nager Ledcor Construction reports that the primary trades provided design-assist services and enhanced value to the construction design team. AECOM Canada Ltd. provided structural, mechanical and electrical services. EIDOS Consultants Incorporated provided landscape services, and Thurber Engineering Ltd. was responsible for the geotechnical work.
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top projects
commercial runner-up
The Enjoy Centre at a glance Location: St. Albert Cost: Not disclosed
PHOTO: ACM
Envisioned as a “destination that is about living and life, not just gardening,” the Enjoy Centre in St. Albert, Alta., owned by the Hole family of Hole’s Greenhouses & Gardens, is an exciting and unique addition to the province.
Nature and the environment are important components to the Enjoy Centre.
Designed by Ernst Von Meijenfeldt of EVMPA Architecture, the building works with the landscape, with visitors moving down toward the entrance and, once inside, up toward the light and spectacular views. Sustainability was key to the 242,000-square-foot project. It was built using green construction methods and includes energy-saving and water-management features as well as rooftop garden modules. The
project provides space for a number of retailers as well as a 1,300-squaremetre event space with a nine-metrehigh glass roof. General contractor McLean Young Construction Ltd. in Edmonton, Clark Engineering (mechanica l), KSJ Engineering & Projects Pvt. Ltd. (electrical) and Eadie Engineering Inc. (structural) brought their expertise to bring the innovative concept to life.
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Green isn’t just a colour. Sustainable building practice is here to stay and EllisDon is committed to being a leader in the field. The push to “go green” has never been more pronounced. It is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. The quality of our environment and our quality of life depend on it. That’s why EllisDon is applying all our experience and knowledge to become good at sustainable building…really good.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 39
institutional winner
TELUS Spark
The new Telus Spark (Telus World of Science) in Calgary is the first multi-purpose science centre in Canada in more than a quarter century, offering visitors the chance to put their imagination to the test—regardless of their age. The building was designed to be highly efficient and sustainable while at the same time being comfortable to be in, being attractive and allowing visitors to enjoy plenty of natural light. The 40 | Winter 2011
use of displacement air ventilation, radiant cooling and heating, along with the reuse of rainwater for toilets and a host of other initiatives, have resulted in a sustainable building targeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification. Among the features: E xtensive reuse of water, including a rainwater storm pond for irrigation. R adiant wall panels used extensively for the heating and cooling of spaces, reducing energy use and increasing cost savings. M inimized waste removal and the recycling of the majority of the waste. Regional materials were sourced and used in various areas of the project. Building materials were reused materials wherever possible. With its dramatic design, the new centre is both technically and structurally complex.
For example, the structural steel s keleton includes a highly complex digital dome theatre component and 45-metrelong, 10-metre-high atrium trusses that were erected in single lifts. The building envelope is made up of highly efficient insulated metal panels and curtain wall to provide access to natural light. A structural steel framework that includes perforated metal panels and programmable LED lighting has been constructed outside of the building walls to provide some solar shading, protection for the metal panel walls and architectural interest. To deal with the complexity, CANA Construction used Building Information Modelling technology on certain areas of the structure. Perhaps one of the most complex elements of the building is the 3-D dome
PHOTOS: CANA
top projects
The Telus Spark is a structurally and technically complex building that has presence for both passersby and visitors alike. Once inside (inset photo), visitors will enjoy an accessible environment.
theatre. This theatre is expected to be one of the world’s most advanced facilities and will be used for presentations, performances and the screening of 3-D films. The 70-foot-diameter dome theatre is at a 26-degree tilt and was designed to function as both a live performance and projection theatre. There are many other things that make the project stand out. Some are tangible. Others are not so obvious. In its nomination, CANA offered this observation: “The key to the success of the project was the collaborative effort made by all the team members to plan, organize and coordinate the work for the project. This team focused on finding and developing the innovative ideas for the project in order get the best possible result for the new science centre.”
at a glance Location: Calgary Cost: $88 million Project delivery method: Construction management General contractor: CANA Construction Sub-construction manager electrical: Custom Electric Ltd. Sub-construction manager mechanical: Botting & Associates Alberta Ltd. Others: Triangle Steel (1999) Ltd.; Bauer Foundations Canada Inc.; Thermo Design Engineering Ltd.; Igloo Erectors; Skyline Roofing Ltd.; Ferguson Corporation; Concrete Reflections; Flesher Marble & Tile; Iron Horse Earthworks; Volker Stevin Contracting Ltd.; Alpha Better Landscaping Inc.; Morrison Hershfield (civil engineering); DIALOG (prime consultant and architecture/mechanical engineering); Sunco; Stantec (structural engineer and construction manager); SMP Consulting Electrical Engineers (electrical engineering); O2 Planning + Design Inc. (site development and landscape architecture); AMEC (environmental engineering); Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd. (digital dome theatre and interior design) Alberta Construction Magazine | 41
top projects
PHOTO: PCL
institutional runner-up
Morinville Community Cultural Centre at a glance Location: Morinville Cost: $10.65 million
Working under a very tight construction schedule, design builder PCL Construction Management Inc. not only completed the 26,000-square-foot Morinville Community Cultural Centre project on schedule, but also under budget.
The Morinville Community Cultural Centre.
The centre is located adjacent to the Morinville High School. It features, among other things, a 500-seat auditorium with an elaborate polished and stained concrete floor, a stage and a commercial kitchen that can accommodate 500 people for events such as weddings. The centre also has change rooms with counters
and makeup lighting, large meeting rooms for community groups and office space for the town’s community services department. Manasc Isaac Architects Ltd. was the project architect. Other key players were Read Jones Christoffersen and FSC Architects & Engineers Inc.
DELIVERING MORE POWERFULLY We are AECOM. Advancing technical excellence and innovation, we provide planning, design, engineering and construction management services to deliver projects across Alberta. Together with our clients, we are honoured to have the EPCOR Tower, Northwest Anthony Henday Drive and Health Sciences Centre Roof/HVAC upgrade at the University of Calgary projects included in Alberta Construction’s 2011 Top Projects. AECOM...Creating, enhancing and sustaining the world’s built, natural and social environments.
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42 | Winter 2011
top projects
Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame institutional runner-up
at a glance Location: Calgary Cost: $30 million
It’s nearly impossible not to feel a deep sense of national pride when first entering Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, which was designed to capture the energy and passion of Canada’s athletes. Designed by Stantec Architecture Ltd., and built by CANA Construction, the 44,000-square-foot hall of fame includes a museum, a 3-D theatre that can accommodate up to 120 people for movies, news conferences, seminars and product
PHOTO: CANA
Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame is targeting LEED Gold certification.
launches, and more than 50 electronic audio-visual interactive exhibits. One of the standout features of the building is the grand main entrance and atrium. And then, of course, there are the displays. Building Information Modelling technology played a critical role in the creation of the building, which was completed on time and on budget.
The building is targeting Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification. Consulting engineers on the project included CFMS Alberta Limited, SMP Consulting Electrical Engineers (formerly Stebnicki + Partners) and Weibe Forest Engineering Ltd. (now SNCLavalin). Cambridge Seven Associates, Inc. designed the exhibits.
THE LEDCOR GROUP OF COMPANIES Ledcor Construction Limited wishes to congratulate EPCOR on their milestone anniversary! Quality. Collaboration. Diversity. This is the foundation of Ledcor’s success. No project is too complex. No location is out of reach. Since 1947 - we have grown and gone wherever our clients take us. Together.
Ledcor Construction Limited Ledcor Campus • 7008 Roper Road NW, Edmonton, AB • 780.395.5400
www.ledcor.com
Alberta Construction Magazine | 43
top projects
PHOTO: PCL
institutional runner-up
Health Sciences Centre Roof/HVAC Upgrade at a glance Location: Calgary Cost: $18.32 million
PCL Construction Management Inc. had to overcome numerous challenges as the general contractor for the roof replacement and heating, ventilation and air conditioning upgrade project at the University of Calgary’s Health Sciences Centre.
00860-11-FIN.indd 1
44 | Winter 2011
A STARS helicopter comes in for a landing during construction.
A mong t hem: work i ng i n t he f light path of the STARS air ambulance resulted in continual work stoppages during incoming and outgoing flights, and strict attention to safety as the prop wash from the copters could cause material to f ly away. Plus, close to 500 penetrations in the existing roof were required to install the structural steel columns to support the oversized ductwork. And each opening had to be watertight until the new roofing
system was installed and openings were permanently sealed. Project consultants included AECOM Canada Ltd., Wiebe Forest Engineering (now SNC-Lavalin) and DIALOG Alberta Architecture Engineering Interior Design Planning Inc. The project has a couple sustainable plusses: the roof ballast was recycled and, for the first time in PCL’s Calgary district, power from renewable energy provider Bullfrog Power Inc. was used at the site trailers.
11-11-08 4:10 PM
civil winner
Northwest Anthony Henday Drive
The northwest leg of Anthony Henday Drive is a 21-kilometre section of Edmonton’s ring road that runs from Yellowhead Trail to the Manning Drive Freeway. The project consists of 15 d ifferent c onstruction sites along the stretch of four- and six-lane divided highway. Highlights include: Additional basic and auxiliary lanes Eight interchanges Five flyovers Two rail crossings Twenty-nine bridge structures 46 | Winter 2011
Teamwork was essential for the success of the new stretch of highway, which officially opened in November. The design proposed by the construction team improved the constructability, shortened the construction timeline and decreased project costs by more than $15 million. In fact, Alberta Transportation had previously recognized the redesign of two major interchanges on the project with the Minister’s Award for Transportation Innovation. Throughout construction, the project was plagued by extremely cold and wet weather. This was a major issue for the project team because the new roadway and associated grading and subgrading required the soil to be dry. A number of environmental factors were also taken into consideration during the life of the project. For example, to
mitigate the potential loss of rare plants known to occur within the proposed road alignment, plants within the disturbance zone were transplanted to different sites. In addition, vegetation clearing was completed in the autumn to avoid disturbances to natural habitats during key spring breeding times. Erosion controls were also put into place to minimize potential sediment release into local water bodies, including fish-bearing waters such as Kirk Lake. Finally, in compensation for loss of wetlands within the construction area, a plan was put in place to create new wetlands in the form of naturalized stormwater management facilities. Other challenges included traffic management due to construction intersecting pre-existing highways and roads in the area. Various lane, ramp and road closures were put into effect during construction,
top projects
PHOTO: GRAHAM
In all, 29 bridge structures were constructed on the 21-kilometre stretch of the Northwest Anthony Henday Drive project.
