Alberta Construction Magazine Fall 2011

The magnificent seven

Relief on the way

Cleaning the air

Meet our 2011 Movers & Shakers

$198-million expansion at Fort Macâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s airport

Carbon capture projects inch closer to reality

PAGE 53

PAGE 27

PAGE 33

Fall 2011 | $8.00

Canadian Publication Mail Product Agreement #40069240

ready, set,

THE ISSUE

Challenges may look similar to the last growth period, but companies are giving early thought to meeting them PLUS: Supersizing a busy bridge

PAGE 86

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Chaz Osburn

editor’s note

cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com

couple of months ago a flight attendant caused a flap for a quip made on a flight from Vancouver to Fort McMurray, Alta. As the plane was landing, the attendant asked how many passengers wanted to go to Fort McMurray. She then asked how many didn’t. Melissa Blake, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (which includes Fort McMurray), and a Wood Buffalo councillor were on the flight. Let’s just say they were not amused. I wouldn’t have been either—and I don’t live in Fort Mac. It’s really too bad the community gets such a bad rap. I think about that each time I visit the community, as I did in late June, in part to help with this issue’s report. Sure, there are problems. But Fort McMurray has a vibrant and diverse flavour that, coupled with the natural beauty of the Athabasca River against the backdrop of the boreal forest, you’ll be hard pressed to find in other places. I spent three years in one small city where the major industry in town was a pulp and paper mill. At around five in the morning every three or four days the mill would emit an odour that on one occasion literally woke me from sleep. “That,” those who had lived in the city all their lives would tell me, “was the smell of money.” Well, the smell of money made my eyes water. Despite the backdrop of an anemic economic recovery in North America and the U.S. debt-ceiling debate that was taking place when I visited Fort McMurray this summer, I saw ample signs of construction activity. Dirt was being moved for the $198-million airport expansion (see story, page 27) and the new Highway 63 bridge over the Athabasca River (see story, page 86) is nearing completion. An impressive new fire station on the south side of the city is under construction, as are key interchanges to relieve traffic north of the city. It wouldn’t surprise me if these or some of the other projects—industrial, civil, institutional and/or commercial—in the Wood Buffalo region find their way into a Top Projects issue of Alberta Construction Magazine—either this year or beyond. Remember, the October 7 deadline for entering your project for 2011 will be here before you know it. Make sure you check out albertaconstructionmagazine.com today for entry guidelines and to download a nomination form. As I mentioned in my last Editor’s Note, this is a milestone year for Top Projects—the 10th anniversary. I’m pleased to announce that KPMG LLP will be the premier sponsor for an event you will want to be a part of—our inaugural Top Projects gala luncheon on December 1. Keep watching albertaconstructionmagazine.com for details about how to attend. What better way to end the year than with recognition of the creativity, innovation and hard work you put in to build one of Alberta’s top projects of 2011? Coming next issue: 2011 Top Project winners

Alberta Construction Magazine | 7

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

Group Publisher Agnes Zalewski • azalewski@junewarren-nickles.com

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

assistant editor Joseph Caouette • jcaouette@junewarren-nickles.com

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

Editorial

Editorial Assistance Laura Blackwood, Brandi Haugen,

Marisa Kurlovich • proofing@junewarren-nickles.com Contributors Jim Bentein, Godfrey Budd, Tricia Radison

creative

Print, Prepress & Production Manager Senior Publications Manager Editorial Assistance Manager Art Director Creative Services Manager Designers

Creative Services Contributing Photographers

Michael Gaffney • mgaffney@junewarren-nickles.com Audrey Sprinkle • asprinkle@junewarren-nickles.com Samantha Kapler • skapler@junewarren-nickles.com Ken Bessie • kbessie@junewarren-nickles.com Tamara Polloway-Webb • tpwebb@junewarren-nickles.com Lyuba Kirkova • lkirkova@junewarren-nickles.com Peter Markiw • pmarkiw@junewarren-nickles.com Martha Boctor, Janelle Johnson • production@junewarren-nickles.com Aaron Parker, Joey Podlubny

sales

Director of Sales Sales Manager—Magazines Senior Account Representative Ad Traffic Coordinator—Magazines Advertising Inquiries

