HEART OF THE CITY THE FIRST AND JASPER REVITILIZATION PROJECT
LEARNING LEGACY
PRESERVING HISTORY
PAGE 29
PAGE 41
SAIT’S ROLE FOR INDUSTRY
BIM’S ROLE IN RENOVATION
PAGE 25
Summer 2012 | $8.00
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Canada’s national plan room service This portal consolidates plan room data from most of Canada’s local construction associations. That means that bidders will be able to access data on more than 20,000 projects, and buyers can display their projects in front of more than 12,000 firms! Buyers and bidders be aware: construction-procurement opportunities just got a little easier to manage. Link2Build is an online portal that consolidates construction bidding opportunities from the electronic plan rooms of local construction associations across the country. For bidders, the website’s introduction simplifies the job of searching for bid opportunities. It is a single window through which contractors gain access to private- and public-sector bid opportunities in British Columbia, Alberta (through the Edmonton Construction Association), Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. For buyers, the site offers a targeted, qualified audience of more than 12,000 firms from across the country. “The great thing about Link2Build is that it is owned by construction associations across the country,” says Edmonton Construction Association Executive Vice-President Darlene La Trace. “These are the local organizations that represent all firms in the industry: general and trade contractors, road builders, heavy-construction firms, and manufacturers and suppliers. Exposure to such a large base of construction professionals is impossible to find on any other procurement site.” Because buyers’ projects are exposed to so many more firms when they are posted on Link2Build, more firms compete for their projects and prices go down. Moreover, the team that stands behind Link2Build is composed of the specialists who run the plan rooms at most of the country’s local construction associations. These men and women understand the challenges associated with receiving, posting and distributing tender documents and they can communicate far more effectively with buyers and bidders than the people who run other, general bid-opportunity websites.
Get consistent, informed procurement advice
Great service isn’t the only benefit buyers take away from posting on Link2Build. The staff that maintains Link2Build can also offer advice on the industry-standard bid-calling and contract-award practices that have been developed and maintained by the Canadian Construction Association and the Canadian Construction Documents Committee. Moreover, the staff can furnish owners with copies of some of these model contract documents and guides.
How it works
Link2Build is supported by a national aggregator that gathers real-time feeds from participating plan room service providers to build a single, national database. The database populates a website that manages the user registration and includes easy-to-navigate features including a search function. Each plan room provides a predetermined group of data on each project—basic information only, no plans or specifications—for the aggregator.
It’s easy to use!
Using Link2Build is simple. Public users register, then receive a password that enables them to access the site. Users can review basic information on projects hosted across the country. If they wish to obtain the complete project file, they will be redirected to the host plan room. Host plan rooms may restrict access to projects, requiring users to either join their associations, or pay a fee to access only that project’s data. “I think the flexibility in this model, whereby plan rooms can determine the ways in which their project information is shared, and how much they charge for single-use access has been a big factor in the widespread acceptance of the national system,” says La Trace.
Check it out
If you haven’t already checked out Link2Build, visit www.link2build.ca now! View the FAQ for answers to basic questions and take a tour to see the site in action.
Chaz Osburn
editor’s note
cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com
As far as economic recoveries go, this is a strange one. Though the experts tell us the recovery has been underway for three years now, cautiousness and uncertainty are still prevalent. Even economic powerhouse Alberta is not immune. We are all aware of the looming labour shortage. ATB Financial senior economist Todd Hirsch recently pointed out that labour shortages are already starting to choke Alberta’s economy. The Harper government is responding by making it easier to employ foreign temporary workers and changing rules on how much Canadian companies must pay these workers—up to 15 per cent less. Of course, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Critics argue that reducing wait times for foreign workers would also reduce the amount of time a domestic worker has to find a job within Canada. Oh, and paying workers up to 15 per cent less is likely to put downward pressure on average wages throughout the economy—even for domestic workers. Hirsch, in a column written for Troy Media, says Albertans’ wages are 19 per cent higher than the Canadian average. If that’s not remarkable enough, he also notes that in the oil and gas sector, the average weekly wage is $2,434—more than two-and-a-half times as high as the average Canadian weekly wage. “Wages here could stand to be brought down a bit closer to earth,” Hirsch writes. I can’t see that happening. Alberta companies need all the help they can get on the labour front, whether qualified workers come from Thailand or Timmons, Ont. And while companies may not like paying top dollar for anything—whether it’s for salaries or steel—that’s the reality of doing business in a hot economy. As unlikely as this may sound, the one advantage companies may have on their sides—those not in need of additional workers, that is—is that the lingering economic uncertainty may actually be helping bolster employee retention. Seriously. “Employees may be wearing slightly longer faces these days because of uncertainty about the economy, but that uncertainty is unlikely to translate into wholesale job-hopping,” reports BusinessNews Daily. It was referring to a new survey by staffing firm Randstad US that finds that fewer than 50 per cent of respondents were likely to look for a new position in the next year. While this was a U.S. survey done for the U.S. market, it may be somewhat applicable to Alberta—at least in the short term. Perhaps the upside to the cautiousness and uncertainty is that it will buy companies time. Time to develop strategies to lure and retain workers. Time to look at processes and procedures to improve productivity. Time to jettison the things that aren’t working. Because the clock is ticking.
Coming next issue: The Energy Issue
Alberta Construction Magazine | 5
editorial Editor
Chaz Osburn • cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com assistant editor
Joseph Caouette • jcaouette@junewarren-nickles.com Contributing writers
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Kate Austin, Tracey Comeau, Alison Dotinga, Brandi Haugen, Marisa Kurlovich
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features
25
commercial Heart of the city
The First and Jasper project promises to revitalize a crucial corner in Edmonton’s downtown core By Joseph Caouette
45
industrial Powerful project
Imperial’s Nabiye expansion includes development of a new steam generation plant and bitumen processing plant
Directors president & CEO Bill Whitelaw • bwhitelaw@junewarren-nickles.com Vice-president & Director of sales Rob Pentney • rpentney@junewarren-nickles.com director of events & conferences Ian MacGillivray • imacgillivray@junewarren-nickles.com director of the daily oil bulletin Stephen Marsters • smarsters@junewarren-nickles.com director of digital strategies Gord Lindenberg • glindenberg@junewarren-nickles.com director of content Chaz Osburn • cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com director of production Audrey Sprinkle • asprinkle@junewarren-nickles.com director of marketing Kim Walker • kwalker@junewarren-nickles.com
By Jim Bentein
29
institutional Learning Legacy
SAIT’s School of Construction plays critical role in industry’s future success
director of finance Ken Zacharias, CMA • kzacharias@junewarren-nickles.com
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41
infrastructure Preserving history through technology BIM plays an important role in Legislature dome renovation
35
By Godfrey Budd
Become streetwise
Here are eight products and road-building techniques that are making driving surfaces perform better By Tricia Radison
96
Roofing
Staying on top
Five trends to watch in Alberta’s commercial roofing sector By Joseph Caouette
90
erosion control Sowing the seeds of success
Energy sector provides opportunities for Edmonton firm By Jim Bentein
6 | Summer 2012
contents
Volume 32, Number 2 Published Summer 2012
CAREER
CONSTRUCTION
build
CONTRACTOR success PEOPLE
ACHIEVEMENT committee REPORTS
SKILLS
commercialdesign
performance GROWTH
building ENGINEERING
DEVELOPMENT
SAFETY
STRUCTURE
RESPECT
BUILDERS
RESPECT
equality
CONTRACT
SKILLS
SAFETY PROGRAMS
SKILLS
CONSTRUCTION
LEADERSHIP
PLANNING
promotion
standards success
CONSTRUCTION
QUALIFICATIONS
PLANNING
PRODUCTIVITY
PLANNING
LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT ARCHITECTURE
PRODUCTIVITY
implementation
development
HEALTH REPORTS
SAFETY PLANNING PRODUCTIVITY SKILLS
leadership
BUILDING GROWTH standards
IMPROVEMENT
ENGINEERING APPRENTICE INVESTIGATION
training
PROGRAMS
REDUCTION
HIRING
49
performance
STANDARDS
SKILLS
safety
STRUCTURE
benchmark
success PLANNING
committee promotion
GROWTH
GROWTH
hiring
SAFETY
PROGRAMS
TRAINING DEVELOPMENT
GROWTH
REPORTS
BUILDING LEADERSHIP
APPRENTICE ENGINEERING
PRODUCTIVITY
25 cover story committee
development
growth SKILLS
INVESTIGATION
PRODUCTIVITYACHIEVEMENT
DEVELOPMENT
EQUALITY
RESPECT
success PRODUCTIVITY
RESPECT
performance
ACHIEVEMENT
health
benchmark
SKILLS
safety
success
HIRING
QUALIFIED
committee
STRUCTURE
ENGINEERING BUILDING
EQUALITY training
PRODUCTIVITY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS INVESTIGATION
training
PLANNING
ACHIEVEMENT
IMPROVEMENT
implementation RESPECT
SAFETY performance STRUCTURE
REDUCTION
building
SKILLS
QUALIFIED
safety
benchmark
training
ARCHITECTURE SUPERVISOR
infrastructure
INITIATIVE
PRODUCTIVITY
REPORTS
mentoring IMPROVEMENT
performance SKILLS
SAFETY
SAFETY
WORKFORCE
EQUALITY
SKILLS implementation
PROGRAMS
EQUALITY
success
ENGINEERING
GROWTH
success HIRING
COMMUNICATION safety PLAN
growth
SAFETY RESPECT REPORTS
EQUALITY
TRAINING
REDUCTION
BUILD
CONTRACT
qualifications
COMMUNICATION HEALTH IMPROVEMENT
investigation
PERFORMANCE
hiring
GROWTH
PLAN
CONSTRUCTION
safety
performance
WORKFORCE health committee INVESTIGATION GROWTH
ENGINEERING
REPORTS benchmark
DEVELOPMENT REPORTS
ENGINEERING
REPORTS
hiring
IMPROVEMENT
REPORTS
committee
BENCHMARK
APPRENTICE
ENGINEERING STANDARDS building
promotion achievement
COMMUNICATION STRUCTURE
safety
EQUALITYcontractor REPORTS
INDUSTRIALprojects
ENGINEERING
HIRING ACHIEVEMENT CONTRACT
benchmark
safety
health ACHIEVEMENT
EQUALITY QUALIFIED
BUILD STRUCTURE
IMPROVEMENT performance RESPECT BUILD
ENGINEERING
SKILLS REDUCTION
tools for success
PROGRAMS
Best practices that set companies apart By Jim Bentein
INSIDE
29
45
8 ����������������������������������������� Project Update 11 ������������������������������������������������� Nuts & Bolts 23 ���������������������������������������� Around Canada 59 �������� People, Products & Projects 67 ����������������������������������������������������ECA Report 71 �������������������������������������������������� CCA Report 79 �������������������������������������������������� ACA Report 83 ������������������������������������������������������� Trade Talk 88 ���������������������������� Business of Building 93 ���������������������������������� Finishing Touches 99 ���������������������������������������������������� Legal Edge 100 ����������������������������������������������� Time Capsule Alberta Construction Magazine | 7
project update
Sunalta LRT station
Photo: AAron parker; INSET: CITY OF CALGARY
One of the biggest infrastructure projects in Alberta is the West LRT expansion project in Calgary, an eight-kilometre line running to 69 Street SW. And one of the more eye-catching parts of the project is the Sunalta Station. Sunalta Station—the first elevated station on the CTrain network, according to the city—features the same elliptic canopy design theme as the other five stations on the West LRT line. Design elements include a steel frame, copper roof, aluminum cladding, laminated Douglas fir-larch beams and glass panels, much of it completed in March. The city says copper was chosen because of its durability and lower life-cycle costs as a roofing material. Due to Calgary’s dry climate, the copper will lose its sheen and become muted in colour. Longer term, the roof will turn green. The half-billion dollar West LRT project traces its roots back to the 1980s. A final plan and funding for the West LRT was approved in 2007. Construction of the line should be completed by the end of the year with the new line open to the public in the first quarter of 2013. corporate and international training
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A N o r t h A m e r i c A N L e A d e r i N e N v i r o N m e N tA L A N d e N e r g y s e r v i c e s Copyright Tervita Corporation 2012. EARTH MATTERS and the TERVITA logo are the trademarks of Tervita Corporation. All rights reserved.
nuts & bolts News briefs for the busy construction professional
Edmonton’s new construction and demolition waste recycling facility officially opened in March of this year.
Edmonton waste centre offers a welcome diversion
Photo: City of edmonton
O
f the half-million tonnes of garbage handled each year by the Edmonton Waste Management Centre, somewhere between 100,000 and 120,000 tonnes will be from construction and demolition projects. That’s a lot of rusty nails and old rebar for one city. To help tackle all of that waste, the City of Edmonton has built a $4.3-million construction and demolition waste-recycling facility. The facility began operations in January, with an official opening in March. While the city has been recycling segregated construction and demolition waste for years, this new facility has the ability to
sort and recycle mixed waste. No longer will area contractors be forced to sort their concrete from their cardboard if they want to recycle—it can all be sent together to the facility, which uses a conveyor system as well as manual labour to separate the different types of waste. The amount of material that can be salvaged from this waste is huge, according to Bud Latta, director of processing and disposal for the City of Edmonton’s waste management services. “The program will divert probably something close to 100,000 tonnes of material from landfills this year,” he says. Latta expects the facility to process an estimated 65,000 tonnes of waste in its first year, with somewhere between 50–75 per cent of that weight being recycled. Another 40,000–50,000 tonnes of segregated construction waste—all of which is recycled— will be processed as well. The facility also has a unique advantage in the form of a waste-to-biofuels
facility currently being constructed on the Edmonton Waste Management Centre site. When complete in early 2013, the plant will produce 36 million litres of ethanol per year from solid waste—meaning whatever can’t be recycled or composted can be put to good use producing fuel. “The biofuels facility is another big enabler for us,” Latta says. “Knowing that we had that option helped us make the decision to go ahead with the construction demolition facility.” And local builders looking for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification will likely find the facility a valuable resource, Latta believes. “Any LEED construction project probably wants to get those points for waste diversion, and people have been doing it by source segregating [waste] when they had room on their site,” he explains, noting that not every project has the ability—or the space—to sort material on site. “This is an option for them.” Alberta Construction Magazine | 11
nuts & bolts
Always listen to mother
The Olympic Stadium in London.
Give us your tilers, your plumbers yearning to breathe free By 2021, the Alberta government forecasts there will be 114,000 jobs in the province without people to fill them. So where will all of these workers come from? The Canadian government is looking to answer that question with some major revisions to the Federal Skilled Worker Program. Federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney unveiled the upcoming changes at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce in April, according to a report in the Daily Oil Bulletin, a sister publication of Alberta Construction Magazine. The biggest change? Employers will have a much stronger say when it comes to bringing in workers from outside the country.
“We’ll let them do the recruitment overseas and assess the relevance of someone’s practical skills to the Canadian economy,” Kenney says. “One of the reasons we haven’t had a skilled-trades stream in the past is [that] it’s kind of hard to assess whether a welder from Poland meets the Red Seal–certification standard in Alberta…but we think the employers are well-suited to look at someone’s background, their experience, their training and make that assessment,” he adds. “We see ourselves more as facilitators in the future.” Under the revised system, there will be a streamlined program dedicated to skilled tradespeople, including construction, transportation and manufacturing positions. Greater weight will be given to practical training and work experience over formal education, although minimal language requirements will not change. The current system for assessing foreign skilled workers includes criteria such as years of education, which tends to favour professionals and managers over skilled trades. At present, skilled tradespeople make up three per cent of foreign skilled workers.
Volvo Rents CARRIES only THE BEST brands in equipment. 5223 4th Ave. | Edson, Alberta T7E 1L4 | (780) 723-6410 10721 214 St. | Edmonton, Alberta T5S 2A3 | (780) 488-1224 11402-89 Ave. | Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta T8L 4L1 | (780) 997-6464
12 | Summer 2012
w w w. vo l vo re n t s . c o m
Photo: london 2012
It looks like your mother was right—breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. So important, in fact, that it can even help prevent construction site accidents. The Associated Press reports that the Olympic Delivery Authority—the organization responsible for building London Olympic venues—found that many of its workers were skipping breakfast. Concerned that lower blood-sugar levels were resulting in less attentive, more accident-prone workers, the Olympic organization offered workers discounted porridge, in order to fight the late-morning hunger crash. The authority says that there has been a noticeable decline in the number of latemorning accidents on the site since the program began.
nuts & bolts
The new rooftop solar array at NAIT’s main campus will test out different angles as it gathers information about solar power in the Edmonton area.