Completion of this latest leg to the ring-road project means that only one more section of the Henday remains before motorists can have a free-flowing drive around the capital city. but for short periods of time, and on evenings and weekends when possible. Standard closures ranged from one to 2.5 days. In all cases, detours were planned and a sixlane detour was constructed in November of 2008 to alleviate driver delays. Completion of this latest leg to the ringroad project means that only one more section of the Henday remains before motorists can have a free-flowing drive around the capital city.
at a glance Location: Edmonton Cost: Approximately $1 billion Project delivery method: Public private partnership Project owner: Alberta Transportation Designer: AECOM Contractor: A joint venture between Flatiron Construction Corp., Graham Group Ltd. and Parsons Corporation Engineer: AECOM Alberta Construction Magazine | 47
top projects
civil runner-up
W-12 Syphon and River Crossing at a glance Location: Edmonton Cost: $27.3 million
For more than 100 years, the City of Edmonton has been practicing trenchless tunnel construction. The W-12 syphon and river crossing, completed in May, is the most recent project to be built using the latest tunnelling technology. PHOTO: JOEY PODLUBNY
A tunnel-boring machine operates on an earlier City of Edmonton project.
48 | Winter 2011
The $27.3-million project is the product of five years of planning and construction by the City of Edmonton Drainage Services’ Design and Construction team.
Featuring a 2,400-metre siphon crossing under the North Saskatchewan River, it is part of the city’s long-term sanitary servicing plan. Understandably, the project had its challenges, including cold temperatures and water f lowing into the project. Geotechnical conditions also posed risks: the project was located within the footprint of abandoned coal mines and methane gas, under pressure, was present. A new tunnel-boring machine was purchased to deal with the ground conditions. The project is expected to reduce sewer overflow discharge into the river by up to 75 per cent, improving water quality. The city worked with Associated Engineering Group Ltd. for preliminary design and Thurber Engineering Ltd. for geotechnical consulting.
top projects
Athabasca River Bridge civil runner-up
at a glance Location: Fort McMurray Cost: $138 million
The completion of the $138-million Athabasca River Bridge brings much-needed infrastructure to the Fort McMurray, Alta., region. The 472-metre-long, seven-span bridge on Highway 63 adds five traffic lanes, improving safety and reducing congestion on the main corridor between the city and the oilsands facilities.
Much of the bridge was constructed using a unique launched-girder technique that minimized environmental impacts on the river. Launching 10 girders simultaneously—one of the widest highway bridge launches in North America—was also faster. To accommodate oilsands development, the bridge was built to bear more than three times the weight most bridges bear—1,100-tonne loads. It’s possible to expand the bridge to up to 10 lanes. CH2M HILL designed the bridge, while Flatiron Construction Corp. was the general contractor and Stantec Inc. was the primary consultant. Infinity Engineering Group served as construction engineers and Surespan Construction Ltd. handled steel construction.
PHOTO: FLATIRON
The new bridge, at left, will help reduce Fort McMurray’s traffic congestion.
Pagnotta Industries would like to congratulate Ledcor Group on the successful completion of the Epcor Tower! We are happy to be part of a great local project that has changed our skyline!
Alberta Construction Magazine | 49
top projects
IMAGE: CITY OF EDMONTON
civil runner-up
Fort Edmonton’s Capitol Theatre at a glance Location: Edmonton Cost: $13 million
The reconstruction of the Capitol Theatre at Fort Edmonton Park is the first of what will be many enhancements within the park. The Capitol Theatre provides a yearround 250-seat entertainment venue for local drama, theatre and music. The reconstructed theatre building recreates the former 1929 Jasper Avenue facade, and internally the building incorporates modern construction methods with the necessary technical infrastructure while still achieving historical authenticity.
FORMING THE
The Capitol Theatre project was delivered through a construction management process by PCL Construction Management. The project was built using traditional construction methods, but with the full use of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Changes during construction were automatically updated to BIM and those changes
FUTURE
T ried , T esTed 50 | Winter 2011
This drawing shows how the new Capitol Theatre fits in with its surroundings at Fort Edmonton Park.
and
T rue ...
were made in the model. And clash detection was used to provide the look ahead as it related to design changes and to avoid rework during the construction phase. Artisan Design was the architect on the project. Other key players included Stantec Structural, Williams Engineering Canada and HIP.
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PHOTO: CANADIAN DEWATERING
industrial winner
TFT Barge and Walkway Construction Project This aerial photo shows the TFT barges, for use in oilsands tailings ponds, under construction.
This year’s submission by Canadian Dewatering L.P. of its TFT Barge and Walkway Construction project is among the most unique submissions Alberta Construction Magazine has received during the 10-year history of the Top Projects Awards. 52 | Winter 2011
In effect, the Edmonton-based company is constructing floating factories to tackle one of the toughest challenges oilsands producers face: speedier reclamation of tailings ponds. Tailings are a mixture of fine clay, sand, water and the residual bitumen that is produced through oilsands extraction. Suncor Energy Inc. awarded a contract to Canadian Dewatering to design, engineer, procure, fabricate, construct, commission and turn over three TFT— short for thin fine tailings—barges. The barges have 12,000-horsepower engines,
giving each the capacity to pump 140,000 gallons per minute. They will represent the largest industrial pumping system in western Canada. The footprint of these barges will be in excess of 4,200 square feet and will weigh over 1.5 million pounds, the company says. Canadian Dewatering is no stranger to oilsands operations, providing fluid management services to major oilsands mining players as well as to the many supporting industry suppliers within the region. Suncor recently selected the company as the main contractor for deployment of
PHOTO: CANADIAN DEWATERING
Photo:
top projects
A ground level close-up of one of the barges.
The barges have 12,000-horsepower engines, giving each the capacity to pump 140,000 gallons per minute. They will represent the largest industrial pumping system in western Canada. at a glance its TRO tailings management technology. Canadian Dewatering stressed the partnerships that resulted between all parties, especially the vendors and subcontractors, made execution of the project possible. “Engineering and designing systems for new technologies, such as TFT, is always challenging,” says Ian Ross, the company’s vice-president of product support, “but we are executing successfully within aggressive timelines.” To be sure, the project has involved considerable logistical challenges and a
widespread network of suppliers providing everything from pumps (from the United States) to hulls (from the United States and Mexico) and motors (Taiwan), and much more. Considerable fabrication took place in western Canada with the components moved to Fort McMurray, Alta., for assembly. All told, more than 300 truckloads of materials will have been delivered to the jobsite when the project is officially wrapped up this winter and, to date, there have been no hours lost to injuries.
Cost: $75 million Project delivery method: Lump sum Project owner: Suncor Energy Inc. Project contractor: Canadian Dewatering L.P. Engineering subcontractor: Temec Engineering Group Ltd. (All disciplines) Mechanical subcontractor: Bunch Welding Limited Electrical subcontractor: Techmation Electric & Controls Ltd. Others: For a complete list of companies involved in this project, check out www.albertaconstructionmagazine.com Alberta Construction Magazine | 53
top projects
University of Calgary Cogeneration Project industrial runner-up
at a glance
PHOTO: CLARK BUILDERS
Location: Calgary Cost: $38 million
The University of Calgary cogeneration project was both an expansion and a renovation.
The University of Calgary’s new cogeneration system does more than give the university’s central heating and cooling plant a much-needed update. It incorporates modern and greener technologies that will be used to generate threequarters of campus power requirements while meeting all of the U of C’s heat demand throughout the year.
The project was both an expansion and a renovation. A new turbine hall was added to the north end of the plant with features that include acoustic panels, louvres and doors used to control turbine noise. The new cogeneration s ystem consists of two key components: the turbine, which generates power, and the heat recovery boiler, which generates heat. New office space was also added. When the turbine is combined with the heat recovery boiler, it will reduce the university’s carbon dioxide emissions by 80,000 tonnes per year and result in a cost savings as well. Contractor Clark Builders, architect Stantec Architecture Ltd., consulting engineer Stantec Consulting Ltd., ATCO Noise Management Ltd. and RWDI were the key players on the project.
RSC Equipment Rental delivers innovative solutions that go beyond equipment and tools. Total Control®, RSC’s industry leading fleet management system, enables customers to maximize productivity and profits through improved efficiency and utilization. Total Control provides 24/7 oversight of both rented and owned equipment through an advanced managementby-exception model that has saved customers up to 35% on rental costs. Additional features include GPS, emissions tracking and KPI reporting. Experience Total Control over your projects and jobsites. Call 800.222.7777 or visit RSCrental.com to learn more.
54 | Winter 2011
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In addition to the Top Projects featured on the previous 22 pages, the judges of Alberta Construction Magazine’s Top Projects Awards also chose these projects as finalists: Western Canada High School, Calgary Project owner: Calgary Board of Education Cost: $26 million General contractor: Clark Builders Architect: DIALOG Consulting engineers: DIALOG
PHOTO: THIVIEER
Atlantic Avenue Art Block, Calgary
IMAGE: CLARK BUILDERS
Energy, Environment, Experiential Learning Building, Calgary
finalists
Project owner: J.D. Hill Investments Ltd. Cost: $57 million General contractor: Clark Builders (construction managers) Architect: ABUGOV - KASPAR Consulting engineers: Williams Engineering Canada Inc., TMP Consulting Engineers, Robertson & Associates Engineering Ltd.
Project owner: University of Calgary Cost: $134 million General contractor: EllisDon Construction Services Inc. Architects: DIALOG, Perkins+Will Consulting engineers: Read Jones Christoffersen, DIALOG
PHOTO: ELLISDON
The Fenlands (Banff Recreation Centre), Banff
PHOTO: STUART OLSON DOMINION
Project owner: Town of Banff Cost: $26.8 million General contractor: Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd. Architect: GEC Architecture Consulting engineers: Cascade Engineering, Inc., Hemisphere Engineering, SMP Consulting Electrical Engineers (formerly Stebnicki + Partners) Others: MMM Group Limited, Mistaya Construction Ltd.
