Alberta Construction Magazine Fall 2010

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

BRIDGE MAKEOVER

SAFETY GEAR

Modern technology’s role at Commonwealth

Edmonton’s busiest bridge is widened, updated

Be cool AND be safe at the same time

PAGE 24

PAGE 39

PAGE 92

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PAGE 89

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editor’s note

cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com

W

hether you spent a good part of summer on vacation or at the office (or construction site), it was hard to ignore what was happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

For 80-plus days we’d flip on the TV and there was that grainy image: oil spewing from the ruptured pipeline. After a while, it became easy to gloss over the fact that the problem was 1,500 metres under water. Because the water was so deep and the pressure so great, it was impossible to do any work without a remotecontrolled robot.

Imagine trying to cut mangled pipe with a remote-controlled robot, all the while fighting underwater currents and who knows what else. Or positioning and installing the cap that eventually stopped the leak.

Let’s be clear: I’m not singing BP’s praises here. Rather, I’m extolling good oldfashioned human ingenuity in concert with modern technology.

Two years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the area in central Ontario where, in 1858, the first commercial oil well in North America was dug. While there, I visited the site of the Shaw gusher, Canada’s first gusher. (There’s some debate that it may have been the world’s first as well.) My tour guide explained to me that having never seen a gusher before, no one knew what to do when crude began spewing that spring day in 1862. Finally, when the oil started to run deep in the valley, someone came up with the idea to use a leather bag filled with flaxseed that did the trick.

Ingenious. Ingenuity is a common trait among many of our Movers and Shakers (meet them, beginning on page 45). And I predict it will be another common theme when we run our annual list of Top Project winners in the winter issue.

The deadline for Top Projects will be here before you know it — Sept. 24 — so if you haven’t started to think about what you would like to nominate, begin today. Like last year, we’ll select winners from four categories: commercial, industrial, institutional and infrastructure. Remember, the project must be situated within the province of Alberta and must have been substantially completed in the 2010 calendar year. We’ll consider projects where construction costs are valued at $5 million or greater. And you’ll be able to nominate two projects in each category.

See www.albertaconstructionmagazine.com or drop me an email at cosburn@ junewarren-nickles.com and I’ll send you a nomination form.

Coming in the winter issue: Top Projects

Alberta Construction Magazine | 5

President & CEO Bill Whitelaw • bwhitelaw@junewarren-nickles.com

Publisher Agnes Zalewski • azalewski@junewarren-nickles.com

associate publisher & editor Chaz Osburn • cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Stephen Marsters • smarsters@junewarren-nickles.com

Editorial

Editorial Assistance Laura Blackwood, Janis Carlson de Boer, Samantha Kapler, Marisa Kurlovich • proofing@junewarren-nickles.com

Contributors Dan Brown, Godfrey Budd, Lasia Kretzel, Tricia Radison, Kelley Stark

creative

Print, Prepress & Production Manager Michael Gaffney • mgaffney@junewarren-nickles.com Publications Manager Audrey Sprinkle • asprinkle@junewarren-nickles.com Publications Supervisor Rianne Stewart • rstewart@junewarren-nickles.com

Art Director Ken Bessie • kbessie@junewarren-nickles.com Creative Services Supervisor Tamara Polloway-Webb • tpwebb@junewarren-nickles.com

Graphic Designers Rachel Dash Williams • rdwilliams@junewarren-nickles.com Cathlene Ozubko • cozubko@junewarren-nickles.com

Creative Services Janelle Johnson, Natasha Paterson, Alanna Staver • production@junewarren-nickles.com

Contributing Photographers Aaron Parker, Joey Podlubny, Christina Ryan

sales

Director of Sales Rob Pentney • rpentney@junewarren-nickles.com Sales Manager – Magazines Maurya Sokolon • msokolon@junewarren-nickles.com Senior Account Representative Della Gray • dgray@junewarren-nickles.com

Ad Traffic Coordinator – Magazines Elizabeth McLean • atc@junewarren-nickles.com

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OFFICES Calgary: 2nd Floor, 816-55 Avenue N.E., Calgary, Alberta T2E 6Y4 Tel: 403.209.3500 Fax: 403.245.8666 Toll Free: 1.800.387.2446 Edmonton: 6111 - 91 Street N.W., Edmonton, Alberta T6E 6V6 Tel: 780.944.9333 Fax: 780.944.9500 Toll Free: 1.800.563.2946

SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription rates: In Canada, 1-year $24 plus GST (4 issues), 2-year $39 plus GST (8 issues) Outside Canada, 1-year C$49 (4 issues). Single copies $8 plus GST Subscription inquiries: Tel: 1.866.543.7888 Email: circulation@junewarren-nickles.com Alberta Construction Magazine is owned by JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group and is published bimonthly. ©2010 1072011 Glacier Media Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher. The opinions expressed by contributors to Alberta Construction Magazine may not represent the official views of the magazine. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publisher does not assume any responsibility or liability for errors or omissions. Printed by PrintWest Postage Paid in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada If undeliverable return to: Circulation Department, 800, 12 Concorde Place, Toronto, ON M3C 4J2 Made In Canada GST Registration Number 826256554RT Printed in Canada ISSN 1499-6308 Publication Mail Agreement Number 40069240

features

24

COMMERCIAL Creating a level playing field

Modern technology helps create the almost perfect playing surface for Edmonton football field

by Daniel Brown

28

Brainiac buildings

INSTITUTIONAL Smart buildings go eco-friendly for the benefit of owners — and even the planet

32

by Tricia Radison

INFRASTRUCTURE n end to summer highway A construction delays?

Not quite, but full-depth recycling offers promise of extensive road repairs done faster

39

by Godfrey Budd

Bridge makeover

Edmonton’s busiest bridge is widened, updated

by Godfrey Budd

86

Picker-uppers

EQUIPMENT

Whatever the job, there’s probably a crane to handle it

by Tricia Radison

92

You look mahvelous

SAFETY

Be cool, be safe at the same time

by Kelley Stark

24 6 | Fall 2010

contents

Volume 30, Number 3 Published Fall 2010

28

45

Cover StorY

59

Movers & Shakers

Meet some of the individuals who are moving construction practices forward and shaking up the business landscape

Departments

39

5 �������������������������������������������� Editor’s note 11 ��������������������������������������������� Nuts & Bolts 23 ��������������������������������������� Around Canada 61 ������� People, Products & Projects 81 ����������������������������� Finishing Touches 71 ���������������������������������������������� ACA Report 75 ���������������������������������������������� CCA Report 95 ����������������������������������������������� Safety Beat 97 �������������������������������� Business Briefing 99 ������������������������������������������������ Legal Edge 100 ����������������������������������������� Time Capsule Alberta Construction Magazine | 7

contributors

DAN BROWN, who wrote “Creating a level playing field” on page 24, is the owner of TechniComm, a communications business based in Des Plaines, Illinois. Dan is a graduate of Iowa State University with a major in Engineering Journalism.

8 | Fall 2010

TRICIA RADISON is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to Alberta Construction Magazine and other magazines. She is an avid reader and expert researcher. She lives in Calgary.

KELLEY STARK used to work in JuneWarrenNickle’s Energy Group’s Edmonton Editorial Assistance department but now freelances. She is a graduate of Grant MacEwan’s Bachelor of Applied Communications in Professional Writing program and writes about safety gear.

Calgary-based freelancer GODFREY BUDD, who writes about full-depth reclamation and the work being done on Edmonton’s Quesnell Bridge, is a long-time contributor to JuneWarrenNickle’s Energy Group publications, contributing many articles for industry magazines and business periodicals on western Canada’s energy industry and Alberta’s construction sector.

AARON PARKER has enjoyed expression his whole life, trying out acting, drawing, graphic design, photography, writing and music. After many years of random experimentation, his life has settled down into mostly music, design and photography. He is a designer-photographer for JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group. He now regularly shoots for Alberta Construction Magazine.

Born in Edmonton and raised in Calgary, LASIA KRETZEL has held a lifelong passion for writing and photography. A fourth-year journalism student at Carleton University, Lasia is taking her first steps in reporting as a summer intern for JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group. This is her first assignment for Alberta Construction Magazine.

After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in photojournalism or radio.

Construction Opportunities On-Line Network

CAPTURING PROJECT TENDER INFORMATION FOR THE ENTIRE PROVINCE

Shaping the Future Together www.coolnet.ab.ca

nuts & bolts News briefs for the busy construction professional

PHOTOS: David Moll/Schulich School of Engineering

CHAMBER OF (WEATHER) HORRORS

From top: Raafat El‐Hacha programs an experiment into the environmental testing chamber. The top opens to allow a crane to lower large beams into the chamber for testing.

A masonry block crumbled after a month of experiments in the chamber.

A length of steel rebar is badly corroded (left) after two weeks in the chamber.

Imagine being able to simulate the coldest day of the year in the middle of summer. Or the hottest when that stiff Alberta wind is blowing and the thermometer reads -42°C. The University of Calgary Schulich School of Engineering’s new environmental testing chamber — which it calls the largest of its kind in North America — does just that.

Here’s why you shou ld c a re: Researchers can essentially speed up time and subject building materials to a variety of conditions — including several years’ worth of freeze-thaw cycles — in just weeks.

“The chamber allows us to test different types and sizes of large-scale structural members and materials such as concrete, masonry, steel, timber and composites,” says Raafat El-Hacha, project manager and structural engineering professor at the Schulich School of Engineering. “We can evaluate the effects of the environment and loading factors on the deterioration of

civil infrastructure by simulating accelerated and repeated severe environmental exposure conditions.”

The 10 m long chamber can simulate practically any weather condition and humidity level. It is capable of saltwater and freshwater spray and varying moisture (20 per cent to 95 per cent). It can start at room temperature, go down to -68°C and all the way up to 85°C in just four hours.

Researchers will use the chamber to test how objects behave under various weather conditions. They will study corrosion and wear in materials, research that has significant implications for the safety and longevity of structures such as buildings, roads and bridges.

The environmental testing chamber cost nearly $1 million. Funding came from several organizations across the country including the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canada Masonry Design Centre, Cement Association of Canada, Lafarge Canada, the Schulich School of Engineering and the University of Calgary.

Table of Contents 12 Dream of MLK memorial is closer to reality. . . . . . . . . . 14 $800-million boost for pipelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Hello Kitty construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Another oilsands camp in the works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Two towers stand tall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17 Nuclear’s future in Alberta appears dim. . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Your chance to learn about sustainable building. . . . 19 Ringside seats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Sizzling market sucks away workers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Redevelopment boost for Cochrane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Alberta Construction Magazine | 11

nuts & bolts

PHOTO: supermetal

PHOTO: AARON PARKER

TWO TOWERS STAND TALL

Edmonton’s Epcor Tower (left) and Calgary’s Eighth Avenue Place.

12 | Fall 2010

They’re not even open yet, yet two new buildings are already making a mark on their cities’ downtowns.

When completed in the third quarter of 2011, the 490 ft, 28-storey Epcor Tower in Edmonton will be one of the city’s tallest buildings — the tallest if you count the additional height of its flagpoles.

In Calgary, the Eighth Avenue Place office tower at the corner of 8th Avenue and 4th Street SW is the first high-rise office building in Canada to be pre-certified Gold in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Core and Shell development program.

Both buildings held topping-off ceremonies in June.

Epcor Tower is the first phase of Station Lands’ 2.5 million square feet. Station Lands — on 101st Street, between 104th and 105th avenues and just northwest of the CN Tower — is a Qualico project. It was designed by Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd. Construction management services is by Ledcor Construction.

According to Qualico, the building is already 70 per cent leased. Epcor

nuts & bolts PHOTO: KASIAN ARCHITECTURE INTERIOR DESIGN AND PLANNING

will occupy f loors 20 through 28, while Capital Power will occupy floors 9 through 12 and the Government of Canada will occupy floors 3 through 7 and a portion of 8.

The building will incorporate extensive use of aluminum and blue-grey glass and complementary spandrel panels on the exterior facade. The tower is targeted to a LEED Silver certification, but the hope is that it will achieve Gold “using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reductions, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts,” according to Qualico. Ken Cantor, Qualico’s commercial manager in Edmonton, is “particularly pleased with the exterior balconies on every floor of the building that offer access to fresh air and the outdoors, without having to leave the building.”

Epcor Tower will offer tenants such things as a daycare and fitness facilities, as well as bike storage and showers. The building’s loading bays can also accommodate

An artist’s rendering of what a completed Epcor Tower will look like.

full semi-trailer traffic. When completed, the building will have 623,900 sq. ft of rentable space with typical floor plates of 24,229 sq.ft.

Other companies involved in the construction are Aecom (structural, mechanical, electrical and civil engineering services); Eidos (landscape and urban design); Colliers (leasing services); and Stantec.

Eighth Avenue Place is 51 storeys tall.

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Attending Eighth Avenue Place’s topping office ceremony were representatives from the ownership group, Sitq, Aimco and Matco Investments Ltd.; the project developer, Hines; and construction manager, EllisDon.

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nuts & bolts

DREAM OF MLK MEMORIAL IS CLOSER TO REALITY the site is just north of the memorial to President Roosevelt. The scope of work for the memorial includes 340 structural piles, a 2,350 cu. ft granite inscription wall weighing 194 tons, 47,000 sq. ft of granite paving, a 30 ft “Stone of Hope/Mountain of Despair” sculpture, and the planting of 185 cherry trees, 32 elm trees and 16,835 pieces of Big Blue Liriope plantings.

DRAWING: KING MEMORIAL PROJECT

A year from now, a new national memorial honouring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. should be open on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The $120-million memorial was designed by the Roma Design Group and is being built by a joint team comprised of McKissack & McKissack, Turner Construction Co. and its subsidiary

Tompkins Builders, and the Gilford Corp.

The building team is trying to make heavy use of minority contractors.

Construction hit a bit of a snag in June when several huge pieces of sculpture that were to be shipped from China were delayed.

Greek shippers had offered to transport the stone blocks, but pulled back on their offer due to the economic crisis in that country.

Situated on a four-acre plot on the northeast corner of the Tidal Basin,

The memorial is more of a “landscape experience” than the better-known memorials on the Mall. According to the memorial’s website, it’s to be “tied to other landscapes and monuments, not as a single object or memorial dominating the site. The composition of the memorial utilizes landscape elements to powerfully convey three fundamental and recurring themes of Dr. King’s life: justice, democracy and hope.”

PHOTO: MTTG

The composition of the memorial utilizes landscape elements to powerfully convey three fundamental and recurring themes of Dr. King’s life.

Top: An artist’s rendering of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.

Bottom photo: Construction of memorial honouring Martin Luther King, Jr. progresses this summer.

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nuts & bolts

$800-MILLION BOOST FOR PIPELINES Three significant pipeline projects in Alberta are going ahead.

First, Enbridge Inc. will undertake a $400-million expansion of the Waupisoo Pipeline, part of its regional oilsands system.

The expansion is necessary to accommodate total shipper commitments of 229,000 barrels per day (bbl/d). The commitments include the additional volumes announced earlier this year. At that time, Enbridge said Statoil Canada Ltd. had signed an initial 10-year agreement for up to 30,000 bbl/d of oil from its Leismer oilsands project.

The Waupisoo Pipeline expansion program will provide approximately 65,000 bbl/d of additional capacity in the second half of 2012, and a further approximately 190,000 bbl/d when fully in service in the second half of 2013. The new commitments allow for a three-year ramp up to the full commitment amount.

“This expansion is the latest in a series of contracts and projects Enbridge has secured over the past year, adding approximately $1 billion to our total secured

investment opportunities in this corridor,” Patrick Daniel, Enbridge president and CEO, said in a news release.

“The Waupisoo expansion program will begin to contribute to our growth in earnings per share by 2013, and increasingly thereafter as the volumes increase to the full commitment levels.”

the Edmonton area. The Nipisi is designed to be expanded to a capacity of approximately 200,000 bbl/d.

Meanwhile, the Mitsue Pipeline is being designed to transport approximately 20,000 bbl/d of condensate (a light hydrocarbon used to dilute the heavy oil) from Whitecourt, Alta., to producers

“ The Waupisoo expansion program will begin to contribute to our growth in earnings per share by 2013.”

— Patrick Daniel, President and CEO, Enbridge

Also, Pembina Pipeline Corp. plans to have two pipelines completed and in service in 2011 after getting Energy Resources Conservation Board approval for the projects in July. The combined cost of the projects is $440 million.

The Nipisi Pipeline, designed to initially transport 100,000 bbl/d of diluted heavy oil, will run from north of Slave Lake south to Judy Creek. From there, it will connect to an existing pipeline system to

operating north of Slave Lake. The Mitsue is designed to be expanded to a capacity of 45,000 bbl/d.

Right-of-way clearing is expected to begin in September in preparation for pipeline construction, which is planned to start in early December. Approximately 800 to 1,000 temporary positions are expected to be created during construction. All engineering, construction and procurement contracts have been awarded.

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Green isn’t just a colour.

Sustainable building practice is here to stay and EllisDon is committed to being a leader in the field. The push to “go green” has never been more pronounced. It is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. The quality of our environment and our quality of life depend on it. That’s why EllisDon is applying all our experience and knowledge to become good at sustainable building…really good.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 15

nuts & bolts

HELLO KITTY CONSTRUCTION

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Membership

For years, industry has looked for ways to get more women into the construction workforce with mixed results.

Perhaps a recent deal between two large toymakers will spark an interest down the road.

Mega Brands Inc. and Sanrio Inc. have entered into a North American–licensing agreement to develop construction toys for young girls based on the popular Hello Kitty brand.

Under the two-year agreement, Mega Brands obtained the rights to develop construction toy sets based on the Hello Kitty brand, which the Montreal-based company says will allow young girls “to build, personalize and collect their very own Hello Kitty world.”

The Mega Bloks–licensed product offerings will make their debut in Canada, the United States and Mexico next spring.

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ANOTHER OILSANDS CAMP IN THE WORKS Horizon North Logistics Inc. has been awarded an estimated $25-million contract to build a 210-unit camp in northern Alberta’s oilsands region. The contract, with an unspecified oilsands operator, includes design, manufacture, transportation and site installation. The camp will house around 650 workers.