Photo: NAIT
NAIT shines a light on solar power Builders interested in adding some rooftop solar power to their next project may want to head back to school first. The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) will be testing out a new solar photovoltaic (PV) array installed in April on the roof of its main campus in northern Edmonton. The $50,400 project—jointly funded by the college and the City of Edmonton—is not a major power generator by any means. With just six pairs of solar panels, the array will offer only a modest contribution to the building’s electricity needs.
• Residential • Farm
But one thing it can offer in abundance is raw data. Each panel pairing will be placed at a different angle, allowing NAIT to test different construction setups. At the same time, the left-hand side will be brushed clear of snow, while the right will remain untouched in order to measure how snow sticks to the panel. Testing how solar PV works in the capital region’s extreme climate is crucial if the technology is to gain widespread adoption, according to James Sandercock, chair of NAIT’s alternative energy technology program. “This array is going to help us answer a lot of the unknowns people might have,” he says. “It’s going to allow people around the capital region to make informed investment decisions for a green energy future.”
• Commercial • Open Web Floors
• LVL beams • I-Joists Years of Excellence
Sylvan Lake Grande Prairie
Phone: Toll Free:
(780) 464-5551 1-800-667-4847
www.albertatruss.com Alberta Construction Magazine | 13
nuts & bolts
Another sign of the boom You don’t need to fly to Fort McMurray to see the effects of the oilsands boom. Visit Nisku, Alta., and witness how busy everyone is. Or count the number of pickups trying to get to work in the morning. As the artist rendering above indicates, the PCL family of companies is spending $10 million to construct a 35,000-square-foot
14 | Summer 2012
building at one of its two module fabrication yards in that community, replacing more than 30 work trailers. PCL employs more than 850 people at its yards and fabrication facilities, with the number expected to increase to well over 1,000 people this summer. PCL’s original module yard was developed in 1997 as an eighthectare site. That year PCL built 34 modules for Dow Chemical. How things have changed. PCL is now working on three large module projects that will produce, in total, 424 modules by the fall of 2013.
IMAGES: PCL
Artist renderings of PCL’s $10-million office building at its fabrication yard in Nisku, Alta.
nuts & bolts
Edmonton invites public to speak on new arena design
Is it cool and curvy? Or just plain weird and wonky? There’s no shortage of opinions on the preliminary design work for Edmonton’s new arena, recently released to the public by the city. Why not add your own to the mix? Starting in late May, the city will kick off a public consultation process on the proposed arena design. People will be invited to offer their
opinion over the phone, in person or online. More information on the project—including more detailed drawings—will be released prior to the public consultation. After the public has had its say, the designs will be revised and put before Edmonton city council for final approval. The current budget for the building sits at $450 million, with $30 million of that total dedicated to design work.
images: city of edmonton
The public is being invited to comment on the initial drawings of the proposed new Edmonton arena.
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nuts & bolts
The largest construction equipment manufacturers in 2011 2010 Ranking
Caterpillar
1
Komatsu
2
Volvo Construction Equipment
4
Hitachi Construction Machinery
3
Liebherr
5
Sany
7
Zoomlion
8 10
Terex
6
Doosan Infracore
12
John Deere
Global construction equipment sales were US$182 billion in 2011, according to KHL Group’s annual survey of the industry. The record figure surpassed the previous high of US$168 billion, set back in 2008.
Concrete progress on the gender front Forget about breaking the glass ceiling. How about building the concrete flooring? Women Building Futures (WBF) has long been dedicated to bringing women into the construction industry. The latest addition to its roster of programs is a new course for ready-mix drivers sponsored by Lafarge Canada Inc. “Lafarge was challenged to find and retain experienced drivers with a strong safety mindset and customer orientation,” says Larry Diduck, the company’s Edmonton general manager. “In a brainstorming session, WBF was put on the table as an alternate training and recruiting source.” The five-week, 120-hour program will provide training in air brakes, load securement and ergonomics, as well as offer 30 hours of in-truck driver training. Typical of WBF programs offered, the course will also tutor students on construction workplace culture, covering everything from attitude and attire to career development options. The program is offered with the approval of the Alberta government.
Source: KHL Group
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16 | Summer 2012
We Listen. We Think. We Deliver. www.lloydsadd.com
image: Stock.xchng
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Company
nuts & bolts
The Edmonton-area construction industry will be taking part in a fall fundraiser to help support STARS air ambulance.
Photo: Mark mennie/stars
STARS, industry team up to build some magic The Edmonton-area construction industry and the Shock Trauma Air Rescue Society (STARS) are partnering once again to help save lives with an annual fundraising gala called Building Magic in the Air. The gala is being held on November 24 at the Crowne Plaza Chateau Lacombe in Edmonton. The semi-formal event will begin
at 5:30 p.m. with cocktails, followed by a buffet dinner, silent and live auctions, raffles and live entertainment. Tickets can be purchased individually at a cost of $150 or by the table, with a limit of 350 people for the entire event. Organizers expect tickets to sell out quickly. Visit the Building Magic in the Air Gala website to register and become a sponsor, make a donation, purchase tickets and get all the details on the event: foundation.stars.ca/ buildingmagicintheairgala.
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 17
nuts & bolts
That’s 0.0028 per cent, in case you’re wondering “Of the more than 250,000 immigrants coming into the country every year, less than 700 a year would actually have construction skills.”
Construction executives may still be concerned about the shaky global economy, but there’s one sector of the economy that has them feeling pretty good—the energy industry. Those are just some of the conclusions to be drawn from the latest global construction survey from KPMG. The company talked to senior executives at 161 different engineering and construction firms around the world as part of the survey. Here are some highlights from the results: • 80 per cent of respondents believe governments aren’t showing enough leadership when it comes to infrastructure development • 71 per cent are most concerned about economic uncertainty • 59 per cent of companies from the Americas say the energy sector offers the greatest opportunity for future growth • 54 per cent admit that they failed to identify problems at the bidding stage for underperforming projects, suggesting a lack of rigorous upfront-risk assessments • 49 per cent say their project backlogs are expected to increase from five to 15 per cent • 78 per cent of companies from the Americas say organizational culture is the biggest barrier to cost cutting
— Stephen Kushner, president, Merit Contractors Association Source: Edmonton Journal
$208.8 billion Worth of major construction projects recently completed, currently underway or planned to start in the next two years in Alberta. Of that total, $157.7 billion is in the Edmonton region or the north of the province. Source: Avison Young
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© 2012 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. “PwC” refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an Ontario limited liability partnership, which is a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each member firm of which is a separate legal entity. 2175-21 0512
| AROUND CANADA as she goes New Brunswick’s construction industry should be able to draw on its own workforce to meet labour requirements for most of the next decade, a new report predicts. Mining and other resource-related projects will be the main source of new jobs, but there will also be moderate increases in employment in the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors, says the Construction Sector Council’s Construction Looking Forward forecast. “With stronger construction markets in other parts of the country, the challenge lies in keeping the skilled workers here when they are needed to replace retiring workers,” says Tim Flood, president of John Flood and Sons (1961) Ltd. When it comes to housing, overall losses in employment reach almost 20 per cent over the 2012-20 forecast period. The downward trend occurs mostly in new housing, while renovation and maintenance follow a gradual and steady increase in employment. The industry’s labour force is estimated to decline by almost 2,700 workers from 2012 to 2020 as construction investment weakens. This decline will be offset by the expected retirement of 4,200 workers. Industry will still need to recruit more than 1,500 workers to replace retirees and sustain a skilled workforce.
John M. Beck, chairman and chief executive officer, Aecon Group Inc.
Aecon
“ New project awards are strong, demand continues
to build in our core transportation, resources and power sectors, and our focus on project execution and risk management is generating improved e arnings. I believe these factors will result in consistent, sustainable earnings growth for Aecon through 2012 and 2013.” — John M. Beck, chairman and chief executive officer, Aecon Group Inc., in announcing his company’s 2011 p erformance while looking ahead.
handshake Ian A. Bourne, former president and director of TransAlta Power LP, gets to occupy the big chair at SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. while the global engineering firm searches for a new chief executive officer to replace Pierre Duhaime.
,000 Photo: aecon group inc.
Estimated barrel-per-day capacity
Duhaime reportedly received a $4.9-million golden handshake after the company relievied him of duties for OK’ing the payment of millions of dollars to undisclosed agents. Bourne is chairman of the board of Ballard Power Systems Inc.
million Revenue generated in the fiscal year
of planned expansion of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners’ Trans Mountain pipeline system, which runs between Alberta and the west coast of British Columbia. The expansion is projected to cost $5 billion
ended Nov. 30, 2011, by Quebec-based Cegertec Inc., an engineering consulting engineering firm specializing in energy, industry, transport, infrastructure and building construction. In April, Cegertec and WorleyParsons Ltd. formed a joint venture company called Cegertec WorleyParsons.
SOURCE: Kinder Morgan Inc.
SOURCE: WorleyParsons Ltd.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 23
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commercial
of the city The First and Jasper project promises to revitalize a crucial corner in Edmonton’s downtown core By Joseph Caouette
ALL images: Avison Young
The First and Jasper project will be the guinea pig for the City of Edmonton’s revitalization of Jasper Avenue.
For years, the intersection of 101 Street and Jasper Avenue has been a perfect symbol of the problems afflicting Edmonton’s downtown core: plenty of prime real estate, little imagination, no fun. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in summer, you might find a few people out there waiting for a bus to take them to West Edmonton Mall.
Expect big changes, and soon. In May, the City of Edmonton began its two-year plan to renovate Jasper Avenue between 100 Street and 102 Street, widening sidewalks and ripping out the obtrusive, unpopular medians that run down the street. A new pedestrian-friendly space is envisioned, filled with shops and restaurants intended to jolt awake the city’s sleepy centre. Alberta Construction Magazine | 25
commercial A skylight will connect the main tower to a two-storey addition.
GE Capital Real Estate’s First and Jasper project will offer a preview of the new downtown to come. Designed by DIALOG and constructed by Ledcor Group of Companies, this massive renovation of the old Epcor Tower kicked off in January. If this corner is the heart of the city, expect it to beat a little quicker come March 2013, when the building is finished. Originally built in the mid-1970s, the building has best been known as the home of Epcor Utilities Inc. since 1990, back when the company was still called Edmonton Power. Indeed, that’s likely all that anyone knows about the building, unless they happen to be Epcor employees. The place represented an older vision of downtown—sealed off, isolated and unvisited. It was a place you went to work, and then left at five o’clock without looking back. The new vision for the site represents a radical break from that past, and nowhere is that more apparent than on the first two floors. Last year, the neighbouring Bank of Montreal building and Odeon Theatre were demolished to make way for a two-storey podium section connected to the main tower. Surrounded by glass and joined to the main building by a skylight, the new section will be a bright, open retail space. The old building, by comparison, contained only a meagre coffee shop and convenience store. “Bringing the energy from the new retail and introducing it to the pedestrian traffic is going to be great for that location,” says Cory Wosnack, principal at Avison Young, the project’s leasing PRIORITY MECHANICAL LTD.
P.M.
Congratulations to Ledcor Construction Limited. Proud to be the mechanical contractor for: First & Jasper
26 | Summer 2012
agent. “First and Jasper has been an underutilized opportunity for retail for a very long time.” “It’s going bring a little more life to this corner of Jasper that hasn’t been here in the last 10 or 15 years,” agrees Scott Kapty, project manager with Ledcor. Communicating with the city, the project tweaked its design to ensure it would fit into the new Jasper Avenue and take full advantage of the city’s vision for the street. “We’ll be the first building on Jasper…to be renovated and have [the avenue’s new look] incorporated off the bat,” Kapty says. “We were the guinea pigs.” In a sense, First and Jasper will also be an environmental guinea pig, representing a rare example of a LEED-EB (existing building) gold project in the city. Details on the final certification are still not quite known—the building can’t be certified until it’s up and running—but there’s a lengthy checklist of qualifications to be met. These include minimum standards for water fixture and energy efficiency, as well as indoor air quality benchmarks. Every five years, the building must reapply for certification. At the same time, Ledcor will be greening its own building practices as it works on the project. “We’re looking at cutting down dust, cutting down VOCs [volatile organic compounds] and contaminants in the air by using something as simple as a low-VOC spray balm for an electrician laying out stuff,” Kapty says. “Even if it isn’t a LEED job, we found they’re easy practices to adopt.”
CommerCial, industrial, meChaniCal ContraCtor
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commercial Using wider sidewalks, lots of windows and more green space, the First and Jasper project hopes to lure more pedestrian traffic to its corner of the city.
Tenant interest has been strong so far, with three major c lients already lined up. Williams Engineering Canada Inc. has taken the entire 33,000-square-foot second floor—“boutique office space,” as Wosnack describes it—with high ceilings, huge windows and an open-concept layout. The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta has staked out three floors in the tower, while the federal government has four floors to itself. Close to half of the 220,000-square-foot project has already been leased out, and Wosnack expects interest to remain high,
even with projects like the new Epcor Tower adding more premium office space downtown. Consider it a welcome side effect of Alberta’s growing economy. “Vacancy has been declining and rent rates have been climbing upwards of 20 per cent,” he says, suggesting c ompanies will scoop up properties now rather than let prices climb higher. “Real estate deals that will be done six months from now are going to look quite a bit different from the real estate deals that are available today,” Wosnack says.
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 27
Keep it in
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For over 75 years, Brandt has built its legacy by providing exceptional service and top quality equipment – like the John Deere D-Series Skid Steers. They provide the same reliable versatility that you’ve come to expect from all your heavy-duty John Deere equipment. D-Series Skid Steers provide the perfect balance of power, versatility and maneuverability. They also feature premium cab space, extra glass ensuring best-in-class visibility, increased serviceability and improved structure – making the D-Series Skid Steer a welcome addition to your John Deere family of equipment at your worksite. Add Brandt’s uncompromising commitment to after-sales support in 21 locations across Western Canada, and what you’ll have is a machine as dependable as the company that sold it to you. That’s Powerful Value. Delivered.
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institutional
By Tricia Radison
Learning legacy
photo: JOEY PODLUBNY
SAIT’s School of Construction plays critical role in industry’s future success
Larry Rosia is dean of the School of Construction at SAIT Polytechnic.