Creating Alberta’s Future
Alberta Construction Magazine | 57
top projects
finalists
WinSport Canada Athletic and Ice Complex, Calgary
Photo: CANA
Project owner: WinSport Canada Cost: $166 million General contractor: CANA Construction Architect: GEC Architecture Consulting engineers: Read Jones Christoffersen, SMP Consulting Electrical Engineers (formerly Stebnicki + Partners), Wiebe Forest Engineering Ltd. (now SNC-Lavalin) Other: Stantec Consulting Ltd.
honourable mentions Projects deserving of mention: Valley Zoo Pinniped Exhibit CBE Education Centre I ntegrity Post Structures Headquarters ahogany Lake & West Beach M Phase I Queen Elizabeth Outdoor Pool
58 | Winter 2011
ommonwealth Community C Recreation Centre L essard & Callingwood interchanges L RT Stations Martindale & Saddletowne E ast Village Phase V—4th St. SE underpass
Ponoka Ag Event Centre Chinook Centre Expansion T enaris Prudential Steel Asbestos Abatement Project Chinook Regional Hospital Parkade itchell Business Centre—Marriott M Courtyard & Residence Inn
KPMG’s Real Estate Leadership Team is proud to congratulate the winners of the 2011 Top Projects Awards KPMG Canada’s Building, Construction and Real Estate practice is the result of a 35-year effort to forge one of the largest and strongest full-service practices. We know the Alberta construction industry intimately. The knowledge that KPMG’s professionals bring to each engagement helps to set us apart. For more information please contact:
Randy Kraft Building, Construction & Real Estate Leader, Calgary 403 691 8039 rkraft@kpmg.ca
722332 KPMG MSLP full page · fp Insertion #96
Craig Sneddon Building, Construction & Real Estate Leader, Edmonton 780 429 6523 csneddon@kpmg.ca
kpmg.ca/realestate
© 2011 KPMG LLP, a Canadian limited liability partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. All rights reserved.
10665-46 Street Se Calgary, aB t2C 5C2 (P) 403.253.7385 (F) 403.287.1059
Durwest Construction Systems (Alta.) Ltd. has become known for our dedication to customer service and quality installations. We are very interested in providing pricing for any of the services we offer. Consider us for your next project.
Durwest Construction Systems (Alta.) Ltd. is primarily involved in the following trade disciplines: Commercial & industrial waterproofing Bridge deck waterproofing Concrete restoration Thin system traffic deck coatings 100 solids mechanical room waterproofing systems Mechanical shot blast surface preparation Expansion joint installations
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5050 – 74th Avenue SE Calgary, Alberta 403-723-0159 info@bauerfoundations.ca Auger-cast Piles (CFA) ● Drilled Shafts ● Full Displacement Piles ● Cutter Soil Mixing ● Mixed-In-Place Structural and Ground Improvement ● Tie-backs ● Shoring Systems ● Slurry walls
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Selected piling specialist for the Telus World of Science
Table of Contents Going for a different look? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Churchill hires first general counsel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 PROJEX expands into eastern Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Interior Designers of Alberta recognize DIALOG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Modular buildings win awards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Integrating fire detection with building management system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Singletouch technology available on tablet . . . . . . 65 McGowan joins Pivotal Projects’ Calgary office. . . 65
people, products
& projects
PHOTO: BOBCAT
A new way to minimize downtime
A Bobcat T770 sports the non-marking orange tracks.
Make tracks to save the turf Bobcat Company has new turf-friendly replacement track to fit its T250, T300, T320, T750 and T770 model compact track loaders. Ideal for landscaping and buildings and grounds applications, the flat, even profile of the Bobcat turf track prevents the tearing and cutting of lugs. The tracks create reduced ground pressure, a significantly lighter footprint than conventional tracks, minimal ground disruption and a reduced risk of damage to irrigation systems and underground utility lines. The replacement track is available in non-marking rubber and in non-marking orange for select models. Additionally, the non-marking rubber compound won’t leave black rubber marks on hard surfaces such as concrete. For information, visit www.bobcat.com/rubbertracks.
Boncor Building Products names Edmonton manager Mike Russnak is the new branch manager for Boncor Building Products’ Edmonton branch. Russnak had been at Gentek Building Products where he held roles of increasing responsibility, including branch manager. He spent 10 years in sales and sales management roles in the building materials industry. Boncor Building Products Edmonton distributes building materials to contractors and builders in the Edmonton area, including such brands as Royal Crest, Celect, Versetta Stone and Solid Core Siding.
Tregaskiss, a manufacturer of metal inert gas (MIG) welding guns, says its new TOUGH LOCK Conversion Series minimizes downtime associated with consumable changeover—regardless of the type of MIG gun used. Each consumable system has a locking feature that prevents the contact tip and retaining head from overheating, which reduces wear and extends consumable life. Plus, a dual-lead thread design allows tips to be rotated 180 degrees to create a new wear position that extends the tip life. To learn more, check out www.tregaskiss.com.
HOW TO submit items Does your company have news about personnel changes or new products? Or did it just land a new project in Alberta? We want to know about it. Here’s how to get your news to us. Email items to: cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com or send it to: Editor, Alberta Construction Magazine, 6111-91 St. NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 6V6 or fax to: (780) 944-9500 Please include the full name and location of the company.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 61
PHOTO: UNIVERSAL SLATE INTERNATIONAL
people, products, projects
Churchill hires first general counsel Evan Johnston has joined the Churchill Corporation as vice-president and general counsel. Johnston is Churchill’s first general counsel, bringing inhouse a number of legal activities that had been performed externally. Among his duties are managing Churchill’s relationships with legal firms and advising the company on corporate activities including mergers and acquisitions, securities law, employment law and contract law. Johnston had been vice-president, general counsel and corporate secretary for The Forzani Group Ltd., which was acquired by Canadian Tire Corporation Limited in May. Before that, he practised law at several law firms in the areas of corporate finance and securities law, as well as private and public equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, fund formation and corporate governance. His experience has been in Calgary, Vancouver, New York and London. Johnston holds Bachelor of Commerce and Law degrees from the University of Manitoba and was also awarded a Certified Financial Analyst designation. Calgary-based Churchill is the parent company of Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd.
Going for a different look? Universal Slate International Inc.—a Calgary company that offers natural stones such as slates, limestone, marbles, granites, travertines, glass tiles and large-size ceramic panels from around the world in a range of colors—has something new. For those who are looking to achieve a unique ceramic look but don’t want to use conventional tiles with lots of grout lines, the company has begun carrying a line of “NEO-LITH” ceramic products in large slab sizes (144” x 50”) from a Spanish company, The Size NEO-LITH Ceramics SA. These can be used in all applications requiring cladding—including floors, showers, interior and exterior walls to unlimited heights, and countertops. Among NEO-LITH’s benefits: the product is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified; the five-millimetre-thick fibre glass–backed slabs are lightweight (20 kilograms per square metre); it offers a hygienic surface that prevents the growth of mould, fungus and bacteria; it is certified for hospital environments, restaurant kitchens and schools; it is extremely resistant to scratches and abrasion; it is fireproof and frost proof; it does not give off any harmful substances into the environment and it can easily be recycled. According to Universal Slate International president Willard Nernberg, the product is made from 100 per cent clay with no additives or resins, using only very high pressure (375 kilograms per square centimetre) and extremely high heat (1,500ºC). The slabs come in a range of sizes. To learn more, check out Universal Slate at www.universalslate.com or call 403-287-7763.
PROJEX expands into eastern Canada Calgary-based engineering firm PROJEX, which specializes in the energy sector, has opened an office in Halifax, N.S. The company employs 240 people at its Calgary head office. To meet the growing demands in eastern Canada, it hopes to have 50–150 full-time positions in place in Halifax by the end of 2012. Depending on business climate and market conditions, PROJEX estimates that it will have an annual payroll of upwards of $10 million by the end of next year.
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62 | Winter 2011
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people, products, projects
PHOTOS: TOM ARBAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Interior Designers of Alberta recognize DIALOG 2
1. United Farmers Association corporate offices in Calgary. 2. The new offices for AIMCo. 3. The Nexen Conference Centre.
3
1
PHOTO: BLACK DIAMOND GROUP/ALTA-FAB STRUCTURES
DIALOG recently received multiple honours for interior design excellence. AIMCo, the new Edmonton offices for the Alberta Investment Management Corp., was presented with Gold recognition, while Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital Robbins Pavilion
The Sunday Creek Lodge typifies modular versatility with seamless customization.
and Calgary’s Nexen Conference Centre were recognized with Silver standing—all part of the biannual Interior Designers of Alberta design competition. As well, the Calgary offices for the United Farmers of Alberta were recognized with an Honourable Mention award.
MODULAR BUILDINGS WIN AWARDS The Modular Building Institute, an international trade association for commercial modular building, recognized several modular building projects in Alberta in its annual Awards of Distinction contest. Projects recognized included the Sunday Creek Lodge, a workforce camp located in the Alberta oilsands that involved Black Diamond Group Limited and Alta-Fab Structures Ltd., Alta-Fab Structures’ Drilling Control Centre office space and Northgate Industries Ltd.’s “Super Executive” workforce housing building. The Alberta market for modular buildings is served by at least 48 manufacturers and 17 dealers, according to the Modular Building Institute.
1.800.661.7673
Alberta Construction Magazine | 63
people, products, projects PHOTO: APOLLO FIRE DETECTORS
Warm and Dry. On-Site Portable Climate Control Turn up the heat and get your projects done no matter what the weather. At ICS Group, we set the standard for portable climate control solutions that are safe, reliable, efficient and easy to set up. We’re Canada’s leading independent provider of on-site services for the construction industry, including multi-story structure heating, permanent system tie-ins, frost prevention, humidification and cooling. We also offer top-tier professional project analysis, gas fitting, streamlined hose management and remote monitoring services to keep your job running smoothly.
If you need portable climate control, you need ICS - Canada’s trusted provider of innovative portable climate control solutions that keep even the toughest projects warm, dry and on schedule. Learn more at:
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64 | Winter 2011
The OpenConnect Gateway can be incorporated into a fire control panel design.
Integrating fire detection with building management system Apollo Fire Detectors Ltd. says its new OpenConnect Gateway fully integrates fire detection with building management systems without the need for complex systems or the use of multiple cust omized interfaces. The OpenConnect Gateway is a plug-and-play device that can be incorporated into a fire control panel design. Information is relayed from the panel into the building management system using standard protocols such as BACnet, Modbus or LonWorks. This gives both system integrators and end users the advantage of utilizing an intra-system communication architecture between both environments, while maintaining the integrity of each system independently. To learn more, check out www.apollo-fire.com
people, products, projects
Singletouch technology available on tablet Singletouch Corp. has rolled out a tablet-based version of its Singletouch Mobile product. The technology can be accessed with Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.’s HP Slate tablet computer. Using either the tablet or a handheld, industrial contractors can control inventory, labour, materials and equipment, and can generate purchase orders, work orders and more, right from their service vehicle or truck. Business processes can be completed easily and quickly on the jobsite regardless of whether there is cellular coverage or wireless connectivity.