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marketing and circulation Marketing/Trade Show Coordinator Jeannine Dryden • jdryden@junewarren-nickles.com

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. ©2011 1080550 Glacier Media Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher. The opinions expressed by contributors to Alberta Construction Magazine may not represent the official views of the magazine. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publisher does not assume any responsibility or liability for errors or omissions. Printed by PrintWest Postage Paid in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada If undeliverable return to: Circulation Department, 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 Commercial

Energy goes organic

Proposed Lacombe processing facility would be a technology first for Alberta By Tricia Radison

INFRASTRUCTURE

Construction begins on $198-million expansion at Fort McMurray Airport

By Chaz Osburn

Relief is on the way

INDUSTRIAL

Cleaning the air

Four large carbon capture projects inch closer to construction

By Jim Bentein

FEATURE STORY

Crunch time

Filling positions is about to become even more of a challenge for industry

By Jim Bentein

Special Feature

The magnificent seven 2011’s Movers & Shakers focus on pursuit of excellence

Reduce, reuse, rejuvinate

Super-sized

Much-needed new crossing for Highway 63 at Fort McMurray pushes the envelope in bridge construction

By Godfrey Budd

on the cover: E-T Energy’s pilot project north of Fort McMurray. Photo: Joey Podlubny 8 | Fall 2011

contents

Volume 31, Number 3 Published Fall 2011

Cover Story

PAGE

Ready, set, boom! The challenges may look similar to the last growth period, but companies are giving early thought to meeting them By Chaz Osburn

Departments

13 �� Nuts & Bolts 19 �� Around Canada 67 �� People, Products, Projects 73 �� ACA Report 79 �� ECA Report 83 �� CCA Report 93 �� Trade Talk 97 �� Business of Building 103 �� Safety Beat 109 �� Legal Edge 112 �� Time Capsule Alberta Construction Magazine | 9

contributors

Freelance writer JIM BENTEIN, who writes about Alberta’s carbon capture and storage projects (page 33) has more than 40 of years writing experience. He began his career as a reporter for small newspapers in Ontario before launching such papers as Fort McMurray Today and the Cold Lake Sun.

GODFREY BUDD is a Calgary-based freelance writer who frequently writes for Alberta Construction Magazine. This issue he contributed stories about scaffolding safety (page 103) and an important bridge project in Fort McMurray.

AARON PARKER is a graphic designer as well as a photographer for JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group’s Edmonton office. His photography work has appeared in Alberta Construction Magazine regularly over the past two years.

Freelance photographer JOEY PODLUBNY shot many of the photos you see in this issue’s cover story, which begins on page 42. Podlubny, who is based in Calgary, was staff photographer for JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group before striking out on his own more than three years ago.

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TRICIA RADISON is another frequent contributor to Alberta Construction Magazine. She has been published in numerous magazines, including Holmes Magazine and Business Edge. Radison wrote many of the Movers & Shakers features that begin on page 53 as well as the Commercial feature, which begins on page 23.

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nuts & bolts

ILLUSTRATION: PCL

News briefs for the busy construction professional

This computer rendering shows the interior of PCL’s newest addition, Building 5, which is now under construction.

PCL makes sure it has room to grow Conceive project, approve construction, secure financing, approve design. Check, check, check, check. Demolish existing structure. Check. Begin construction. Check. Complete new three-storey, 82,000-square-foot building. Pending—scheduled for next February. Complete building envelope. Pending—scheduled for next April. Occupy new building. Scheduled for October 2012.

That is a capsule summary progress report on Building 5, PCL Construction Management Inc.’s newest addition to its Edmonton campus headquarters. Being built to achieve Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design Silver certification, the building will provide office space to 220 or so employees. It will also include a new data centre for PCL operations, 80-person training room, common lunch area, four medium-size meeting rooms, an executive boardroom and a second-level pedway connecting to other buildings. And it will have a green roof. PCL says that with the economy improving and another boom on the

horizon, the timing for the $24-million project was right. “For over 100 years PCL has taken advantage of the downtimes in the economy to prepare for the future,” chief executive officer and president Paul Douglas told a gathering of employees in June before breaking ground on the project. “Now is the time to build.” Douglas had also told a group of journalists earlier that the building, designed by DIALOG, will help PCL “handle the growth as we go from a $5.5-billion company now to a $10-billion company [that] we hope to be in the next five to 10 years.” Alberta Construction Magazine | 13

nuts & bolts

. . . And in other PCL news, a really BIG donation There are corporate donations. Then there are really big corporate donations. Over the summer PCL Construction Management Inc. donated $1 million to Habitat for Humanity in Canada

and the United States. A tenth of that amount—$100,000—is to be used for a PCL-sponsored home to be built in Edmonton’s Anderson Gardens. It will be the largest Habitat-Built Green site in Canada.