As baby boomers retire, Alberta is expected to experience a 77,000- person shortfall in workers over the next decade. At the same time, companies will continue to find themselves needing to do more with less—less labour, less money, less time—to stay competitive. Although it might be a surprise for an educational institution, SAIT Polytechnic is stepping up to help the construction industry proactively manage these challenges. Alberta Construction Magazine | 29
institutional
First, and most obviously, SAIT is helping to ensure that labour is available. SAIT’s School of Construction offers 5,000 apprenticeship seats across 16 trades, as well as another 800 seats through the two-year technology diploma programs in areas such as civil engineering technology, architectural technology, and engineering design and drafting. The new four-year bachelor of science in construction project management degree program will graduate another 72 or so people a year when the first class finishes in 2015, and the new Trades and Technology Building, scheduled to open this fall, will allow for 8,100 more fulland part-time learners. Online learning options are also increasingly available, attracting people who might not have been able or willing to leave jobs for apprenticeship training. “Over 10 years, we feel we will deliver about 20,000 additional skilled tradespeople, technicians and technologists to
30 | Summer 2012
the industry,” says Larry Rosia, dean of the School of Construction. The right stuff But SAIT isn’t interested in just pumping out graduates. They have to be the right graduates, trained in the right areas, with the knowledge and skills that are going to meet industry’s needs. That requires working closely with government and industry to identify areas where graduates are required. “We watch the Construction Sector Council’s employment projects very closely to see where the skill-set shortages are going to be,” Rosia notes. This year, that led to the creation of a new insulator apprenticeship program, the first in Calgary. SAIT designed the curriculum and built new labs to make room for the program. “SAIT has always been an institution that actually listens to industry,” says Kees Cusveller, vice-president, business development, Graham Group Ltd. from his Calgary office. “They ask us, as
employers, if the programs are offering what we need them to offer. Are the apprentices doing what we need them to do? Are the technology programs providing what industry needs?” Moving the construction management certificate online is one example. In discussions with industry, Rosia and his team heard that some people interested in taking the certificate program were working on-site, or are just too busy to miss work time for class. The online delivery model solves the problem, meeting the needs of the employee who wants to train and advance, and of the employer who will need people with management skills. Industry is welcome to bring issues to SAIT. The construction project management degree program is the perfect example. The Calgary Construction Association brought the idea to the educational institution about six years ago when people like Cusveller realized that trouble lay ahead.
institutional
“The traditional way to become a superintendent or a project manager was to start as a labourer and come up through the ranks,” Cusveller says. “We don’t have time to do that anymore.” He adds that the job has also become more complicated, with complex projects and more technology. The degree program is the first of its kind in Canada and transfers knowledge and skills much more quickly than working your way up the ladder. Just as importantly, it’s relevant because its been built by industry. For example, third-year students take a business skills and processes course that covers the major aspects of the construction business. That wasn’t something the School of Construction included when the program was first designed, but it was a must for advisory board members so that students were prepared for the real world of work upon graduation. To get people into the workforce faster, SAIT is also offering a third-year
GETTING INVOLVED
advanced standing option for the construction project management degree. Graduates of The School of SAIT’s civil engineering techConstruction h as advisory comm nology diploma program, or ittees made up of industry memb an equivalent, can apply to ers for all its pro g ra ms. take a summer bridging proIf you’d like to co ntribute to the gram and enter the four-year curriculum and ensure that gra program in its third year, duates are going to m eet industry ne in order to graduate in just eds in the future, co two years. ntact the main office at 403-28 “We’re hoping it will catch 4-8367 or on as a [human resources] stratconstruction.in fo@sait.ca. egy for construction companies,” Rosia says. “They can fast-track those real high performers into a management program and into positions like project manager and supervisor.” “If a company or an individual in the Evolution and innovation construction industry has an idea that he Perhaps one of the most surprising ways or she wants to commercialize and take in which SAIT helps industry is by con- to market, we will work with that idea and ducting applied research that can give assist them in building the application for it,” Rosia says. companies a competitive edge.
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 31
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Leading With Energy Bantrel offers a complete and fully integrated
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32 | Summer 2012
TM
Through SAIT’s Applied Research and Innovation Services (ARIS), companies can work on ideas such as developing a new concrete pouring system, a piece of equipment to speed up a process, or even a new process to speed up the entire building process. Some of the areas ARIS has worked on in the past include green building technology, GIS mapping, and energyefficiency codes and code requirements. “SAIT’s team, including master tradespeople with industry experience, will ensure projects align with the needs of private sector partners, with the goal of transforming industry with economic, social and environmental benefits,” says David Silburn, research associate, Green Building Technologies, ARIS. The research potential SAIT holds is exciting to Ken Gibson, executive director of the Alberta Construction Association. “Construction by its very nature is [about] solving problems out in the field,” he says. “Today we have exacting customer requirements, and ever more challenging safety and environmental regulatory requirements, which are a reflection of societal pressure. We have all these forces of change impacting our industry that are requiring new solutions, and fortunately we now have this multidisciplinary problem-solving team at SAIT. What a great resource.” The Green Building Technologies department has worked with a number of partners to have innovative products and processes, such as advanced walls, foundation and roof assemblies using advanced or renewable technologies, developed and proven. There is a cost to the company. The amount depends on project scope, p roject management and principal i nvestigator timelines, technical expertise from the c ollege, lab and infrastructure requirements, and material or publication resources. Provincial and federal grants and SAIT grant options may cover part of the cost, but companies are expected to cover at least 25 per cent of the costs of research. They don’t, however, have to worry about transferring intellectual property. Says Silburn: “Despite SAIT adding value to the original work, industry partners will retain the intellectual property in exchange for a SAIT royalty fee, negotiated based on expected revenues.”
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the job site with up to 85 percent of the membrane seaming already completed in our factory. So your roof goes on faster and delivers superior, watertight protection. Best of all, Duro-Last’s proven performance means your investment will continue to pay off for years to come, with significant energy savings, little to no maintenance, and the best warranties in the business. The numbers all add up: Duro-Last is the best roofing system for your building.
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infrastructure
T E E TR
S illustrations: Angie Castaldi
E S I W
Here are products and road-building techniques that are making driving surfaces perform better By Tricia Radison
To the untrained eye, a road surface is just a layer of asphalt or concrete. But there are an abundance of products, techniques and treatments that can do everything from preventing pavement from cracking to reducing traffic noise to helping us conserve water. “There is a lot of great technology available. We are way ahead of where we were even 10 years ago, so obviously we have to take advantage of it,” says Ludomir Uzarowski, principal, pavement and materials engineering, Golder Associates Ltd. Alberta Construction Magazine | 35
infrastructure
Eco-friendly ingredients Another way manufacturers are making roads more sustainable
OF DIFFER EN
R
S
R
EA
ON
FO
Wa te r p r oo f i n g Sys tems
WATERPROOFING
LD OR W
CE
A
Noise-reducing asphalt “There have been a few costbenefit analyses done that show that using asphalt to reduce noise levels makes more sense than constructing sound-wall barriers,” says Jim Bird, director of performance for the western Canada Asphalt, Paving & Construction
Eco-friendly manufacturing As a result of the focus on green technologies that is permeating the industry, asphalt mixes are being developed that have less of an impact on the environment. Lafarge’s Duraclime is a warm mix that meets all the specifications of a hot mix. Because it is manufactured at a lower temperature, odour, smoke, fuel
I
TI
Here are eight innovations in roadsurface products and road-building techniques that are driving the future of road construction.
product line at Lafarge. Durawhisper is a Lafarge product designed to reduce traffic noise while meeting all the normal specifications for hot-mix asphalt. It’s ideal for use in residential areas.
consumption and emissions are reduced during manufacturing. According to the company’s website, using Duraclime can lower the carbon footprint of an asphaltproducing plant by up to 20 per cent. Cost-wise, Duraclime is about the same as traditional hot-mix asphalt. Says Bird: “I’m not sure that anybody has a good reason not to use Duraclime. Regardless of whether it’s a Lafarge product or one belonging to our competitors, the technical data coming out of analyses concludes that warm mixes are equivalent to hot mixes in terms of performance standards.”
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www.sealitwaterproofing.ca 36 | Summer 2012
infrastructure
There is a lot of great technology available. We are way ahead of where we were even 10 years ago, so obviously we have to take advantage of it.
— Ludomir Uzarowski, principal, pavement and materials engineering, Golder Associates Ltd.
from an environmental perspective is by using recycled material in the mix. For instance, Canadian Road Builders Inc. offers a mix called Vegecol that is made entirely from renewable, plant-based material and can be used on major roads as well as for walking and biking paths. Like Duraclime, Vegecol is manufactured at a cooler temperature, reducing its carbon footprint. As an added benefit, there are no petrochemical ingredients to contaminate runoff water. Computer modelling “The advances in road building are coming in engineering areas,” says Gene Syvenky, chief executive officer, Alberta Roadbuilders & Heavy Construction Association. Computer modelling is being used much more for designing structures,
Mobile Offices Workforce Camps Storage Products Modular Buildings
benefiting taxpayers and resulting in better-performing roadways. “Using computer modelling for a structure like an overpass, for instance, is much more effective,” explains Syvenky. “Engineers can test ideas and you can instantly see the impacts, including the cost impacts, of changes.”
Lafarge has used porous asphalt in trial projects in Calgary, including a demonstration section in the parking lot of the new water building. What’s not known is how the asphalt will handle Alberta winters. “With our winter sanding efforts, there is some trepidation as to how quickly the permeability deteriorates,” Bird says. “We just have to work out strategies for maintaining a porous parking lot.”
Water-saving pavement Built using porous asphalt or pervious concrete, water-saving paved surfaces allow stormwater to drain through the surface into a catchment area below. The products work well in parking lots, allowing owners to collect runoff and store it for uses such as on-site irrigation. “It’s very expensive for municipalities to treat water, and irrigation may not be a very good use of clean water,” Bird says. “Porous asphalt also helps filter sediment out of runoff water, which is another benefit for municipalities.”
Perpetual pavements Perpetual pavements are designed to last around 50 years, compared to 20 years for conventional pavements. According to Uzarowski, the durability is due to the components of superior-performing asphalts and the ability to model and analyze road systems before construction. “Fatigue cracking occurs when the tensile strength at the bottom of asphalt exceeds the limit. So the trick with perpetual pavement is to design it from the bottom up,” Uzarowski says. Uzarowski and his team designed the first municipal perpetual pavement in
800.782.1500 www.willscot.com
Offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Fort McMurray Alberta Construction Magazine | 37
infrastructure
Where do I find a
Professional Electrical Contractor?
Since 1993 the ECAA received professional status under the Professional and Occupational Associations Registration Act as Professional Electrical Contractors (PEC), making them the first trade Association in North America to grant professional status to electrical contractors.
Professional Electrical Contractors, PECs are Educated in all Aspects of Business • • • • • •
Project Management Estimating Accounting Safety Principles Legal Issues Affecting Contracting Business & Public Relations PECs are accountable for their work and business practices and strive for excellence in the Electrical Industry.
For more information on PECs Call the
Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta Ph. 780 451-2412 Email: ecaa@ecaa.ab.ca 38 | Summer 2012
Toll Free 1-800-252-9375 Web: www.ecaa.ab.ca
Canada, the Red Hill Valley Parkway in Hamilton, Ont., constructed in 2007. The bottom layer is a rich bottom mix, a specially designed mix packed with asphalt cement that is basically indestructible and therefore highly resistant to cracking. The middle and top layers are made of high-quality Superpave asphalt mixes that resist rutting, cracking and wear. “On the day the construction is completed, the pavement will start to deteriorate. That’s normal,” Uzarowski says. “But if it’s a perpetual pavement, nothing will happen at the bottom and the majority of the pavement remains sound. Deterioration will occur at the top, but it’s easy to fix.” Repair work only has to be done every 20 years or so and, because it only involves milling and replacing the surface, it can be done overnight. While they’re too expensive for lowtraffic-volume roads, perpetual pavements are predicted to become increasingly popular for major roadways. Full-depth reclamation Repairing roads has traditionally involved removing the old asphalt pavement and hauling it off-site for disposal. Full-depth reclamation is a repairing technique in which the old asphalt is mixed with the underlying gravel and the resulting asphalt/gravel combination is used to form a new road base. Mixing the asphalt into the gravel has been proven to produce a better-quality base material, saves the cost and environmental implications of removing the old asphalt from the site, and reduces the amount of new aggregate used. Collaboration It’s not a product or a road- building technique, but it is affecting the quality of roads. “Industry partners—the road builder group, transportation people from all levels government, consulting engineers— are sharing information and best practices, and taking a much more collaborative approach in creating a solution,” Syvenky says. The result going forward is going to be better products and even more innovation.
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infrastructure | BIM
PRESERVING
TECHNOLOGY BIM plays an important role in Legislature dome renovation
By Godfrey Budd
A $6.1-million renovation project for the Alberta Legislature dome is expected to take about one year and is slated for a late-2013 completion. Construction should start at the site this fall, shortly after celebrations m arking the 100th anniversary of the official opening of the building in September 1912. Elements of the dome are approaching the end of their shelf life, hence the renovations. “The existing terracotta on both the major dome and the minor dome above the Legislature chamber has deteriorated,” says Lyle Butchart, an area manager for property at Alberta Infrastructure. “The project will include replacing the terracotta on the cupola as well as the terracotta on the main dome.” The deterioration of the terracotta, however, is not yet severe, but the issue of potential water penetration was a major spur to do the work now, says Butchart, who notes that the terracotta has no waterproof membrane. There is only concrete book tile beneath it.
Restoring these elements of the 54-metre-high dome is going to rely heavily on some of the latest 3-D modelling software and methods from the Building Information Modelling (BIM) tool box. “We didn’t have an adequate set of drawings with enough detail, so BIM is going to have a role in filling in gaps for the design process,” Butchart says. Planning and design began with consultation and determining what the dome required for restoration and improved waterproofing, with Edmonton-based Building Science Engineering Ltd. (BSE) contracted to run the project. “BSE designs the anchorage and some other components and sets up the criteria for them,” notes Chris Makepeace, a principal at BSE. HIP Architects, in turn, did much of the modelling and other design work on the project. The use of 3-D BIM not only saved both time and money in the design process, but also played a crucial role in analyzing the existing curved terracotta and tile surfaces, and developing a design that would replicate these elements. Alberta Construction Magazine | 41
infrastructure | BIM
Need for precision Allan Partridge, a former principal with HIP who is now with Group2 Architecture Engineering Ltd., did much of the design work for the project. He says, “One of the hardest things is to do a 3-D model of curving surfaces. Having [the dome] scanned and developing a BIM was the best way to access how to represent work that needed to be done. This would take into account not only the surface in three dimensions, but also the deformations from age—and the original imperfections that may have been built in. So, with BIM, we can develop an exact profile of what’s there and therefore what needs to be done within plus or minus a quarter of an inch. And precision was essential to the dome project.” The structural elements and building components required detail analysis and modelling from outside to inside. 42 | Summer 2012
Some of the area on the inside of the dome was also scanned to provide a series of control points. “Once we had enough data to derive control points, we used those control points to measure the rest of the interior using a hand-held laser. This gives you a virtual replica of the interior structure,” Partridge says. Advances in laser scanning technology help the process, as earlier laser-scanning technology was relatively limited, he says. Without today’s laser technology and BIM, the process of developing a model and design based on the original may have had to resort to “stereo-photogrammetry,” a process of determining the geometric properties of objects from photographic images. In this case, Partridge says, “Someone with a special camera would have to be up there on a crane.”
Older systems of measurements and analysis could take weeks. Instead, BIM, assisted by modern laser scanning, enabled this measurement and analysis to be done in a matter of days. Most restorations projects today can expect to include the application of some scanning technology. A project in Calgary recently used the same technologies, Partridge notes. He says the scanning, combined with BIM, provided a very comprehensive record of both older and more recently installed building components.
IMAGES: HIP
The rendering above is derived from a process using scanning technology that provides precise and detailed information about a section of the dome structure. The two arching forms on the left are images of the exterior and interior dome, showing scaffolding and stairs to the dome’s lantern.
infrastructure | BIM
“This allowed us to check and verify the entire structure, whether new or old,” Partridge says. The technology results in lower costs for the recording process and is about 50 per cent less than a traditional manual method, or 20–30 per cent less than photogrammetry. But the savings don’t stop there. “The increasing accuracy is immeasurable in terms of costs of the overall project,” he says. “A big advantage is that consultants, contractors, owners, all the way down the supply chain, have access to the same accurate, precise data sets. Just 30 years ago, the whole project could have cost double, and with a high degree of risk, which would have been borne by the owner. Now, we have high fidelity and high predictability, and, therefore, sharply diminished risk.” A key part of the architect’s role in the process, he says, was to provide a complete, precise record of the existing structure and details on how the new insulation, membrane and tiles would integrate within the refurbished dome. Because BIM has advanced so much in the last few years, the silo effect from the various elements—engineering, architectural and so on—are much reduced, with a resulting streamlining of the process. Says Kyle Bradshaw, an intern architect at HIP: “Before, elements were each in their respective file. Now, all the element sets are in the same file. It makes coordination much easier. So you can easily tell if, say, a stairwell aligns precisely with other elements.” It’s anyone’s guess what the technology will be like decades from now when the dome is ready for another renovation. But it is clear that BIM is playing a role in this effort to preserve Alberta’s history.
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 43
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industrial
Imperial Oil’s Nabiye expansion will be located northeast of the company’s existing operations (shown here) at Cold Lake, Alta.