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McGowan joins Pivotal Projects’ Calgary office Project management company Pivotal Projects Inc. has appointed Jack McGowan as business manager and project director of its Calgary office. McGowan has over 25 years experience managing and delivering large-scale, global construction and infrastructure projects. For the past four years, he worked in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates where he led the development of several complex, highprofile real estate projects. His most recent projects include the multi-billion dollar Barwa Financial District, a mixed-use development in Doha, Qatar; Dubai’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel and Limestone House project; and the Index Tower, an 80-storey, A-Grade mixed-use development in the Dubai International Financial Centre. A native of Australia, McGowan has a degree in applied science from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and is completing his MBA.
Experience Design Freedom With our revolutionary contoured and beveled panel designs and vast colour options we can provide the products to fit your vision. As a custom metal fabricator, we specialize in light gauge sheet metal and architectural panels for exterior and interior applications. Through automation we can produce custom designed precision pieces quickly and cost effectively.
Flawless from Fabrication to Finish Alberta Construction Magazine | 65
aca report
ACA active in three core services
By Ken Gibson ACA Executive Director
The Alberta Construction Association (ACA) has been very active this summer and fall in its three core services: • Government advocacy • Promoting the development of a skilled workforce • Developing and promoting industry standard practices Government advocacy ACA committees confirmed advocacy priorities for 2012. Priorities for the government advocacy committee are: 1. Sustained and predictable public and private investment in infrastructure. 2. Ensuring our future skilled workforce, with emphasis on immigration. 3. Enhancing industry competitiveness to ensure long-term capacity and fair opportunity for profit. Last issue, the ACA reported on its work on public private partnership (P3) recommendations. A separate initiative is the development of “Lunch and Learn” educational seminars to assist members and partners in learning more about the P3 process and the implications of bidding for work procured through a P3 process. The seminars feature knowledgeable ACA contractors experienced in P3s with P3 procurement staff from Alberta Infrastructure. ACA’s Safety/Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) Committee priorities for 2012 include: • Parties should recognize that a culture of safety requires a partnership of shared responsibility. To be successful, this culture requires an ongoing shared commitment to safety by
three partners—employers, individual personnel on jobsites and the provincial government for regulatory enforcement. • The ACA has strong misgivings about disability-claims management data collected by the WCB being used in Alberta to measure safety performance. Aggregate trends over time are perhaps the most meaningful use of this data. Over the last decade, the data suggest Alberta worksites have become significantly safer. • Adoption of best practices should extend to regulatory compliance and enforcement. Measures used elsewhere should be evaluated for their impact on improvements to workplace safety before being adopted in Alberta. New tools contemplated for Alberta should identify the failure of existing tools before proceeding to an evaluation of the impacts of the new tools. • The ACA believes that ongoing dialogue and consultation among employers and government is essential to moving forward together. Employers believe they can strengthen the initiatives of the government through proactive consultation, rather than reacting after an initiative is in place. The Work Safe Alberta consultations in previous years were a good model and we urge the government to return to that approach. Along with the Alberta Roadbuilders & Heavy Construction Association, the ACA has established a coalition of industry associations from the construction, manufacturing, forestry, oil and gas, and health care sectors that share a common goal to positively influence occupational health and safety legislation, regulation and policy in the interests of our members.
18012 - 107 Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5S 2J5 • Phone: 780.455.1122 • Fax: 780.451.2152 E-mail: info@albertaconstruction.net • Web Site: www.albertaconstruction.net
Alberta Construction Magazine | 67
aca report
Promotion of local sources of skilled workers continues as the first choice for our members. Promoting a skilled workforce The ACA has been very active in advocating improvements to the immigration of permanent and temporary foreign workers. The ACA met with federal ministers Jason Kenney and Diane Finley in mid-October. Along with the Merit Contractors Association and the Alberta Roadbuilders & Heavy Construction Association, the coalition of Alberta associations has developed a joint issues paper and advocacy strategy that will be pursued over the coming months. This activity has led to invitations to work with similar initiatives with like-minded groups. Promotion of local sources of skilled workers continues as the first choice for our members. Member funds have allowed the ACA to offer 32 annual scholarships of $1,000 each to apprentices. The ACA also manages the Trade Up! Careers in Construction website, www.tradeupalberta.ca, on behalf of a consortium of employer associations, labour groups and government partners.
The ACA also advocates for policy improvements to Alberta’s education and apprentice training systems. Industry standard practices The ACA’s active opposition to the practice of non-refundable deposits has achieved some success. The ACA thanks Stantec Consulting Ltd.’s Veronica Panich of their Lethbridge office. The ACA contacted Panich in early July with concerns over the $100 non-refundable deposit on tender documents for the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass 2011 Infrastructure Improvements Projects. When contacted in August about a deposit for the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass CPR Pedestrian Crossing and Trail Construction, Stantec quickly issued an addendum to remove the deposit. Panich confirmed Stantec’s desire to comply with industry practice. Given the success of the Construction Management Advisory Committee, Alberta Infrastructure has invited the ACA to appoint representatives to the new Design Build Advisory Committee. The ACA is in the process of updating supplementary conditions to align the use of CCDC2 to the Alberta Builders’ Lien Act, and is in the process of developing SC for the suite of CCDC contracts (3, 4, 5b, 17 and 18). Last issue, the ACA reported on the partnership with Productivity Alberta to boost the adoption of information and communication technologies for the construction industry. A pilot project has been initiated with the Calgary Construction Association. We anticipate the program will expand to other regions once lessons are learned from the pilot.
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PhotoS: ECA
eca report
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1. Deputy Premier Doug Horner presents the Outstanding Woman in Construction Award to Patricia Long. 2. Paul Paridaen, left, receives the Educator of the Year Award from Deputy Premier Doug Horner. 3. Deputy Premier Doug Horner gives the Sustainable Construction & Innovation Award to Jason Mercier of A & B Concrete Pumping (2007) Ltd. 4. Ron Jodoin, Cory Jodoin and the staff at Jen-Col Construction accept the General Contractor of the Year Award from Deputy Premier Doug Horner. 4
ECA celebrates its 80th anniversary To celebrate its 80th anniversary, the Edmonton Construction Association (ECA) recognized a handful of construction industry leaders at a special anniversary celebration and Awards of Excellence program on October 29. Held at the Edmonton EXPO Centre, the event included appearances by Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, incoming Canadian Construction Association president John Schubert and Alberta’s Deputy Premier, Doug Horner. A number of awards were presented during the event. They included: Educator of the Year Award: Paul Paridaen, Fillmore Construction. Outstanding Woman in Construction Award: Patricia Long, Storage Solutions of Alberta Ltd. Sustainable Construction & Innovation Award: A & B Concrete Pumping (2007) Ltd. Manufacturer & Supplier of the Year Award: A & B Concrete Pumping (2007) Ltd. Trade Contractor Project up to $1 Million Award: Priority Mechanical Services (ORMED headquarters). Trade Contractor Project Over $1 Million Award: Flynn Canada Ltd. (Art Gallery of Alberta).
General Contractor Project up to $15 Million Award: Clark Builders (ATCO Gas North Edmonton Operations Centre). General Contractor Project Over $15 Million Award: Ledcor Construction (Art Gallery of Alberta). General Contractor of the Year Award: Jen�Col Construction Ltd. The ECA also recognized three original funding members. Awards were given to: Ted Zandbeek (A.V. Carlson Construction Ltd., which is now Carlson Construction Ltd.). Gary Dewitt (Freeze Maxwell Co. Ltd., which is now Freeze Maxwell, a division of Freemax Holdings Limited). Joe Thompson (Poole Construction Ltd., which is now PCL Construction Management Inc.). The ECA is one of the largest non-profit associations serving the commercial, institutional and industrial construction industry in Canada. Established in 1931, the ECA is dedicated to providing effective representation and quality services to 1,095 member firms including general contractors, trade contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers of goods and services to the construction industry. Alberta Construction Magazine | 69
Dialing back the past Revival of a piece of Edmonton’s history is music to the ears of the building’s new owners—and others By Tricia Radison
70 | Winter 2011
Once the most luxurious hotel in Edmonton, the Alberta Hotel was deconstructed in 1984 to make room for Canada Place. But the sandstone, bricks, balconies and cupola were saved and, a few years ago, architect Gene Dub, principal of Dub Architects Ltd., began putting the hotel back together with the intent of restoring the façade and creating a boutique hotel. Then CKUA Radio Network, a homegrown radio station and a provincial icon desperately in need of a new home, found out about the restoration and the project took a different turn. “Sometimes there are just happy accidents in life and I really think this is one of those,” says Paul Moulton, executive director of Arts and Heritage St. Albert and chair of the station’s board, of CKUA’s connection with the Alberta Hotel after almost a decade of researching facility options. The building was a fit for many reasons. “We are an 83-year-old radio station and this is a restoration of a 1903 structure,” Moulton explains. “There are synergies in history. Additionally, our station is more than simply broadcasting a signal. Its connection to the arts and the community is very important and this building is in the heart of the arts district.” Work was well underway when CKUA decided to buy the building, but the timing was right for a shift in direction. In fact, CKUA’s architectural team made just one adjustment, adding a mezzanine in the back. Had the construction of the hotel been just a couple of months further along, the cost and effort of backtracking might have been too high. PHOTO: CKUA
The rebuilt Alberta Hotel rises above Jasper Avenue in downtown Edmonton. Alberta Construction Magazine | 71
IMAGE: CKUA
reduce, reuse, rejuvenate
An artist’s rendering of what the Alberta Hotel will look like—that’s Canada Place in the background—once completed.
While the $17-million project is referred to as a restoration, it is in fact a new building with the original hotel façade facing Jasper Avenue. The north-facing side of the building is a contemporary glass-and-steel structure that extends one storey above the original four-storey hotel. Inside, the first floor will include a restoration of the old Alberta Hotel bar. We’ve found some pieces of the original bar that we’ll be using,” says Dub. “We’re also putting back the original mirrors and wall tiles.” Dub only has about half the tile required, so the original tiles will be augmented by carefully matched new tile. The ceiling and floors will also be recreated based on samples of the originals, the windows will be replications and the bar will feature one of the original cash registers. 72 | Winter 2011
Most of the building, however, will suit the needs of a modern radio station. There will be five broadcast studios, a production studio and four small production studios, giving CKUA greater capacity for producing programs. There are also plans for an exhibit area showcasing the history of both CKUA and radio. The building will also include a live performance space. Located in the rear of the building in a two-storey atrium, the space will have vaulted ceilings and stateof-the-art broadcast capabilities. “It’s a modest version of what CBC has done with the Glenn Gould studio in Toronto,” Moulton says. One of the problems with the 100-year-old building CKUA now occupies is that it doesn’t provide the proper security and environmental protection
for the station’s world-class library, a collection that contains more than 1.5 million selections and represents almost 80 years of history. Currently, CKUA has virtually no protection for the collection, which is scattered among five f loors. Much of the archival material is stored in the basement across from the boiler room and has already been threatened by fire and flooding. The new bui lding w i l l include appropriate fire suppression systems and the library, which will house the entire collection, will have temperature and humidity controls to mitigate deterioration. At 40,000 square feet, the building also has more space than CKUA requires— space that can be used to p rovide
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fast facts Project cost is $17 million Original building built in 1903 Alberta Hotel deconstructed in 1984 CKUA will have five broadcast studios, a production studio, four small production studios and live performance space Mezzanine has been added in back of building New building will have appropriate fire suppression and material protection for CKUA’s extensive library
affordable housing for community organizations and CKUA partners. Although much of the envelope is original, steps have been taken to make the building as operationally efficient and environmentally friendly as other modern buildings. These include an efficient mechanical system, insulation and, on the north-facing section, tripleglazed windows. There’s definitely buzz about the project. Dub says he’s received more positive reactions about the revival of the Alberta Hotel than any building his firm has ever done. “Edmontonians are really excited about seeing some of their history brought back, especially in a new city where we don’t have many buildings with a long history,” he says. “Retaining our history is an important aspect of our cities.”