The development underscores the belief that there will be even more projects ahead.

Says Bob German, president and CEO of Horizon: “We anticipate that oilsands and other resource and infrastructure development projects in western Canada will result in continued high utilization levels of our manufacturing facilities for the foreseeable future.”

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REDEVELOPMENT BOOST FOR COCHRANE A 45-acre portion of downtown Cochrane, Alta., has the promise of new life now that an environmental remediation contract has been awarded to a Quebec-based company.

Vantage Land Corp. awarded EnGlobe Corp.’s site assessment and remediation division, Biogénie, a $5.5-million contract for the work.

The project includes remediation of a 45-acre vacant and former Domtar wood treatment facility in downtown Cochrane.

Railway ties, utility poles and other large dimensional wood products were manufactured at the site from 1964 to 1988. The land has been vacant for over 20 years, but high costs for remediation prevented work from being done. But then Alberta Environment approved Biogénie’s remedial action plan, and work began in July. It’s to be finished in the fall of 2011 for subsequent redevelopment by Vantage Land.

The work is part of a revitalization plan with Cochrane for commercial and possibly residential redevelopment, according to Biogénie. A potential contract extension for supplemental residential remediation and land development earthworks is estimated to cost $9 million.

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 17

nuts & bolts

NUCLEAR’S FUTURE IN ALBERTA APPEARS DIM

Don’t expect a nuclear plant in Alberta anytime soon.

A few years ago, there was talk of building a nuclear-powered generating plant in Alberta — possibly to produce steam to recover bitumen in the oilsands. The upside was that such a proposal would be good not only for the construction industry, but would also result in permanent jobs needed to run such a plant.

Then came the recession, and the talk has remained just that. Talk.

Given the “current marketplace” and the huge cost of a nuclear power development, at least one high-ranking representative of

18 | Fall 2010

the Alberta government questioned whether nuclear power makes sense in Alberta — at least now.

“I can tell you this: the Alberta government isn’t going to subsidize it,” Doug Horner, Alberta’s deputy premier, told an international environmental conference during the summer.

Horner noted that no nuclear power project has proceeded in Saskatchewan either — even though Saskatchewan is one of the world’s largest producers of uranium and hence fuel for nuclear reactors. He suggested that the

Saskatchewan government would like to see a project proceed there for that reason.

“But it’s not happening there because I don’t think the economics are there for it right now,” he said.

“Now I may be wrong, but that’s what we’re seeing,” he said in concluding there doesn’t appear to be an adequate market to economically underpin a nuclear development in Alberta or Saskatchewan.

Suncor CEO Rick George, speaking at the same conference, agreed with Horner that the economics appear difficult. Suncor’s expansion plans depend heavily on producing bitumen from wells using steam assisted gravity drainage.

“What we primarily need is steam,” George said. “And it’s very difficult to move this supersaturated steam over more than about 10 or 15 kilometres.”

George also suggested that the economics would also be challenged because oilsands operations are far from the major population bases that would provide economy of scale.

nuts & bolts

YOUR CHANCE TO LEARN ABOUT SUSTAINABLE BUILDING As the green building arena grows and changes, the need for continuing education for trained professionals has never been greater. But where does one go?

The National Sustainable Building Advisor Program is expanding to include courses in Calgary.

This fall, students will be able to participate in the nine-month certificate training course and exam specifically designed for working professionals eager to apply sustainable concepts to the buildings they design, develop and construct.

A diverse range of students drawn from architecture and planning firms, engineering companies, developers and contractors, government agencies, research institutions, resource conservation organizations, utilities and environmental consulting organizations can benefit from the Sustainable Building Advisor program, organizers say.

For more information, check out buffalojumpenvironmental.com.

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RINGSIDE SEATS Are there such things as construction groupies? Maybe in New York there are.

This spring, a hotel with floor-toceiling windows in the rooms opened in the Big Apple, offering what the Associated Press says are “closer views of the World Trade Center site than just about any other spot in lower Manhattan.”

The wire service says guests have been staying at the 169-room World Center Hotel for months as construction was completed floor by floor.

One guest, Deena Mendlowitz, an improv performer from Cleveland, was quoted by the AP as saying that it’s “phenomenal” to see the rebuilding of the World Trade Center first-hand.

Maybe not everyone stays there just to check out the construction though.

Cheryl Palmer, vice-president of the company operating the hotel, says one of the reasons guests choose the hotel is for its location near several corporate headquarters.

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SIZZLING MARKET SUCKS AWAY WORKERS Alberta isn’t the only place where finding enough skilled construction workers is a problem. Things are so bad in India that projects are facing delays and hefty cost overruns.

“We are faced with a shortage of 30 to 40 per cent of skilled and semi-skilled labourers, leading to delay in handing over possession of properties to the customers, besides affecting the quality of construction,” Sushil Mohta told Calcutta’s Telegraph newspaper. “This could trigger a rise in project cost to the tune of 15 to 20 per cent even.”

Mohta is managing director of Merlin Projects, a real estate developer.

Pradip Chopra of the PS Group, another developer, blames the problem on renewed growth in Asia now that the recession has ended.

“We are suffering more because of the high demand of Indian labour in west Asian countries, where the construction boom is back after the market meltdown,” he told the paper.

“The boom is sucking hands out of south India and workers from the east are migrating to the south to fill the void, fuelling the crisis here.”

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around canada

AROUND CANADA More than 7,000 new entrants will join the workforce over the 2010–2018 forecast period, but 5,100 retirements are planned and another 1,000 workers will be lost due to the natural mortality rate.

LE SEVILLE

$118 million

Amount of a fixedprice contract that Bird Construction Income Fund landed with Defense Construction Canada for the design and construction of the Pleasantville Consolidation Project in St. John’s, N.L. Construction is expected to be completed by the fall of 2013.

SASKATCHEWAN IS SIZZLING

51 Number of storeys of

the Bay Adelaide Centre in Toronto, which recently achieved Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design (LEED) Gold certification. Built

by EllisDon last year, the company says the building sets a record for being the largest LEED building in Canada at the time of certification.

HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT Aecon Group Inc. and Peter Kiewit Sons Co. have won a $1.7-billion designbuild contract awarded by Ontario Power Generation to build the Lower Mattagami Hydroelectric Complex, about 70 km northeast of Kapuskasing.

GOES FORWARD Under the agreement, Aecon holds a 20 per cent interest in the construction joint venture that will redevelop four generating stations on the Mattagami River.

The project is expected to be finished in 2015.

$100M

DRAWING: DÉVELOPPEMENT IMMOBILIER SEVILLE

Looking for work? Employment levels in Saskatchewan’s construction industry should remain at a 30-year high until 2018.

The Construction Sector Council’s estimates non-residential employment will grow by more than 50 per cent from 2008 to 2011. The surge in jobs began with industrial, infrastructure, and other engineering projects, which more than offset a temporary weakness in housing.

“While we experienced a slight downturn in new home construction, increases in renovation activity in recent months and a resurgence in the new home sector in the first five months of this year are leading the market to show increases in 2010 and 2011,” says Alan Thomarat, CEO of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association — Saskatchewan.

development in Montréal

A new development along the western part of Ste. Catherine Street in downtown Montréal took a leap forward with the launch of a residential and commercial complex called Le Seville.

Not only does the project contribute to what Mayor Gérald Tremblay called “the economic dynamism of downtown Montréal,” it will lead to “a better quality of life to the thousands of people who live, work and study in the immediate area.”

More than $100 million will be invested in downtown Montréal

by Développement Immobilier Seville, a partnership between Claridge Inc. and Prével.

“Le Seville is a large-scale project of which we are particularly proud,” says Prével spokesman Jacques Vincent.

“In the coming months, our efforts will mainly be focused on demolition work and to get the site ready for construction. We therefore plan to begin the construction work of Le Seville during the fall of 2010 to allow for a first delivery in the spring of 2012.”

Alberta Construction Magazine | 23

PHOTO: Leica Geosystems

commercial

The next time a defensive safety for the Edmonton Eskimos football team smacks down an opposing wide receiver at Commonwealth Stadium, both of them will land on a very well-prepared piece of real estate.

T h a t ’s b e c a u s e t h e f i e l d a t Commonwealth — site of the 2010 Grey Cup and home to the Eskimos — recently underwent an estimated $2.6-million renovation. The former field was expensive to maintain because of the natural grass–playing surface, and it was the last stadium in the Canadian Football League to convert to artificial turf.

The renovation was extensive. It required total removal of the existing 24 | Fall 2010

growing medium and subgrade materials to a depth of 1.2 m. And precision became the order of the day. The project’s subcontractor, Wilco Contractors Northwest Inc. of Edmonton, finished the subgrade to near-perfect planarity, or flatness — a tolerance of 3 mm over a 3 m length.

To achieve all of this precision, Wilco used a Leica PowerGrade GPS/GNSS Machine Automation system. One Volvo G-960 grader was fitted with a Leica GPS receiver, and Wilco set up a Leica Redline GPS/GNSS Base Station. A second Volvo grader, a G-930, was controlled by a Leica Redline Power Tracker Robotic Total Station. That grader could achieve subcentimetre accuracy.

“We probably have a quarter-million dollars invested with Leica Geosystems,” says Wilco president Art Maat. “The machine-control equipment pays for itself on an annual basis.

And that equipment gives us the ability to construct projects to tolerances that other contractors cannot, even though they have the same big iron capabilities we do.”

Experience Counts “Wilco was selected to work with the Edmonton Eskimos solely based on our experience with projects like this and because of our surveying abilities and machine control systems.”

Gordon Butler, VP of Butler Survey Supplies Ltd., is Wilco’s Leica dealer.

Creating a level playing field Modern technology helps create the almost perfect playing surface for Edmonton football field

by Daniel Brown

“Wilco’s strategy of using leading machine automation technology to deliver premier results is extremely impressive,” he says.

The project began during the spring with snow removal. Then large excavators and dump trucks excavated the existing soil mixes, drainage rock, and the subgrade clay. Maat says one Caterpillar D6N dozer and the two Volvo graders graded the subgrade to a .5 per cent slope on both sides of the field’s centre spine — a longitudinal centre line between the goal posts.

Because a running track encircles the field and runs behind the goal posts, the excavation and grading process extended to the D-shaped zone behind each goal post.

The centre point of each half-circle was very

close to the goal posts; the slope of the field from the half-circle’s centre point down to the track edge must be constant.

“So the problem is, how do you grade that half-circle?” Maat asks. “From a grader perspective, grader operators and surveyors want to grade in straight lines or on rectangular grids.”

The answer: the team used “the Leica Geo-Tracker, or robotic total station, to control the grader blade, three dimensionally,” he says. “It is one step more accurate than a GPS system.”

Using the robotic total station involved entering a digital terrain model, which Maat calls a “TIN-file,” into the computer on-board the grader. The grader is also

fitted with a mast and prism, which has a fixed relation to the grader blade. The robotic total station can “see” the prism, read its 3-D location and communicate that location back to the grader.

A MATTER OF CONTROL The on-board computer then processes the differences between the actual blade location and the digital terrain model.

Knowing those differences, the computer can control the grader blade.

The two graders divided grading chores for the final subgrade. The GPSequipped grader did the rough grading.

The prism-equipped grader handled the fine grading.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 25

commercial “Both the systems are fundamentally the same except for the receiving unit on the grader and some minor hardware inside the grader cab,” Maat explains.

“One has a GPS receiver and the other has a prism. The Leica Power Grade 3-D system gave us sub-centimetre accuracy with the robotic total station, and about 20-millimetre accuracy with the GPSequipped motor grader.”

With the final subgrade complete, Wilco installed a drainage system in the f loor of the excavation. The contractor excavated eight trenches running the length of the field, then placed eight-inch-diameter perforated pipe, surrounded by washed rock, into each trench. The perforated pipes feed into a collector system to drain the field. Next, all of the drain trenches and subgrade were covered with a geotextile.

Then, working in four lifts of 300 mm each, Wilco filled in the excavation with a product called coal bottom ash.

“It’s a product like playground sand, but it’s very gritty,” Maat says. “We use it because we get 100 per cent compaction without much effort. We get incredible compaction and incredible vertical drainage. And it insulates against frost very well.”

When the coal bottom ash had to be placed, Wilco could not have access to the field with trucks due to other conf licting contractors’ schedules working on the building facility. So the contractor used a series of electric conveyors to move the ash to the field.

“We dumped it up near the top of the bleachers at street level and brought the material down onto the field with conveyors,” Maat says.

26 | Fall 2010

SEEING GREEN Here are some of the reasons the City of Edmonton decided to install artificial turf in Commonwealth Stadium: • To save money — about $80,000 annually.

• It provides a safer, higher-quality field for players and helps to reduce injuries.

• The turf increases the playability of the field in the shoulder seasons and during inclement weather.

• It opens the way for a consistent field for a variety of sports, such as football, rugby and soccer.

• It minimizes the maintenance time between staging major events.

When the bulldozer and the two graders spread the coal bottom ash, the ease of using the Leica systems made it quite simple to get the 300 mm lifts, Maat says.

“We simply take the TIN file and offset the elevation by 300 mm at a time.” The ash required a steady application of water to achieve the required density.

While there was no need for subcentimetre accuracy in spreading the material in the lower lifts, it was critical that compaction tests for each layer be performed on 300 mm — no more and no less.

“And because of the Leica systems, we did not have to go out there and do any staking with a survey crew,” Maat says.

“We were able to spread it in just 300 mm

lifts and the consultants were quite happy with that.”

Maat says the machine control equipment saved $15,000 to $20,000 on surveying. (He figured that cost over 100 hours or more at $150 an hour for a surveying crew.)

To test the planarity of the coal ash fill, Wilco stretched a stringline over a three-metre distance at many points on the field. Maat says if you could fit a couple of loonies under the string, you’ve got a low spot. If you cannot fit them under the strings, the tolerance of 3 mm has been met. Once ready for inspection, engineers test the grade using a 20 m string with more difficult tolerances.

“In our case, the consultant’s stringline testing proved that the grading we did using the Leica equipment was absolutely perfect,” Maat continues. The slope of the field had to be 0.25 per cent from the centreline spine down to the sides of the field, at the track. And the slope of the D-shaped areas behind the goal posts was exactly the same. In three dimensions, each D-shaped area formed an inverted shallow cone.

Atop the bottom ash, crews placed a 23 mm thick shock pad. Maat describes it as similar to a carpet underlayment, but firmer. Next the turf goes in like long shag carpeting. Granulated rubber and sand are swept into the shag threads with large power brooms.

“At the end you have about a quarter to a half-inch of carpet, or thread, showing at the surface,” Maat says. “So it walks and feels like real grass.”

All ready for the next touchdown — or tackle.

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institutional

Smart buildings go eco-friendly for the benefit of owners — and even the planet

c a i n i s a r B ding

by Tricia Radison

PHOTO: IBM

l i u b

28 | Fall 2010

institutional

When energy use suddenly rose in a hotel in China, management found out right away.

The building itself spilled the beans. It turned out that a new cook was turning on the steam tables several hours early.

The building was a so-called “smart building,” meaning the situation was rectified much sooner than it would have been had management had to wait for a utility bill to arrive, saving money and the environment.

The idea of a smart building, capable of telling operations personnel what’s happening to it and what it needs and impacting both budgets and the environment, is super space-agey. But it’s happening right here in Alberta in the Calgary Catholic School District, which is using IBM Maximo Asset Management software to manage its 2,800 assets, including 103 schools, and now, to improve its carbon footprint.

“Our challenge was that we really didn’t have a system in place,” says Al Berting, manager of operations for the school district. “Everything was done manually.

We wanted to get a system so we weren’t relying on people’s memories and so that everyone had access to it.”

Aging infrastructure, a constant need to expand and a frustratingly slow method of handling maintenance were making it difficult to effectively maintain the district’s assets.

Additionally, the district wanted to be able to communicate with contractors, streamline processes by integrating information from various business units and get a clearer picture of what assets were costing.

Thanks to the system, the school district is now able to easily perform

preventive maintenance on its assets and it’s seeing the results. “We’re seeing more efficiently run facilities and getting a better picture of what our equipment is doing,” Berting says.

Before using the asset management system, the district scrambled to keep up with service requests on its 600 portable classrooms, each equipped with its own heating and ventilation system. Preventive maintenance has reduced the number of failure calls significantly, reducing downtime and hassle for the schools, which have to relocate students when the heating systems break down.

Now the district is working to use the asset management software with a new building automation system from Johnson Controls Inc. to track its energy use.

“We’ve enhanced [Maximo] so it can actually gather energy information about the asset,” explains Florence Hudson, energy and environment executive for IBM. “It can work with something like the Johnson [building automation system], and we can gather real energyperformance data so that you can actually look at the energy data of an asset, see when it was last maintained, and do better proactive maintenance to reduce your energy use.”

The school district has a Johnson building automation system in place and is now working to link it with the asset management system. Over time, it will add sensor technology to its mechanical and electrical systems. The sensors will allow the building to, in effect, speak, providing real-time data that can be used to generate preventive maintenance work orders based on run times rather than the calendar. It will tell the district how much energy is being used, where it’s being used and when.

“That allows them to take action and predictably manage how they consume the associated services that their school relies upon,” says Chris Mallon, IBM’s Tivoli brand leader. “They can gain insight into how they consume resources, which empowers them to make decisions in order to utilize those assets more effectively in the provision of the service to the students and, ultimately, to the taxpayers.”

But why measure energy and water use?

Why not just install eco-friendly technologies in new schools and replace older systems with new technologies as they wear out? Isn’t it enough to put your lights on timers?

Not any more, says Hudson. While energy-efficient mechanical, plumbing and lighting systems are great, people might still be paying, polluting and using more than necessary if, for example, a custodian is leaving the lights on all night or a cook really likes to pre-heat.

“You have to be able to identify what’s happening and then change it,” she says.

“These smarter buildings constantly bring in real-time data and help us make better decisions.”

In time, the school district may be able to look at the data from all its schools and establish best practices. “Then they can look at their target energy use and the actual energy usage, and their target energy costs and the actual costs. They can even look at target carbon emissions and actual carbon emissions,” Hudson explains. “They can bring it to another level of intelligence and understanding so that they can manage their properties to meet all their goals.”