POWERFUL
Imperial’s Nabiye expansion
Photo: JOEY PODLUBNY
includes development of a new steam generation plant and bitumen processing plant
By Jim Bentein
There’s another boom going on in Alberta, aside from the wellpublicized one in the oilsands, with new power generation plants being built at a pace never seen before. And much of that is cogeneration, aimed at producing both steam and electricity. The newest cogeneration plant will be at Imperial Oil Ltd.’s Cold Lake project, where the company’s $2-billion Nabiye plant is being designed to add 40,000 barrels a day of oil production and to also include a 170-megawatt (MW) cogeneration plant. The plant will go into operation in 2014.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 45
industrial
Imperial Oil uses cyclic steam stimulation technology to produce bitumen at Cold Lake. Imperial Oil’s Nabiye expansion includes a cogeneration plant that will produce steam and electricity for the facility.
46 | Summer 2012
Cogen gains “We’ll need all of the generation we can get, no matter where it’s located,” Bahry says. Alberta has added 6,400 MW of generation in the last 10–15 years, he points out. “Of that, about 1,000 MW came from coal, 770 from wind generation and the rest came from natural gas, with a majority of that being cogen.” The Brattle Group forecasts that most of the almost 15,000 MW in new generation that will be brought on over the next 20 years will be natural gas–based. That would represent an overall addition of about 10,400 MW, taking into account the power plant retirements expected in that period, likely to total about 4,400 MW (mostly among the province’s 6,000 MW of coal-fired plants). Existing power generation in Alberta now totals 13,939 MW. Imperial’s planned cogeneration plant would be essentially a twin to the 170 MW power plant that was a part of the Mahkeses expansion, which added about 30,000– 40,000 barrels a day of production to the Cold Lake commercial project in 2003–04. Production will reach 200,000 barrels a day in 2014, when the expansion will be completed, says Imperial spokesman Pius Rolheiser. Mahkeses (the Cree word for “fox”) essentially was phases 11, 12 and 13 of the project, which was reinvented after a previously planned multi-billion dollar megaproject was shelved in the early 1980s, a victim of low oil prices and the National Energy Program. Ironically, the “megaproject,” which would have included a heavy oil upgrader,
actually was designed to produce about 140,000 barrels daily, Rolheiser says. The Nabiye expansion (“nabiye” is a Dene word meaning “otter”) comprises phases 14, 15 and 16. It will be located northeast of the company’s existing operations, which include the Leming, Maskwa, Mahihkan and Mahkeses plants. The Leming, Maskwa and Mahihkan plants did not include cogeneration facilities. The project will include development of a new steam generation plant and bitumen processing plant, as well as field production pads and associated facilities. The company actually had Energy Resources Conservation Board approval for the Nabiye expansion in 2004. However, it delayed moving ahead and instead went ahead with a “debottlenecking” plan to improve the performance of existing legacy plants. That delays allowed it to re-engineer the expansion to improve its environmental footprint, Rolheiser says. Imperial applied for approval again in 2009, with the changes being included in the application. Smaller footprint “The surface footprint will be 40 per cent less because we’ll be using horizontal drilling,” he says. In addition, plans include the cogeneration plant and a sulphur recovery technology that will “significantly reduce” sulphur dioxide emissions, he says. The addition of the cogeneration facility also vastly improves the environmental performance of the project, he adds. “Cogen results in more energy efficiency,” he says. The two cogeneration plants mean Imperial will be self-sufficient in power— representing a substantial cost savings (but not one it would reveal)—and will be able to sell excess power to the grid.
Photo: JOEY PODLUBNY
The additional power is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, according to Evan Bahry, executive director of the Independent Power Producers Society of Alberta, which represents most of the 30 companies that compete to build power plants in Alberta (not including oil and gas companies that build cogeneration as complementary projects to their oilsands plants). “Cogeneration makes all kinds of sense,” Bahry observes. “It’s scalable, so you can build plants ranging from 10 MW to 170 MW or larger. Natural gas prices are very low, so you can produce power inexpensively. In addition, once you produce steam [for injection into reservoirs to bring bitumen to the surface] you can’t transport it too far.” That latter dilemma has led to a decision by more oil companies using steam assisted gravity drainage technologies or those using cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), which Imperial uses at Cold Lake, to utilize that steam to generate power. Under Alberta’s deregulated power market structure, those companies can sell power generation that exceeds their own needs into the provincial grid. Bahry doesn’t expect them to face any serious problems f inding markets. “With hundreds of billions of dollars in oilsands investment expected over the next few years, you’ll see that driving more and more investment into cogen,” he says. Citing a recent report that U.S. consultancy The Brattle Group prepared for the Alberta Electric System Operator, he says the province will need to almost double the amount of new generation it has been adding annually—from about 380 MW to 740 MW—to meet projected demand. Battle estimates that would be needed for the next 20 years to meet a load growth of 3.2 per cent a year (and to counter the retirement of about 220 MW a year).
industrial
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Both cogeneration plants use similar proven technology, the General Electric Frame 7 gas turbine, first manufactured in the 1960s. “ T he y ’re heat-recover y stea m generators,” Rolheiser says. “It’s like a car radiator in reverse. You run water through the pipes and as it goes through the water is converted to 300-degreeCelsius steam. The steam is then used to create steam for bitumen recovery and to create electricity.” The cogen plant will be an integral part of the project. The peak construction workforce of 1,000 is expected to be reached by mid-2013. Imperial will act as the general contractor for the expansion, as it did for the previous expansions. Rolheiser says the company would likely reveal the successful bidders for the Nabiye expansion by this summer. Flint Energy Services Ltd. and Ledcor Group of Companies were the successful bidders for the Mahkeses expansion. Cold Lake, the largest and longestrunning in situ oilsands operation in Canada (in situ projects require technologies to recover bitumen from deeply buried deposits), has considerable room for expansion, Rolheiser says. “We’ve developed less than one-third of the lease area.” As of 2009, Imperial had produced one billion barrels of oil there and is e xperimenting with several different technologies to increase recoveries, in addition to the to the CSS approach it now uses. The newest project will provide access to 280 million barrels of recoverable reserves, compared to the 250 million barrels envisioned when Imperial began planning the project a decade ago.
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ow is it that some companies seem so capable ofRESPECT doing things BUILD PRODUCTIVITY performance EQUALITY with such efficiency or ease? SKILLS REDUCTION ENGINEERING PROGRAMS Oftentimes, it comes down to a company’s best practices— those techniques that are so recognized throughout the work structure that you couldn’t do the job any other way. It’s not unusual for industry to adopt a company’s or an organization’s best practices. For example, consider the number of workers who fell to their deaths over the centuries before someone decided to tie a rope to himself when working high above the ground. In the pages ahead you’ll read about some of the best practices that work well for Alberta-based construction organizations and companies. Alberta Construction Magazine | 49
best practices
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COAA’s involvement in developing industry best practices goes back 40 years 50 | Summer 2012
You need look no further than the Construction Owners Association of Alberta (COAA) for some of the world’s most advanced approaches to best practices in industrial construction. There are about 25 different best-practice initiatives, but, for the most part, they fall under four broad categories: • Workplace health and safety; • Workforce development and training; • Construction performance; and • “WorkFace Planning.” The overall concept of these initiatives is to prevent those in industry from cutting corners, giving them an unfair advantage in competing with others and bringing discredit to the overall industry. The COAA takes best practices so seriously that it organizes an annual conference to discuss how they might be applied to the construction sector. These conferences are popular, usually attracting about 500 people. Larry Staples, an engineer by training who has been involved in the sector for several decades and is now an adviser to the COAA, remembers the factors that led to formation of the organization in 1973—and to creation of the suite of best practices. “The COAA was formed 40 years ago, during the development of our first [oilsands] megaprojects, the Great Canadian Oil Sands [now Suncor Energy Inc.] and Syncrude Canada Ltd. plants,” he recalls. “Alberta needed to bring in offshore expertise like Bechtel Corporation. There were a lot of inefficiencies and challenges. Those were teeth-cutting projects. We knew there would be more of these in the future and decided we have to do better.”
best practices
Today the COAA has a number of committees to develop and review best practices to help industry enhance efficiency and performance. For example, its contracts committee has developed standard contracts that clearly spell out the obligations and risks of jobs. Rather than creating one from scratch, you can go to coaa.ab.ca and download a stipulated price form contract. Or suppose you need a standard form EPC contract for use in industrial projects in Alberta. You can download that as well. The goal for providing these is the same: to maintain a consistent approach in contract development, preparation and administration in order to reduce the costs and uncertainty associated with contract formation and administration. Working safe Best practices tend to spread throughout industry after a success has been demonstrated. And they also can lead to the creation of other best practices. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the area of health and safety. The COAA was one of the first organizations with employees subject to workplace injuries to throw its support behind an Alberta government initiative—launched about a decade ago—to reduce worksite lost-time incidents, injuries and fatalities. The result was the Work Safe program, which focuses on education, transparent presentation of workplace incidents, inspections by government occupational health and safety officers, and stiff fines for companies where workers are hurt or killed due to inadequacies at worksites. Alberta has experienced a steady decline in workplace incidents for workers covered under the Workers’ Compensation Board–Alberta system. In 2010, for instance, the lost-time claim rate was 1.41 injuries for every 100 full-time jobs. That’s down from 4.13 in 1991. The disabling injury claim rate, which includes workers injured but still able to perform modified work, declined from about four per cent to 2.67 per cent in the same period. There has, however, been an increase in the overall number of annual fatalities in Alberta in the last decade, but that has corresponded with a tremendous increase in the number of workers in the province during that period of 47 per cent. The statistic most commonly used is the number of deaths per million person-years worked. Since 2001, the number of personyears worked has grown from 1,178,582 to 1,729,355. The provincewide fatality rate dropped from 101 deaths per million person-years in 2001 to 63 per million person-years in 2009. Overall, 1,266 deaths occurred between 2001 and 2010 in the province, with the construction and trade services sector recording the highest number of deaths at 453. However, Staples argues that without the Work Safe initiative and the heavy construction industry’s commitment to the program, the workplace incidents could have been much higher. “Ten years ago our industry recorded four lost-time incidents per 200,000 hours worked, and that’s now down to one lost-time
incident for the same number of hours worked,” he says. “That adds up to saved lives.” Staples, who played a key role in completing the study of future construction worker needs for the COAA, says many of the other best-practice categories of the organization revolve around worker recruiting and training and productivity. Another in the works In fact, it is now in the process of developing a new manual revolving around best practices for hiring and training female tradespeople. “We’re working with the Women Building Futures Society,” he says. “One aspect of that initiative is discussing how women can be valuable members of a construction site, for instance.” Women Building Futures has a mandate of attracting women into the construction trades, working with industry to establish appropriate training, helping to provide mentorship and identifying barriers to women in the trades. But fewer than 10 per cent of those who work in the trades are women, Staples says, “so it’s a nontraditional workforce our industry needs to target.”
“Ten years ago our industry recorded four lost-time incidents per 200,000 hours worked, and that’s now down to one lost-time incident for the same number of hours worked. That adds up to saved lives.” — Larry Staples, adviser, Construction Owners Association of Alberta Additional target groups are Aboriginals and foreign workers. As part of its workforce development best-practices strategy, COAA also wants to emphasize the effective use of apprentices on heavy industrial projects and better mentoring of apprentices. Future plans include developing a guide for the qualifications and training of supervisors, conducting an annual forecast of the supply and demand of workers, and developing programs to encourage young people and others to consider construction as a career choice. Staples says another area of best practices is in what the COAA calls “WorkFace Planning.” “The idea is to emphasize worksite planning and material ordering so that workers aren’t standing around waiting,” he says. The COAA has been a leader in the area, having tested a WorkFace Planning model on a refinery project in Montreal recently. The result, according to Staples, was impressive. “We found worker productivity improved by 25 per cent at that site.” Alberta Construction Magazine | 51
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health
IMPROVEMENT
COMMUNICATION STRUCTURE BENCHMARK REPORTS PCL Construction Ltd. has a projects reputation throughout the indushiring try for workforce development. ENGINEERING REPORTS PCL encourages mentorship—signs benchmark INVESTIGATION GROWTH with the slogan “each one, teach one” WORKFORCE are commonplace at company sites and CONSTRUCTION committee offices—enabling skills and techniques as hiring investigation builders to be passed from one to another. qualifications But training is also critical for the Edmontongrowth ENGINEERING SAFETY RESPECT based company, which employs more than 3,300 fulltime professional and administrative salaried staff REPORTS SKILLS PRODUCTIVITY and more than 6,500 hourly tradespeople. So it’s little wonder that many of PCL’s senior managers started as PLANNING tradespeople and worked their way up. LEADERSHIP “Most of our superintendents began with the company DEVELOPMENT ARCHITECTURE as journeymen carpenters or in another trade,” notes Rob PRODUCTIVITY Johnstone, PCL’s corporate training consultant. implementation Johnstone says the company’s training facility and prodevelopment gram—the College of Construction—symbolizes and highlights PCL’s commitment to training its workforce. ENGINEERING “Last year we put 3,900 people through all of our various APPRENTICE training programs, with about 300 or 400 of those being INVESTIGATION hourly employees,” he says, adding that an introductory health and safety course, which can run from three hours PROGRAMS to a full day, is compulsory for all new employees.
GROWTH
training
Johnstone believes that PCL’s extensive training programs give it an advantage in recruiting. “Our recruitment has become a global activity, just as we are a global company,” he says. The College of Construction helps integrate all new employees and also helps longer-term employees advance their skills. “We provide a variety of training, including health and safety, in planning and scheduling, in business skills and in management and leadership,” Johnstone says. All company employees with management responsibilities take a two-day “team leader” course that offers information on labour laws and management skills, such as hiring and firing employees, motivation and other skills. PCL’s management training is so respected that it was asked by a consortium of construction firms in the United States to help in developing a training program for them, he says. Overall, he says the company has about 12 business skills training courses for employees. “Every PCL employee has a requirement to go through a minimum of 36 hours of training a year,” Johnstone says.
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54 | Summer 2012
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best practices
Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd.
ENGINEERING
HIRING ACHIEVEMENT CONTRACT
benchmark
A counter-intuitive move for the future
DEVELOPMENT REPORTS
ENGINEERING
Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd. has Senior managers like Harrison had foreseen what developed what it calls its blueprint for worklooming skilled labour shortages would do to the conforce development and training that, in many ways, is struction sector, especially as baby boomers (like himright out of the Construction Owners Association of self) retired, and they wanted to train the succeeding Alberta’s (COAA’s) best-practices manual. generations to fill positions as needed. But the approach Stuart Olson Dominion took— The company’s “project school” offers a two-day called “People. Building. Progress.”—saw the company course in leadership skills and other management skills, take what could only be described as a courageous leap, for instance. by starting to add and train key staff at a time when “Because the courses are offered in-house, they can many others in the industry were downsizing in be tailored to our clients’ needs,” Harrison says. PROGRAMS reaction to the recession and the downturn in the As a result, as senior managers retire, the comDEVELOPMENT Alberta energy industry. pany has new leaders to move into their slots. “About three years ago, we made a strategic The company views itself as a value-added congrowth decision to concentrate on people,” offers Doug tractor, with well-trained staff able to deliver proPRODUCTIVITY REPORTS Harrison, executive vice-president of the comjects on time. It tries not to compete on price alone. hiring pany. “The industry usually waits until another “When you get a dentist, do you ask for the SAFETY PROGRAMS boom to hire people. We made a strategic decilowest-cost one?” Harrison asks. sion to hire people, train them and wait for the Stuart Olson Dominion is an institutional, HIRING commercial and light industrial contractor, which work to come.” STRUCTURE Stuart Olson Dominion has about 500 fullmeans it doesn’t directly benefit from the emerTRAINING ging oilsands boom. time employees and 700 hourly workers. Its “continuous improvement” approach sees the But, notes Harrison, “Once the oilsands has company offer ongoing in-house training, aimed taken off, that leads to the need for schools, more at project managers, superintendents, tradeshousing and commercial buildings, which is EQUALITY people and others. where we come in.” PROGRAMS
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 55
best practices
CONSTRUCTION
CAREER
build CONTRACTORsuccess PEOPLE
ACHIEVEMENT committee REPORTS
DEVELOPMENT
SKILLS
commercialdesign
performance GROWTH
building ENGINEERING
SAFETY
STRUCTURE BUILDERS
RESPECT
equality
CONTRACT
SKILLS
SAFETY PROGRAMS
INVESTIGATION
PRODUCTIVITYACHIEVEMENT
ENGINEERING STANDARDS building
safety
committee
safety
PLAN
performance
safety
REDUCTION
EQUALITY
SKILLS implementation
development
APPRENTICE ENGINEERING
GROWTH
STANDARDS REDUCTION
safety RESPECT
success PRODUCTIVITY
ENGINEERING
56 | Summer 2012
RESPECT
CANA Group of Companies
Promoting improvement through assessment Continuous improvement is promoted at CANA Group of Companies, with all employees being graded annually according to key performance indicators. “At mid-year and at the end of the year, all hourly employees are assessed and become involved in a consultative process, aimed at addressing any areas where they need to improve their skills,” says Crystal Schiebelbein, who is in charge of CANA’s human resources department. CANA pays for all work-related training. The company believes its size gives it an advantage. Because it is smaller—about 125 salaried employees—and family-owned (by the Simpson family), the family atmosphere makes it a good place to work. “We’re close-knit here,” Schiebelbein says. “We don’t have to go to Toronto to get our answers.” Most of the company’s senior management team members have more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry, which provides a valuable mentoring atmosphere. And CANA recognizes that today’s workers are interested in a work-life balance. That balance will be better achieved when the company’s new, much larger headquarters goes into operation in the near future, she says. The new building will have a large gymnasium area as well as a cafeteria.