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building blocks Forty per cent of the roof area of PCL’s latest expansion, shown in this artist’s rendering, will be devoted to a green roof.
Sprouting UP
Green roofs are increasingly part of the design and construction of new buildings By Tricia Radison
The concept of the green roof has been around for a while, but Alberta hasn’t been quick to embrace it. That’s not surprising—winters here are cold, and successfully growing ground-level gardens can be a challenge with a short growing season. But recently, a number of green roofs have been springing up in construction projects around the province, many of them in the Edmonton area, suggesting contractors are increasingly comfortable with incorporating these unique green spaces into their projects. The Enjoy Centre in St. Albert, Alta., is one example. The 242,000-square-foot facility features four rooftop modules, each encapsulating its own little garden. The green roof component is the work of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT)’s School of Sustainable Building and Environmental Management. “Many building owners in central Alberta, including the owners of the Enjoy Centre, have an interest in green roofs,
and we wanted more information on the benefits of green roofs in north-central Alberta,” says Leonie Nadeau, a retired senior faculty researcher who remains involved in the project. Getting answers Nadeau explains that the roof will provide some answers specifically for the region. “We have all kinds of information from the warmer, humid areas of the U.S. and Europe. We don’t have as much info for dryer, colder environments like we have in Alberta.” NAIT has installed roofing evaluation modules designed at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Sensors in the roof allow the team to collect information about things like heat distribution and loss, and water retention and drainage. The benefits could extend to the environment and to building owners. For example, in St. Albert, when you buy a piece of land, you are required to buy
enough for the creation of a retention pond. But what if a green roof will retain enough water so that the water can drain off slowly? “That could actually change the way the city does business,” she says. Nadeau, who has been involved with green roofs for the past four years, says that she believes the technology and knowledge for creating effective, sustainable green roofs in Alberta already exists. What’s needed now is to fine-tune what is known for different climates. Mike Widdifield, project manager, PCL Construction Management Inc. in Edmonton, agrees that the technology and know-how are in place for the successful incorporation of green roofs. Widdifield is in charge of the construction of PCL’s $24-million, 82,000-squarefoot headquarters expansion at the PCL Business Park in Edmonton. An impressive 40 per cent of the total roof area will be green. Alberta Construction Magazine | 75
building blocks “PCL has committed to sustainable design and construction, starting with the Centennial Learning Centre [completed in Edmonton in 2006] being a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building. It’s pretty important for us to maintain that,” says Widdifield. “We’re also in a pretty heavy industrial area, and this adds aesthetics for the occupants and makes a more pleasurable space for them.” Widdifield says that green roofs are becoming easier to incorporate into buildings because more designers and contractors have experience with them. In addition, the products being developed using green-roof knowledge and technology are making for more efficient installation and maintenance. PCL is using a relatively new product on the 4,800-square-foot green roof that will top the two-storey component of the building. It’s a lightweight, low-maintenance system of modular, pre-manufactured units that come complete with drainage trays, the growing medium and vegetation. “We used that recently on a PCL-built project in Edmonton,” says Widdifield. “Feedback from our team on that project led us to use that product here.”
Interestingly, 5,800 square feet of the green roof space on PCL’s new building will actually be at ground level. Because the basement has a different footprint than the three-storey and two-storey components of the building, two courtyards that appear to be normal green space will, in fact, be roofs. Called intensive green roofs because they have a deeper growing medium and higher-maintenance vegetation, these roofs will feature grasses, perennials, shrubs and even trees. With soil a metre deep in some places, it’s important that the roofs are constructed properly. That’s something Widdifield says industry needs to maintain focus on even as it becomes more comfortable with green roofs. Attention to detail “The more experience everybody gets doing the construction process for green roofs, the easier it is going to get. But we still have to make sure that we pay special attention to the details and the construction so that the system works, because it’s a main component of the building envelope,” says Widdifield.
Environmental consciousness is the driver behind the green roof movement, but owners are realizing that they aren’t right for every building. “ATB Financial is trying different sustainable options in our facilities,” says John Swarbrick, vicepresident, central region, ATB. The financial institution’s new branch in Sylvan Lake has an approximately 1,700-square-foot green roof on its 3,800-square-foot roof, and it has successfully survived its first winter. It’s a pilot project that ATB is watching closely to determine whether or not to include rooftop gardens in future facilities, but it won’t necessarily result in a green roof on every new branch. “I believe that [ATB] is leaning toward it in the next branches, depending on the location of the branch and whether it makes sense with the design of the branch,” says Swarbrick. He offers the example of a branch in Red Deer, Alta., that wasn’t a good fit for a green roof because it was designed with an angled roof. At that location, ATB chose to capture used water in underground reservoirs for exterior watering as part of its commitment to sustainability.
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building blocks | glazing
Part of the glazing system used at The Bow in Calgary.
Glaze into the future Glass technologies promise to change the way we look at the world By Diane L.M. Cook Since glass was first manufactured about 5,000 years ago, glassmanufacturing techniques have evolved considerably. No longer do we look out single-pane, wavy glass windows. Now we look out quadruple-pane, argon gas– filled glazed windows. Today’s window glass and glazing technologies would definitely impress our ancestors. It wasn’t until the 13th century, when a technique for making clear glass was
developed, and by the Renaissance, that glass usage was common. Plate glass for windows only started to become popular in the 18th century after it was discovered that the grinding and polishing of cast glass produced a superior flat surface. And by 1958, the float glass procedure was developed, where molten glass is floated over molten tin to create highquality, continuous and uniform sheets of glass.
Although float glass manufacturing is no longer prolific in Canada, this process was the most common method for largescale glass manufacturing from the 1960s to the 1980s and led to the widespread use of window glass in the modern era. Since the float glass procedure was developed, industry has seen window glass evolve from single- to double-, triple- and now quadruple-pane glass. Inert gases, such as argon, have been used to fill the Alberta Construction Magazine | 79
building blocks | glazing PHOTO: ALBERTA GLASS
The Bow in Calgary makes extensive use of exterior glass to make the best use of the western sunlight.
space between two sheets of glass. And myriad glazing applications have been developed to do everything from keeping the heat in or out, and most definitely, to keeping the burglars out. Richard Verdon, president of the Canadian Glass Association, says the glass and window markets in Alberta
have progressed in the last few years, specifically with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and green building programs. “A quick look at the European glass and window markets tells us there is much room for improvement in our markets,” he says. “We still have a lot to learn with regard
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to constructing energy-efficient and sustainable buildings.” The different compositions of glass and varying types of glazing applications allow manufacturers to create many characteristics of window glass such as colour, reflectivity, transparency, strength, thermal conductivity and heat resistance.
building blocks | glazing Big strides Verdon says the industry has seen tremendous improvements in energy models in the last few years that recommend new building technologies with new advanced glazing systems. “The products are out there to construct very good building envelopes,” he says. “However, it’s usually a question of budgets, and the owners of the buildings control the products that will fit these designs.” Some of those new products include glass-clad polycarbonate, building-integrated photovoltaics and electrochromic glass. Marketed as security glass and known for its strength, glass-clad polycarbonate is made from a layer of tempered glass, a vinyl interlayer, a sheet of polycarbonate, another vinyl interlayer and another sheet of tempered glass. Examples of glassclad polycarbonate used as security glass include inmate detention areas, interview rooms, psychiatric wards and banks. The process used to make security glass is also used to make bulletproof glass by adding more polycarbonate layers. Paul Heyens, chief executive officer of Alberta
“ The products are out there to construct very good building envelopes. However, it’s usually a question of budgets, and the owners of the buildings control the products that will fit these designs.” — Richard Verdon, president, Canadian Glass Association
Glass Company Inc., says: “Bulletproof glass only makes up a small part of the window glass in use today. However, it’s gaining popularity, especially in buildings that require bulletproof glass due to threats of terrorism. Most new embassies and public buildings in the U.S. use bulletproof glass.” Building-integrated photovoltaics, or solar cell technology, already popular in Europe, is slowly entering the North American market. The technology can be incorporated into building envelopes that are used to capture the sun’s rays,
giving building owners the opportunity to generate their own electricity and even feed electricity back to the grid. “Clear technology is still in its infancy, and until the technology achieves the architectural look and its cost is not prohibitive, it might be a while before we see this technology go mainstream,” says Richard Neal, president of the Provincial Glaziers Association of Alberta. David Langton, a partner at Competition Glass, says, “As energy costs continue to rise, alternate sources need to be
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 81
building blocks | glazing
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“ It’s great to incorporate many of the new window glass and glazing technologies into new buildings, but the reality is that some of these technologies are still relatively new and are just starting to enter the market now. It will take time for these new technologies to become more widely available and more affordable for building owners to incorporate into their building envelope.” — Bill Coady, architectural sales manager, Northwest Region, Guardian Industries Corp.