The system can even track the types of energy being used, allowing owners to work on increasing their use of renewable energies if they desire.

Smarter, more sustainable buildings — no matter the size — can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and lower energy costs.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 29

institutional

SMART FUTURE AHEAD Chris Mallon explains what he thinks our buildings will be able to do in time: “Picture, if you will, an environment where the heating, lighting systems, waste-water management systems are all metered and controlled. You’re able to understand that when this particular floor of this office tower, for example, has less than 10 people in it, it still burns the same amount of energy in heating, cooling and lighting as it does when its got 150 people in it.

“Measuring the actual capacity and how that space is utilized by the people who require it, as well as understanding how to manage the lighting system, the heating and cooling system to proactively respond to how many people are in that room, will drive down energy consumption, increase the lifespan of lighting systems and heating and cooling systems and ultimately bring down the carbon footprint of that infrastructure.

“And that’s because of leveraging sensor technology which is instrumented, intelligent and interconnected, meaning sensor devices, such as thermostats that are smart meters, drawing information and insight from the energy consumption, then reconciling it against thermostats and lighting systems that can be dynamically managed and respond to the actual utilization of those assets.

That’s what’s possible on today’s infrastructure as it evolves and continues to become smarter.”

Smart buildings can reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 50 to 70 per cent and reduce water consumption by 30 to 50 per cent, according to Hudson. Saving money on these resources is a major motivator for users, and the school district is no different. But there are other reasons for improving sustainability.

“The end goal is to be able to get the information to the schools so that they can use it as an educational tool,” Berting says. The district plans to make energy use information available to students so they can develop an understanding of the direct relationship between their actions — turning out the lights when leaving the classroom, for example — and the environment.

The cost of the system varies depending on the needs of the customer but starts at around $50,000 for a small project.

Return on investment is typically achieved between 6 and 12 months.

“You’re capturing your operational expense and employing it in a capital expenditure,” Mallon says. “Also, if it costs a dollar to do something today, we can reorient your processes and make that dollar become 50 cents.”

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30 | Fall 2010

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infrastructure

An end to summer highway construction delays?

Not quite, but full-depth recycling offers promise of extensive road repairs done faster

by Godfrey Budd

32 | Fall 2010

Until just the last few years, when a roadway had deteriorated to the point that it needed repairs, city, municipal or provincial transportation managers typically had two main options to choose from.

They could either completely rebuild the road or spread a new overlay of asphalt, provided the road was structurally sound.

Each option has its drawbacks, and, often enough, neither repair approach was the ideal solution. A full rebuild, as one might expect, is expensive and relatively time-consuming, potentially keeping sections of road out of commission for lengthy periods. So why do it unless it’s absolutely necessary? On the other hand, a fresh overlay might not hold up for long if the base of the road was developing structural flaws.

A third option, known as full-depth recycling, has been adopted with increasing frequency in Alberta since about 2001. The process can be seen as

infrastructure

somewhere between the two traditional remedies. It’s cheaper than a total rebuild but better at strengthening the road for the long haul than a perfunctory asphalt overlay.

Full-depth recycling is an in situ process that involves recycling the existing roadway and the addition of binders and other materials to produce a stabilized base course.

Full-depth recycling differs from other road rehab techniques like cold planing or mill and fill, cold-in-place recycling and hot-in-place recycling partly because the rotor or cutting head penetrates completely through the existing asphalt layer and into the underlying base, sub-base or sub-grade layers prior to pulverizing and recycling them.

According to the U.S.-based Asphalt Recycling and Reclaiming Association, potential fulldepth recycling candidates include parking lots, low-volume secondar y roads, city streets,

medium-volume roads, interstate highways, and private and regional airports.

“For the most part in rural areas, roads will just need an overlay,” says Jim Gavin, an engineer and roadway construction standards specialist with Alberta Transportation. “But if a deep overlay seems to be needed, [full-depth recycling] can be the better choice, as it’s likely to hold up better with a lower life cycle cost over 30 years than a thick overlay — that’s anything more than about 120 millimetres. If the road has a lot of transverse and wheel-path cracks, with [full-depth recycling] you bust it up and start with a new base. But, with just an overlay, there is no new base and cracks can propagate upwards, so the road’s surface life is not as long.”

It was not until 2007 that provincial roads repair projects began using full-depth recycling frequently.

In 2010, says Gavin, contractors for Alberta Alberta Construction Magazine | 33

infrastructure Transportation are doing six full-depth recycling projects, with ones near Olds, Swan Hills and Rocky Mountain House.

STRENGTH AND STABILITY The objective of full-depth recycling is to strengthen and stabilize the base of the road by recycling the existing roadway without the expense of a total rebuild. It is a simplification, but it could be said that there are two key elements to the process.

Once road testing and analysis of core samples and other preparations are completed, full-depth recycling operations typically begin with the recycling and mixing machine digging up all the asphalt and a portion of the underlying materials to a pre-determined depth. The old asphalt is then pulverized. The second key element, typically, is the addition of binder materials, which can be added and mixed in as soon as the road materials are pulverized, or added, mixed and spread later.

A 30-plus tonne Terex pulverizer, which is used by West-Can Seal Coating Inc., one of a handful of companies in Alberta that do full-depth recycling work,

Asphalt recycling has grown in popularity throughout North America over the past decade.

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infrastructure operates like a sort of rototiller, dredging up the old asphalt and base materials. Using a specialized machine called a reclaimer, the dredged up asphalt and base materials are pulverized into chunks to a specific size, which typically approximate that of the original aggregate pieces.

Depending on the formulation requirements, water and various binder materials are then added and mixed in the pulverized material. Cement, lime, fly ash, asphalt emulsion or foamed, expanded asphalt are common binders that are mixed in the reclaimer to form a new road base. After shaping and grading, the mixture of pulverized materials, water and binders is rolled and compacted to produce a new, strong and durable road base, or stabilized base course, for either an asphalt or concrete surface.

Determining just what is the optimal mix design of binders and other additives for a specific roadway is an important part of the process in a successful full-depth recycling project. Analysis of core samples has a key role in determining mix design.

“Good engineering and mix design are

critical,” says Matthew Arnill, a partner in West-Can Seal Coating.

Referring to a project on Highway 766, he notes that existing materials can change significantly over a 10 km stretch of road, so two or more samples are taken from each kilometre of road.

Samples are analyzed at an independent geo-technical lab. “Ownership of roads has sometimes changed over the years between the province, county or even the town, so different systems and materials may have been used at different times and sections of the road,” Arnill says.

Factors to be considered when designing the mix include not only the materials comprising the existing roadway, but also, on occasion, the age of its asphalt. Foamed asphalt is probably the most widely used in Alberta for full-depth recycling projects, but in instances where the asphalt on the existing road is old and brittle, an asphalt emulsion can be the better choice.

“It won’t dry as fast as a foamed asphalt mixture, but emulsion has solvents that soften the old asphalt,” says Dave Rose, sales manager for West-Can Seal Coating.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? In a nutshell, full-depth recycling differs from other techniques partly because the rotor or cutting head penetrates completely through the existing asphalt layer and into the underlying base, sub-base or subgrade layers before pulverizing and recycling them.

“So where the old asphalts are relatively harder, emulsion is a better product at the end. It’s better at achieving a more tightly bound base mixture.”

Older second-tier roads, he says, often have significant amounts of clay in their composition. The binder mix for these will typically include Portland cement, fly ash and perhaps some lime. But if the asphalt content is high, then an asphalt binder is used.

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36 | Fall 2010

Besides eliminating the potential of reflective cracks propagating up from below the new overlay, full-depth recycling has other advantages: ❚ The roadway is easily widened and the cross-slope and crown easily restored. ❚ It conserves energy and materials as existing ones are re-used in situ, not hauled away, which reduces material handling and trucking. ❚ The shorter construction time cuts costs and reduces traffic delays. ❚ In Alberta, improved technologies and its lower cost, compared to a total rebuild, appear to have had a role in spurring increased acceptance and use of full-depth recycling. “[Full-depth recycling] has become more prevalent partly because of economics,” confirms Roman Stefaniw, president of J.R. Paine & Associates Ltd.

Full-depth recycling is cheaper than a total rebuild but better at strengthening the road for the long haul.

“In the last 10 years, technology has improved with better emulsions and foamed asphalt stabilization. Also, the types of equipment for pulverizing and application have become more high-tech.

There are different types of equipment and different systems, but all working toward the same successful result.”

The geo-technical and construction materials engineering firm’s services include materials testing, consulting services and mix designs for clients with fulldepth recycling projects. Once a client has provided roadway samples, the firm first evaluates whether the project is a suitable candidate for the process. From there, a process of sampling and analysis leads to the development of a precisely calibrated design mix of water, binders and additives for the pulverized materials.

infrastructure Although a single-pass operation is sometimes feasible, pre-pulverizing is often done a few days before mixing the binder/additive cocktail with pulverized materials and laying the resulting new stabilized base course.

STICKY SOLUTION Although the exact design mix differs between each project, most full-depth recycling projects in Alberta have been using foamed asphalt as the main binding component. When cold, atomized water is added to hot asphalt (165 degrees Celsius), the asphalt foams and within seconds expands 20 times or more in volume. The asphalt’s viscosity is sharply reduced and it becomes stickier.

“This enables it to coat small particles and to form a mastic to hold larger particles in place,” says Hugh Donovan, a construction services engineer responsible for pavement design with the City of Edmonton’s transportation department.

Besides benefiting from better delivery technologies, the process, which was patented in 1956, began attracting more interest after its patent expired in 1996, he says. The equipment, he says, does not come cheap. Although licence fees for the process are now behind them, contractors can expect to shell out almost a million dollars for some of the latest foamed asphalt-capable road-reclaiming machines.

Once the new stabilized base course is laid, a three-stage rolling process takes place in preparation for the overlay. Donovan says about 99 per cent of the city’s full-depth recycling projects are done with foamed asphalt. In the last eight years, the city has applied the process to about two million sq. m of roadway.

It doesn’t take long to cover a lot of ground — or roadway, when using fulldepth recycling. Dave Fath, a co-owner of O’Hanlon Paving, points to a project near Rocky Mountain House, where a 330,00 sq. m section of Highway 22 is getting the treatment. It’s a two-month project, he says.

He says that another advantage of the foamed asphalt process is that the surface is ready for capping with the overlay within a couple of days, while emulsion can take 5 to 10 days or more before it is ready.

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1-888-446-3276 | AMAInsurance.ca/Business Alberta Construction Magazine | 37

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Hi-Way Service offers the complete solution for Case Construction equipment with comprehensive product support, industry experts and in-house financial services.

Hi-Way Service joined Hammer Equipment in December 2007 to become Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc., which trades on the TSX under the symbol RME.

Rocky Mountain Dealerships now operates three subsidiaries: Hi-Way Service, Hammer Equipment / Hammer New Holland and Miller Equipment. Miller Equipment operates eight branches in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, offering Case IH and other short-line agriculture brands. Hammer Equipment represents other agriculture and construction brands in Alberta, including but not limited to Terex, Takeuchi, New Holland and Husqvarna.

Hi-Way Service represents Case Construction as well as Case IH.

“Focusing on the Case line allows us to focus our skills on one core product line,” says David Liptrot, HiWay Service General Manager, Construction Division.

Hi-Way’s priority is to grow its market share with the Case Construction brand, and it now operates fifteen branches in Alberta—nine of which carry the construction product line.

Hi-Way focuses on quality product support, rapid turnaround and industry expertise. This focus is cultivated by the people at Hi-Way Service.

“Our goal is to make sure that people go home happy, healthy, challenged, fairly paid and feeling like they are part of an environment they can be proud of,” Liptrot says. “Our focus is to empower our employees to make the right decisions. Training our employees, engaging them and making this a really positive, rewarding place to be employed. We would like to be the employees’

first choice within the industry because we treat them respectfully and provide them the tools they need to get the job done properly.”

Liptrot believes that the people are what make the difference in the business.

“In this day and age, I still think that in the construction sector, customers buy from people.

Customers need to know that somebody actually cares about them at the other end of the phone, and that somebody is going to answer the phone no matter what time they call.” To this end, Hi-Way provides 24/7 service through an Alberta-wide toll-free number, 310-CASE.

Liptrot illustrated an example of this type of outstanding support. Recently, on a Friday afternoon, a customer’s machine went down in Edmonton. The failed part happened to be one that rarely fails, so it was not in stock at Hi-Way’s Edmonton branch. The parts technician made some calls, and found that the Balzac store had the same model machine in the yard. A team member in Balzac took the part off and drove it to Red Deer, where he met the technician from Edmonton. The customer was up and running first thing Saturday morning.

In support of their focus on employee empowerment, Hi-Way has hired a team development manager—a human resources professional whose mandate is to work with employees one-on-one to develop specific, individualized plans designed to encourage career growth.

“We are committed to making it easy for customers to deal with us. If our employees are satisfied, so are our customers,” Liptrot says.

Please contact for more information: David Liptrot, General Manager, Construction Division T: 403-513-7000 F: 403-532-4706 email: dliptrot@hiwayservice.com www.hiwayservice.com Hi-Way Service is a Division of Rocky Mountain Dealerships, Inc.

infrastructure

Bridge makeover Edmonton’s busiest bridge is widened, updated

by Godfrey Budd | photography by Aaron Parker

The 315 m long Quesnell Bridge on Whitemud Drive has the highest traffic flow of any bridge in Edmonton. It carries approximately 120,000 vehicles per day, which means at least 10,000 vehicles per hour during peak morning and afternoon periods.

Edmonton residents who commute to the city’s west end via the Whitemud received a Christmas gift of sorts last winter when the northbound ramp that leads on to the drive where it crosses the North Saskatchewan River on the Quesnell was re-opened for traffic on Dec. 23.

The westbound lane of Fox Drive, which provides access to the ramp, had been closed except for transit buses for much of 2009, as part of the city’s $161-million Quesnell and Whitemud Drive widening and rehabilitation project.

Traffic had been detoured to a point about

1 km south of the bridge since the ramp closed for construction the previous April.

Since the start of planning for the three-year project, which is scheduled for completion in November, maintaining reasonable traffic flow, while allowing for slower speeds, has been a priority.

“The challenge was a traffic management plan for the city’s busiest bridge,” says Byron Nicholson, roadways construction director with the City of Edmonton’s capital construction department.

“During construction, we’ve been able to maintain five out of six original lanes open for traffic, albeit narrower lanes and with traffic moving at a slower pace.”

A portion of scaffolding is revealed on the underside of the 42-year-old Quesnell Bridge.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 39

infrastructure

More than 120,000 motorists use the Quesnell Bridge each day to cross the North Saskatchewan River.

The original price tag for the project had been pegged at $181 million, but dropped in the wake of the sharp economic downturn, Nicholson says.

To help monitor and manage traffic flows, the city deployed an extensive network of cameras and 64 digital messaging signs along and around the construction area. The messaging signs are located along key corridors and provide real-time traffic updates to allow motorists the opportunity to find alternate routes when necessary.

The Quesnell Bridge opened for traffic in 1968. This project marks its first major rehabilitation. It should extend the life of the bridge by up to 50 years.

Originally, the bridge had three lanes (including ramp lanes) in each direction, but without shoulders, while the newly widened bridge will have four lanes (including ramp lanes) each way, plus shoulders. Adjacent sections of Whitemud Drive, including the Fox Drive overpass just south of the bridge, totalling about 3 km, are being widened from two to three lanes each way.

The old bridge deck is being removed and replaced. Also, says Nicholson, “The www.nait.ca/cit

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40 | Fall 2010

infrastructure plan was to widen the bridge without more pier extensions into the water. Instead, we’ve built onto the existing concrete piers new extensions to support the widened road.”

Construction by ConCreate USL Ltd. on the bridge and overpass components of the project also involved replacement and widening of the Fox Drive overpass structure, and included strengthening of existing girders and the erection of some new ones.

The original bridge had 10 rows of pierto-pier girders. To accommodate the widening, two additional rows of girders were added, bringing the total to 14 rows.

“Re-enforcing was done on the existing girders, via a fibre wrap. It’s a new technology and involves encasing the existing girders with a kind of hightech fibreglass,” says Derek Martin, VP of ConCreate USL and the senior project manager for the project. He says the company typically does 70 to 80 bridge projects across Canada annually.

With much of the work being done at considerable heights above either water or existing roadway with traffic on

This year’s renovation work should extend the Quesnell’s lifespan by another 50 years.

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 41

infrastructure it, extensive scaffolding was required.

Peri Scaffold Services, a division of Peri Formwork Systems Inc., supplied scaffolding services. The Peri UP Rosett modular scaffold system formed the basis of most of the scaffolding. Much of the scaffolding was below the bridge deck level and the complex scaffolding network also incorporated and provided support for Peri LGS, a lattice girder system for large spans.

The suspended scaffold structure provided access points and work platforms for around the pier heads and other areas below the bridge superstructure.

With space on the bridge at a premium, there were no spare lanes for staging, “so we had to use the sidewalk for the staging area. It could be a challenge with the height and the water below,” says Dean Dancey, western regional manager for Peri.

“The movement of water below can be disorienting, even for those used to working on scaffolding at heights.”

A section of the bridge also spans a roadway to a nearby park, which remained open throughout construction, so measures were taken to ensure that nothing

“ Given the stakes, cost and nature of the project, it is perhaps just as well that we have system design capabilities that are welltargeted for complexities.”

— Dean Dancey, Western Regional Manager, Peri

fell on traffic moving below — or into the river.

“The working platform had to be closed in so no debris from demolition was falling onto the road or in the river,” Dancey says.

Scaffold towers composed of standard Peri UP components support the LGS structure, which is constructed to provide stable load-bearing units that span the

entire width of the roadway. The units provide safe work platforms and secure access points to the underside of the bridge.

The LGS work platforms below the bridge superstructure were designed as mobile units that could move along aluminum rails. “This means that the truss girders can be simply and easily moved by hand,” Dancey says.

There were two main reasons for this type of support system, he says.