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CHASE OPERATOR TRAINING PROVIDING CUSTOMIZED TRAINING FOR HEAVY EQUIPMENT OPERATORS
The pace of construction isn’t slowing down in Alberta. New infrastructure, new oilsands projects and several new office towers are on the books. These construction projects require construction companies, oil and gas industry companies, and civil contractors to train their heavy equipment operators on all manner of equipment. Jeff Chase, owner and instructor at Chase Operator Training, says, “Not only is training a requirement of Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, but a trained heavy equipment operator is a much safer operator. Trained operators cause fewer accidents and damage less equipment and property than untrained operators.” Having been raised on a 20,000-acre grain farm, Chase is no stranger to heavy equipment. “I grew up watching my Dad use and repair heavy equipment and was always interested in the construction jobs on the farm and the machinery to do those jobs.” In 2008, after training heavy equipment operators for an equipment supplier for two years, Chase opened his own heavy equipment training company, Chase Operator Training. Chase OT offers customizable heavy equipment training courses. Heavy
1.800.317.3612
equipment includes aerial platform, backhoe, counter balanced forklift, narrow aisle forklift, rough terrain forklift, excavator, skid steer, wheel loader, and grader. Courses are customized according to clients’ requirements such as the type of job, the site, heavy equipment to be used, and the skill level of the workers. “We train our clients’ workers on their job site so the training the workers receive is the real thing; they are trained on the equipment they will be required to operate on the job site they will be working on, and handling the materials they will be using,” says Chase. Chase says that if a client requires its workers to be trained on more than one piece of equipment, Chase OT will customize a training course to include all of the equipment the workers will be required to operate. Chase OT has partnered with Safety Man in Airdrie to provide additional training. “Safety Man covers what we don’t cover. It provides training to our clients on fall protection, first aid, H2S Alive, and confined space,” says Chase. Chase OT is accredited to provide heavy equipment training in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. “Each province’s OHS [Occupational Health and Safety] regulations are a bit different. Therefore, we modify our training courses depending on which province we are providing training in,” says Chase.
chaseot@gmail.com
Chase says that his operator training company provides many follow up services to its clients. “We offer to come back in six months to re-evaluate the workers; we offer to come back in three years to provide upgrade training due to equipment changes or regulation changes; and we offer refresher courses for long-term employees who might have become complacent in their operating skills over the years.” Chase OT also offers a “train the trainer” program where they will train their clients’ workers on how to train their heavy equipment operators. “This program is ideal for companies that prefer to do more in-house training or that have high employee turnover rates, or that are located in remote locations,” says Chase. Since 2008, Chase OT has had over 120 clients, including several major oil and gas industry clients as well as Carmacks, City of Medicine Hat and Agrium. Chase plans to expand his operator training company to meet the needs of civil and mechanical contractor companies and contractor companies who work for oilsands operators. “We plan to include training in the north and in the United States; we are looking into adding courses for boat launch and trailer handling (both RV and deck), and possibly offering our courses online.”
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people, products & projects who’s who and what’s what
Paving the way for a better paver A new truck-mounted paver on the market promises less maintenance and larger loads, acccording to manufacturer Bergkamp Inc. Powered by a 99-horsepower diesel engine, the M212 slurry seal and microsurfacing paver is designed for large loads, making it ideal for jobs far away from the stockpile, the company says. The M212 can hold 9.2 cubic metres of aggregate, as well as 2,616 litres of asphalt emulsion and 2,616 litres of water. In addition, the unit also sports a 246-litre tank for additives. The unit’s design should also help ease wear and tear, with the hopper’s polyethylene lining reducing friction and removing the need for a vibrator, which can loosen bolts and damage components over time. Visit bergkampinc.com to learn more.
The M212 slurry seal and microsurfacing paver is designed for minimal wear and tear.
Photos: Bergkamp Inc.; Lafarge Canada Inc.
Rene Thibault
Lafarge appoints new western Canada leader
Lafarge Canada Inc. has found a senior leader for its western Canada operations, as Rene Thibault is set to take over the regional division as president and chief executive officer. Based out of the company’s western Canadian head office in Calgary, Thibault will oversee Lafarge’s activities in the four western provinces and three northern territories, as well as the Pacific Northwest, and North and South Dakota in the United States. The company says the appointment is intended to unite its businesses under a single regional leader. Among the Lafarge operations included under Thibault’s oversight will be aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, and construction and paving. Thibault’s experiences with Lafarge over the past 20 years have taken him across Canada and all the way to corporate headquarters in Paris, France. In addition to an engineering degree from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., he has completed executive studies at Harvard Business School.
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: jcaouette@junewarren-nickles.com or send it to: Assistant 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 | 59
people, products, projects
Break it up, you guys Breaking up is never easy, but the new Doosan DXB260H might help ease the pain a little. The hydraulic breaker—designed for excavators in the 27–37-tonne range—uses a two-speed control system that allows operators to switch between short and long strokes, making it easier to match the breaker’s frequency to changing ground conditions. Among its standard features are a cradle-mounted grease station and a blank-fire protection system, which uses a cushion of oil to reduce wear from metalon-metal contact. The company also says that the breaker can increase its striking power by recovering energy created by piston rebound. The 5,400-pound DXB260H is capable of delivering up to 600 blows per minute and is rated for impacts in the 8,000-footpound impact energy class. Visit doosanequipment.com to learn more.
60 | Summer 2012
NAIT finds a friend in area builder Ever y year, the N or thern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton names one individual or organization a Distinguished Friend of the Institute. For 2011, the award goes to Shiraz Jiwani, president and owner of Sher wood Park ’s AMAN Building Corporation. Jiwani was chosen because of AMAN ’s investment in NAIT’s planned Centre for Applied Technologies and the Centre of Culinary Arts, as well as his support for local charities and community events, NAIT said in a release announcing the honour.
Photo: DOOSAN
The Doosan DXB260H hydraulic breaker can deliver up to 600 blows per minute.
people, products, projects
Army engineer to helm APEGA
Mark Flint
Mark Flint, P.Eng, has been appointed the new chief executive officer of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists (APEGA). An experienced army engineer, Flint joins APEGA after having served over two decades in a variety of command and staff positions with the Canadian Armed Forces. Most recently, he was stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he played a lead role in the engineering effort behind
Photo: APEGA
Canadian student takes top honours in design competition More than $20,000 in scholarship money was up for grabs at a kitchen design competition that saw three of the top four prizes go to Canadian students.
the withdrawal of Canadian equipment and personnel. The news brings an end to months of searching that began last June when former chief executive officer Neil Windsor, P.Eng., announced he would be retiring in order to recover from surgery and a battle with cancer. He had been with the organization since 1996, when he joined following a 20-year stint in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly and a career in civil engineering. Al Schuld, APEGA registrar and an executive staff member since 1982, had most recently served as interim chief executive officer for the organization while Windsor transitioned into retirement.
The 2012 NKBA/GE Charette Competition awarded its first-place prize of a $5,000 scholarship to Alicia Meeker of Vancouver Community College. Julie Arthurs and Rebecca Johnston—both students from Lakeland College in Vermilion, Alta.—placed third and fourth, respectively. Nearly 400 students from 31 different schools submitted to the competition, held for the seventh year by the National Kitchen and Bath Association and GE Appliances. All of the students were given three hours to create a kitchen floor plan, with specifications and a design statement. Details on the winning entries can be found at nkba.org.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 61
people, products, projects
Announcing Steels as a dealer of Owens Corning Roofing Insulation Products
Steels is now a full line dealer of extruded polystyrene insulation products supplied by Owens Corning including Foamular®. Foamular® Extruded Polystyrene Insulation maintains its thermal resistance over time. Its exceptional moisture resistance and high compressive strength make it an excellent choice for an energy-efficient and durable building envelope. *The colour PINK is a registered trademark of Owens Corning. © 2010 Owens Corning. All Rights Reserved.
Edmonton 780.452.4710 12959 156 Street
www.steels.com sales@steels.com
Your Building Materials experts.
Italian scaffolder finds Mecca in Fort Mac
Levelton Consultants Ltd.
Levelton Consultants Ltd. is pleased to announce the appointments of Nick Davis, P.Eng. as President and Alex Schutte, B.Sc., EP as Vice President, effective April 2, 2012. Nick received a diploma in Civil Engineering from BCIT and a degree in Geological Engineering from UBC. After joining Levelton in 1986, he has successfully filled a variety of roles: project engineer, project manager and regional manager. Alex has a degree from McGill University in Meteorology and Environmental Sciences. Since joining Levelton in 1995, Alex has taken on technical, managerial and operational roles in the organization. Levelton promotes the development of strong leadership and business management skills among its employees, and strives to provide opportunity for advancement. Congratulations Nick and Alex for rising to the pinnacle of the Levelton organization.
About Levelton
We are an employee-owned Western Canadian firm with 45 years of experience delivering comprehensive and integrated services to clients. With nine offices in BC and Alberta, we specialize in engineering and scientific services in four practice areas: materials engineering, environment and energy, geotechnical, and building science.
62 | Summer 2012
Pilosio scaffolding at use on a project in Turin, Italy.
www.levelton.com
Pilosio S.p.A. has landed a contract to supply scaffolding and formworks to an oilsands project in Fort McMurray, Alta. As part of the $7.3-million deal, the Italian company will supply Saipem Canada with multidirectional scaffolding products for use in the construction of the Sunrise oilsands project. Dario Roustayan, chief executive officer of Pilosio, says that the contract will allow the company to make inroads in two areas: the oil and gas industry, and Canada, which he describes as “an area that along with South America, India and the Arab countries can be defined as the Mecca of our business.” Completion of the project is expected in 2014.
Photo: Pilosio S.p.A.
Calgary 403.279.2710 4880 104 Avenue SE
people, products, projects
REPRESENTING ALBERTA’S ROOFING INDUSTRY SINCE 1961
Just don’t call them hot pants Carhartt Inc. has just revealed the latest addition to its line of rental workwear—a fireresistant pair of jeans. Rated as a hazard-risk, category-two garment, the jeans are made with 14.75-ounce cotton denim. The company says the leg openings are designed specifically to fit comfortably over a pair of work boots. The jeans will be available as part of the full line of Carhartt rental workwear available through uniform provider Cintas Corporation. The two companies have been partnered since 2010 to provide a range of clothing for the jobsite, including jeans, work shirts and jackets. More information is available at cintas.com/ carhartt.
PROGRAMS & SERVICES Pre-Qualification of Roofing Contractors Roofing Material/Membrane Evaluation Roofer Training Programs Inspector Certification Roofing Application Standards Manual Safety Training Programs 5, 10, & 15 Year Workmanship Warranty ALBERTA ROOFING CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION 2380 Pegasus Road N.E. Calgary, Alberta T2E 8G8 Toll Free (in Alberta) 1-800-382-8515 403-250-7055
www.arcaonline.ca
Photo: Carhartt Inc.
New president for AcklandsGrainger One of Canada’s largest suppliers of maintenance, repair and operations products has a new man at the top. O.W. Eric Nowlin has been appointed president of Acklands-Grainger Inc. He has been with the company since 2006, when he joined Grainger’s U.S. operations as a regional branch services vice-president. In the intervening years, he moved up through the ranks of the company’s American business, most recently serving as vicepresident of customer sevice. Nowlin replaces former president Sean O’Brien, who resigned in March. O’Brien had been with the company since 2007 and had served as president since 2009.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 63
people, products, projects
Equipment shopping goes mobile
A new extendable arm for Bobcat’s M-Series E55 compact excavator adds 30 inches of reach.
Bobcat extends its reach A new extendable arm from Bobcat Company will provide a longer reach without requiring a larger machine. Designed for the company’s M-Series E55 compact excavator, the extendable arm
adds an extra 30 inches of reach when fully extended. When retracted, it functions the same as any standard arm, offering a similar level of tearing force. The arm also has an optional hydraulic clamp—a feature Bobcat says is unique among other extendable arms for use with compact excavators. Visit bobcat.com for more details.
We Build Structures. We Build Opportunity. We Build Communities. EllisDon is a Canadian success story; we export our construction expertise and services across North America and around the world. That means we’re able to employ over 1,400 people, as well as countless subcontractors and tradespeople – building transit systems, hospitals, commercial and government buildings that become the very fabric of communities. And we’ll go right on doing that for many years to come. For more information, please visit www.ellisdon.com
64 | Summer 2012
The Core. Calgary, Alberta.
Foothills Medical Centre, McCaig Tower. Calgary, Alberta.
Photo: BOBCAT COMPANY
Working out in the field and looking for a good heavy-haul trailer on short notice? There’s an app for that. Camex Equipment Sales & Rentals Inc. has launched a new equipment-finding smartphone app that allows users to browse the company’s inventory of oilfield transportation and construction equipment. Designed for use on iPhone, BlackBerry and Android phones, the app provides quick access to equipment pricing and photos, as well as specification details. Everything can be sorted by equipment type, year, make and model. A location button charts a route to the nearest Camex store. The app can be downloaded from camex.ca/mobile.
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Become a SpoNSor Sponsorship opportunities are still available for the Top Projects awards luncheon. Find out the different ways you can become a sponsor at albertaconstructionmagazine.com .
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eca report
ECA, members win national recognition By the Edmonton Construction Association
The Edmonton Construction Association (ECA) has won several Canadian Construction Association (CCA) national awards for 2011.
have made a difference in business, higher levels of education and the lives of the less fortunate in health-related and nonprofit organizations.
CCA Partner Association Award of Excellence ECA has increased its membership by an impressive 80 per cent in the last decade, becoming the fastest-growing local construction association in Canada. One of ECA’s beneficial services to buyers and membership has been the Plan Room operation, a central repository of construction projects that are out for tender. Approximately 2,600 construction projects will be displayed in ECA’s Plan Room this year—more than any other local construction association in Canada. ECA is recognized as a leader throughout North America in providing successful Business Information Modelling (BIM) training to the industry. In 2010, the Government of Alberta took notice of ECA’s leadership and issued two grants for BIM training. ECA’s state-ofthe-art centre has hosted 81 sessions for 508 attendees in two years and, in June 2011, became the first association in North America to host a BIM model in cooperation with the city on one of its projects.
International Business Award PCL family of companies succeeded in entering a new market in Australia, as part of a consortium to build a hospital in Melbourne. PCL’s personnel recruitment strategy has a major international dimension, and PCL partnered with the city on a website by providing stories of immigrant PCL employees.