7727-18 St, Edmonton AB T6P 1N9 Phone 780-465-5888 | Fax 780-465-1722 www.whitemud.com
82 | Winter 2011
looked at, especially solar, and [buildingintegrated photovoltaics] definitely fits the bill.” Glassonweb.com describes electrochromic glass, or “smart” glass, as an energy-saving component for buildings that can change colour on command. It works by passing low-voltage electrical charges across a microscopically thin coating on the glass surface, activating an electrochromic layer that changes colour from clear to dark. The electric current can be activated manually or by sensors that react to light intensity. Glass darkening reduces solar transmission into the building. When there is little sunlight, the glass brightens, so that the need for the artificial light is minimized. Time needed Bill Coady, architectural sales manager, Northwest Region of Guardian
building blocks | glazing
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Industries Corp., says the challenge today is to push the technology envelope for the future while creating a built environment that uses currently available products that are commercially viable, practical and cost effective. “It’s great to incorporate many of the new window glass and glazing technologies into new buildings,” he says, “but the reality is that some of these technologies are still relatively new and are just starting to enter the market now. It will take time for these new technologies to become more widely available and more affordable for building owners to incorporate into their building envelope.” For now, Coady says what is most important is that industry incorporate the wisest use of all technologies— not just glass, but architectural, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and environmental technologies as well—into the planning and design of buildings. “Much can be achieved by installing the most appropriate type of glass in different places in a building to achieve better management of heat gain and heat loss. As well, fixed blinds and automatic shades should be considered as variable options to enhance the function of the building.” Downtown Calgary has given industry an opportunity to install new window glass and glazing technologies. Alberta Glass, western Canada’s leading glass and glazing service contractor, was the primary glass contractor for The Bow and Eighth Avenue Place. The Bow, which uses 900,000 square feet of glass— enough to cover 10 football fields—is one example where glass is more than an aesthetic feature. “For The Bow, we installed Type 2 and Type 3 windows manufactured by Sota Glazing Inc. from Brampton, Ont.,” Heyens says. “These windows were installed in the inside curve, faceted walls that are three to 11 metres apart. They were designed and positioned to harvest and control the most intense solar gain (southwest facing). Through the use of blinds on the windows, the operable vents and air movement between the two faces of glazing, the building will control heat and cooling, and minimize the use of HVAC systems while allowing fresh air into the workspaces.”
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 83
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Transitioning to IFRS poses challenges By Randy Kraft Audit Partner, KPMG LLP Publicly listed companies have seen this year’s quarterly financial statements filed under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Preparing transition adjustments and ensuring IFRScompliant disclosures has, for many people, been a significant mountain to climb. “Well...that was fun!” This was a common sentiment among financial reporting teams across the real estate industry upon completing their first set of financial statements under IFRS. Many financial reporting teams dedicated a significant amount of time and resources over the last two years preparing for this transition; however, the level
of effort required to finalize the financial statements came as a surprise to many. The number of decisions required to be made, not only for accounting policy selection, but also for note disclosures in preparing the first set of IFRS financial statements, required financial reporting teams to assess the pros and cons of each alternative—how would it impact our financial reporting measures? What are our peers in the sector doing? These are the questions that went through everyone’s mind, and people may not be done asking yet. It is expected that some entities may adjust their financial statements between the second quarter of 2011 and year-end. Note disclosures will undoubtedly be enhanced going forward as entities transition from interim condensed financial statements to full financial statement disclosure requirements.
Policy choices made by real estate industry To inform reporting issuers on the accounting policy and disclosure decisions made by peers in the industry, we have summarized a sample of key choices made by 27 selected Canadian real estate reporting issuers, comprised of seven retail, 10 office, five lodging/ seniors’ care and five multi-residential entities. The summary focuses on accounting policies and disclosures particularly relevant to the real estate industry. It is important to note that differences in accounting policies or disclosures chosen may result from varying facts and circumstances rather than differences of opinion. Chart 1 This summary reflects that while there are a number of areas of consistency among
Chart 1
Retail
Office
Lodging/ Seniors Care
MultiResidential
Condensed interim financial statements
100%
100%
100%
100%
Classified balance sheet
86%
70%
100%
80%
Real estate recorded on balance sheet using the fair value model
86%
90%
N/A
100%
Convertible debentures recorded at fair value (1)
50%
50%
50%
N/A
Class B Units recorded as a liability and at fair value (1)
60%
75%
100%
100%
REIT Units presented on balance sheet as equity (1)
86%
100%
67%
100%
Disclosure of “CAP Rates” used by entity in determining fair value (1)
83%
56%
N/A
100%
Entities using solely internally prepared appraisals (1)
0%
0%
N/A
20%
Disclosure of components of finance costs on income statement
43%
100%
40%
60%
Entities with puttable units disclosing E.P.S. (1)
43%
50%
40%
40%
Accounting Policies & Disclosures
(1) Percentage provided is for entities where choice was applicable.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 85
trade talk Chart 2
Segment
Average Debt-to-Equity Ratio
Average Debt-to-Gross Book Value
Average Interest Coverage Ratio
Average Increase in Total Assets
Average Increase in YE net earnings
C-GAAP
IFRS
C-GAAP
IFRS
C-GAAP
IFRS
IFRS
IFRS
Office
1.95
1.26
0.64
0.55
2.38
2.04
18%
339%
Multi-residential
2.24
1.43
0.66
0.56
2.21
1.49
42%
307%
Retail
2.71
2.18
0.72
0.61
2.03
1.47
17%
717%
Seniors Housing
1.96
2.72
0.66
0.75
1.92
2.07
2%
32%
acceptable accounting policies or where no accounting literature exists that covers the accounting for the particular event or transaction.
Chart 3
IFRS Adjustments to Net Earnings 120% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% -20%
impact on
C-GAAP Net
incremental
real estate
Earnings
Interest
adjustments
reporting issuers, there is also some divergence. For example, where there was an option available to report assets and liabilities at fair value versus amortized cost, a majority of the issuers selected the fair value option. This accounting policy creates more variability in reported earnings from one reporting period to another, and increases the need for entities to identify and discuss more clearly the impact of these policy selections on the key performance metrics, such as funds from operations and available funds from operations in their management discussion and analysis (MD&A). In terms of other changes in presentation and note disclosure from previous Canadian Generally Accepted Principles and Practices (GAAP), approximately 86 | Winter 2011
taxes
other
ifrs net earnings
50 per cent of entities did not disclose earnings per share in their financial statements, and the majority of the industry presented a classified balance sheet (current assets and liabilities separated from long term). So, what’s next? If entities are considering making changes to their policy selections where allowed by the standards, they need to be aware of additional requirements. For example, entities changing accounting policies or the use of exemptions during 2011 subsequent to their first set of IFRS financial statements are required to update the IFRS 1 reconciliations in the entity’s first IFRS financial statements. In addition, entities may also be required to enhance their disclosure in the MD&A by discussing instances when a choice was made among
Impact on financial metrics used in real estate industry As financial reporting teams across the real estate industry completed their second set of financial statements in accordance with IFRS for the quarter ended June 30, 2011, key stakeholders are reflecting on how the policy choices being applied by the real estate industry are affecting key financial metrics. What does this all mean? How does it impact key ratios? How will the market understand and interpret these results? IFRS financial statements were expected to bring fluctuations in earnings and other metrics from one period to another. A single set of global standards was expected to bring comparability to the financial statements. Did it really happen? Some of the answers to these questions will continue to evolve as preparers and users become more comfortable with IFRS and as companies complete their first set of annual financial statements. So what have we learned so far? To provide some insight to date, we have analyzed the impact on certain key metrics based on the accounting policies chosen by selected Canadian real estate reporting issuers. The summary focuses on the impact of the transition to IFRS reporting from previous Canadian GAAP reporting as at and for the year ending Dec. 31, 2010, on key performance metrics particularly relevant to the
trade talk real estate industry. It is important to note that accounting policies or disclosures chosen and their impact on key metrics may result from varying facts and circumstances rather than differences of opinion.
We anticipate that the level of disclosure will evolve as preparers become more comfortable with the standards. Chart 2 IFRS adoption has created volatility in earnings and caused significant variability in certain key metrics used by the real estate industry, due to either policy selection or presentation and disclosure requirements. For example, many entities1 disclosed a decrease in the debt-to-gross book value and debt-to-equity ratios. The policy choice allowing for the measurement of real estate assets at fair value enabled entities to demonstrate the level of leverage using current market values. These ratios improved despite the fact that the majority of the entities reported higher debt balances as a result of the classification of exchangeable units as a liability and selecting the fair-value option for measuring convertible debentures (as applicable). As noted in the chart, for most entities, the change in value of assets reported was large enough to compensate for the higher debt balances. The variability is not limited to the b alance sheet. As noted in the table, there was significant change in the net earnings between Canadian GAAP and IFRS. To better understand these significant f luctuations in net earnings, we reviewed the adjustments to net earnings recorded to translate the previous Canadian GAAP to IFRS for entities within the retail sector.
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Chart 3 The third chart confirms the significant changes in net earnings were due to the fair-value changes in real estate and the incremental interest expenses due to measurement and presentation differences of the exchangeable units and convertible debentures. This change is also reflected in the lower interest coverage ratio noted by a majority of reporting issuers. On a cash basis, the impact of these changes and components may not be significant, and even though entities see most of the financial metrics improved, many key stakeholders dismissed the improvement as it was not reflective of current cash f lows. Some entities are beginning to measure and disclose other financial metrics, such as debt as a multiple of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and debt service coverage ratio. How this evolves and how analysts respond to these changes remains to be seen in future public filings. A few thoughts on comparability and impact of disclosures: based on our review of a sample of financial statements, we noted inconsistencies in the level of detail provided by entities such as the extent and frequency of using external appraisals, disclosure of “cap” rates by geographic segment and use of weighted average “cap” rates versus use of “cap” rate ranges, etc. For example, approximately 33 per cent of entities provided no disclosure of the extent of using external appraisers. Further, approximately 50 per cent of those entities analyzed provided information on both weighted average and range of “cap” rates. If IFRS financial statements are expected to bring more comparability, then given the significance of accounting policy choices and their impact on financial metrics, it is becoming increasingly critical for entities to provide detailed disclosures on the underlying assumptions and judgments used in the preparation of the financial statements and other public documents. We anticipate that the level of disclosure will evolve as preparers become more comfortable with the standards, go through the first full year-end and, as best practices are identified, make the financial statements and public documents more comparable and easier to understand for the users.
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More efficient envelopes
A plethora of building envelope components are available on the market today.