The project will be home to 47 families when completed. In 2011, funds from PCL’s donation will also go to support building projects in Winnipeg, Seattle, Anchorage and Los Angeles.

What you need to know Five points contained in a Construction Sector Council 2011 study that assesses future labour market conditions in Alberta: 1. The economic recovery is expected to carry Alberta construction employment back to 2008 peak levels by 2012. 2. Investment in oilsands projects will stage a significant recovery from its decline in 2009. By 2011, the level of investment exceeds the peak reached in 2007. 3. Employment will remain near record levels until 2015 when a second wave of capital, sustaining capital and maintenance projects drive employment to new peak levels. 4. By 2017, oilsands employment is estimated to be almost 25 per cent higher than the 2007 peak levels, creating major challenges to meet needed skilledlabour requirements. 5. Over the near term, increased investment in Alberta will coincide with major projects underway and proposed in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland, and this may challenge recruiting for needed workers. SOURCE: 2011 Construction Looking Forward

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nuts & bolts

One of the design features of the National Music Centre that will be built in Calgary is a is a two-storey bridge that will cross 4th Street S.E.

Music to our ears Projected to open in 2014, the 135,000-square-foot National Music Centre in Calgary will give Canadians a place that backers say “amplifies the love, the sharing and the understanding of music through collections, programs and collaborations across the country.” The centre is to be built around the historical (and condemned) King Edward Hotel, which closed in 2004 after serving as a hotbed of blues music in Canada for decades. The centre will have interactive, multimedia exhibits, concerts, workshops,

Mobile Offices Workforce Camps Storage Products Williams Modular Buildings

tours and special events for the public. For artists, there will be two vintage recording studios, artists-in-residence programming, performance opportunities and master classes to ensure that Canadian talent has access to the resources they need to succeed in their careers. A national architectural competition was held to choose a design for the building. The winning Allied Works Architecture’s work shown here was announced this summer.

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nuts & bolts

$20-billion chemical complex on the books for Saudi Arabia

Better times ahead?

Dow Chemical Company and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) want to set up a joint venture to begin building a $20-billion chemical complex in the Middle East. The decision by both companies’ boards to create the new venture, called the Sadara Chemical Company, formalizes a project that has been in the works since 2007, the Associated Press (AP) reports. It will create one of the world’s largest integrated chemical facilities and the biggest ever built at one time, the AP says. The complex will be built in Jubail Industrial City, about 100 kilometres northwest of the Saudi city of Dammam. It will include 26 manufacturing units producing chemical products and plastics for use in the energy, transportation, infrastructure and consumer products industries, the AP says. Construction has begun. Dow says the first production units will come on line in the second half of 2015, with all units expected to be up and running in 2016. Once operational, Dow expects the complex to deliver annual revenues of approximately $10 billion within a few years of operation. “This premier partnership is the right economic ownership model with the right partner,” Dow president, chairman and chief executive officer Andrew Liveris said in a statement. Liveris said customers in emerging markets such as China, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa would benefit from the venture, which is expected to “deliver significant new equity earnings to Dow.” Dow stands to gain from access to Saudi Arabia’s relatively cheap-to-produce hydrocarbons, which will be used to make the chemicals Sadara produces, according to the AP. The Saudi government owns Saudi Aramco. It manages the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries nation’s huge oil reserves, which are estimated at more than 260 billion barrels, and the world’s fourth-largest supply of natural gas. Setting up the Sadara venture will cost $20 billion, the companies say. Dow and Saudi Aramco will have equal stakes in the venture, with additional funding being provided by export credit agencies and financial institutions.