“Firstly, the working area, as well as the crane capacity, available for erecting the LGS structure was limited,” he says. “As a result, the structure was preassembled on the bridge in small units, and then lowered by crane onto the supporting towers and connected. Secondly, only half the bridge was refurbished at a time. For the remaining half, additional scaffold towers are erected along the lanes, and the LGS system can be simply moved into place under the second half of the bridge.”

Given the stakes, cost and nature of the project, it is perhaps just as well that, as Dancey says, “we have system design capabilities that are well-targeted for complexities.”

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movers & shakers

Meet 10 people having an impact on the industry Each year, Alberta Construction Magazine asks you to tell us who’s having an impact on driving the province’s construction industry forward. From that, we compile our annual report of Movers and Shakers.

This year, we feature 10 individuals from a range of companies — some big, some small, some established, some relatively new. What they all have in common is that the people featured on the next 14 pages are people with vision, with ideas and skills to drive the industry (and their companies) forward this year and in the years to come.

Without further ado, meet this year’s Movers and Shakers.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 45

PHOTO: CHRISTINA RYAN

movers & shakers

Mark Jette & John Spoletini Operators of MJS RECYCLING

These two are shaking things up on the construction waste front 46 | Fall 2010

movers & shakers .

Founder John Spoletini and president Mark Jette of MJS Recycling.

Construction waste may soon disappear from Alberta landfills thanks to Mark Jette and John Spoletini of MJS Recycling Inc. This innovative duo currently recycles around 22 products at the MJS facility east of Calgary, resulting in an average recycling rate of 75 to 80 per cent for most of its clients. Some, like the University of Calgary, are achieving rates in the high 90s.

Spoletini saw recycling as the wave of the future back in 1996 when he founded MJS. In its first year of recycling, the company kept over six million pounds of

MARK JETTE

JOHN SPOLETINI

Age: 50 Hometown: Montréal Education: Bachelor of Science degree Looks up to: “My grandfather, who taught me to respect the environment because it’s the only one we have.”

What do you wish we could recycle today? Restaurant and fast food waste.

Age: 55 Hometown: Calgary Education: “School of Hard Knocks” Looks up to: “I do my own thing.

If we listened to everybody else, we wouldn’t be doing this.”

What do you wish we could recycle today? Waste water in smaller communities.

product, as well as 2,000 metric tonnes of wood, out of Calgary’s landfills, confirming his belief that he was doing the right thing.

Getting industry to agree has been a different matter.

“The perception has been that recycling waste costs more than taking it to the landfill,” Spoletini says. A decade ago, that perception was correct. But Spoletini and Jette, who joined the company as president in 2004, have been steadily decreasing the cost.

For starters, MJS custom-builds trucks and trailers to carry two bins at a time, reducing transportation costs. Bins are also larger than industry standard, so less fuel is used, benefiting the environment.

Two of the biggest sources of waste are processed on site — wood into bedding for agricultural feedlots and drywall into compost and soil amendment. These saleable products further reduce the cost of recycling for the contractor. MJS can recycle most waste for just slightly more than it would cost to dump it in the landfill. Some products, like drywall, are less expensive to recycle than dump.

Jette and Spoletini met when Spoletini was looking for a piece of land to set up the operation and hired Jette as a realtor.

“I thought what he was doing was great and John asked me to invest,” Jette says.

“Years later, the phone rang and John said, ‘You always liked this business idea. Come help me run it.”

Attracted by the chance to contribute to the environment in an industry ripe with opportunity, Jette jumped on board and the two have worked side by side ever since. “John has a little more to do with the

manufacturing side,” Jette says. “But we both do everything and there really isn’t much difference in our roles.”

Both are inventors at heart, constantly working to come up with new ways of lowering the cost of recycling, as well as developing recycling opportunities for more products. They power the site with a natural gas generator that’s shut down at night, design and build their own equipment and trucks, and are now working on a recycling method for vinyl siding, which will allow them to keep up to 85 per cent of waste from residential projects out of landfills.

They also accept commingled as well as source-separated waste, something Jette says makes sense for MJS and for contractors. “Source separating on site is costly.

You’re paying tradespeople $50 per hour for their expertise and you’ve got them sorting garbage,” he says, adding that bins are easily contaminated. “Even a small piece of metal, for example, could cause tens of thousands of dollars of damage to our equipment, so we can’t recycle potentially contaminated bins and contractors don’t get their LEED points.”

Over the past year, Jette and Spoletini have invested over $1 million in equipment. Future plans include automating as much of the operation as possible to reduce labour costs.

Both men expect business to get even busier as new provincial regulations take effect and consumers become aware of the ability to recycle construction material.

Says Spoletini: “Over the years it’s been very challenging to get people to choose to recycle. That’s changing and it’s consumers that are really driving the change.”

Alberta Construction Magazine | 47

PHOTO: WILCO

movers & shakers Art Maat is a believer in the power of technology.

Art Maat

President, WILCO CONTRACTORS NORTHWEST He’s moving to solve problems with a diversity of businesses You’d think Art Maat has enough to do as president of Wilco Contractors Northwest Inc., part of the Wilco Group of Companies, in Edmonton.

This year, the company finished the $2.5-million Commonwealth Stadium artificial turf project (see page 24 for related story) and is in the midst of a $10-million multi-sports project, as well as some major infrastructure landscaping projects.

But Maat owns three other businesses servicing the green industry: Erscon Canada Inc., an erosion and sediment control practices company; Super Grip Canada Inc., providing high-quality industrial tires; and now HisTREE. net Inc., a web-based start-up specializing in information tracking systems for trees and low-cost assets that can be used by nurseries, wholesale suppliers, contractors, and parks and urban forest custodians to manage inventory, tree maintenance, scheduling and industry trade processes.

48 | Fall 2010

“It’s sideways diversification,” Maat explains. “I’ve been exposed to every sector of the tree industry for 30 years.

I’m not a software company telling the industry they need to do this. I am within the industry and I see that there is a need.”

HisTREE.net is a response to the need for unique identification of trees in order to authenticate certification.

Using Radio Frequency Identification and GPS mapping, the company provides a means to document the history of individual .

ART MAAT Age: 51 Hometown: St. Albert, Alta.

Education: Grade 12 Person you most look up to: My father Last book read: Angels & Demons, Dan Brown

trees and allows for the continuous collection of information about the tree for better management. There’s also an online trade centre that eliminates the time-consuming process of communicating inventory levels to buyers.

“I view myself as a problem solver and solutions provider,” Maat says. “Wilco seeks out difficult jobs and works with consultants and owners to provide unique solutions, and I have that mentality with everything. You wouldn’t think that software is a green industry product, but I’m providing a solution.”

He also believes in the power of technology, incorporating advancements in his businesses to increase efficiency.

“I believe in empowering my staff, giving them the tools, capability, responsibility and accountability to do their jobs,” he says. “Everything we accomplish is done with heavy reliance on and expectation of the dedicated and close-knit staff. I could not do any of this without the very good people who work with me.”

PHOTO: PROFORM CONCRETE SERVICES

movers & shakers

Curtis Bouteiller is on the lookout for opportunities.

Curtis Bouteiller President and CEO, PROFORM CONCRETE SERVICES Taking calculated risks is the right move for this leader Proform Concrete Services Inc.’s CEO Curtis Bouteiller isn’t afraid to go where no concrete services provider has gone before.

Determined to achieve his company’s growth objectives, Bouteiller, with the support of seven others in the company’s ownership group, makes a point of looking for opportunities and taking on challenges. As a result, he’s brought new capabilities to Alberta, including concrete paving and custom precast catch basins and stormwater vaults.

Since taking the helm in 1992, Bouteiller has helped grow the Red Deer–based company from 30 employees to almost 200. Diversification was key. Proform has a precast division and contracting division, both of which are growing.

About 10 years ago, Bouteiller and his team realized that no one in Alberta offered concrete paving, required at airports. They bought a slipform concrete paver and started doing jobs at small airports to build expertise and a reputation.

With more than a dozen slipform paving

projects behind them, Proform is starting a 17,000 cu. m project at the Calgary airport.

The precast division has expanded to include industrial products as well as custom steps and decks and miscellaneous projects.

Additionally, Proform sells architectural products and is the western Canadian distributor for Harristone and Colonial Stone. .

CURTIS BOUTEILLER Age: 47 Hometown: Red Deer, Alta.

Education: Civil engineering technology from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and a mini-MBA at the University of Alberta Person you most look up to: Vic Walls of Border Paving. He’s not afraid to say it as he sees it and is a great source of advice.

Last book read: The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett

Bouteiller has been with the company, which recently acquired a competitor in Grande Prairie, since he was 14 years old. He has a keen understanding of the business, industry and the market. Trained as a civil engineer, his leadership abilities and business sense come naturally.

“I’ve always had a hobby of doing my own investigating and finding out what makes good companies tick,” he says.

He also knows a good idea when he sees one. “If you want to grow a business, you have to take a team approach and have the members of your team buy in,” he says. “We wanted our employees to know that we value their input and that we value them as people.”

After seeing the profit-sharing program developed by Border Paving in Red Deer, Alta., Bouteiller implemented his own, giving employees 15 per cent of profits. Since 2007, millions of dollars have gone back to their staff.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 49

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PHOTO: AARON PARKER

movers & shakers

A load of asphalt shingles behind Shane Ducholke is about to be ground.

Shane Ducholke President, ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSORS

He’s shaking up the norm with asphalt shingle recycling operation Did you know that an estimated 1.25 million metric ton of asphalt shingles are thrown away in Canada each year?

About 35,000 metric tons of that comes from the Edmonton area.

Did you know that if all the hot mix asphalt projects in Canada over the course of a year were to use just five per cent recycled shingles in the mix, there could be a 90,000-ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions?

Shane Ducholke does. Plus, he can recite a plethora of other statistics related to the same subject.

Ducholke is president of Environmental Processors Inc., a small company — “We’re seven people but we’re growing” — that bills itself as the only closed looped shingle processing facility in Alberta. In other words, it receives, sorts and processes waste asphalt shingles and then sells the recycled material to be used by asphalt producers in hot mix asphalt cement.

There’s no question this is a niche industry. But it’s one Ducholke believes has a lot of potential — not to mention environmental benefits.

“What we do now is not going to make a difference in our lifetime,” he says. “It’s for our kids [and] the next generations.”

Roofers drop off their old or unused shingles — separating plastic wrapping, wood scraps and scrap metal into bins — which is then loaded into a specialized grinding machine and ground up once a month.

“Ninety-nine per cent of what you see came from roofers,” Ducholke says, pointing to three huge piles of old asphalt shingles at his company’s southeast Edmonton location.

Environmental Processors charges companies to drop off their old shingles. “It’s half the price of the landfill,” Ducholke says. And it sells the ground

.

Shane Ducholke Age: 37 Hometown: Edmonton area Education: Diploma in marketing, Martec College About his business: “I want this to run well — so it never goes away.”

What would you like to recycle next: Other building materials

asphalt to companies for use in hot mix product.

Ducholke, who spent more than 15 years in the trash and recycling businesses before setting out on his own, believes that the secret to success is to focus on one thing.

“We specialize in shingle recycling,” he says matter-of-factly. “Unless you have people in one area of recycling, you won’t be successful.”

Alberta Construction Magazine | 51

PHOTO: INTEGRITY POST STRUCTURES

movers & shakers

Jerry Myer & Al Williams Owners, INTEGRITY POST STRUCTURES

This pair is moving to out-think and outperform the competition 52 | Fall 2010

movers & shakers .

Jerry Myer Age: 27 Education: Grade 12 Hometown: Crossfield, Alta.

Person you most look up to: “My wife, Nicole Myer. Nicole is the constant in my life that keeps my fast-paced life together, reminding me every day that there is more to life than work.”

Last book read: The Paper Bag Princess, Robert Munsch. “Since establishing my first business at 15, I’ve put every minute I have into business. Time reading is time spent with my twin girls.”

.

Al Williams

Age: 37 Education: Grade 12 Hometown: Ystradgynlais, Wales Person you most look up to: “My late granddad who always had time to show me the importance of the simple things in life.”

Last book read: The Watkin Path to Patagonia, a book Al’s dad wrote about the family’s history.

Jerry Myer and Al Williams use social networking to reach their customers.

Integrity is more than a buzzword for Jerry Myer and Al Williams, cofounders and owners of Integrity Post Structures in Okotoks, Alta. Every decision the duo makes is based on their commitment to listening to clients and providing excellent service. The result is amazing growth in a short period and the introduction of a new product to the western Canadian market.

Introduced by a mutual friend, Myer and Williams believed t hat their complementary skills — Myer in construction management and

Williams in sales — would give them a fighting chance in an extremely competitive market.

“You can’t set your own prices in this market,” says Myer, who is responsible for planning, crew management, business development and daily management of operations. “We are competing against large companies that have been in the industry for a long time. The only way we have a chance is to try to outthink and outperform them.”

That means taking what they refer to as an old-fashioned approach to customer service and quality, while striving to stay on the cutting edge of post-frame construction. “Our goal is not to maximize share price, but rather to give the best building and service,” says Williams, who manages the sales team and daily operations. “We are not driven by how quickly we move from

one project to the next, but by doing the best job and paying detailed attention to each aspect of the building.”

They’re also embracing innovation in order to continually offer customers a better product. To that end, Integrity Post Structures is now the exclusive Canadian provider of a new, engineered concrete post base called Perma-Column. The 5 ft tall precast concrete columns keep wood out of the ground, ensuring the building’s foundation will last.

“This product enhances the integrity of our buildings and puts us first in position in terms of quality,” Williams says.

Going viral is also helping the pair lead the post-frame pack. The company website includes a well-developed socia l marketing component with Facebook, blogging, e-newsletters and videos, and it is delivering results.

Facebook has increased traffic to the site by 38 per cent.

“With the new technology, we’re reaching people we never thought we’d reach,” Williams says.

They’re connecting with their primary target market, agricultural producers, in a bigger way than ever before, something they say would have been impossible 10 years ago and that their competitors have to play catch up on.

While staying ahead of the competition has been important to the company’s growth since it was established in early 2008 — they’ve constructed over 300 buildings in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and are moving into Manitoba — it’s not the key to their success.

“I think the key to success in business is the product and service,” Myer says. “You have to be able to look a customer in the eye at the beginning of a job and at the end of the job. Our main goal is to give the customers what they want and that’s something that the market needed.”

Williams agrees, adding that the whole team has to be committed to the vision. “We’re honest and hardworking and the whole team pulls together, from the guy in the yard loading the trucks to our awesome girl in the office. Integrity flows right through everybody.”

Alberta Construction Magazine | 53

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PHOTO: STUART OLSON DOMINION CONSTRUCTION

movers & shakers

Don Pearson recognizes the value of having good people in place.

Don Pearson

President and COO, STUART OLSON DOMINION CONSTRUCTION He sees opportunity even when times are shaky Don Pearson is a builder at heart.

With over 30 years in the industry, he’s done a bit of everything, from structural engineering, estimating and project management to operations management and project development. Now, as president and COO of Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd., he’s intent on building a better organization with a strong presence in the western Canadian market.

Pearson, appointed president of Stuart Olson Construction last year, has played and continues to play a major role in the integration of Stuart Olson and Dominion Construction. That’s led to new challenges.

”The time that you want to change and retool and reorganize is not when you’re going 100 mph in a boom economy.”

–Don Pearson, President & COO Stuart Olson Dominion Construction

“I think the biggest challenge is that [focusing on the integration and planning for the future process of continuing the integration] certainly takes your focus away from everyday business at Stuart Olson,” he says. Having good people in place to handle the day-today aspects of the business is key to his ability to lead the company through the transition.

His everyday responsibilities have also increased. Stuart Olson Dominion has double the number of employees and triple the number of projects of Stuart Olson. Additionally, the company’s volume has increased by two-thirds and Pearson now oversees 11 branches instead of 5.

While the economic slowdown is typically seen as a negative, Pearson says the fact that the merger took place in a slower period has been beneficial. “The time that you want to change and retool and reorganize is not when you’re going 100 mph in a boom economy,” he explains.

Marketing and performance synergies are already developing from the mix of strengths offered by the two companies

.

Don Pearson Age: 52 Education: Bachelor of Science in Engineering Hometown: Vernon, British Columbia Last book read: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t, Jim Collins (for the third time)

that now make up Stuart Olson Dominion.

Dominion’s presence in the private sector and bidding know-how adds to the company’s capabilities, just as Stuart Olson’s experience in construction management and public-private partnership projects will be a boon.

As he continues to build a cohesive new company, Pearson also looks forward to helping talented young people build satisfying careers. Motivated by helping others succeed, he gets the most pleasure out of knowing he’s made a difference to individuals, the company he leads and the industry as a whole.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 55

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PHOTO: PCL

movers & shakers

Alan Kuysters has expertise in large projects.

Alan Kuysters

District manager, PCL CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT (EDMONTON) He has all the right moves to see big projects come together A s d i s t r ic t m a na ger of P C L Construction Management Inc. (Edmonton), Alan Kuysters works behind the scenes, ensuring that some of the biggest, most complex projects in the Edmonton region are completed on time and on budget. His expertise in largeproject development is legendary within the company. It’s also indicative of his ability to put the pieces of any puzzle together in a way that creates success.

That PCL Construction Management Inc. (Edmonton) is a leader in large-scale projects is itself a result of Kuysters’s ability to fit the right pieces together. When he took over operations in 2004, he knew that big projects were the wave of the future. He also knew his company had the in-house experience and knowledge to excel in that market.

“Positioning ourselves was a matter of getting ready in terms of understanding people, getting the right people and processes in place, and preparing for the complexities and necessities of running large projects,” he says.

Today, Kuysters oversees operations with revenue of over $500 million, up from $150 million in 2004, and a staff that’s grown from 90 to 250 people. Big projects are the norm. The company is working on several, including the $445-million Edmonton Clinic South and the $297-million Edmonton Clinic North, the $240-million Edmonton International Airport Terminal Building expansion, and the $167-million interchange at Anthony Henday Drive and Stony Plain Road.

Watching the elements of a project or team come together was what first attracted Kuysters to the industry.