Community Leader Award Bob Walker of Ledcor Construction Limited has a record of volunteer work over the past 40 years. His volunteer efforts
National Safety Award Black & McDonald Ltd. won for its system of sharing safety best practices and procedures throughout the company in order to provide a culture of safety for all employees through its “Nobody Gets Hurt Today or Tomorrow” national safety program. Excellence in Innovation Award A & B Concrete Pumping Ltd. developed a Concrete Washout Program in response to the challenges of disposing of concrete from construction sites. This process leaves almost no concrete waste on site and ensures that excess concrete remains clean for reuse as a by-product for road-crush or back-fill purposes.
Annual CCA Award Winners Below: Paul Douglas, President and CEO, PCL Construction Management Inc., accepts The International Business Award on behalf of PCL.
CCA President Michael Atkinson presents Executive Vice-President Darlene La Trace with the CCA Partner Association Award of Excellence.
Right: Black & McDonald won The National Safety Award for its “Nobody Gets Hurt Today or Tomorrow” program.
A & B Concrete Pumping (2007) Ltd. received The Excellence in Innovation Award for their Concrete Washout Program, pictured below.
Bob Walker, Vice-President, Ledcor Construction Limited, received the Community Leader Award.
Alberta Construction Magazine | 67
build, sustain, and connect your knowledge construction administration environmental resource management
occupational health and safety visit www.extension.ualberta.ca/sciences or call 780.492.3116
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cca report
CCA inducts first female chair By the Calgary Construction Association
All PHOTOs: CCA
In recognition of the collaborative relationship between SAIT Polytechnic and the University of Calgary, the Calgary Construction Association (CCA) awarded Irene Lewis of SAIT and Janaka Ruwanpura of the University of Calgary with the Industry Partnership Award. From left: CCA past-chairman Jim Clement (Graham Construction & Engineering Inc.), Lewis, Ruwanpura and current CCA chair Serena Holbrook.
The Calgary Construction Association (CCA) hosted the 2011 annual general meeting on March 5, 2012. Approximately 280 guests arrived at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino to welcome the CCA’s first female chair, Serena Holbrook of Pockar Masonry Ltd., who took the reins as the association’s leader in 2012. The agenda was filled with recognizing industry members for their continued support of the CCA initiatives and programs. Twenty individuals were presented with their Gold Seal Certificate, and seven individuals received a $1,000 Education Fund scholarship to assist in their pursuit of furthering their career in the construction industry through continuing education. The CCA’s Youth Employment Program awarded John Reitmeier of Grant Metal Products Ltd. the 2011 Building Futures Award for supporting the program by providing youth with the opportunity to prove themselves as valuable employees and begin to build a rewarding career in the construction industry. Bob Robinson of Westcor Construction Ltd. was recognized with the Person of the Year Award. Robinson stands out as an exceptional individual, always making time to support industry-related initiatives for the betterment of all contractors. He is currently co-chair of the On-Site Construction Safety committee that is working closely with the City of Calgary to enhance construction safety in Calgary and beyond through initiatives such as the On-Site Construction Best Practices Guide, the Public Protection Site Safety Plan and the Advanced Weather Forecast System. Robinson sits on the CCA board, numerous committees and is the senior vice-chair on the Alberta Construction Association executive team. CCA members thanked Robinson for his leadership in the association.
One of the most prestigious awards of the evening was the Industry Partnership Award to recognize a relationship that has assisted the construction industry to prosper. This award was presented to two recipients this year, from both of Calgary’s premier learning institutions. The first award was presented to Irene Lewis, president and chief executive officer of SAIT Polytechnic for her vision and leadership for applied education, which has provided the construction industry with a skilled workforce that will build our future sustainable communities. The second Industry Partnership Award was presented to Janaka Ruwanpura, professor and Canada Research Chair in Project Management Systems at the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary. He received the award for his vision, inspiration and leadership in building the framework for a collaborate approach for improving construction productivity through research and innovation. Ruwanpura’s new Productivity Toolbox has changed the culture of the Canadian construction industry and has positively impacted a more productive and efficient workforce that can compete in the global marketplace. Jeff Johnson, Alberta’s former minister of infrastructure, was the evening’s keynote speaker highlighting the Alberta government’s investment in infrastructure. He indicated that Alberta has the highest job growth in the country with 80,000 new jobs in Alberta. The Alberta government plans to invest $16.5 billion into capital projects over the next three years—“a reflection of our values and priorities, which include strong economic foundations and people,” stated Johnson. Thank you to all the members who attended the association’s 67th annual general meeting, as the organization continues to provide leading-edge services to the construction community. Alberta Construction Magazine | 71
cca report
Jeff Johnson, who was minister of Infrastructure at the time the AGM was held, was the keynote speaker.
72 | Summer 2012
CCA president Dave Smith (right) presents Bob Robinson of Westcor Construction Ltd. with the Person of the Year Award for his outstanding contributions to the construction industry through his work on various committees.
cca report
Safety— From good, to great, and beyond By the Calgary Construction Association Since collaboration began in 2009 with the formation of the On-Site Construction Safety Committee, safety has continued to consume countless volunteer hours. The City of Calgary, Alberta Occupational Health & Safety and the CCA have been working on new features to continue to enhance the construction industry’s focus on safety by not settling on “that’s good enough.” During the North American Occupational Safety & Health (NAOSH) Week in May, the committee unveiled three new safety initiatives moving the construction industry in Calgary beyond “good”—the second edition of the On-Site Construction Best Practices Guide, the Advanced Weather Forecasting System and the Public Protection Site Safety Plan. The second edition of the Best Practices Guide has expanded the collaborative process beyond construction management, discussing what works best, to the committee members consulting with the employees on site for ideas on how to improve the guide. One of the suggestions was to number the guide like construction specifications to make it more “construction-friendly.” During consultative meetings, committee members fine-tuned language
to become more streamlined and thus easier for workers to find the information at their fingertips and mentor others on its use. The second new initiative is the requirement for an advanced weather forecasting system with the goal of reducing incidents of building materials being blown off construction sites. As of January 1 of this year, it is mandatory for any contractor building a structure five storeys or taller within the downtown core or the beltline district to have access to an advanced weather forecasting system. The Advanced Weather Forecasting System, developed by the City of Calgary, with RWDI AIR Inc. and ISL Engineering and Land Services Ltd., is a project that was designed and developed for construction sites with a target of advising contractors, in advance, of hourly forecasted maximum gust conditions at specific locations and elevations. The following are the features of the Advanced Weather Forecasting System: Available 24 hours a day; Forecast conditions are displayed hourly and are updated every three hours;
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 73
cca report
Three of the many volunteers who rolled up their sleeves to work on the latest safety initiatives by industry (from left): Pat Arts (Ferguson Corporation), Pierre Champness (CANA Construction Ltd.) and Vaughn Koropatwa (EllisDon Construction Services Inc.).
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74 | Summer 2012
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Forecast can be delivered by email at predefined times (e.g. 6 a.m. and 3 p.m.); Provide advanced warning of up to 48 hours; Compatible with multiple web browsers and optimized for mobile devices; Customizable alerts that allow users to specify wind gust thresholds at different working heights and who should receive them; Relay of Environment Canada weather alerts; A lerts can be delivered as an email or SMS text message to on-site personnel, safety officers and decision makers; and Advanced auditing that keeps a record of each weather forecast, alert, and the recipients. Detailed information about the system is available by downloading the Advisory Bulletin on the City of Calgary website, calgary.ca. While it is mandatory to have an advanced weather Âforecasting system in place prior to construction, other systems that provide site-specific wind gust predictions at differing elevations may be considered to be an equivalent, if acceptable to the safety codes officer.
cca report “The contractors from the Calgary Construction Association will find this a useful tool, especially given the variations in our weather conditions. As a masonry contractor working on exterior scaffolding in the downtown core, this will greatly assist us in being aware of weather changes so that we can respond in advance,” states Serena Holbrook of Pockar Masonry Ltd., and chair of the Calgary Construction Association. The last significant initiative, in this latest grouping, is the enhanced Public Protection Site Safety Plan. Effective May 1, 2012, the City of Calgary required these plans be submitted as part of the process to receive a building permit. The site safety plan does not apply to every building. It will be required if a construction project meets one of the following criteria: The height of the project is five storeys or greater; or The project is designated as a high building as per article 3.2.6 of the current Alberta Building Code. A site safety plan will not be required when you initially apply for the permit and will not be reviewed at the front counter. A plan will be required before the permit is released for any excavation work to begin and drawings must be posted in view of all site personnel on the project before construction or demolition occurs. The city is not an approval body of safety plans, but must review them in order to release the building permit. The summary components of a public protection, site safety plan are: Site plans or drawing; General information; and Hoisting and lifting
The contractors from the Calgary Construction Association will find this a useful tool, especially given the variations in our weather conditions. — Serena Holbrook, chair, Calgary Construction Association
Bob Robinson of Westcor Construction Ltd., co-chair of the On-Site Construction Safety Committee, expounds on the value of collaboration used to enhance the standardization and consistency of the Safety Plan: “It is commendable when industry shares their individual existing plans in a roundtable, open setting in partnership with the City of Calgary to get the best, most user-friendly plan that will allow industry to fulfill the goal of creating safer work environments.” All of these initiatives are part of industry and its partners, the city, Alberta Occupational Health & Safety and the CCA’s goal to ensure that people feel safe in public spaces. In their continual efforts to go from good to great and beyond, all can be proud of their work in placing the safety of employees and the public in the forefront.
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 75
cca report
Off to work we go: By Mychal Martin
It’s a Tuesday morning in Calgary, and down at the Stampede grounds things are buzzing. While it is a little early to be kicking off the Calgary Stampede’s grand Centennial celebration, Calgary-area high school students are soon to discover that it’s never too early to get inspired. A row of more than 10 school buses stretches from the entrance to the BMO Centre away into the distance and around a corner. Excited young people are streaming into the exhibition hall, drawn by the inimitable sounds of tools in use: the metallic whine of a table saw, the pounding of hammers, the shrill warning signal of a scissor lift in motion, all adding to the hum of animated conversation. It is Construction Career Expo time again, a day of exploration and interaction hosted by the CCA, its members and affiliated industry associations. CCA’s sixth annual Construction Career Expo, held April 17, boasted a record attendance and the most varied and exciting exhibition yet. Armed with safety glasses, a Work Construction 76 | Summer 2012
in Calgary bag and sporting a unique construction themed “Off to Work We Go” T-shirt, high school students ventured into the 50,000-square-foot exhibition hall, looking to explore the world of the trades. The 1,700 high school students were greeted by an abundance of construction possibilities at the various exhibitor booths featuring everything from the heaviest of machinery (CAT 637E scraper), to the more delicate art of electrical wiring, to everything in between. Each student was issued a challenge in the form of a construction quiz, which once filled out correctly was entered into a draw for one of two 32GB iPod Touch devices, or four sets of Skullcandy earbuds. The answers to the quiz were hidden among the displays throughout the vast exhibition to spark discussion and interaction. Representatives from over 55 companies and trade associations demonstrated and displayed the latest trades in tech,
ALL PHOTOS: CCA
Bob Robinson of Westcor Construction Ltd., expo coordinator Amy Smith of the CCA and expo chairman Grant Symon of Graham Construction & Engineering Inc. get a bird’s-eye view of the exhibition hall that hosted 1,700 students.
cca report
Expo continues to build excitement
Enthusiastic participants pose in their expo T-shirts while waiting their turn at United Decorating Inc.’s painting exhibit.
dispensed career and academic advice and shared their passion. Buoyed by the success of last year’s effort, Sean Bartlett of Carbon Constructors Inc. and his team of volunteers once again helped students gain valuable experience building doghouses to be donated this year to the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society. Other perennial favourites, such as concrete, masonry, painting and woodworking, were joined by many new and imaginative interactive displays as more exhibitors opted to present activities and projects as an effective way to spark interest. One innovative approach employed by Standard General Inc. involved the introduction of a heavy equipment operation simulator, which allowed students the opportunity to try their hand behind the controls of an excavator. With no shortage of opportunities for skilled tradespeople in the foreseeable future, exposing students to the wide array of different trades is a great way to kick-start a rewarding career.
Sean Bartlett of Carbon Constructors Inc. helped students make six doghouses for the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society.
For the industry, the importance of events like this year’s expo cannot be understated. Showcasing career possibilities for young people is also an investment in the industry’s future and can help to ensure a trained and eager young workforce in the years to come. The CCA Construction Career Expo embodies the true spirit of mentorship and hands-on learning that defines the construction industry. Once again, the Calgary community came through to support the Expo with generous donations of supplies, sponsorships and volunteer hours. Thanks to a crew of 60 enthusiastic volunteers who made the day and to the friendly, knowledgeable mentors who encouraged students to try out the various tools of the trades, this expo is the biggest of its kind in the country. It wouldn’t be possible without the industry support and volunteers who work collaboratively to make it happen. Alberta Construction Magazine | 77
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aca report
Ken Gibson
First half of 2012 summarized
Executive Director, Alberta Construction Association
T he A lb er t a C onst r uc t ion Association (ACA) has been very active throughout the first half of the year in pursuing 2012 advocacy and member service priorities. Government advocacy The association is reconfirming key industry positions with a new government and new cabinet in place. ACA positions focus on: Ensuring sustained and predictable public and private investment in infrastructure Ensuring our future skilled workforce, with emphasis on immigration Enhancing industry competitiveness to ensure long-term capacity and fair opportunity for profit As part of advocacy concerning infrastructure investment, ACA has submitted its recommendations regarding provincial government capital budgeting: The capital budget should be maintained at $6 billion to $7 billion per year. This amount reflects per-capita investment averaged over the business cycle and adjusted to remove the effects of inflation to address current levels of population.
he government should commit to longT term planning for community infrastructure, full life-cycle costing and a separate capital account, all of which contribute to sustainable, predictable and consistent levels of investment. C onst r uc t ion proc u rement for government-funded infrastructure should be consolidated within Alberta Infrastructure. Workforce ACA’s leadership in the creation of the Alberta Coalition for Action on Labour Shortages (ACALS) has led to great benefits for Alberta’s construction industry. A quick comparison reveals significant progress of government’s responding to achieve ACALS’s recommendations: C hange points system to encourage permanent immigration of skilled trades—new trades-specific stream in place by 2013; enhanced eligibility under Canada Employment; point system changed to favour work experience and youth.
xpand opportunities to transition temE porary workers to permanent immigrants; Canadian work-experience requirement for CEC stream reduced from 24 to 12 months. C ha nge Nat iona l Occupat iona l Classification codes to better reflect skill levels; ACALS working with the Alberta government to include highly skilled occupations that are classified as low-skill as a priority in the provincial nominee program. G overnment to develop a temporary foreign worker (TFW) “approved employer” status; who should benefit from an expedited process for subsequent TFWs; approved employer status for any employer that has had at least one successful Labour Market Opinion (LMO) application and a clean record of compliance in the last two years. Alberta employers, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises, find the current system to be expensive and too cumbersome to use effectively; new online application for accelerated LMOs to cut paperwork and processing time.
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Alberta Construction Magazine | 79
aca report
ACA believes that ongoing dialogue and consultation among employers and government is essential to moving forward together.
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Safety/WCB The association continues to represent industry concerns in dialogue with the provincial government while promoting our advocacy priorities for safety. 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. ACA has strong misgivings about using disability-claims management data collected by the Workers’ Compensation Board 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
aca report
Employers believe they can strengthen the initiatives of government through proactive consultation rather than reacting after an initiative is in place. 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. ACA believes that ongoing dialogue and consultation among employers and government are essential to moving forward together. Employers believe they can strengthen the initiatives of government through proactive consultation rather than reacting after an initiative is in place. The work-safe consultations in previous years were good models, and we urge government to return to that approach. Current areas of dialogue include ACA input to the draft of the occupational disease strategy, and to the government’s emerging administrative fines strategy. Standard practices Through the association, industry has brought forward significant comment with a goal of seeking to improve on: A lberta Health Services tendering procedures and contract documents A lberta Infrastructure concerns regarding owner security on projects.