Tweaking existing technologies, better on-site practices and new research could sharply improve energy efficiency By Godfrey Budd
New products designed to improve the thermal efficiency of this or that component of a building envelope are regularly hitting the market. But for the occupant paying the heating and air conditioning bills, getting value for money out of these new, often pricier items is no slam dunk. That’s because many of them won’t do the job they were designed for if they are not installed properly. Construction quality control has sometimes been an issue in Alberta’s construction sector. The tailwind of the boom that screeched to a halt in 2008 has left a pile
of litigation related to claims of shoddy workmanship in its wake. “The quality of construction has to be better in order to manage the complexity of an envelope today,” says Randy Smith, a partner and manager of the building envelope group at Williams Engineering Canada Inc. Smith is an advocate for building fundamentals and points to older but durable buildings, which, despite their “leakiness,” continue to operate well with low maintenance requirements. They are buildings that won’t become unusable. Alberta Construction Magazine | 91
business of building Structural insulated panels, first developed in the United States in the 1930s, are a good system, Smith says, since, among other things, they limit air leakage and avoid thermal bridging. They are also a good fit for sloped roofs. But, he warns: “How well they work can be all in the details. Connections around doors and windows can be complicated.” An externally insulated concrete wall is another system that gets the nod from Smith. The envelope consists of a concrete wall on the inside then the membrane, girt, insulation and cladding. “All the concrete stays on the inside and the day-to-day fluctuations of its temperature are [minimized],” he says. “I like building that way. It’s just a matter of getting the developers to do that,” adds Smith, who notes that the method can bump construction cost by 30 per cent. Envelope specialists are increasingly concerned about the loss of energy efficiency resulting from thermal bridging. To reduce thermal transference of steel girts, Cascadia Windows Ltd. recently introduced a fibreglass fastener to attach girts to the substrate.
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Air leaks are another related issue and spray foams can address this, Smith says. Double duty “It allows us to insulate and create an air barrier at the same time,” he says. Gerhard Bender, a partner at Zerodraft Calgary, is a proponent of foam insulation and says the sector has seen strong growth recently. “In the last two or three years, spray foam has been widely accepted as the best performance material for insulation— in all applications—by far,” he says. “If you use spray foam, air leaks get plugged.” A few years ago, a three-year comparison was made between two adjacent houses in Calgary—one insulated with fibreglass, the other with foam. “An independent consulting engineer found that over the last three years, the foaminsulated house had about 50 per cent less heat loss,” Bender says. “The study compared heating bills and used thermographic images.” With savings on heating/air conditioning, payback time for the extra cost of foam insulation is in the three-tosix-year range, Bender says. Foam has
other advantages. It prevents hot and cold spots, dampens sound and keeps buildings cleaner by preventing dust penetration. “If you look at the life-cycle cost and saving 40 per cent on heating bills, what does this equate to over 100 years for a few extra dollars up front? People need to consider the cost of ownership,” Bender says. He says the extra cost of foam insulation for recently built seniors’ residences in Okotoks, Alta., and Olds, Alta., might be recouped with lower heating bills in as little as three years. Foam insulation has gone from marginal to mainstream over the last decade. “Ten years ago, we used foam for a drastic situation, to solve a problem; today, it’s widely used,” Bender says. Pierre Couture, business manager for polyurethane spray systems at BASF, a supplier of foam insulation products to Zerodraft, estimates that, overall, across Canada, volumes of spray foam insulation product sold over the last 18 months have grown by about 20 per cent. Apart from its evident advantages, the fact that foam
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business of building
Loss of energy efficiency resulting from thermal bridging is one issue that concerns building envelope specialists.
insulation products no longer contain ozone-depleting contents has doubtless also helped. The benefits of technologies that reduce thermal bridging were highlighted by a recent study. The study looked at the
amount of heat loss stemming from thermal bridging in standard concrete and steel construction for high-rise balconies and examined 15 features and their role in thermal bridging. The study found that the standard balconies resulted in
unexpectedly high amounts of heat loss because of thermal bridging. Also, “The rule of thumb for 2 X 6 steel stud construction is that about 50 per cent of the effective R factor is lost through thermal bridging,” says Billy Huet, building
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 93
business of building
“ In the last two or three years, spray foam has been widely accepted as the best performance material for insulation—in all applications—by far.” — Gerhard Bender, partner, Zerodraft Calgary science manager at Morrison Hershfield, which did the study for the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers. Structural insulated panels, he says, are part of the solution. But ensuring that more people on site understand the importance of effective sealing and air barriers, and how to achieve them, should move the ball forward. Another part of the solution comes from products like those of the Germanybased Schöck AG, of which Schoeck Canada Inc. is a subsidiary. The company’s Isokorb system has been used in concrete and steel construction in Europe since the 1980s. It uses load-bearing elements that include thermal breaks, so that thermal conductivity between the outer edge of
a balcony and the internal floor slab (to which it is connected) is reduced. No cold floors “You don’t need additional energy, for the thermal bridge is stopped—so no cold floors,” says Angie Tennyson, a consultant for Schöck’s official North American product launch for Isokorb in January 2012. Isokorb has already been used for several projects in Alberta, including an entrance canopy for a building at the University of Calgary. To improve the energy efficiency of curtain walls, Alumicor Limited’s ThermaWall 2600 was introduced a couple of years ago. The new system includes hollow-core gaskets and other components to reduce thermal bridging.
Says Al Ryland, the southern Alberta sales manager for Alumicor: “On a doubleglazed system, the U value goes from 0.4 to 0.33. On a triple-glaze, the U value goes to 0.23.” In 2010, a 354-unit condo complex, which used “passive-house” envelope design principles and was expected to consume only 14.6 kilowatt hours of energy per square metre per year, was completed in Innsbruck, Austria. Based on 2008 figures from Natural Resources Canada, energy consumption in Alberta’s residential sector averages about 311 kilowatt hours per square metre per year. In 1990, it was 389 kilowatt hours per square metre per year. Commercial and institutional consumption is typically somewhat higher.
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safety & security | safety
Serious injury doesn’t stop man from enjoying career— or hobbies By Karen Lamminen
96 | Winter 2011
safety & security | safety PHOTO: WCB
After suffering a devastating work injury, 58-year-old Al Gill was able to change his career and get into project management.
Since Al Gill was a boy growing up in Australia, he has been a motorcycle enthusiast. Broken bones are a familiar feeling; however, a broken leg sustained at work in August 2008 really put him on the sidelines. Gill, 58, was overseeing a warehouse refurbishment project in Edmonton when a ladder that he was working on slid out from under him. He knew as he fell that it was going to turn out badly. His left leg slid between the rungs, shattering both his tibia and fibula as he hit the concrete floor. Since that summer day, Gill has had nine surgeries and two serious infections (one of which placed his life in jeopardy), and spent a total of nine weeks in hospital, six months with his leg in an Ilizarov
frame (a device to lengthen a limb) and almost a year on crutches. Gill’s doctor told him that if it were not for the fact that Gill was in good physical shape, he would have amputated his leg the day of the injury. With the tibia and fibula damaged so extensively, the range of motion in Gill’s ankle is almost non-existent. Gill can point his toes up and down, but he cannot “roll” his ankle. Trudging on gravel or through snow is out of the question. Additionally, since both bones were badly shattered, Gill’s body couldn’t create enough new bone to heal properly. This led to a series of surgeries to remove weak and infected bone, bone grafts from his hip to strengthen the breaks and other Alberta Construction Magazine | 97
safety & security | safety
“I got to be 58 years old before I did too much harm to myself—in spite of everything I tried to do to kill myself motorcycle racing. I still consider myself to be very fortunate, and am still quite mobile, unlike many others who have suffered far worse injuries than I.” — Al Gill repair work. Gill’s surgeon also recently proposed shortening his leg by 3.5 centimetres, while at the same time inserting a rod from near his knee to just above his ankle to stabilize and strengthen the shortened tibia. Despite ongoing setbacks, Gill knew from the beginning that he was going
back to work. He isn’t a man who can sit idle for long. It was clear that Gill’s project management profession (but this time in a strictly sedentary role) was a good fit, but his employer at the time couldn’t accommodate this. After a discussion with his Workers’ Compensation Board case manager, it was decided that Gill would have
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a more successful return to work if he obtained formal qualifications in project management. While in and out of hospital, he completed an online project management certificate through Mount Royal University in Calgary. Today, Gill is working with a new employer, helping business grow in western Canada. The last few years have been complicated, painful and even life threatening. Sometimes Gill gets discouraged about not being able to do things he used to, like kicking a soccer ball around with his granddaughter, but he has found solace in his love of motorbikes and the unconditional support of his wife and family. He is restoring a number of classic motorbikes and even continues to ride, choosing a fully restored 1971 British Triumph, which has its gear lever on the healthy leg’s side. “I got to be 58 years old before I did too much harm to myself—in spite of everything I tried to do to kill myself motorcycle racing,” Gill says. “I still consider myself to be very fortunate, and am still quite mobile, unlike many others who have suffered far worse injuries than I.”
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safety & security | security
Under a watchful eye Smart phones and tablets improve access and communications with security systems By Diane L.M. Cook
Whether we notice it or not, our everyday lives are ensconced in security systems. At work, we use fobs to open doors. Everywhere we look, we see surveillance cameras hanging on walls. And in all public and commercial buildings, fire alarms are mandatory. We know what the functions of these security systems are, but do we know about the technology that makes it all possible? With the rapid advancement of information technology (IT) and the Internet in the past decade, security systems are no longer the independent, stand-alone systems they once were. Today, access control, digital video surveillance, and fire and burglary security systems can be integrated, accessed by browser-based software on a PC or a Mac and synced up with hand-held devices such as smart phones and tablets. Security surveillance systems progressed in three steps: verification, identification
and analytics. First, VHS tapes from surveillance cameras verified that someone had entered a building or robbed a store. Then, as camera technology got better, surveillance cameras could identify persons of interest. And finally, surveillance technology advanced to the point where video can now be analyzed for a myriad of things. Although there hasn’t been any notable changes in the technology of field devices like door sensors, motion sensors, fob readers and even megapixel cameras in the past decade, Scott Knutsen says there has been a huge change in how we can access the information and how it is stored due to the industry shift to IT and networked solutions. Knutsen is co–chief executive officer and director of sales and engineering of Cobra Integrated Systems, one of a myriad of security technology providers. “In the last five years, there has been a change in security solutions towards Alberta Construction Magazine | 101
safety & security | security
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integration of security systems with new technologies and syncing them up with smart phones and tablets,” he says. “Prior to this, companies had proprietary software but there was very little integration. Where now, with browser-based systems, users can access these software programs through smart phones and tablets, even though the software is still proprietary.” Cobra uses system manufacturers such as S2 for access control, OnSSI for digital video surveillance and DMP for fire and burglary systems. “We use these systems because they are designed to talk to each other,” he says. “Each application can be accessed through any computer or smart device. They are all password protected and very user-friendly.” With this system, when there is an alarm alert, the smart phone or tablet will immediately check to see what the alert is about and who generated it. “Not only can you see an event in progress,” Knutsen says, “such as a theft or damage to property, you get instant verification of the identification of the person who triggered the alarm alert.” Cobra recently installed the S2 platform in the recently completed EPCOR Tower in downtown Edmonton. Knutsen says the builders of EPCOR Tower didn’t think of using a smart phone or a tablet to access its security system; Cobra brought the idea to them. “EPCOR Tower was a very big project with 400 cameras and 350 access points, and the S2 platform, being accessible with smart phones and tablets, provides the office building and its tenants with the latest, seamless technology available today.” If there is an alarm at EPCOR Tower, the security guards at the front security desk can check the alarm remotely on their video surveillance monitors and see what is happening and where. Having this information helps the security guards know exactly where to check in the building. As opposed to previous security technology, where security guards usually only got an alarm notification for a certain floor, and would then have to leave the security desk and take the elevator to that floor to investigate the alarm. If the alarm were triggered by an intruder, the intruder would be long gone before the guard arrived.