“Construction is very unique, where you take a diverse group of companies, through subcontractors and tradespeople, and make something out of nothing and walk away with a building,” he says.

Some of the right pieces are the smaller projects completed by the Special Project division. Although the company plans to maintain its current market share, smaller projects provide opportunities for the staff to run entire projects from start to finish.

.

Alan Kuysters Age: 49 Education: Civil Engineering degree from SAIT Hometown: Drumheller, Alta.

Person most looked up to: His father, Leonard Kuysters Last book read: A Leader’s Legacy by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner Quote: “Construction is very unique, where you take a diverse group of companies, through subcontractors and tradespeople, and make something out of nothing and walk away with a building.”

“With the coming years and the aging workforce, people need the ability to regenerate knowledge on an accelerated timeline,” Kuysters explains. “Growing people takes time, and small projects turn over often enough that they can gain that experience faster.”

Alberta Construction Magazine | 57

Listening, Lending, Doing.

Business Banking

Jim Burke and his team can help your business with financing of up to $50 million. Call him at 403.726.8242 or visit TheWorkingBank.ca.

PHOTO: JOEY PODLUBNY

movers & shakers

Former Olympian competitor John Simpson is competitive in the field of business.

John Simpson President and CEO, CANA

Shake hands with a leader intent on making things happen John Simpson, president and CEO of the CANA Group of Companies, is a man of action.

“I’m just interested in the deal of the day,” he says. “What can you do to make something happen?” As a result, he’s made a lot happen, most recently the acquisition of High Time Industries (HTI). The company does engineering, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning and maintenance of high-voltage electrical facilities, complementing the transmission and distribution work that ACE Construction Company Ltd., a Cana company, has been doing for 23 years.

In a time of decreased merger and acquisition activity, Simpson jumped when HTI came up for sale. “Companies like this, privately owned, don’t come up for sale all that often,” he says. “I think it’s called ‘opportunity.’”

With an almost exclusive focus on Alberta, CANA has to watch the market carefully and respond in-house so it

is prepared to build what’s needed within the province. With HTI handling projects inside the chain-link fence that surrounds substations and ACE doing the work outside the fence, CANA is perfectly positioned for coming infrastructure work.

Simpson’s desire to make things happen, combined with a strong competitive streak, helped him when he was thrust into a leadership position. Although he worked for his father’s construction company as a young man, his real love was show jumping. He spent 10 years with the Canadian Equestrian Team, representing Canada in the Summer Olympic Games and Pan American Games.

But in 1984, after just two years working under his father, Simpson found himself at the helm when his father died. “I was a member of the board. I was 35. I thought I knew just about everything in the world,” Simpson recounts. “About three weeks in, I found out I was wrong.”

.

John Simpson Age: 61 Education: Simpson didn’t finish university but has received two honourary degrees Hometown: Cochrane, Alta.

Person most looked up to: Don Douglas, a long-term friend and mentor Quote: “What can you do to make something happen?”

Simpson relied on the knowledge and support of his team and credits their assistance for helping him get through a challenging time. He continues to place a high value on people, implementing training and mentoring programs that have played a role in being named one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies multiple times. In fact, in 2008, it became a platinum member of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 59

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Table of Contents

Fast through fibre cement board.......................... 62

PHOTO: DOOSAN

Inspired by a seashell ................................................

Two Alberta projects win national steel awards ..................................................................

Help for Habitat . .........................................................

An easier way to sort and sift . ...............................

Aecon buys into Churchill .......................................

Heatlink adds key person to American sales team .................................................

Edmonton company backs merry event ..........

63

64 64 65 66 66 66

people, products

& projects

A Doosan DL220 wheel loader at work.

HAMMERDOOSAN DISTRIBUTION LINK Hammer Equipment Ltd. is the new distributor for heavy excavators and wheel loaders in the greater Edmonton area for Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment. Doosan’s brands include Bobcat, Montabert, Geith, Tramac, Doosan Moxy and Doosan Infracore Portable Power.

Hammer is part of Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc., one of Canada’s largest agricultural and construction equipment dealerships with 26 dealership branches throughout Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

REDBUILT EXPANDS IN CANADA

HOW TO submit items

RedBuilt, formerly the commercial division of Trus Joist, has expanded its presence and availability of products throughout Canada. That expansion includes the addition of a new sales agent named John Law, who covers Alberta and southeastern British Columbia.

RedBuilt’s offerings include trusses; engineered wood I-joists; engineered lumber; and complementary components, product engineering, and on-site technical support, as well as a range of concrete-forming and scaffold-plank solutions. For more information, go to redbuilt.com.

Does your company have news about personnel changes or new products?

Or did it just land a new project in Alberta? We want to know about it.

Here’s how to get your news to us.

Email items to: cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com or send it to: Editor, Alberta Construction Magazine, 6111-91 St. NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 6V6 or fax to: (780) 944-9500 Please include the full name and location of the company.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 61

PHOTO: IRWIN

people, products & projects

FAST THROUGH FIBRE CEMENT BOARD

Irwin Tools says its newly introduced saw blade will stay sharp longer.

Head Office

Winnipeg, Manitoba

#205, 698 Corydon Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba R3M 0X9 Ph.: 204.453.9177 Fx.: 204.475.4304 Offices

Thunder Bay, Ontario 955 Cobalt Cres, Thunder Bay, Ontario P7B 5Z4 Ph.: 807.346.1650 Fx.: 807.346.1654

Edmonton, Alberta

Suite 167, 201 Kaska Road Sherwood Park, Alberta T8A 2J6 Ph.: 780.467.2601 Fx.: 780.467.2691

Calgary, Alberta

Suite 170, 3025-12 Street NE Calgary, Alberta T2E 7J2 Ph.: 403.204.8100 Fx.: 403.204.4969 www.manshield.com

62 | Fall 2010

Construction General Contractors • Institutional • Commercial • Residential

If you’ve ever cut fibre cement board, you know you can wear out a standard saw blade fast. Irwin Tools says its new Marathon Polycrystalline Diamond fibre cement blade has diamond-tipped teeth to deliver up to 15 times longer life compared to standard carbide-tipped fibre cement blades. The blade can cut up to 9,000 ft of fibre cement board. Irwin says the laser cut body provides a stronger tooth bond and greater cutting accuracy on the jobsite. And the 4T thin kerf blade produces less dust than a standard carbide fibre cement blade.

The blades are available through industrial supply locations across Canada.

people, products & projects

INSPIRED BY A SEASHELL

PHOTO: DELTA

Delta Faucet’s recently introduced Addison Kitchen Collection includes an offering of faucets that combine graceful design with smart functionality. Inspired by the fluted scallops of a seashell, Addison’s delicate curves add a romantic touch with a subtle hint of Art Deco design, according to Delta.

The faucets come with Delta’s Multi-Flow pull-down wand, which allows the user to toggle easily between spray and stream functionality. For ordinary tasks, the standard flow rate is a waterefficient 1.5 gallons per minute (gpm) for both modes, a savings of up to 32 per cent above industry standard 2.2 gpm in the kitchen. A simple push button on the underside of the wand increases the aerated stream flow from water-efficient to full flow when more water is needed to fill pots, vases and sinks. The user can easily press the toggle button to return to the standard 1.5 gpm flow rate.

To learn more, check out deltafaucet.com.

Addison Kitchen Collection faucets are designed to save water.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 63

people, products & projects

TWO ALBERTA PROJECTS WIN NATIONAL STEEL AWARDS

HELP FOR HABITAT

Two Alberta projects are among the winners of the prestigious Canadian Institute of Steel Construction–ICCA National Steel Design Awards competition. They are:

Steels Industrial Products Ltd. has partnered with Habitat for Humanity Canada’s ReStores to deliver new end-of-line or slightly dented goods to Habitat for Humanity ReStores from all its Alberta Steels locations. Goods including insulation, roofing, masonry and general contractor supplies will be sold at ReStores at below retail prices.

Steels says the partnership not only increases the volume and availability of products to builders and homeowners, but diverts goods from landfills and provides revenue to support the building of affordable homes in Habitat for Humanity projects across western Canada.

Award of Merit The Water Centre in Calgary Architect: Sturgess Architecture / Manasc Isaac Architects Structural engineer: Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. General contractor: Dominion Construction About the project: About 700,000 kg of reinforcing steel went into the construction of this distinctive building, with most of the structural materials left exposed. The most notable use of steel was cladding the unique five-storey curved envelope that arches over the building like a giant cresting wave. The design maximizes the amount of natural light within this 160 m long, 20 m wide, 4-storey-high building.

Sustainability Award of Excellence: University of Alberta’s Triffo Hall in Edmonton Architect: Johns Group2 Architecture Engineering Ltd. Structural engineer: Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. General contractor: Binder Construction Ltd. About the project: Triffo Hall is an example of the adage “What was old is new again.”

Undergoing numerous changes since 1915, Triffo Hall was restored back to its original design. It was important to use the steel and leave it exposed, retaining the steel trusses that supported the roof and clerestory and making them visible by removing the existing ceiling systems.

Build, Sustain and Connect Your Knowledge

• Applied Land Use Planning

• Construction Administration

• Environmental Resource Management • Occupational Health and Safety

To register: 780.492.3116

64 | Fall 2010

extension.ualberta.ca

people, products & projects PHOTO: BOBCAT

AN EASIER WAY TO SORT AND SIFT Bobcat says its new rock buckets make quick and easy work of removing objects from the soil, sorting or sifting materials and removing debris. The tines are fully gusseted on each side and interconnected to one another to provide strength and durability. The skeletal design of the rock bucket means the cutting edge of the attachment is always visible to the operator.

Bobcat rock buckets are available in four sizes: 62-, 68-, 74- and 82-inch widths. The rock buckets are approved for use on Bobcat skid-steer loaders, compact track loaders, all-wheel steer loaders, Toolcat utility work machines and the V417 VersaHandler telescopic tool carrier.

For more information, check out bobcat.com/attachments.

Bobcat offers its rock buckets in four widths, including 82 inches.

Providing service in Alberta for 54 years Edmonton & area.

780.465.9615 7710 67 Street, Edmonton, AB

www.canessco.com fax: 780.468.1802

Septic Tanks  Liquid Waste  Car Wash & Shop Sumps  Sewer Video Inspections  Sewer Flushing  Steaming  Special Waste Consultants  Hydro Excavating  Product Sales & Service  Sludge Dewatering

Alberta Construction Magazine | 65

people, products & projects

AECON BUYS INTO CHURCHILL Aecon Group has acquired a 14.9 per cent stake in Churchill Corp.

The company, based in Toronto, says it’s not interested in acquiring control of Churchill, formerly of Edmonton but now of Calgary.

“We made this investment because it is good value in a company and sector we know very well,” says John Beck, Aecon’s chairman and chief executive officer. “I believe this will give us the opportunity to explore areas of mutual interest over time. It is not our intention to acquire control of Churchill.”

The value of the deal is about $51.2 million.

HEATLINK ADDS KEY PERSON TO American sales TEAM HeatLink Group Inc. — the Calgary-based supplier of PEX tubing, radiant heating, cooling and potable water systems, and zone control panels for residential and commercial building markets across North America — has added to its U.S. sales team.

His name is Bob Davis, HeatLink’s new south regional sales manager. The company says that with its increased focus on the U.S. market, Davis will be instrumental in developing relationships and sales in that part of the country.

EDMONTON COMPANY BACKS MERRY EVENT All Weather Windows has signed on as the three-year national presenting sponsor for the Salvation Army Santa Shuffle Fun Run & Elf Walk.

Started in 1990 in Edmonton as a fundraiser for the Salvation Army, the event has since expanded to 34 communities across the country. In 2009, more than 8,300 runners raised over $370,000.

Edmonton-based All Weather Windows has pledged $300,000 over three years. Also, employees from all branches across Canada (Edmonton; Calgary; Lethbridge, Alta.; Vancouver; Kelowna, B.C.; Saskatoon; Regina; Winnipeg; Mississauga, Ont.; and Halifax) have a goal of raising additional pledges of $100,000 in year one.

Tough drainage for worry free designs The ACO PowerDrain trench drain products are designed for applications where heavy loads associated with vehicle maneuvers on top of the drain are expected.

From bus garages to airports, military facilities or fire stations, ACO PowerDrain products ensure safe and efficient drainage and a long service life.

Independent load test reports are available for all ACO Drain products.

ACO Systems, Ltd. (877) 226-4255 www.acocan.ca

66 | Fall 2010

A Union Making a Difference CALGARY 1–866–686–0288 calgary@clac.ca

EDMONTON 1–877–863–5154 edmonton@clac.ca

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Innovation, Safety, Enviromental and Customer focus make Lafarge Pipe the underground drainage leader in western Canada Engine e r s, c ontrac tor s, municipal officials and specifiers focused on buried infrastructure look to Lafarge for superior design, application and technology in sanitary and storm drainage systems,” says Chris McQuarrie, Lafarge Pipe sales manager for Calgary. “Precast concrete pipe installations are based on research and development and best practices that ensure systems are durable and perform for a service life that often exceeds 100 years.”

Lafarge Pipe is western Canada’s leading manufacturer of precast concrete drainage products, including pipe, box culvert, manholes and catch basins.

The company has been on a continuous growth curve, building capacity at its two Calgary plants while adding innovative technologies to meet customer demands.

1950 pipe installed around curve with T-Riser and Bends

Earlier this year Lafarge’s Calgary Pipe Operation purchased an adjustable wetcast box form that is capable of producing box culverts up to 4 m x 4 m, the largest size of precast box made in western Canada. “With this box we are now able to provide a manhole for every size of pipe we manufacture, and the adjustability of the form allows us to provide non-common box culvert sizes for owners and specifiers who require them for unique applications,” says McQuarrie.

Another service Lafarge has launched is half-pipe benching in large (1-S) manholes for sanitary sewer systems. Currently all 1-S sanitary benching is done in the field and this half-pipe benching service will reduce the amount of time required for installation. “Another plus for the customer is that with the product being produced at our controlled production facility instead of the field, quality issues are less of a concern, and a more consistent product can be provided,” says McQuarrie.

Lafarge Pipe has been a leader in the growing sustainability focus in the construction industry, as an everincreasing number of buried infrastructure projects apply for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)

4924 Lafarge Constru double page

certification. McQuarrie says precast concrete pipe is an ideal product for LEED projects. “We can contribute to a project’s LEED points with our concrete pipe, box and manholes because we use fly-ash, a power plant waste product, and use recycled steel in the reinforcement and the manufacture of our products,” he notes. “All of our products are also produced locally and have a service life that often exceeds 100 years. That’s good for the environment and it’s also good for lifecycle costs.” Alberta Transportation is finding more

New 4m x 4m adjustable Box Culvert form

opportunities all the time, most notably at Carbon Coulee, to take advantage not only of concrete pipe’s 100-year life cycle, but also an innovative installation approach that only concrete pipe could provide.

In addition to standard concrete products, Lafarge supplies the Stormceptor Oil and Grit Separator that removes and retains more pollutants from stormwater drainage systems than any other separator without scouring out. It can also contribute to a project’s LEED stormwater design quality control credits, says McQuarrie.

The Stormceptor is designed to remove solids from 20 to 2,000 microns in size, along with free oils, heavy metals, and nutrients that attach to fine sediment. Design of Stormceptor systems is backed by a computer modelling system that combines rainfall data from hundreds of stations across North America with a selection of particle sizes to create the best system possible for any given site. There have been over 20,000 Stormceptor units installed worldwide, and the units have proven their worth in removing oil and total suspended solids in a variety of applications.

“It’s been installed in locations like gas stations and other sites where stormwater quality is a concern,” says McQuarrie.

2427 uction Materials spread • dps

To meet ever-increasing customer demand, Lafarge Pipe has made several major improvements to its Calgary operations over the past six years. It added an entirely new wetcast facility in 2004, where it produces all of its 5A and 1-S manholes using Lafarge’s Agilia®, a self-consolidating concrete that produces a better product with no vibration.

In 2005, Lafarge built an expansion to house a new Hawkeye (semi-automated pipe machine) that doubled capacity for pipe from 300 – 1,800 mm in diameter and increased overall capacity by 50%.

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keeping those workers safe. “Safety is Lafarge’s number one priority,” he emphasizes. “Zero is the only acceptable number for accidents.” Calgary Pipe has gone over 1,100 days without a lost time accident and until recently had gone over 200,000 hours, about 20 months, without a medical aid.

Lafarge Pipe excelled at the American Concrete Pipe Association Safety Awards with all three plants in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg winning in their respective categories.

The company is just as committed to the communities where it operates. The United Nations declared 2010 the Year of Biodiversity, and across the world Lafarge is developing environmental stewardship programs in recognition of this declaration. In Calgary, the company has partnered with the City of Calgary to enhance biodiversity at the pipe operation’s Plant 2 Site. Initiatives include installing a webcam for the existing osprey nesting platform at the site, erecting a new platform for eagles, planting a native pollinator garden, and building habitat for small mammals and songbirds.

“We were selected by Lafarge as one of four biodiversity sites and we’re honored to have been selected,” says McQuarrie. “In a 5 km stretch along Deerfoot there are three Lafarge plants. People notice us by the river and we can make a big difference there.”

For more information on this story or to ask about plant tours or lunch and learns please contact Chris McQuarrie @ 403-292-9504 or visit www.lafargeconcretepipe.com.

Most recently in 2009, it completed work on a new cage production building that houses two 20-ton cranes and upgraded lunch room and training facilities for its employees on the second floor.

Behind Lafarge Pipe’s focus on innovation and customer service is a culture of responsibility to its employees and the Calgary community in which it operates.

The Calgary Pipe plant has 85 employees, and McQuarrie says a key Lafarge focus is

Box culverts installed along the Trans-Canada Highway for animal underpasses

GET YOURSELF A BIG, CUSHY OFFICE JOB. ARE YOU M-POWERED? If you want to be more comfortable, you could get an office job, or you could get something better. The new M-Series loaders from Bobcat are totally re-engineered for more room and comfort. With a best-in-class pressurized interior, more cab space, larger door, increased seat suspension and cab-forward design – plus optional seat-mounted joysticks – you’ll be more productive. See your dealer to learn how these new skid-steer loaders can M-Power you to do more.