“Alberta is set to become Canada’s fastest-growing economy, spurred by growing activity in the province’s various oilsands projects. The strong demand for bitumen from these projects is acting as a catalyst for a number of other segments of the Alberta economy, including job gains and rising retail sales.” — Craig Wright, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist, Royal Bank of Canada

Cheaper than thought With less than a year to go before the next Summer Olympics, Britain’s minister for sport and the Olympics says construction for the 2012 Games will be delivered under budget. Hugh Robertson says the anticipated final cost of the Olympic construction project has decreased by 16 million pounds (US$25.8 million) to 7.25 billion pounds (US$11.7 million) just since May. One of the key projects already finished is the international broadcast centre. At 275 metres long, the building will form part of the main media complex, which also includes a press centre. The complex will serve as the centre for more than 20,000 journalists. Discussing the overall 9.3-billion-pound (US$15billion) cost of the Games, Robertson was quoted by the Associated Press as saying: “Are we confident that they are going to come in under budget? Yes.” As of press time, the Olympic Delivery Authority reports about 90 per cent of the construction is complete.

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nuts & bolts

And you said you had challenges? Suncor during the outage—not the least of which was that it had merged with Petro-Canada. Kennedy’s group went from being schedule-driven to being cost-driven. There were changes in corporate standards and expectations, and a new set of acronyms such as RFFC (ready for fabrication and construction) had to be learned and adhered to, which meant now everything had to be pre-fabricated before it went to the field. Today, Suncor is working with other oilsands players on attracting labour and temporary foreign workers as well as boosting productivity, according to Kennedy. “Because, frankly, we’re all in this bed together in terms of growth, and if we don’t get it right as an industry and get some better productivity and better safety, we won’t actually be able to afford to grow, and that won’t do any of us good—employees or shareholders,” she said.

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catalogued and prepared to be idle for an indefinite amount of time. “That meant properly greasing motor bearings [and] making sure some specialty materials didn’t sit in the yard getting rained on for several years—because we didn’t know what start-up was going to look like,” Kennedy said. “In hindsight, it was less than a year, but at the time we had to kind of plan for never.” There were also several issues surrounding warrantees and to freeze the engineering of the projects, to the detriment of engineering firms such as WorleyParsons Ltd. and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., who had to downsize from very large staffs to “zero in no time flat,” she added. Also, Suncor had a large staff working on these projects, which had to be demobilized. Some were loaned to other parts of the company—and were later difficult to get back, creating problems rebuilding Kennedy’s team—while others were laid off. In late 2010, Suncor revived the projects. Several things had changed at

Suncor Energy Inc.’s decision at the offset of the recession in late 2008 to temporarily shut down most of its multi-billion-dollar capital projects created huge challenges for its project management team, a team member has revealed. The official term that Suncor used for applying the brakes to in situ oilsands projects Firebag 3 and Firebag 4 was to put them in “safe mode.” Suncor’s board of directors decided the hot, highly competitive construction market at the time “was not conducive to effective project execution,” Heather Kennedy, vice-president of in situ projects, told the PennWell heavy oil technologies conference in Calgary in late July. At the time of the decision, equipment was being built all over the world and all of it was in a different state of readiness, Kennedy was quoted as saying in the Daily Oil Bulletin, a sister publication to Alberta Construction Magazine. Some of it was a pile of parts in a yard, some of it was half built, some was on a ship coming from Asia, some was being fabricated in Edmonton and some was on site. Every piece of it, and its state, had to be

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43.5

Percentage of employers

in Canada’s construction industry that plan to add staffing this year. SOURCE: Hays Canada’s 2011 Compensation, Benefits, Recruitment and Retention Guide

around canada

AROUND CANADA

5.6 billion

Estimated cost of Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask 695-megawatt generating station.

SOURCE: Manitoba Hydro

Wind farm blows other projects away What’s the largest construction site in the Quebec City area?

PHOTO: photos.com

Seigneurie de Beaupré, a wind-farm project that has been six years in the making. Located on the private lands of the Séminaire de Québec, the first phase of the project consists of 126 turbines. The installed capacity will supply the annual electricity consumption of more than 50,000 households, according to the two companies involved with the project—Gaz Métro and Boralex Inc. Most of the access roads will be built this year, along with 43 of the 126 windturbine foundations. Next year all the access roads and foundations should be completed, 91 towers should be finished and 70 per cent of the underground work to install the gathering systems is scheduled to be finished. The remainder of the work is to be finished in time for commissioning in December 2013.