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trade talk
century solution
Oilsands construction could reap benefits as welding practices are brought up to date
photo: ©istockphoto.com/bagi1998
By Nordahl Flakstad The year 2008 is welded into the consciousness of many with a stake in the oilsands. During that year of international banking crises, billions worth of Alberta oilsands projects were downscaled, postponed or cancelled outright. But even before the turmoil of 2008—starting in 2005-06—oilsands development and related activities in construction, fabrication and erection were in need of a reality check. Large capital projects faced labour shortages, escalating costs and schedule delays.
Cost overruns and delays that plagued the oilsands half a dozen years ago can’t be blamed on a single cause. However, it became apparent that less-than-ideal productivity in oilsands construction—and by extension to other building sectors—could in large part be traced to outdated and uncompetitive welding methods widely used in Alberta. Compare outmoded welding procedures still used within the province to continued reliance on rotary dialing or manual switchboard in a smartphone
era. In short, Alberta needed smarter welding technologies and updated best practices to go with them. Given the track record leading up to 2008 and desires to avoid similar scenarios once oilsands momentum picked up again, suppliers and provincial agencies recognized the need to shift gears. A key response came in the form of the Materials and Reliability in Oil Sands (MARIOS) consortium formed in 2009 to foster acceptance of a wide array of new Alberta Construction Magazine | 83
trade talk technologies within the oilsands supply chain. Alberta Innovates—Technology Futures (AITF, the Alberta Research Council’s successor) launched MARIOS and received seed f unding from Productivity Alberta and what is now the Alberta Treasury Board and Enterprise. Of critical importance, MARIOS gained financial backing from an industry consortium of oilsands stakeholders. All of the 30-plus consortium members had cause to see costs reduced, and productivity and reliability raised within oilsands construction, maintenance and operations. Shortly before the time MARIOS was about to get underway, the importance of welding as a critical “enabling technology” was being identified through a study entitled Welding Productivity: Challenges and Opportunities for Canada’s Fabrication and Construction Industry. The paper’s author is Matthew Yarmuch, an adjunct professor of welding engineering at the University of Alberta and currently program leader of Welding and Slurry Systems Engineering, within AITF’s Advanced Materials Business Unit. The study offers a sort of “state of the union” on welding in Canada and particularly in Alberta. Yarmuch reviewed welding technologies employed in other countries and compared them to what was being used (or not used) in Alberta. Points of focus The aims of the study: Determine the current and future applications for welding, with a focus on the oilsands and pipeline industry; Quantify the level of utilization of welding processes for pressure-welding equipment and pipeline applications and identify future opportunities; Review modern welding technologies and identify emerging technologies;
Perform in-shop comparisons of traditional and modern welding processes to determine actual productivity improvements obtainable for industry; Identify roadblocks to the implementation of modern welding technologies; and Recommend path-forward strategies for the Alberta government and industry to address the current industry roadblocks. The study surveyed approximately 50 oilsands stakeholders—among them fabricators, suppliers, engineering firms and end-user operators—and inquired about welding technologies being applied on specific types of projects, including pipelines, oilsands/refinery and other areas. The survey determined that the acceptance of modern welding systems varied. There were definitive industry champions and early adopters. But, overall, the extent to which such technologies were being adopted in Alberta hardly rated a thumbsup. If anything, Alberta was a laggard. Yarmuch found a clear trend indicating that “manual SMAW [shielded metal arc welding, sometimes referred to as ‘stick welding’] is heavily utilized for pressure equipment and pipeline construction for Alberta’s energy industries. In addition, high-productivity wire-feed technologies are underutilized in most industry sectors and there is significant potential for greater future use.” Welding may be overlooked entirely or treated as a “sideshow.” “That’s a serious oversight,” Yarmuch reiterates. The Canadian Welding Bureau and the American Welding Society characterize welding as an enabling technology that stabilizes much economic activity. Some companies apply sophisticated measures to evaluate the effectiveness and cost of welding. But Yarmuch says that “a significant portion of firms have not studied their welding-related operations to a level that
HURDLES Adjunct professor of welding engineering Matthew Yarmuch’s report found that some senior executives don’t recognize the importance of welding. As a result, that: • Discourages human and other resources being directed toward the field; • Impedes improvements in welder education programs for tradespeople, technologists and engineers; and • Discourages sharing and promotion of information about new approaches to welding.
84 | Summer 2012
Automated or mechanized welding systems can enhance productivity by 50 per cent or more.
they are comfortable to drive in new innovations or higher productivity processes.” The American Welding Society has recommended a U.S. national standard for measuring and monitoring welding productivity. Yarmuch observes that “many of the findings are likely transferrable to Canada and Alberta. Considering the globally competitive marketplace, there is a need for understanding and controlling the cost of welding operations.” One thing leads to another Once the cost-benefits of tracking the time and other costs relating to welds become apparent, it should encourage application of more advanced methods—including automated or mechanized welding systems—that can enhance productivity by 50 per cent or more. Yarmuch lists several barriers that may prevent capitalizing on those opportunities. A major hurdle is the failure by some senior executives to recognize the importance of welding. Management inability to acknowledge welding’s value may discourage human and other resources being directed toward the field, impede improvements in welder education programs for tradespeople, technologists and engineers, and discourage sharing and promotion of information about new approaches to welding. Sometimes outdated, in-house requirements that individual suppliers and endusers apply to welding specifications
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trade talk
Alberta Construction Magazine | 85
trade talk
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also can cause inertia and hinder adoption of wire-feed welding processes and other automation. Yarmuch’s study offers several recommendations to break down these barriers. They include: establishing a consortium to address challenges facing industry (MARIOS represents a response to that call); improved training and education at the universities, technical schools and elsewhere; adoption of internationally recognized quality control systems and modern non-destructive testing techniques; and government support to encourage adoption of available welding technologies. A further recommendation suggests that welding providers could promote new approaches by submitting two bid packages, one based on manual SMAW welding and a second entailing wire-feed processes. Yarmuch suggests that completing such an alternative bid package will underline the fact that considering modern welding technologies is commercially significant and, secondly, that the bidding fabricator has the necessary systems to properly implement the proposal. Beside the role of MARIOS in encouraging industry acceptance of the various recommendations on productivity, welding and other reliability issues, the Alberta Metal Fab Innovation (AMFI) Program was set up last year and has become a vehicle for networking and raising awareness about modern welding technologies. AMFI forms part of AITF’s Advanced Materials Business Unit and has locations in Edmonton and Devon. More than $1.5 million in capital funding has outfitted (at both the Devon Research Centre and at the University of Alberta’s Canadian Centre for Welding and Joining) two world-class facilities to test run and showcase advanced welding equipment from around the world. AMFI includes immersive virtual welding systems, which allow users (apart from heat and sparks) to experience the “feel” of welding. Working with local partners, AMFI is spreading the word by taking some of this welding equipment on travelling road shows. These sessions allow welders handson test-drives of various systems. Besides discovering the productivity advantages, those testing the equipment are exposed to the safety and ergonomic advantages the demonstration units and systems offer.
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The point is awareness In addition to reaching front-line welders, such field demonstrations inform managers responsible for acquiring welding equipment. Unlike at traditional trade shows, participants face no hardcore sales pitch. “We are not trying to sell anything,” Yarmuch explains. “We are trying to bring more awareness and knowledge to the sector, so after the program they can make informed investments.” Such road shows can demonstrate to younger attendees, including those weighing career options, that welding can be a high-tech trade with an exciting future. A similar message is delivered through the Canadian Centre for Welding and Joining. It is led by professor Patricio Mendez, a welding expert and holder of the Weldco/Industry Chair in Welding and Joining. Chemical and Materials Engineering students have the use of a state-of-the-art welding lab. The lab and the endowed chair were made possible by corporate contributions (led by Weldco Cen-Alta Welding Supplies Ltd.) of $1.75 million and matching funds from Alberta’s Access to the Future Fund. Together they are helping ensure Alberta trains a professional corps able to keep the province on the welding vanguard. Robotic welding doesn’t really lend itself to Alberta’s “high-mix, low-volume” demand with lots of variety but not necessarily mass repetition of exactly the same welds. Still, welding is an integral part of many aspects of Alberta construction, from the structural steel in a commercial or office building, to the girders on a highway overpass. Where outright robotics don’t make sense, hybrid- automated welding might. For Yarmuch, “In AMFI, the participants are developing better understanding of the science and principles behind welding processes and metallurgy. So, these learnings transcend beyond energy into other sectors.” Though the spark may have come from desires to curb cost and enhance productivity in the oilsands construction, the benefits of better welding in Alberta are likely to bounce far beyond just building activity within the energy sector. Alberta Construction Magazine | 87
business of building | BIM
curtain The latest Business Information Modelling (BIM) technology and systems have played a crucial role in the design, fabrication and installation of a state-of-the-art dual-skin curtain wall for a $1.3-billion expansion at the Calgary International Airport. The curtain wall is to include motorized louvres, ventilating windows and shading—all designed for integration within the building management system to optimize energy efficiency. EllisDon Corporation, the construction manager, DIALOG (architect), other consultants and contractors are using BIM for the overall airport project. “One of the main benefits for the installer using BIM is that it allows for more collaboration and avoiding problems with other trades,” says Fred Frank, senior project manager with Contract Glaziers Inc., which is providing the curtain wall. “It makes the coordination on site a much more streamlined process.” BIM also enables the contractors—whether for curtain wall, steel trusses, beams, mechanical ductwork and other building components—to manufacture or fabricate such components well in advance of site work. If an interference between trades is uncovered during construction, such as a component with 88 | Summer 2012
the wrong dimensions, the issue is easily resolved as the general contractor or construction manager can review the BIM model and quickly identify the cause. There is no need for protracted site discussion and review of numerous drawings and blueprints. “As soon as you have a custom product that you need, that’s when BIM makes a big, big difference,” Frank explains. The entire scope of Contract Glaziers’ work for the airport project includes design, engineering, fabrication and installation of about 400,000 square feet of unitized curtain wall. Installation of the curtain wall begins this summer, with completion of the entire airport project slated for late 2014. A critical component underlying the design and construction process for the curtain wall of the new airport concourse is the BIM software. “Everything that we do on the curtain wall, all the facade applications, we model using Digital Designer from Gehry Technologies,” says Rolando Cano, director of technical services at Contract Glaziers. “This program is by far the most robust—for digital design and as a BIM application. We modelled the entire wall, glazing, entry wall facade, hotel podium, and arrivals and departure halls and piers.”
IMAGE: CONTRACT GLAZIERS
By Godfrey Budd
business of building | BIM
Contract Glaziers’ work on Calgary’s airport expansion project includes design, engineering, fabrication and installation of about 400,000 square feet of unitized curtain wall.
The software played a critical role in speeding up Contract Glaziers’ design and development of the curtain wall system for the airport. Cano estimates that it cut the time involved in this work by up to 65 per cent. The BIM platform also enabled the Contract Glaziers team to import models—from engineers and architects—that related to the basic curtain wall design, but also ones that included critical building information about other components like beams, columns, slabs and so on. These are then integrated within the design model of the curtain wall. The BIM team at Contract Glaziers checks for design problems and runs a clash-detection check. As part of the collaborative process, the model is sent to the general contractor. Cano says that he does “a clash detection against all supplier models and also to verify that the geometry is according to the original models and the construction parameters. The BIM allows all parties to verify that everyone is on the same page and that field work is in accord with the design.” BIM doesn’t just save time in design and fabrication. “It cuts down on mistakes in construction,” he says. “At installation,
Airport contractor finds BIM can streamline curta in wall work, spot problems beforehand
everything is to the parameters that the contractor expects.” The BIM software used for the curtain wall, part of the Digital Design suite from Gehry Technologies, is based on product lifecycle management technology used in the manufacturing sector, says Dennis Shelden, the company’s chief technology officer. The seamless manner in which BIM can flow from design to engineering to fabrication makes complex designs less of a practical challenge than they were in the past. And this can apply to projects like the new curtain wall at the Calgary airport, Shelden says. “All the panels are systematically similar,” he says, “but many panels may be different or unique. The software can carry the architect’s BIM model forward into the supply chain.” The BIM software can help with tracking, assembly, procurement, materials management, sequencing and installation logistics and shave 10–15 per cent off the overall cost of an entire project. But savings in this range, Shelden suggests, are just the low-hanging fruit of BIM’s potential. Says Shelden: “That’s the easy stuff. This is just doing the project with richer data.” Alberta Construction Magazine | 89
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From oilsands mining sites where reclamation and erosion control is a priority, to pipeline rights-of-way where erosion must be managed, to creating green roofs, a fastgrowing Edmonton company’s techniques and equipment are being used to solve a range of problems. Erscon Canada Inc. was founded in 2004 with a staff of three and one large piece of equipment, a blower truck. Its staff has since grown to 20 and—aside from that first piece of equipment (a blower truck can pneumatically spray materials such as mulch, compost, etc.)—the company has added other equipment as it grows to service the energy, transportation and municipal sectors in Alberta. “We probably have about $1 million invested in large equipment—and that doesn’t include pickup trucks,” says operations manager Cory Mandrusiak. The growth has been propelled by the company’s integrated approach, which allows it to offer a range of erosion and sediment control services to the sectors it services. Like other companies that provide services to the energy industry, Erscon has been looking towards Alberta’s booming oilsands industry. “The oilsands mining sector requires a large amount of hydroseeding [Erscon has two large hydroseeders, pieces 90 | Summer 2012
of equipment that can spray, up to 250 feet, a mixed slurry made of hydromulch, seed and fertilizer],” Mandrusiak says. “The oilsands mines need hydroseeding for reclamation of mined sites and for temporary protection to prevent run-off.” Mandrusiak says oilsands-related work is responsible for about one-third of the company’s overall volume, which now totals several million dollars a year in revenue. One of its hydroseeders was specially redesigned to handle oilsands work. “We took a 40-tonne rock truck and converted it to a hydroseeder so it could service the oilsands,” he says. “The tires on the unit are almost six feet tall.” He estimates that the erosion and sediment control business is worth several billion dollars a year worldwide. The sector is so large it has its own organization, the International Erosion Control Association (IECA), to represent members. Katie Laurin, the IECA’s spokeswoman, says members include firms like Erscon as well as engineering firms, consultants, mining companies, construction firms and others. “It’s difficult to get your hands around because all projects that involve moving the earth, from the construction of a single house to a large industrial project, involve some form of erosion and sediment control,” she points out.
PHOTOS: ERSCON CANADA
By Jim Bentein
erosion control
Examples of Erscon Canada employees and products at work to fight erosion.