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Bobcat of Edmonton

Lloydminster • 780-875-4471

Edmonton • 780-447-4441

Bobcat of Fort McMurray

Drumheller Equipment Sales

bobcat.cervusce.com

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Fort McMurray • 780-714-9200

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Drumheller • 403-823-8383

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Bobcat of the Peace

Grande Prairie • 780-538-0791 www.bobcatofthepeace.ca

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Peace River • 780-624-4646 www.bobcatofthepeace.ca

*Limited time offer. Available at participating and eligible dealers only. Offer may vary by product type, series, model and select units in dealer inventory. Offers available on new equipment in US and Canada only. Some restrictions apply. Length of contract may vary. Prior purchases not eligible. See dealer for details. Financing provided on approval of credit by authorized Bobcat finance providers to well qualifi ed buyers. The rates listed herein do not take into consideration any administrative fees and are subject to change based on the amount of such fees (which may vary). Offer not available to government accounts, national accounts and municipal/utility bid customers. Non-commercial customers may not be eligible for low rate financing. Bobcat Company reserves the right to extend or discontinue any of these programs at any time without prior notice. “Bobcat” is a registered trademark of Bobcat Company. | 0110554

aca report

Focus on provincial government advocacy

by Ken Gibson ACA Executive Director

ACA Executive Director The Alberta Construction Association (ACA) has a long-standing partnership to represent the interests of Alberta’s construction industry with the provincial government. Recent highlights include work focused on Alberta infrastructure and education.

Alberta Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Ray Danyluk called industry leaders together in early July to hear from Premier Ed Stelmach and the minister. They were seeking industry views on how to ensure that Alberta has the most advanced infrastructure in North America, and to learn what the Alberta government could do to foster industry competitiveness.

Led by Chairman Roger Dootson, b o a rd memb er s of t he A lb er t a Construction Association reiterated ACA themes (see the summer 2010 issue of Alberta Construction Magazine) and offered a number of recommendations.

These recommendations were provided in a follow-up letter to all government caucuses. ACA has been asked to assist in planning a major conference with industry for December.

The weather during the ACA’s 42nd Annual Golf Tournament at the Alberta Springs Golf Course in May may have been cool, but that didn’t stop members and guests from having fun — or the chance to work on their swing and putting. In photo at left, ACA Chair Roger Dootson (left) recognizes Greg Cornell, the low net winner. In photo below, Dootson presents a trophy to Gordon Selman, low gross winner.

PHOTOS: ACA

18012 - 107 Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5S 2J5 • Phone: 780.455.1122 • Fax: 780.451.2152 E-mail: info@abconst.org • Web Site: www.abconst.org

Alberta Construction Magazine | 71

aca report of foreign firms. ACA believes that when a foreign firm is awarded work in Alberta, the vast majority of the work will be performed by Alberta subcontractors and Albertans. However, some in Alberta’s industry perceive that Alberta owners are placing high value on the project resumé of foreign firms, while not recognizing the work is largely performed locally, and in not undertaking due diligence as to the success of those projects.

Despite the dreary weather during the ACA’s 42nd Annual Golf Tournament, the Calgary Construction Association foursome (from left) consisting of Bob Robinson, Dave Smith, Jim Clement and Ian Reid, shown in photo at right, sported some colour. In the photo below (from left) are ACA Past Chair Bernal Ulsifer, Vice Chair Brian Freemark, current Chair Roger Dootson, and immediate Past Chair Kees Cusveller.

PHOTOS: ACA

Key ACA recommendations include: ■ G overnment can assist industry through ongoing dialogue to ensure clear and consistent plans and policies to enhance the business environment and industry competitiveness.

Early and accurate announcement of upcoming projects are critical. Move forward on announced projects and in developing a timetable to respond to the growing backlog of deferred maintenance.

■ ACA urges the government to partner with local construction associations for electronic procurement of construction services through COOLNet Alberta and through their e-bidding service.

■ Explore, where appropriate, awarding of design and construction services based on value received, not just lowest price. The concept of incorporating life-cycle costs into procurement and 72 | Fall 2010

■

budget decisions is worthy of further policy development. ACA recommends that government add criteria to build industry capacity in targeted areas to enhance competitiveness, such as public-private partnership expertise, building information modelling expertise and sustainable building expertise.

This should be accompanied by a strategy to ensure that the ability to win these projects is open as wide as possible to large and small Alberta contractors and suppliers.

CA’s policies support free and fair A competition unencumbered by local preference policies. We understand that foreign firms will compete for work in Alberta. In order that Alberta companies are given a fair opportunity to compete against foreign competition, ACA recommends a dialogue to understand owner’s perspectives as to capabilities

Alberta Education A key consideration in responding to future challenges and opportunities is preparation of the future workforce. To that end, ACA has developed a submission to Education Minister Dave Hancock as he seeks views on redesigning Alberta’s kindergarten to Grade 12 system of education.

Key ACA recommendations include: ■ The immediate outlook of looming skill shortages is symptomatic of an ongoing need. Alberta’s construction labour market is highly cyclical, and a longterm, sustained response is necessary to ensure an adequate labour supply to address future needs. In the past, the system has allowed training capacity to lapse during cyclical downturns, only to create greater shortages and a more expensive response to address the shortfall when the market revives.

■ These recommendations urgently require implementation now, as the challenges they are intended to address require resolution now.

■ Trades and technology education form a critical, mandatory part of a student’s education. Trades and technology education should comprise a significant part of student learning each day, woven throughout the curriculum.

An approach of simply offering one or more optional courses is not acceptable. In addition, every student should be given the opportunity to experience the trades through specific Career and Technology Studies trades courses.

ACA further recommends creation of a ‘trade awareness’ course for students in late elementary.

■ Students’ educational experiences include developing an understanding of the career limitations of drug and alcohol use. The inclusion of this in Grade 11

aca report Career and Life Management curriculum is too late for part-time workers or early leavers and should be part of late elementary/early junior high.

■ Options to attract potential teachers of trades and technology education include a significant bursary or grant system to offset foregone income while attaining the necessary teaching certifications; and advanced credit for trade or technical credentials. ACA supports fast-track models, and a significant expansion of the Bridging Program and for related trade and technical work experience in determining teacher compensation (every year past receiving journeyman status counts as one year experience in terms of grid placement).

■ A strong, focused trades and technology education program in postsecondary teacher education, and support for trade- and technology-specific professional development opportunities with industry, including short-term work exposure, intermediate termwork placements, and partnerships to assist certificated teachers in gaining the work experience required to achieve formal trade or technical credentials. ACA urges that a program recognition agreement be in place with apprenticeship for each trade.

Short-term work exposure opportunities should be extended to career counsellors and other school staff to build their understanding of the wider community experience. With cooperation from Alberta Education and the Alberta Teacher’s Association, organizations such as ACA and Applied Industrial Technologies can work together with technical schools such as Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Red Deer College to help existing shop teachers acquire certification.

■ Sustained funding to address the specialized requirements of trades and technologies education. Operational funding must include the true cost of the learning process, including appropriate student/teacher ratio, materials and supplies, and maintenance. An evergreen funding model that ensures equipment is current with industry is critical.

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cca report

photo: CCA

Bob Robinson, president and GM of Westcor Construction, reviews the On-Site Construction Safety guide with Mark Heath, general superintendent and company safety coordinator.

New guide stresses safety on the job

by Dave Smith Executive VP, CCA

Many of you may recall the late City of Calgary commissioner Lyle Ward. Ward was the individual that set the construction industry on the right track when it came to safety in the mid-1980s. Shortly afterwards, the Alberta Construction Association (CCA) was successful in the formation of the Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA), the first of its kind in Canada. Since then, the ACSA has trained tens of thousands of individuals. That training will continue, as the construction industry in Alberta expects in excess of 30,000 new entrants into the construction sector over the next decade.

Knowing that safety is a way of life, the CCA joined in a partnership with the City of Calgary and Occupational Health and Safety and formed the On-Site

Construction Safety Committee last fall.

The CCA’s past-president Bob Robinson of Westcor Construction along with Kevin Griffiths of the city’s Land Use, Planning and Transportation (LPT) department became co-chairs and quickly went to work in addressing a number of safety-related issues. This exercise drew the interest of CCA members and soon 40 individuals with over 1,000 years of combined experience started working on the development of an On-Site Construction Safety — Best Practices guide. Once the guide was off the press, the CCA presented the guide to alderwoman and chair Diane Colley-Urquhart along with members of the city’s LPT Committee (LPT). CCA president Ian Reid of Bird Construction along with Gary Wagar,

executive director of the ACSA, presented the guide to the LPT group.

Reid noted that over the past few months, several articles on safety had appeared in newspapers; one article in particular was entitled “Worked to Death — Does Anybody Care?” Reid assured the LPT committee that “we care” in the construction industry — and the booklet demonstrates just that.

During the presentation, Griffiths said the guide’s purpose is “to raise awareness of the various hazards and conditions at and adjacent to construction sites. Being that construction activities occur in diverse environments, pre-planning for public safety is essential.” He also stressed it is the intention of the partnership to have zero incidents.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 75

cca report

Clockwise, beginning at top photo: CCA’s Youth Employment Program coordinator Ryan Hagen with YEP chair Victor Jensen of Botting & Associates welcomed over 300 guests to the YEP BBQ; YEP partner Debra Mercer of Alberta Employment and Immigration sports her western wear with colleague Dan Szoo; Easy Street provided the music. photos: CCA

YEP, it was a Stampede party all right

by Ryan Hagen, CCA Youth Employment Program Coordinator It may have been raining outside, but the Calgary Construction Association’s (CCA’s) Stampede spirit certainly shone through the downpour as hundreds of members and friends filtered through the doors to help celebrate the CCA Youth Employment Program’s (YEP’s) inaugural Stampede BBQ. With the help of some volunteers and sponsors, the party was a huge success in bringing together some of the industry’s best to enjoy a burger while sipping on suds and helping spread the word about the importance of investing in today’s

76 | Fall 2010

youth to sustain a strong and prosperous construction industry.

The band Easy Street rocked the house and serenaded the partygoers with country anthems as the guests wrapped around the Chinook room in a serpentine line waiting for their Alberta beef.

Door prizes were drawn throughout the afternoon for a few lucky winners, but the real winners were the 50 individuals who recently became Gold Seal– certified. In a momentous occasion, CCA president Ian Reid of Bird Construction

and Todd Poulsen of Elan Construction presented Gold Seal certificates to the latest individuals who have raised the bar and helped set a higher standard of excellence in the industry.

All in all, the BBQ was a great event and the CCA was very pleased with the turnout and support. The YEP continues to be an integral part of the CCA’s philosophy and is constantly striving to place young, driven workers (ages 16–24) into the trades in Calgary. For more information, visit www. yepcca.cc or email yep@cca.cc.

cca report Reid also noted to the committee (in addition to all the safety training that has taken place over the last two decades, and this new safety guide) the Canadian Construction Association’s Gold Seal Certification Program, which is based on education and experience for several construction occupations, one of which is construction safety coordinator.

“Alberta has the highest number of certified Gold Seal construction safety coordinators in Canada,” he said. “In this country, 626 individuals from coast to coast have written the exam, 472 have passed, of which 234 are in Alberta. In 2010, there have been 80 Gold Seal– certified CSCs [construction safety coordinators] in Calgary compared to 26 in Toronto.” Reid indicated that safety standards here in Alberta are of the highest standards; however, he emphasized that this does not mean there is no room for improvement.

Most impressed with the guide, the LPT committee embraced the work of the joint venture between the construction industry along with both the municipal and provincial governments, and will recommend to Calgary City Council that it endorse the guide with the intent to have the booklet in the hands of every construction superintendent in Calgary.

Complimentary safety guides are available at the CCA office. All a contractor has to do to receive copies is to contact the CCA. The guide is dedicated to Michelle Krsek, a three-year-old girl who lost her life due to a construction incident last summer. The CCA has established a $1,000 Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training Scholarship in memory of Michelle. It will be awarded annually in perpetuity to a woman in a construction trade.

Griffiths and Reid thank the founding committee members: Pat Arts (Ferguson Corporation), Marco Civitarese (City of Calgary), Cliff De Jong (City of Calgary), Syd Hartley (Ledcor Construction Limited), Richard Heine (Centron Group of Companies), Randy Januszewski (Stuart Olson Construction Inc.), Stuart Long (EllisDon Construction Services Inc.), Gurdip Sanghera (Alberta Employment and Immigration), Dave Smith (Calgary Construction Association) and Mark Taylor (PCL Construction Management Inc.).

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cca report

photo: CCA

GOLDEN MOMENT FOR RECIPIENTS Here are the names of the 51 most recent Gold Seal–certified individuals in their respective disciplines. The next Gold Seal exam will take place on Oct. 8. For more information about the program, visit www.goldsealcertification.com.

Sandee L. Allen, Construction Safety Coordinator, Skyline Group of Companies

Joe McCormac, Project Manager, General contracting, Graham Construction

Christopher Duncan Armstrong, Superintendent, General contracting, FWS Commercial Projects

Denis J. McDougall, Superintendent, General contracting, CANA Construction

D’ArcyBaker, Construction Safety Coordinator, MEG Energy

Neil Moffatt, Construction Safety Coordinator, Canem Systems

Carter Bazowski, Superintendent, General contracting, Stuart Olson Contracting Inc.

Georgina Nicholls, Construction Safety Coordinator, S.C.H.

Darcy R. Boudreau, Construction Safety Coordinator, Borger Construction

Owen Nordmark, Project Manager, General contracting, PCL

Daryl Breault, Superintendent, General contracting, Ledcor

Heather Plourde, Construction Safety Coordinator, Medican Construction

Dennis Busic, Project Manager, Roadbuilding and heavy construction, Volker Stevin Contracting

Rene E. Querido, Construction Safety Coordinator

Michael Cadman, Construction Safety Coordinator, Spring Creek Darrel Callfas, Superintendent, Drywall/acoustics, Alpine Drywall Scott Mackenzie Casano, Construction Safety Coordinator, Bechtel International Darrell Chamberlain, Construction Safety Coordinator, Graham Construction Cheryl Corbin, Construction Safety Coordinator, Stuart Olson Construction Nicholas Darling, Project Manager, General contracting, CANA Construction Trevor Dickinson, Construction Safety Coordinator, Alberta Glass Company Kenneth Michael Donaghy, Project Manager, Electrical contracting, Canem Systems Jeffrey Alan Duffield, Project Manager, General contracting, PCL Douglas M. Forrest, Construction Safety Coordinator, Westglas Insulation Ltd. Thomas J. Foy, Superintendent, General contracting, Devitt & Forand Contractors Inc. Nathalie Gray, Construction Safety Coordinator, Harris Rebar

Henry Reichert, Superintendent, Drywall/acoustics, Alpine Drywall Bradley Robertson, Estimator, General contracting, Genesis Building Ken Romijn, Superintendent, General contracting, Ledcor Steven Richard Sharp, Construction Safety Coordinator, ARTE Group of Companies Joseph Short, Estimator, Drywall/acoustics, Alpine Drywall Bruce Sonnenberg, Project Manager, General contracting, PCL Andrew Stark, Construction Safety Coordinator, Blue Bird Keith W. Studer, Superintendent, General contracting, EllisDon Corporation Blake F. Taylor, Construction Safety Coordinator, Qualico Group of Companies John Teed, Project Manager, Carpet/resilient flooring , Universal Flooring Systems Barry Toovey, Project Manager, Electrical contracting, Concept Electric

Troy Hahn, Project Manager, Electrical contracting, Concept Electric

Brian Topley, Construction Safety Coordinator, Brandon Construction

Colin Tim Hewko, Construction Safety Coordinator, Iconic Power and Controls Inc.

Cindy Vanberg, Construction Safety Coordinator, Stuart Olson Construction

Dallas G. Hoffman, Construction Safety Coordinator, Trotter and Morton

John Adrian Vermeeren, Construction Safety Coordinator, Dominion Construction Company

Michael D. Horobec, Superintendent General contracting, General contracting, EllisDon Corporation

Kathleen Closs Walroth, Construction Safety Coordinator, ACSA

Stephen F. Huska, Superintendent, Specialty trade, Viking Fire Protection

Robert J. Walsh, Project Manager, Reinforcing steel, Harris Rebar

David J. Kopriva, Project Manager, General contracting, PCL

Lyle Wunderlich, Project Manager, Drywall/acoustics , Alpine Drywall

Barclay Manders, Construction Safety Coordinator, Barclay & Associates Inc.

Cory Yacyshyn, Project Manager, Specialty trade, North American Caisson Ltd.

78 | Fall 2010

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finishing touches

The sunny side

With some planning, landscaping can help lower building energy costs

by Lasia Kretzel

With the continuation — at least for a few more weeks — of warm temperatures, many Albertans may be tempted to reach for the A/C button.

Their attempts to keep cool, however, have left many building owners hot under the collar and seeking alternative methods to bring down the resulting high energy costs.

Throughout Alberta, many are trying to make the most out of their landscaping projects to help cut heating and cooling costs. Their techniques range from tried-and-true methods to some new and innovative technologies.

One of the easiest things you can do to cut costs is to plant trees.

“Appropriate placement of vegetation around buildings and other facilities can provide shade for cooling or breaks to

slow winter winds,” Jill Grant, author of multiple journal articles on the benefits of environmentally friendly buildings, points out in Planning and Designing Industrial Landscapes for Eco-efficiency.

Some landscaping companies across Alberta agree with Grant’s observation.

Aaron Lauritsen of GLI Landscaping in Calgary and Jeff Oudyk of Land Tec Landscaping Contractors in Edmonton represent just two of the hundreds of companies that use trees to help clients cut energy costs. They say deciduous or leafy trees like elm or ash allow clients to enjoy savings year-round.

“The leaves will provide shade in the summer and when they fall off in the winter, that will allow the sun to shine in and lower heating costs,” Oudyk says.

In addition, trees are an easy and cheap way to cut energy costs compared to largescale renovations or building construction.

But what if your building, like those in downtown cores, doesn’t have tree space or is too tall to be shaded?

Offices looking to save money can turn to an innovative, but again, simple solution: reflective paving blocks.