safety & security | security Not only does the S2 platform dramatically increase the security guards’ ability to check and respond to alarm alerts in real time, it also provides a video record of the event that occurred. This can result in identifying the intruder more easily, assist the police in apprehending the c ulprit and can result in more convictions in court. Knutsen says the capital cost of security systems has gone down 30–40 per cent in the last five years. “Due to this dramatic reduction in cost, capital costs can be recovered in as little as six months, and users can start seeing a return on their investment at that time.” The S2 platform can reduce liability for certain users such as retail stores and parking lots. The security system can also reduce the amount of manpower required to check on every single alarm alert or pore through hundreds of hours of video to find one event that might have lasted only a few seconds. Of course, it’s not only building security that security systems are designed to monitor. Reliance Protectron Security Services last year introduced its LoneGARD monitoring service, which is designed to check in on people working alone to ensure their safety and security. If a check-in call goes unanswered, the system can check to confirm that the employee is okay. The system requires no hardware or equipment other than a regular phone or cellphone. Knutsen says we should watch for two trends on the security system front: “Higher-resolution cameras with 20 and 30 megapixels will be here soon. The current video security system can handle up to 10 megapixels, which already is 33 times better than analogue video or five times better than even HD video. So with an increase of 10–20 more megapixels to 20–30 megapixels, the clarity of the digital video images will be that much better.” Although analytics software already exists, its functionality is expected to increase in the near future. “Video analytics, the next generation, will help users find information after the fact by using technology to minimize search times,” Knutsen continues. “As an example, the software can compress 15 hours of video into 15 seconds. Now that’s fast.”
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the legal edge
Referential bids are repugnant By Tim Mavko Reynolds, Mirth, Richards & Farmer LLP
Imagine a sealed bid for a construction tender that fixes itself. Rather than a single, locked-in price, it would automatically adjust the bid amount to beat other bids, ensuring that it came out on top. Online auctions have figured this out. On popular auction sites, it’s easy to set up a bid that increases itself to beat other bids as they come in. Third-party software and online services take the idea even further,
otherwise received. Or if there are alternatives and options to the work, one might offer to do whatever work is specified in the other bids for a fixed amount or percentage less. Or one might offer a series of prices on the basis that the price that is better than any other bona fide offer is to be selected. Well, all these angles have been tried, and all have failed. Our courts don’t like them.
bidders expect to know and are expected to react to each other’s bids, a sealed-bid tender is supposed to be in secret. Indeed, the fundamental premise is that bids prepared in secret, not knowing what others will bid, will lead to the best and fairest price for all. An earlier court decision in another case (SSI Investors Ltd. v. Korea Tungsten Mining Co. Ltd. 449 N.Y.S. 2d 173) explains it nicely:
Unlike an auction, where bidders expect to know and are expected to react to each other’s bids, a sealed-bid tender is supposed to be in secret. Indeed, the fundamental premise is that bids prepared in secret, not knowing what others will bid, will lead to the best and fairest price for all. offering to swoop in at the last second and “snipe” other bids to get the upper hand. Following this idea, one might cleverly fashion a referential bid for a construction project that links its price to other bids. One might, for example, bid to do the work for $100 less than the lowest compliant bid
A good example is the 25-year-old case of Harvela Investments Ltd. v. Royal Trust Co. of Canada (C.I.) Ltd. from England’s highest court. In that case, the English House of Lords ruled that a referential bid, submitted in response to a sealed-bid tender, was invalid. Unlike an auction, where
“The very essence of sealed competitive bidding is the submissions of independent, self-contained bids, to the fair compliance with which not only the owner but the other bidders are entitled... to give effect to this or any similar bidding practice in which the dollar Alberta Construction Magazine | 105
the legal edge
The message from our courts is clear: a referential bid in a sealed-bid tender is unfair. It gives the referential bidder an advantage over everyone else. It allows one bidder to leverage off others, defying the underlying goal of independence. amount of one bid was tied to the bid or bids of another or others in the same bidding would be to recognize means whereby effective sealed competitive bidding could be wholly frustrated.” More recently and closer to home, the British Columbia Court of Appeal dealt with this issue in Bank of Nova Scotia v. Yoshikuni Lumber Ltd. In that case, sealed bids were invited for certain property. One bidder made a referential bid. That bid offered a range of prices, from which the best price that beat any other bona fide offer was to be selected. As it happened, a price in the middle of the range beat out everyone else, and
so the referential bid won the tender at that price. Afterward, the losing bidders complained. The British Columbia Court of Appeal set aside the referential bid because it undermined the fundamental fairness and integrity of the sealedbid system. The message from our courts is clear: a referential bid in a sealed-bid tender is unfair. It gives the referential bidder an advantage over everyone else. It allows one bidder to leverage off others, defying the underlying goal of independence. And there is another problem. If more than one bidder submits a referential bid, there arises a paradox and conundrum
that destroys the entire bidding process. If two or more bidders each say they will do the work for $100 less than the next lowest price, then their prices tailspin into a never-ending spiral and no one wins. As one court has said, it’s like two mirrors facing each other. So basic is the notion that sealed bids are to be secret, without reference to other bids, that tendering expert Anne C. McNeely squares off on the issue at the very beginning of the very first chapter of her book, Canadian Law of Competitive Bidding and Procurement. “[R]eferential bids...” she says, “are considered repugnant to a competitive bid process.”
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106 | Winter 2011
time capsule
TIME CAPSULE
Brooks Aqueduct
PHOTOS: GLENBOW MUSEUM
In its glory days, the Brooks Aqueduct set a world record for being the longest concrete structure of its kind and heralded the technical innovation of an inverted siphon that carried irrigation water to farmers’ croplands. Resembling a giant centipede, the Brooks Aqueduxct spans a 3.2-kilometre-wide valley with a concrete flume suspended about 20 metres above the ground.
108 | Winter 2011
A crucial piece of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)’s major irrigation project, construction of the aqueduct began in 1912 and the structure first carried irrigation water through it in the spring of 1915. The project had a labour force of more than 300 workers, split into 38 crews. The structure required 19,000 cubic metres (25,000 cubic yards) of concrete and
close to two million kilograms (four million pounds) of steel. The aqueduct operated until 1979 after the federal and provincial governments took on the cost of irrigation system regeneration. A body was commissioned to investigate all the major works in the Eastern Irrigation District and reported the Brooks Aqueduct needed to be replaced.
time capsule
Key Facts After the new structure was built, the Brooks Aqueduct was slated for demolition. Its destruction was narrowly averted by the last-minute intervention of a new management board and the federal minister of agriculture. Government bodies coÂoperated to fence in the structure for public safety. Preserved and interpreted through the collective efforts of
the Government of Alberta, Environment Canada, the Eastern Irrigation District and the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration, the structure stands as a tribute to those who pushed the limits of engineering design and technology. In 1980, the Brooks Aqueduct was declared a provincial historic resource, and in 1983 it was deemed a National Historic Site.
At left, a portion of the Brooks Aqueduct shown in 1914— about a year before the structure first carried water to irrigate nearby fields. Below, an aqueduct work crew (circa 1912 or 1913) is shown inside a workroom in Brooks.
Design: Hugh B. Muckleston, assistant chief engineer for the department of natural resources for the CPR, championed the choice of the signature flume design Contractor: Grant, Smith & Co. & McDonnell Cost: $569,287 Construction: 1912-15 Source: The Official Brooks Aqueduct Home Page: www.eidnet.org/local/aqueduct
Alberta Construction Magazine | 109
advertisers’ index Accurate Mechanical Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 ACO Systems Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 AECOM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Alberta Construction Safety Association. . . . . 30 Alberta Wood Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 & 33 Associated Engineering Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 ATB Financial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Bauer Foundations Canada Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Beaver Plastics Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Bibby-Ste-Croix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Bobcat Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Brandt Positioning Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Brandt Tractor Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Brock White Canada Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Business Information Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Calgary Construction Association. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Cana Construction Co. Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Canadian Institute, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Canadian Western Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Canem Systems Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Canessco Services Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Chase Operator Training. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Davidson Enman Lumber Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Double Star Drilling Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Durabond Products Ltd. . . . . . . inside front cover Durwest Construction Systems (Alta) Ltd.. . . . . 60 Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta. . 48 EllisDon Construction Services Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 39 Ener-Spray Systems Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta. . . . 56 Flatiron. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Graham Edmunds Cartier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Graham Group Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Grant Metal Products Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Harris Rebar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Hazco Environmental Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Hemisphere Engineering Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Hertz Equipment Rental Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 ICS Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Igloo Erectors Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Imperial Oil Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . 6 & outside back cover Inland Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Integral Containment Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 IVIS Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Joint Utilities Safety Team. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Klimer Platforms Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 KPMG MSLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Kubota Canada Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Ledcor Construction Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Lenmak Exterior Innovations Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Levelton Consultants Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Lloyd Sadd Insurance Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 MAPEI Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Mazer Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Mount Royal University. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 NAIT Corporate and International Training. . . . 26 New West Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Northland Construction Supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Pagnotta Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 PCL Constructors Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Petro-Canada/Suncor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
YOUR SOURCE FOR NEW WORK PROSPECTS AND BIDDING OPPORTUNITIES
Phoenix Fence Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Priority Mechanical Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Proform Concrete Services Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 16 & 73 PwC Management Services LP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Renfrew Insurance Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer LLP . . . . . . . 63 RSC Equipment Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 SEAL IT Waterproofing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Serv-All Mechanical Services Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Sherwood Nissan. . . . . . . . . . . . . inside back cover Skyjack Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 SMS Equipment Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Spatial Technologies Partnership Group . . . . . 51 Steels Industrial Products Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd.. . . . 94 Superform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Supermetal Structures Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Supreme Steel Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Toole Peet Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Vet’s Sheet Metal Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Volvo Rents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Western Environmental Canada Inc. . . . . . . . . . 20 WesternOne Rentals & Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Whitemud Ironworks Limited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Williams Scotsman of Canada, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 15 WorleyParsonsCord Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Workers’ Compensation Board-Alberta. . . . . . 80 Xylem Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
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110 | Winter 2011
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