Mandrusiak says environmental legislation in Canada i nvolving soil disturbance isn’t as strict as it is in most of the United States, but that is changing. Aside from its oilsands work, Erscon is busy in the pipeline sector, where the equipment and the materials it uses allow it to re-vegetate slopes, where normal seeding won’t be successful. It uses products developed by Oregon-based Rexius Inc., i ncluding the “EcoBlanket,” which uses recycled organics (compost) as a growing medium to aid in the speedy creation of vegetation, primarily grass, to help stabilize slopes. Another area of growth for the company is in the municipal sector, where it has installed Filtrexx filters (developed
by Ohio-based Filtrexx International, LLC) to help recreate or mimic the growth of grass in an Arctic setting at the Edmonton Valley Zoo’s new Pinniped Exhibit, which opened on March 17. Erscon has also completed about 20 green roofs in the Edmonton, Calgary and Banff areas of Alberta. A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and d rainage and irrigation systems. Green roofs help insulate buildings, making them warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Alberta Construction Magazine | 91
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finishing touches
By Tricia Radison
Floor ’em Latest advances mean you have more commercial flooring options today
photos: MILLIKEN, STAR CONCRETE FLOOR TREATMENTS
Commercial flooring manufacturers and providers are focusing on the environment, but with a twist. Today’s commercial floors are being covered with greener options that also provide buildings with a sense of luxury and that one-ofa-kind look many customers expect. Here are a few options you can expect to see more of. Natural materials “Customers want to create new and meaningful experiences for interiors,” says Stacy Walker, marketing manager, global floor covering division, Milliken & Company. “We see a return to authenticity using natural and recycled materials to create beautifully crafted flooring collections.” You can’t get more natural—or renewable—than 100 per cent wool carpet tiles. Milliken’s line, Isos, works well for office buildings and hospitality areas that don’t have tons of traffic, and provides an easy way to customize the look of a floor using graphic blocks of colour, all in neutral colour groupings. There are so many options to play with that Milliken introduced PlaySpace, an interactive tool for designing floors, at the same time it introduced Isos. The tool also helps in developing specifications early in a project. Taking recycling to a new level, Milliken also recently came out with Rinascita, a line of leather floor tiles. “Rinascita’s innovativeness explores the concept of ‘upcycling,’ using recycled materials to create a luxurious collection,” Walker says. Alberta Construction Magazine | 93
finishing touches
The tiles are made of recycled leather composite (85 per cent) and natural rubber (10 per cent) and have recycled carpet backing. They are actually hand-rubbed to provide the soft, rich patina that leather is known for, and the look will deepen over time. Again, they’re for high-end commercial spaces, but they don’t require any unusual care and the lifespan is on par with other options on the market. Vinyl tiles are also incorporating natural materials. Armstrong’s “BioBased Tile” line, called Striations, is made of 85 per cent limestone and a plant-based polymer. With low volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and no polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs), the tiles can be used in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) projects. They also give the appearance of natural materials. They’re designed to look like stone and wood. Polished concrete Progressively grinding, honing and polishing a concrete slab with finer and finer grit can result in a gleaming and very eco-friendly floor. Increasingly popular in Alberta over the last four years, polished concrete floors are found in warehouses, recreation centres, grocery stores, car dealerships and other commercial venues. They are sought after because they’re good for LEED projects, they give a modern look and feel, and they stand up to a lot of traffic. They have other benefits too. Chris Peterson, owner of Star Concrete Floor Treatments Inc. in Calgary, polished the floor of a large warehouse several years ago. When Peterson visited the site two years later, he noticed that about one-third of the overhead lights were turned off. The reason? The company was able to get the same amount of light because of the reflection off the floor. A caveat for anyone thinking of polished concrete: the condition of the slab plays an integral role in how the floor will look in the end. Working with the service provider early in the
lanning stages of a project will help ensure that you get the look p you want out of your floor. If you’re starting with a slab that’s already been poured, your options may be limited. Star Concrete does a pre-assessment before agreeing to work on a project and sometimes has to tell clients that they aren’t going to get a good result with polishing. “If the concrete has high spots and low spots and you want an even amount of aggregate exposed, that might not be possible,” Peterson says. In those cases, there is the option of having the concrete resurfaced with a half-inch of quick-curing polymer-modified concrete. Alternatively, there are coatings. Concrete coatings Peterson attributes increasing interest in concrete floor coatings, which provide a sealed and shiny surface, to a desire for flooring that stands out while standing up to wear and tear. There are various types of coatings, but one getting a lot of attention in Alberta is the metallic epoxy coating, which gives the floor a 3-D mottled appearance. Metallic coatings are being used in high-end retail as well as in offices. Coatings are also becoming popular with the green crowd. “Years ago, you had to wear respirators and really be careful when applying these coatings, so people tend to think of them as not good for the environment,” Peterson says. “That’s all changed.” A couple of years ago, supplier Star Concrete released a line of coatings with 100 grams of VOCs per litre. This met California rules and regulations—considered one of the world’s highest standards for environmental sustainability. This spring, the company topped that line, releasing Eco ITS, which has 21 grams of VOCs per litre. Up to half of the petroleum-based components in the product have been replaced with plant-based components.
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roofing trends
wo words capture what’s been on t he m i nd of Alberta’s roofing industry lately: sustainability and durability. This can cover everything from the age-old reliability of metal roofs to the new-age appeal of vegetative systems, but the following trends all point in the same direction. They reveal an industry interested in exploring the latest green technologies, while creating work that will stand up to the test of time (and just as importantly, Alberta’s extreme weather).
96 | Summer 2012
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Vegetables matter According to Charles World, business development manager for Flynn Canada Ltd., it’s a rare public building that doesn’t incorporate vegetative roofing these days. “We’re doing a rather large, extensive roof at the Federal Building in Edmonton that incorporates plant material that’s grown in Alberta and specifically suited to our climate,” he says. Using sedums— a hardy grass native to the region—and thicker growing mediums, these vegetative roofs are made to withstand Alberta’s cold temperatures. Yet some roofers are also anxious about their handiwork being damaged in the process of going green. Trevor Sziva, technical officer for the Alberta Roofing Contractors Association, says his organization is in the midst of drafting standards to ensure some basic quality metrics are in place soon. “The main intent of those standards is going to be to reduce the risk of roof membrane problems after the green roof is installed,” he says.
Cool it down…but not too much Torch-applied and hot-asphalt-applied membranes carry with them a host of concerns: obnoxious odours, higher insurance costs, greater fire risks, etc. It’s little wonder why so many in the industry are sensing a shift away from these systems. “Due to safety, there is a movement away from hot-roofing materials,” World says. “There’s been a few cases where whole projects have burned to the ground.” Just don’t expect the hot-applied systems to disappear completely, Sziva cautions. “Some people are saying torches will be gone, asphalt will be gone down the road here, but people tend to forget that we have winters and our roofing industry is, for the most part, a year-round trade,” he says, noting many alternative systems face temperature restrictions. “If we don’t have these options available to us, we’re not going to have a whole lot of roofing going on in our neck of the woods.”
image: photos.com
Staying on
roofing trends
top
Five trends to watch in Alberta’s commercial roofing sector By Joseph Caouette
3
4
5
Metal never goes out of style “Metal is making some pretty good inroads in the community,” says Larry Shoesmith, president of Pilot Group Inc., and an Alberta sales agent for Firestone Building Products. “It’s going to last a building owner well over 30 years if the details are done properly.” These sturdy, aesthetically pleasing roofing systems are gobbling up more market share each year, agrees Chris Tobias, building envelope solutions manager at Firestone. At the same time, he hesitates to call metal roofing a fullblown trend. For one thing, it isn’t so much a new development as an old one—a very, very old one. “It’s arguably one of the longest-lasting roofing systems out there versus other roofing systems,” he says. “Look back at the dawn of days and they were using gold and copper and whatever they could get their hands on.”
Through thick and thin The norm for EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer [M-class] rubber) membrane thickness remains 1.15 millimetres, but recent years have seen a shift towards 1.5 millimetres or even 2.3 millimetres. The difference might sound slight, but the change can have big consequences for the longevity of a roofing system. “The manufacturers are promoting their thicker membranes over what they would have sold maybe five years ago,” says Sziva, pointing to the increased durability as the primary cause for the change. Shoesmith agrees, suggesting that thinner EPDMs are “best suited to budget- conscious, developer-driven projects where the developer will keep the building for less than five years because the whole intent is to just build it, own it and flip it.”
Dollar-store solar Thanks to a robust system of government subsidies, Ontario has seen an explosion in solar photovoltaic roof systems in recent times. And surely what’s good for Ontario must be good enough for Alberta? “All these big open roof areas in Calgary are basically doing nothing, and when you can put a photovoltaic system up on the roof, it can generate some of the power you require, or maybe even all of it,” Shoesmith says. Sziva notes that rooftop solar faces some challenges in the province, including wind and snow effects, among others. Still, Shoesmith sees the possibility of drafting on Ontario’s momentum. As the technology spreads, he expects the cost to come down everywhere. “When calculators first came out, you couldn’t buy a simple calculator for less than $50,” he says. “Now you can pick them up at the dollar store.”
Alberta Construction Magazine | 97
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the legal edge
A supplier’s secret weapon: The unpaid seller’s lien By Tim Mavko Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer LLP
Those who supply materials to c onstruction projects occasionally have to chase their money. Sadly, sometimes a supplier takes an order and delivers the goods, but then doesn’t get paid. An unpaid supplier might then try to sue—if the customer has any money. Or call on a labour and material payment bond—if there is one. Or file a builders’ lien—if time has not run out. But in addition to these remedies, unpaid suppliers sometimes have a further weapon in their arsenal: the unpaid seller’s lien. This is a little-known and seldomused legal tool. (Some call it an “unpaid vendor’s lien” rather than an “unpaid seller’s lien.” Either is correct.) But when it is available, it may put the unpaid supplier ahead of other creditors. It may even let the supplier seize the goods, so long as the materials have been delivered to the site but have not been physically incorporated into the project. The legal term “lien” comes directly from the French lien, which in turn came from the Latin ligamen (“a bond” or “a tie”) and ligare (“to tie” or “to bind”). A lien, then, is the legal right to tie up or bind—or, as we more commonly say, to charge—certain property. And to charge property means to claim certain legal rights against that property. Different liens give different rights and follow different rules. An unpaid seller’s lien, for example, is not the same
as a builders’ lien. While they are both created and governed by the same law (Alberta’s Builders’ Lien Act), they are separate and distinct things. An unpaid seller’s lien gives the supplier a charge against the goods he supplied. This means the supplier has certain legal rights against the things he delivered to the site, be it a box of bolts or a massive pressure vessel. This seller’s lien is separate and distinct from the charge the same unpaid supplier might have under a builders’ lien, where the property charged is the land itself rather than the materials. Indeed, our courts have said that a supplier can claim and pursue both an unpaid seller’s lien and a builders’ lien for the same debt for the same goods on the same project. Unlike a builders’ lien, an unpaid seller’s lien does not require registration. There is no document to fill out and no form to file. Further, unlike a builders’ lien, the claim under an unpaid seller’s lien in not limited by either the holdback or the lien fund, if any. Since the claim is against the goods themselves, it is the value of the goods that governs the value of the lien. Still further, there is no time limit. The right to claim an unpaid vendor’s lien does not expire 45 days after goods are delivered. Rather, the lien arises automatically when the goods arrive on site and ends automatically when they are incorporated
into the project. So long as the goods sit stockpiled on or near the site waiting to be installed, the supplier can pursue the unpaid seller’s lien. But the moment the bolts get used or the pressure vessel gets mounted on its base, the unpaid seller’s lien ends for that item (though the right to a builders’ lien may continue—but that’s a different matter). While it exists, the unpaid seller’s lien gives the supplier several rights. Significantly, it gives the supplier priority over others who might try to claim or seize those same goods from the site. This is important, for example, when the owner goes bankrupt and various creditors jockey to carve up assets. Or when a general contractor goes under, mid-job, and the owner wants to hand the goods to another contractor to finish the project. An unpaid seller’s lien can boost the supplier’s claim to the goods ahead of others. Perhaps more valuable is the right it gives the supplier to seize and remove the goods. This does not mean an unpaid supplier can simply storm in and grab the stuff. It doesn’t work that way. Rather, the supplier has to follow the proper process, which usually involves hiring a lawyer, getting a court order and then engaging a civil enforcement agency to physically remove the goods. But in the end, if it all works out, the supplier gets his goods back, and he has something where he might have had nothing. Alberta Construction Magazine | 99
time capsule
TIME CAPSULE
Alberta Legislature Building
Alberta politics has always been a rough-and-tumble sport, so it’s only fitting that the first meeting of the provincial legislature occurred in 1906 at Edmonton’s Thistle Rink, home of the local Thistles hockey team. These days, Alberta politicians are still willing to drop the gloves and duke it out during question period—figuratively speaking, anyway—but they’ve since moved into the far more genteel venue of the Alberta Legislature Building. Located at the site of the old Fort Edmonton, the building occupies a prize spot overlooking the city’s river valley, on land purchased from the Hudson’s Bay Company for $84,000. The original plan was to begin construction in 1907 and complete everything by 1910—a timeline soon abandoned when quicksand was discovered on the site during excavations. Costly concrete piles had to be driven into the ground, and the exterior would not be completed until 1911. The building officially opened in 1912, but the final touches on the interior were finished early in 1913.
100 | Summer 2012
While the building is one of Alberta’s most recognizable symbols, its creation was something of an international affair. The two primary architects, A.M. Jeffers and R.P. Blakely, were from the United States and England, respectively. Marble for the interior was drawn from disparate sources: green from Pennsylvania, light grey from Quebec and dark grey from Italy. Granite from Vancouver Island was used for the basement and outside steps. However, one of the building’s defining features is purely Albertan: the distinctive yellow-brown sandstone that forms the bulk of the exterior is from the now-defunct Glenbow quarry near Calgary. The interior has remained largely unchanged in the past century, save for a marble fountain added to the rotunda in 1959 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s first visit to the province. But the grounds have evolved over the years to become a bastion of green space just south of the concrete and glass towers of Edmonton’s downtown core. In 1978, the Alberta government committed $62 million to a four-year redevelopment of the area around the building, adding a reflecting pool, fountain, underground pedways and numerous flower beds.
PHOTO: GLENBOW MUSEUM
Note the skeleton of the Alberta Legislature Building’s dome prior to its completion in 1913.
time capsule
KEY FACTS DESIGN: Exterior and basic layout by A.M Jeffers, interior finishing by R.P. Blakely
Construction: 1907-13
Official opening: Sept. 3, 1912
Estimated cost: $1.25 million
Final cost: Over $2 million
Architectural style: The building is done in the beaux arts style, a popular choice for public buildings in the early 20th century. (Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s legislative buildings are two other notable examples.)
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Sources: Canadian Parliamentary Review, www.assembly.ab.ca
Canada’s Commercial Construction Industry Network
Alberta Construction Magazine | 101
advertisers’ index
ADTHE INDEX AT
CENTRE OF IT ALL
ACO Systems Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 AGF- Alberta Rebar Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Alberta Construction Safety Association. . . . . . 60 Alberta Roofing Contractors Association. . . . . . 63 Alberta Truss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Armour Equipment Sales & Rentals Ltd. . . . . . . . 92 Astec Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 & 21 ATB Corporate Financial Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Bantrel Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Baytek Drywall & Stucco Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Beaver Plastics Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Bobcat Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Brandt Positioning Technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Brandt Tractor Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Brock White Canada Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Calgary Construction Association. . . . 9, 44, 52 & 53 Canadian Dewatering LP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Canadian Welding Bureau. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Canadian Western Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 Canessco Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Chase Operator Training. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15, 57 Davidson Enman Lumber Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Delcan Products Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Duro-Last Roofing Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Edmonton Construction Association. . . . . . 4 & 67 Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta. . . . 38 & 72 EllisDon Construction Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Erscon Canada Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta. . . . 68
Firestone Building Products Company . . . . . . . . . . inside front cover Grant Metal Products Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 IMAGINiT Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Integral Containment Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 IVIS Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Jobsite123.ca. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Klimer Platforms Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 KPMG MSLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Kubota Canada Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . inside back cover Ledcor Construction Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Levelton Consultants Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Lloyd Sadd Insurance Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 MAPEI Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . outside back cover Mazer Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 NAIT Corporate and International Training. . . . . 8 New West Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Northland Construction Supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Phoenix Fence Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Priority Mechanical Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Proform Concrete Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Proform Precast Products Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 PwC Management Services LP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer LLP . . . . . . . . 55 R.L. Rurka Sales & Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Roxul Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 RSC Equipment Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 SAIT Polytechnic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Scona Cycle Honda. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 SEAL IT Waterproofing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Shamrock Flooring Accessories Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Sherwood Nissan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 SMS Equipment Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Spatial Technologies Partnership Group . . . . . . 40 Specialty Glazing Systems Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Steels Industrial Products Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd. . . . . . 74 Target Products Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Tervita. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Law Firm of W Donald Goodfellow QC. . . . 92 The Truck Outfitters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Toole Peet Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Urban Scaffolding Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Vertigo Theatre Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Vet’s Sheet Metal Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Vicwest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Volvo Rents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 WADE Specification Drainage Products. . . . . . . 82 Western Construction Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Western Electrical Management Ltd . . . . . . . . . . 17 WesternOne Rentals & Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Whitemud Ironworks Limited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Williams Scotsman of Canada, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Workers’ Compensation Board-Alberta. . . . . . . 78
Providing service in Alberta for 54 years Edmonton & area.
780.465.9615 7710 67 Street, Edmonton, AB
www.canessco.com fax: 780.468.1802
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102 | Summer 2012
Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite Systems Wraps • Plates • Rods
Delivering sustainability through structural strengthening of: • Parking garages • Bridges • Buildings • Overpasses
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For detailed information on MAPEI’s products and services, visit www.mapei.com. 75 Years of Excellence | 1937 – 2012
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