In downtown areas, dark pavement and asphalt are often the culprits of a phenomenon known as the heat island effect. This effect occurs when dark surfaces absorb heat, making the ambient temperature warmer, forcing companies to spend more on cooling. Reflective surfaces help reduce the amount of absorbed heat, keeping ambient temperatures down.

Darren Prebushewski of Expocrete, a company that makes reflective paving Alberta Construction Magazine | 81

finishing touches stones, says companies have the choice of using the blocks to pave sidewalks or to place them on their rooftop patios.

However, Prebushewski says reflective paving stones will only work on a large scale, either in large, open parking lots or on multiple downtown buildings. So it will be up to building owners to work together to reduce their costs.

Another unconventional, cost-saving landscape option takes owners way up with green roof technology.

“Basically, take the landscaping from the ground and put it on your roof,” says Mark Spoletini, president of Cat Trax Services.

A green roof is a designated green space on a building’s roof ranging from a few small plants to full gardens — even streams. The roof itself is protected with waterproof and semi-permeable sheets covered with specially engineered soil.

But a green roof offers more than just a welcome oasis. The soil acts as natural insulation, keeping heat out during the summer and in during the winter.

Spoletini says green roofs also help mitigate the heat island effect, similar to reflective paving stones.

A study conducted by the National Research Council in Ottawa revealed that when outdoor temperatures were between 28 and 35 degrees Celsius, a green roof’s surface temperature was lower than a standard two-ply bitumen roof.

Almost any building can be constructed or retrofitted to incorporate the green roof as long as the surface is flat.

The centre’s manager, Dave MacKillop, says there’s not enough data yet to measure exactly how much heating energy a company can save by switching to a green roof.

“We know that it does reduce the cooling costs because of two reasons,” he says.

“One, the soil is an insulator and [second] the plants transpire water, which has a cooling effect.”

The centre will conduct thermal studies over the next year and a half to gauge the roof’s energy savings.

MacKillop, however, says another hurdle must still be overcome — one that affects all areas of energy efficient landscaping.

“The biggest challenge here is [that] the cost is out of the capital budget and it’s upfront,” he says. “The benefits are over time.”

Spoletini, Prebushewski and MacKillop say long-term investments are always the right choice and short-sighted decisions today could cost in the long run — either to the wallet or the environment.

Says Spoletini: “My advice is always go towards the green choice. You always have to think long-term. Make the investment now and take the benefits later.”

One of the easiest things you can do to cut costs is to plant trees.

The technology, however, is still relatively new to Alberta, and finding the perfect plants and soil to fit the province’s unique weather has been a challenge.

In Calgary, the Alastair Ross Technology Centre’s green roof was installed in 2004 as part of a study project to gauge how effective green roofs are in Alberta.

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business of building

Answer to cutting costs could be as close as your desk(top)

by Kevin Baker If you ask a small construction business what’s one of the most difficult operational tasks to be dealt with, staying on budget with monthly expenses will likely be a top contender.

It seems every time you turn around, there’s another expense, a delay in payment, or some other circumstance that has a negative effect on cash f low. To make the money and the month line up better, you may need to rethink some of your business assumptions — including what constitutes a must-have expense.

To help improve your overall cash flow, ask yourself: 1. Do YOU NEED A LANDLINE? There are simple technologies today like virtual phone services for small business that will help your company run more efficiently than it would through the use of a landline.

With a virtual phone service, you receive your choice of a toll-free or local phone number that goes to a phone you already have. It allows you to assign extensions to all your employees, in the office, virtual, or on a project site. When customers and prospects call your business number, the service’s virtual receptionist allows them to select the extension they 84 | Fall 2010

need. The call is then forwarded to that person’s mobile. Your mobile number still works independently as well.

In addition to the one-number convenience, virtual phone services come equipped with robust features such as smart call forwarding, enhanced voice mail, call screening and more.

Virtual phone services for small business provide all those big-business capabilities. Compare that to just the base cost of a landline for your business.

2. DO YOU NEED OFFICE SPACE? Office space is usually one of the highest fixed costs a small construction business has. While it’s nice to have an office where everyone can gather and work more collegially, if you’re looking to reduce expenses, taking your landlord off the payroll may be the right move.

Of course, sometimes you do need a formal office. If you can’t travel to your customer, you can always look into renting a common conference room area from a local business and have your customers come to you. Even then, a virtual office strategy helps you keep that expense to a minimum, freeing up more cash for other aspects of the business that have more impact on your success.

3. DO YOU NEED THOSE TOOLS? Look around your office, or through the applications on your desktop computer.

How many things do you own that have only one function? Can that function be performed by something else?

When it comes down to the software you are using to run your small construction business, consider a pay-as-you-go or Web-based service model.

For example, for roughly $10 per month you can access applications that help you design, manage, send and track promotional emails to your customer and prospect lists. With these applications you can build high-value email campaigns that look like they were created by high-priced professionals, but were actually created by you on your own PC or laptop.

Let’s face it. Operating a small company is challenging even in good times.

But with a little creativity and some unconventional thinking, you can help ensure the month runs out before the money does.

Editor’s note: Kevin Baker is the product marketing manager for my1voice, an Ottawa-based company that provides communications services for small business.

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Picker equipment

CARRYDECK Carrydeck cranes have decks for carrying loads from place to place.

Smaller than other cranes, they typically have multiple steering options that make them very manoeuverable, even in tight, congested spaces.

Manitowoc’s Shuttlelift industrial cranes, pictured here, are used for a wide range of applications in many industries, including general construction, power generation, petrochemical plants, public utilities and manufacturing facilities.

The smallest, the 3330F, can lift up to 8.5 tonnes, while the large CD7725 has a lift capacity of 25 tonnes. Because carrydecks are often used indoors, many Shuttlelift industrial cranes can run on liquid propane.

HYDRAULIC TRUCK Using the power of hydraulics, these cranes are able to lift extremely heavy loads relative to their size. “Our cranes can lift up to 22 tonnes, but you can get bigger ones that can lift more,” says Darcy Newitt, sales manager at Chariot Express in Calgary.

Knuckle boom cranes, like the one shown here in a photo provided by Chariot Express, are suitable for a range of applications.

Chariot Express has used them to install the concrete lions on Calgary’s Centre Street Bridge and to dangle helicopters on movie sets, as well as for a range of construction jobs.

ROUGH TERRAIN Specially designed for rough environments, rough terrain cranes are found on construction sites and are ideal for off-road terrain. Because they’re not designed to travel on public roads and must be hauled to the site, they tend to be used on long-term projects.

Terex’s RT 100 has a maximum load capacity of 100 tonnes and, according to the company, the longest main boom — 174 ft (53 m) — in the rough terrain crane category worldwide. The telescoping main boom makes it easy to operate when used for heavy jobs, such as erecting prefabricated concrete structures or positioning heavy machinery.

MINI CRANES Able to go where regular cranes can’t, mini cranes are used for a variety of applications, indoors and out. You’ll find them on industrial and construction sites as well as in people’s backyards, where they are used for landscaping and roofing garages.

Spydercrane mini crawler cranes, available at Encore Trucking & Transport Ltd. in Edmonton, lift up to 6,000 lb but can fit in extremely tight spaces.

The leg placement of the three-tonne unit contributes to their versatility; the legs extend straight out at 4 ft, 6 ft and 8 ft lengths, but also swing into five other positions. Encore provides certified operator training.

OVERHEAD Found in a variety of facilities, overhead cranes run on rails above ground level so they don’t take up valuable space. This one, engineered and manufactured by JMF Cranes & Hoists, is a double-girder powerhouse crane of 125tonne capacity used for turbine maintenance.

Double girders give a higher height of lift for the space available and are required for such a high capacity.

To increase versatility, this overhead crane has two hoists; a main hoist to lift the heaviest equipment, and an auxiliary hoist for lifting smaller items.

When it comes to heavy lifting, the adage about having the right tool for the right job is bang on. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the world of cranes, here’s a short primer and examples of what you’ll find on the market today.

86 | Fall 2010

equipment

Whatever the job, there’s probably a crane to handle it

CRAWLER Crawler cranes are likely to be spotted at bridge erections, gas plant shutdowns or large construction projects. Because they are taken apart for transport, crawlers are considered on-site cranes. They can be configured for multiple job applications, even if they’ve been adapted for a particular use.

This CC 2800-1NT is a 600-tonne crawler manufactured by Terex Cranes and is adapted for wind turbine erection.

Equipped with a narrow track chassis, it can travel on access roads between turbines. The main boom is reinforced to increase the capacity in steep positions. This crane has a maximum capacity of 109 tonnes at an 18 m radius, and can lift 125 tonnes at a 24 m radius when a superlift mast is attached.

BOOM TRUCK The boom truck crane is another that can go virtually everywhere and do pretty much everything.

“Deck trucks are pickers with a deck on back, or you can have fifth-wheel mounted pickers that can pull trailers,” Wyers says.

Boom trucks are getting bigger, a benefit when used in places like the oilfields because they can be used for both hauling and offloading skids, reducing the amount of equipment that has to be on site. This 26-tonne Terex BT 26106 Super Stinger is based on a rough terrain crane design so that it can handle extremely harsh environments.

GANTRY Gantry cranes are mounted on frames and run along rails on the ground. They can move forward and backward as well as left to right, but only within the frame. Typically found in factories, they are often used many times an hour but may also be purchased for use just once or twice a year.

This double-girder gantry crane, engineered and manufactured by JMF Cranes & Hoists in Laval, Que., is for outdoor use, can lift up to 10 tonnes and has a relatively high lift of 43 m. Because it’s used outdoors, all components from electrics to motors, controls and panels are specially protected from temperature and climate extremes.

BY TRICIA RADISON

ALL TERRAIN All Terrain mobile cranes are good for “pretty much anything and everything,” says Brad Wyers, estimator for Stampede Crane and Rigging Inc. in Calgary.

They can be used in a variety of conditions, including in muddy off-road areas, and are found on all kinds of construction sites, from the oilfields to city centres.

Terex’s AC 100/4L, for example, can be used in tight locations, handle even the heaviest loads and is compact so it can fit in more places.

It operates within a 12-tonne axle load to keep transport costs low.

LATTICE BOOM Lattice boom cranes are truck cranes used on job sites that are difficult to access or have limited space. This one is the TC 2800-1 from Terex. It’s similar to the crawler crane, except the narrow track chassis is replaced with a truck-mounted chassis.

These cranes can save users time and money because they are easy to transport — this one can be used on roads with up to a 12-tonne axle load limit. If outrigger support wheels are added to the TC 2800-1, it can be moved around the job site, as long as the ground is even.

uppers Alberta Construction Magazine | 87

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safety

Scaffold safety Scaffolders shouldn’t count only on fall protection systems to keep them on high

by Tricia Radison According to the Scaffold Industry Association of Canada, over 70 per cent of all deaths related to scaffolding are caused by falls. The fact that people are falling from scaffolding when fall protection is available is surprising — until you talk to the experts.

The main problem today is that personal fall protection systems must be worn at the 10 ft height but don’t work at that height when workers don’t calculate the total fall distance before selecting equipment.

“Guys will tie off with a 6 ft long lanyard with a 4 ft long shock absorber. Taking body height into account, if they fall, they’re going to contact the ground,” says Edward Henry, health, safety and environment manager at Quinn Contracting Ltd., headquartered in Blackfalds, Alta.

Quinn Contracting is working with equipment manufacturer TRACTEL and DBI-SALA to modify a system with a self-retracting lanyard that works up to 10 ft and doesn’t have a pouch-style shock absorber in line. In the meantime, Henry says that those working at heights should

do a free-fall calculation that takes the distance from the ground into account.

“You can’t just go up, tie off, and assume that you’re protected,” he says.

The problem could get worse if thresholds are lowered to 6 ft as other jurisdictions in the world have done. “The only way you could possibly hook on at that point is with a lanyard going to your feet,” says John Rosenthal, president of DunnWright Engineering Inc. in Alliston, Ont. “The lanyard would have to be 5 ft long to reach the D-ring in your back. You’ve got 5 ft for your body and then 5 ft for your lanyard and you’re only at 6 ft. Certainly the lanyard would not help you.”

Rosenthal would like to see a safe, effective, inexpensive advanced guardrail system to protect workers at 10 ft and 6 ft.

Although he found one that fit the bill, the Government of Ontario wouldn’t approve it and clearance remains a major issue.

Another major issue is what happens when a fall occurs. Many companies rely on the 911 system. Henry says that’s a mistake.

“A lot of the fire departments haven’t been trained in rescuing people from heights and may not even be able to access industrial sites,” he explains. “When they show up on site they just do what they can, and it could cost somebody their life.”

Henry tells of a firefighter attempting to rescue a worker dangling from scaffolding at an industrial site. Uneducated about how scaffolding works, the firefighter began hammering off the clamps of a structural support.

Companies and workers need to take more responsibility for worker safety, even if they choose to rely on 911. The first step is to call the local fire department and ask if they rescue people and if they have the ability to get people down from heights.

The second step is to ensure that employees on site are able to get fallen workers down to the ground because it can take time for emergency personnel to reach sites, even in urban centres.

The Government of Alberta now allows frontal attachments on fall protection, which will make it easier for workers to self-rescue.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 89

safety

Setting standards

Alberta scaffolding companies look to government designation of scaffolding as a trade, while efforts to develop nationwide standards gather steam

photo: JOEY PODLUBNY

by Darrell Stonehouse

Scaffolding is big business in Alberta.

In large construction projects like oilsands upgraders, scaffolding can account for as much as six per cent of project costs.

Massive scaffold structures towering hundreds of feet in the air and stretching hundreds of feet in length are engineered with both safety and utility in mind. The skills needed for erecting scaffolding have increased as industrial construction has grown in the province. And now there are efforts under way to standardize training to ensure that scaffold erectors have the skills needed to meet industry demand.

Carpenters have traditionally erected scaffolding, and the carpenter’s union in Alberta has long led the charge providing trained, skilled workers to industry. In the mid-1990s, the union, through the Alberta Carpenters Training Centre (ACTC), launched an intensive three-year in-house scaffolding apprentice program. It’s become the gold standard for scaffolding training in the province, with over 3,000 journeyman 90 | Fall 2010

scaffolding certifications issued. Around 33,000 workers have taken scaffolding training through the centre.

“The program started when refineries and plants started to be built,” says Len Bryden, director of training and apprenticeship for the ACTC. “Industry identified a need for qualified scaffolding workers. They identified the need because working on the sites was dangerous. Falls were the No. 1 killer, and there were other issues like people dropping things.”

Bryden says the carpenter union’s apprenticeship program is modelled after government programs, with apprentices attending both theory and practical training three weeks a year and then building their hours in the field towards journeyman certification. Everything must be documented as well, like government trade certification.

As technology has changed in the industry, the program has been continually upgraded.

“It’s a difficult course,” Bryden adds.

“It’s very physically demanding and we

take testing very seriously.”

Bryden says the union, through its National Apprenticeship and Training Advisory Committee, has been working towards standardizing scaffold training across the country.

The Scaffold Industry Association of Canada (SIAC) supports this effort. In an article in the association magazine Access Canada, president John O’Hara comments that if the ACTC apprentice program “could be applied across Canada, we would certainly have common inter-provincial standards and full labour mobility for all certified workers in this skilled trade.”

The Alberta chapter of the SIAC wants to take this effort one step further and is pushing to have scaffolding recognized as an occupation designation with the provincial government.

This effort would mean both union and non-union journeyman workers would have to meet a minimum standard. The drive for occupational designation is being driven partly by a new Canadian Standards Association code of practice for access scaffold, replacing a 2003 standard. The new standard calls for proof of certification for both theory and practical training in scaffolding.

At its annual meeting in September 2009, the Alberta SIAC chapter reported scaffolding companies were on board with the effort, and it was looking for support from industry to move the effort forward.

Bryden says he is uncertain whether the effort to make scaffolding a designated occupation will succeed.

“It may,” he says, “but right now the big companies rely on our program.”

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safety gear

You look Be cool, be safe at the same time

by Kelley Stark

WHAT’S UP DOC? Dr. Martens has a line of steel-toe boots that are comfortable because of its patented air-cushioned sole, which it calls “Bouncing Soles.” The boots are also widely accepted as some of the most fashionable boots ever made.

ON BENDED KNEE

JUST DUCKY Competing with brand names like Helly Hansen, Oakley and even Adidas has caused Mark’s Work Wearhouse to provide us with more than just coveralls and dungarees. The stores carry entire lines of work shirts, pants, footwear and jackets. Currently, Mark’s sells a duck jacket that can be worn several different ways: just the shell, just the liner, with or without sleeves. This jacket, made by Dakota, can be purchased in either black or brown.

Say can you see We all know how important it is to wear your safety glasses.

Fortunately, there are a large number of companies making safety glasses. It’s no longer necessary, or even beneficial, for all workers to wear ugly, hard pieces of plastic that wrap around the head. Companies like Fox, Harley Davidson and Uvex have lines of safety glasses, as does Oakley, which is both industry-accepted and fashionable.

92 | Fall 2010

Many people know the shame of owning a pair of jeans with a blown-out knee that their mothers desperately tried to make last by ironing on a patch that never quite matched the colour of the original denim. Thankfully, construction workers, who are notoriously hard on their jeans, never have to go through that again since the invention of double-knee work pants. Wellknown workwear manufacturer Dickies, which has produced clothing for almost 90 years, is among the companies carrying double-knee work pants come in varied sizes and colours.

Now that’s cool Warm temperatures can cause concern to those who work mostly outdoors. Staying cool while still wearing protective clothing can be challenging. Helly Hansen has spent the last 133 years perfecting clothing for all climates while remaining a leader in fashion. This summer, Helly Hansen released the Lifa HH Cool base layer. It is to be worn next to the skin and works by wicking excess heat and sweat away from the body to provide long-term dryness.

mahvelous!

safety gear

Who says being safe means looking drab? Check out these items.

This will warm you up With cold temps ruling Alberta for around eight months of every year, staying warm on the job is a necessity. Luckily for anyone who works outdoors in the cold, many companies have come up with innovative ideas on staying warm. TechNiche International’s IonGear battery-powered heating vests provide warmth for up to 12 hours at a time. The vests come with five temperature settings and rechargeable batteries.

WOMEN MATTER Traditionally, women have fit themselves into men’s clothing to work in the trades. The thing about women is that they are not built the same way, and men’s clothing does not account for any curves in the body. Carhartt now makes an entire line of women’s work pants made from the same durable fabrics as men’s but made to fit women’s bodies. These pants, along with the rest of the line, can be ordered at carhartt.com.

As well, women don’t generally want to sacrifice their femininity for safety, and now they don’t have to. Moxie Trades produces an entire line of safety gear made especially for women who want both safety and fashion. Hard hats, safety glasses, tool belts and the company’s original flagship product: the classic Betsy pink workboot.

That’s using the old noggin Hard hats have come a long way in recent years. They now come with rain gutters so the water rolls off the front instead of down the back of the neck.

They can be fitted with visors, ear protectors and rear-view mirrors. They even come insulated for work in cold temperatures.

Forget about plastering yours with decals. (P.S. — It’s time to lose the Keep on Truckin’ sticker.) TASCO produces a line of hard hats (see tasco-safety.com) embellished with the name and logo of teams for your favourite NHL, NFL, NBA, NCAA, MLB and NASCAR teams. The hats comply with industry standards, come with an anti-glare peak and are slotted to accept attachments.

Want to really stand out?

Get a cowboy hard hat. Though made from plastic instead of felt or straw, the hat still looks and functions like a cowboy hat. It still provides sun and weather protection for faces, necks and ears. It is not recommended, though, for horseback riding.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 93

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safety beat

WCB program helps injured workers return to work

by Jacqueline Varga WCB-Alberta Media Relations

Carlos Pereira can’t say enough about WCB-Alberta’s Occupational Injury Service (OIS), a program specifically designed for work-related injuries. As the health and safety coordinator for the Edmonton location of Gordon Food Services (GFS), he says the program has made a huge difference to his company’s health and safety efforts as well as its bottom line.

“I can’t think of any logical reason why a company wouldn’t use OIS,” he says. “I would encourage employers to talk to others who use the program, go to an orientation session, ask questions and get to know the OIS staff.”

OIS clinics offer multiple benefits to employers such as GFS. If workers are injured, they can receive same-day access

to an OIS physician, in-depth medical reporting, clear treatment communication and expedited diagnostic services such as MRIs. There are 20 OIS clinics across Alberta.

GFS has been using the OIS program for three years. With customers across Canada and the United States, GFS employs approximately 800 people.

When GFS signed up with OIS, a worksite visit was conducted at the GFS facility. Occupational specialists learned more about the company’s operation and gathered on-site information about the physical job demands.

“Because they are aware of what we do, they’re able to assess an injury and have a better sense of the mechanism of injury,” Pereira explained.

Statistics show, on average, injured workers who attend an OIS clinic can return to work and perform modified duties sooner. Pereira’s experience with the program certainly supports the statistics. He has noticed a definite reduction in recovery time for his worker’s injuries.

“From three years ago to today, there’s no comparison in terms of recovery rates.” he says. “Injuries aren’t taking the typical amount of time to heal, which makes the timeline shorter. I couldn’t be happier.”

Using OIS has helped GFS retain skilled employees and avoid having to hire and retrain replacement workers. It has also reduced the company’s compensation costs because workers are treated faster and are back on the job sooner.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 95

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business briefing

If you’re not make’n dust, you’re eat’n it …and some more western wisdom on leading today’s youth

by Tim Sweet As I write this, the Stampede is on, so I’d like to tell you a campfire story: Long ago there lived a young brave, who (in the absence of the tribe’s warriors) is asked by his chief to defeat an approaching war party. To aid the boy, the chief makes a gift of a very fine, very spirited horse. The boy, knowing he’s an incredibly poor rider quite incapable of managing this horse, opts to have his feet bound together under the horse instead of being thrown off in front of the chief.

In the end, absolutely committed, the boy channels the fury of his animal to scare the crap out of his enemies and make them surrender.

Do you have employees that are willing to tie their feet ’round crazed horses to get the job done for you? The younger your employees get, the less likely your answer is yes.

There was a time not so long ago when a do-or-die-trying attitude was common in Alberta. The pioneering spirit was alive and well, and employees young or old would do anything to get the job done.

In today’s West, like everywhere else, those days are gone — long gone.

I won’t go into the reasons behind the differences between Gen Y, Gen X and the Baby Boomers. That’s been explored enough over the last few years. (If you

don’t know what I’m talking about then you must’ve been living under a rock.)

I’ve given more talks to groups on the subject in the last four years than I care to count. The change in work ethic is wellestablished and is a reality, not a folk tale.

What the construction industry needs to get is that it must be more prepared than most industries to deal with this change now and in the future.

There are several reasons for this, not least among them is that construction — viewed by some as blue-collar — is seen as being a “secondary profession” by many youth. While there are a few outstanding examples of youth that choose the trades, many are taking the job out of necessity.

Media and society have promoted an office as the place to find lifestyle, happiness and success.

Professional offices are accommodating younger workers. They allow them to dress casually, show up when they feel like it, work from home, and even play video games. They talk, text or tweet with their friends all day — even during meetings.

They work collaboratively (as they have done all through school) and they expect to receive positive reinforcement for even the smallest accomplishment (as they’ve received from their parents, coaches and teachers their whole lives).

While an office-based environment can change to accommodate the emotional and social needs of this new generation, a construction environment cannot.

All about style Uniforms or protective gear often disrupt the employee’s sense of style. Safety or a need for communication cancels out the ability to keep in touch with social networks. The work is often isolated and independent, requiring a pride to do it right despite knowing no one may ever see your work. Excessive positivity is difficult for many seasoned crew chiefs and supervisors; in fact it’s a slippery slope to start lavishing praise on workers — regardless of workmanship.

Today, “a job” for many younger workers is what they do between doing what they really want to be doing. They don’t live to work.

They work to live. They go where the ratio of money to effort is the greatest, and they don’t want to have their free time impacted.

Increasingly, parents will come to the interview with the young adult to negotiate wage — and perhaps even show up at performance review. If this hasn’t happened to you yet, try not to let your jaw hit the floor when it does. I’ve personally been approached by parents on two occasions regarding their child’s performance at work. They challenge safety standards, Alberta Construction Magazine | 97

business briefing saying we must go to the nth degree to ensure their child is protected, meanwhile deflecting criticism when the same young adult repeatedly used his iPod earpieces instead of hearing protection.

Does it happen all the time? No. Are there many good young employees out there? Yes. But it’s becoming increasingly more common, and if 9–15 year olds are any indication, it will only get worse.

It’s not to say that youth today are a total write-off. They can be excellent employees if someone in the organization is willing to take over raising the child.

These employees require leadership, mentorship and understanding; you won’t change them without these skills.

Yes, I said try to change the employee.

This notion, by the way, is taboo in HR circles today. But in construction, like manufacturing, policing, firefighting, EMS, oil and gas drilling and many other hands-on industries, adapting to suit the younger worker is just not a practical or responsible option. So, let’s buck the trend and do what makes sense. Alberta hasn’t gotten where it is today by always doing what’s popular.

You must guide today’s youth, teaching them how to extract satisfaction and joy from a job well done. You will have to change as well because today’s young employee is a different animal who won’t respond to old management techniques.

You, as leaders in the construction industry, must adapt your management styles now to create the loyal, responsible, conscientious young employee

FORMING THE

that used to come through your door ready to work. You must guide today’s youth, teaching them how to extract satisfaction and joy from a job well done. You will have to change as well because today’s young employee is a different animal who won’t respond to old management techniques, and the habits they are learning before entering the workplace are only becoming less compatible. But, this group is also hungry for real, quality mentorship, and if you inspire them they will be among the best employees you’ve ever had.

Like our story, though, employees choose to commit to success before the battle arrives. The challenges facing the construction industry are only getting more acute, and the commitment of all employees has to be as absolute as the young brave binding his feet to the bucking horse. So talk to your company’s managers, and take the time to plan, nurture and develop each young employee’s commitment to making your business successful.

Tim Sweet is the owner of Revolve Business Consulting Ltd. of Calgary. He can be reached through revolveconsulting.com.

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www.durwestalta.com 98 | Fall 2010

T ried , T esTed

and

T rue ...

the legal edge

Some sure things about sureties

by Tim Mavko Reynolds, Mirth, Richards & Farmer LLP

In a perfect world, subcontractors always get paid. In an almost perfect world, the occasional subcontractor who gets stiffed then just claims against a labour and material payment bond. The phone call to the surety might go something like this: Hello, Acme Bonding Company? Hi, this is Fred of Fred’s Wholesale Electrical Supplies.

Can you tell me, did you bond that new submarine factory going up on Highway 99? You did? Good! Well, I was shipping boxes of high-capacity weejawgizzies and roles of extra-fluxie polymaxospore to Tesla and Sons Electrical Contractors. They had a standing order. I think Tesla was subcontracted to do some of the electrical work on that submarine factory, and may have used some of my stuff when it installed the panels. I haven’t been paid in a while, and I’m wondering if I can claim under the bond?

How long? I think it’s been about a year and a half since the last shipment. How much?

Oh, we’re owed around $5,000. You’ll pay?

Oh good. I’ll drop by and pick up the cheque on Tuesday. See ya.

OK, I made this up. There are at least five reasons why this phone call could never happen.

First, most standard-form labour and material payment bonds issued in Alberta only cover subcontractors or suppliers who have direct subcontracts with the principal contractor named in the bond.

Second or lower-tier subcontracts and suppliers don’t benefit.

Second, labour and material payment bonds are project-specific. They don’t protect bulk purchases, standing orders or general deliveries. They don’t cover multiple jobs, blanket agreements or running accounts. To claim, a subcontractor or supplier needs to prove that this particular work or that particular material went to the particular project protected by the bond. And even if the paperwork points to the right project, there will be problems if a subcontractor or supplier with a running account has the habit of paying down older invoices with recent payments without noting which project was the source.

Third, subcontractors and suppliers must prove their claims. The evidence needs to be at least as good as the evidence needed to claim directly against the defaulting contractor. This means complete subcontracts, purchase orders, time sheets, packing lists, delivery receipts, inspection reports, even payment certificates — anything and everything that is needed to prove the right to payment. The surety, on the other hand can (and almost certainly will) raise any defence that the defaulting contractor could have raised.

The bond is not a shortcut around disputes or deficiencies.

Fourth, a phone call is not enough.

Neither are emails or faxes. Bonds have

express and explicit notice requirements and most require written notice by registered mail. Some require notice in the same fashion as legal documents. All require that proper notice in the specified manner be given to the bonding company, the defaulting contractor and the owner of the project.

And finally, there are strict deadlines and time limits set out in every bond. Most require subcontractors to give notice (other than for holdbacks) within 120 days after the work was last performed or the materials were last supplied. In the case of holdbacks, notice must be given within 120 days after payment was due. And there are deadlines for suing on the bond, if it comes to that: sue too soon (usually before 90 days after the last work or delivery) and the surety does not have to respond; sue too late (often one year after the principal contractor stopped work) and the claim is lost.

These rules may appear strict and tough, but there is a reason: a bond, at the end of the day, is a contract. It is a complicated contract between three parties — the bonding company (or “surety”), the defaulting contractor (or “principal”) and the project owner (the “obligee”) — involving trusts, indemnities and multiple conditions, all aimed at protecting the financial interests of a third-party beneficiary — the subcontractor. It is a sophisticated arrangement that demands certainty and precision to work.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 99

time capsule

TIME CAPSULE

The Yellowhead Highway time of the end of World War I that the idea for the highway surfaced.

Establishing a road through the mountains was particularly challenging. Jeff Waugh, in an article on the Yellowhead on jaspernationalpark.com, writes that a railway surveyor, Fred Driscoll, suggested that an abandoned railway grade would make a firm foundation for such a road in the Yellowhead Pass west of Jasper. Charles Grant, president of the Edmonton Automobile and Good Roads Association, and Driscoll began to push for the Yellowhead Highway.

Waugh goes on to say that the Edmonton Automobile Association offered a gold medal for the first drivers to successfully travel from Edmonton to Victoria, B.C., through the Yellowhead Pass. Charles Neimeyer and Frank Silverthorne, sponsored by Lines Motors of Edmonton, took up the challenge in an Overland Four in June 1922.

The trip was anything but easy. Often the pair had to stop and build bridges or dig themselves out of boggy areas. They took along 1,200 lb of equipment, including four 12 ft planks of wood.

PHOTO: GLENBOW MUSEUM

The Yellowhead Highway in August marked its 40th year as a modern highway, linking Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia with the rest of Canada. For the thousands of us who travel the route — either partially or in its entirety — annually, it’s sometimes easy to take the highway for granted.

According to the Trans Canada Yellowhead Highway Association, the highway traces its roots back to the early 1800s. The route was originally used by fur traders for the Hudson’s Bay Company. But it wasn’t until around the

Charles Neimeyer and Frank Silverthorne made the first trip from Edmonton to Victoria, B.C., long before there was anything resembling the Yellowhead Highway. The journey was arduous, requiring them to build bridges, such as this one over muskeg near Styal, Alta., or fill in holes.

100 | Fall 2010

time capsule

A week after Neimeyer and Silverthorne set off, George Gordon and J. Sims, sponsored by the Automobile Association of Canada, began travelling the same route in a Model T Ford. Both automobiles reached Victoria on July 4 and both groups received medals for their expeditions.

So the next time you’re cruising down the Yellowhead at 110 km/h — perhaps looking for a comfortable hotel or restaurant along the way — remember that it wasn’t all that long ago that those first drivers also had to know how to be builders.

One is Coming October 1st, 2010

Alberta Construction Magazine | 101

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Only those candidates considered for an interview will be contacted.

102 | Fall 2010

4Refuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 ACO Systems Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Alberta Construction Safety Association . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Alberta Motor Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 ATB Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 ATCO Structures & Logistics Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 At-Pac Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Bantrel Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Beaver Plastics Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Bibby-Ste-Croix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Bobcat Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 BPF Transport Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Brandt Positioning Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Brandt Tractor Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Brock White Canada Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 BURNCO Rock Products Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Butler Survey Supplies Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Calgary Construction Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Cal-Gas Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Canadian Dewatering LP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Canadian Western Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Canessco Services Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Chase Operator Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Christian Labour Association of Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Concrete Solutions Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 CORD WorleyParsons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Davidson Enman Lumber Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Durwest Construction Systems (Alta) Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta . . . . . . . . 18 EllisDon Construction Services Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta. . . . . . . . . . . 64 FMC Ford Motor Co Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 General Motors of Canada Ltd . . . . . . outside back cover Grant Metal Products Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Groundwater Control Systems Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Hertz Equipment Rental Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Imperial Oil Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 ITT Water & Wastewater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 IVIS Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Klimer Platforms Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Kubota Canada Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Lafarge Construction Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68-69 Lloyd Sadd Insurance Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Man-Shield (Alta) Construction Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Manulift EMI Ltee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 MAPEI Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Mazer Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Merchandise Mart Properties Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Mount Royal University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Myshak Sales & Rentals Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 NAIT Corporate and International Training . . . . . . . . . . 40 Northland Construction Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Owens Corning Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . inside front cover PCL Constructors Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Phoenix Fence Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Proform Concrete Services Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 & 77 Red Arrow Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 R.L. Rurka Sales & Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 RSM Royal & Sun Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Scona Cycle Honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Skyjack Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . inside back cover Skyway Canada Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 SMS Equipment Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Spatial Technologies Partnership Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 SRS Industrial Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Steels Industrial Products Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Stuart Olson Constructors Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Superform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Toole Peet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Trust Canada Lenders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Unique Scaffold Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Vet’s Sheet Metal Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 WesternOne Rentals & Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Wilco Contractors Northwest Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Williams Scotsman of Canada Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Workers’ Compensation Board-Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

A-SERIES

Articulating Booms

Skyjack’s A-SERIES boom lifts boast an industry leading, standard equipped, 360 degree continuous turret rotation, zero tail swing, axle based 4WD, direction sensing drive and steer controls, and a true vertical rise with riser function which prevents drifting forward or backwards. The A-SERIES models are available in two configurations featuring the SJ 46AJ with jib or the SJ 46A with no jib.

For information call 1-800-265-2738 or visit us online at www.skyjack.com

THE MOST POWERFUL HEAVY-DUTY PICKUP EVER. †

BEST-IN-CLASS

BEST-IN-CLASS

BEST-IN-CLASS

(397 HP) • (765 LB-FT)†

CAPACITY (6,635 LB.)1

CAPACITY (21,700 LB.)2

HORSEPOWER & TORQUE

PAYLOAD

THE NEW SILVERADO HEAVY-DUTY.

THE HEAVY-DUTY THAT OUTPERFORMS FORD AND DODGE. †2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD/3500HD with available Duramax 6.6L V8 Turbo Diesel engine and Allison 6-speed transmission. Based on 3/4 and 1 ton pickup trucks and latest published information available at time of printing for comparably equipped 2011 Ford Super Duty F-250/F-350 and 2010 Dodge Ram 2500/3500 Heavy Duty regarding standard horsepower and torque. Excludes other GM models. 1. 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD DRW Regular Cab 2WD, when properly equipped. Based on 1 ton pickup trucks and latest published information available at time of printing for comparably equipped 2011 Ford Super Duty F-350 and 2010 Dodge Ram 3500 Heavy Duty. Maximum payload capacity includes weight of driver, passengers, optional equipment and cargo. Excludes other GM models. 2. 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD DRW Regular Cab 4x4 with available 6.6L V8 Turbo Diesel engine, Allison Transmission and fifth-wheel trailer hitch. Based on 1 ton pickup trucks and latest published information available at time of printing for comparably equipped 2011 Ford Super Duty F-350 and 2010 Dodge Ram 3500 Heavy Duty. Maximum trailer weight rating calculated assuming a properly equipped base vehicle, except for any option(s) necessary to achieve the rating, plus driver. Weight of other optional equipment, passengers, and cargo will reduce maximum trailer weight your vehicle can tow. Excludes other GM models. Silverado and Duramax are registered trademarks and Chevrolet is a trademark of General Motors. ©2010 General Motors.

TOWING