❱ Part

of the

family SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. has acquired MDH Engineered Solutions Corp., an engineering consulting and research firm based in Saskatoon, Sask., for an undisclosed sum. In business since 1980, MDH Engineered Solutions provides geo-environmental, geotechnical, hydrogeological and environmental engineering consulting services to the mining, oil and gas, transportation, utility, and government sectors. The firm has approximately 175 permanent employees working in offices in Saskatchewan as well as in Edmonton and Fort McMurray, Alta.

$ %

18 Percentage increase

from 2009 to 2011 of number of members of the industry that attended this spring’s Mécanex/ Climatex/Électricité/Éclairage (MCEE) show in Montreal, another sign of an improving economy. The show is billed as eastern Canada’s largest plumbing/HVACR/hydronic/electrical and lighting expo. SOURCE: MCEE organizers

2.6 billion Cost estimate

of 8.6-kilometre extension of the Toronto Transit Commission’s YongeUniversity-Spadina subway line, now underway. SOURCE: Ontario Ministry of Transportation

Alberta Construction Magazine | 19

vertisement advertisement

Introducing Canada’s national plan room service The new portal consolidates plan room data from most of Canada’s local construction associations. That means that bidders will be able to access data on more than 20,000 projects, and buyers can display their projects in front of more than 12,000 firms! Buyers and bidders be aware: construction-procurement opportunities just got a little easier to manage. Link2Build—an online portal that consolidates construction bidding opportunities from the electronic plan rooms of local construction associations across the country—was launched recently to widespread acclaim. For bidders, the website’s introduction simplifies the job of searching for bid opportunities. It is a single window through which contractors gain access to private- and public-sector bid opportunities in British Columbia, Alberta (through the Edmonton Construction Association), Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. For buyers, the site offers a targeted, qualified audience of more than 12,000 firms from across the country. “The great thing about Link2Build is that it is owned by construction associations across the country,” says Edmonton Construction Association executive vice-president Darlene La Trace. “These are the local organizations that represent all firms in the industry: general and trade contractors, road builders, heavy-construction firms, and manufacturers and suppliers. Exposure to such a large base of construction professionals is impossible to find on any other procurement site.” Because buyers’ projects are exposed to so many more firms when they are posted on Link2Build, more firms compete for their projects and prices go down. Moreover, the team that stands behind Link2Build is composed of the specialists who run the plan rooms at most of the country’s local construction associations. These men and women understand the challenges associated with receiving, posting and distributing tender documents and they can communicate far more effectively with buyers and bidders than the people who run other, general bid-opportunity websites.

454 Get consistent, informed procurement advice Edmonton Constru Adver Far Fo full pag How it works Great service isn’t the only benefit buyers take away from posting on Link2Build. The staff that maintains Link2Build can also offer advice on the industry-standard bid-calling and contract-award practices that have been developed and maintained by the Canadian Construction Association and the Canadian Construction Documents Committee. Moreover, the staff can furnish owners with copies of some of these model contract documents and guides.

Link2Build is supported by a national aggregator that gathers real-time feeds from participating plan room service providers to build a single, national database. The database populates a new website that manages the user registration and includes easy-to-navigate features including a search function. Each plan room provides a predetermined group of data on each project—basic information only, no plans or specifications—for the aggregator.

It’s easy to use!

Using Link2Build is simple. Public users register, then receive a password that enables them to access the site. Users can review basic information on projects hosted across the country. If they wish to obtain the complete project file, they will be redirected to the host plan room. Host plan rooms may restrict access to projects, requiring users to either join their associations, or pay a fee to access only that project’s data. “I think the flexibility in this model, whereby plan rooms can determine the ways in which their project information is shared, and how much they charge for single-use access has been a big factor in the widespread acceptance of the national system,” says La Trace.

Check it out

If you haven’t already checked out Link2Build, visit www.link2build.ca now! View the FAQ for answers to basic questions and take a tour to see the site in action.

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commercial

ILLUSTRATION: BIOREFINEX

goes organic

If all goes according to plan, construction should begin on the Lacombe Biorefinery in 2012.

Proposed Lacombe processing facility would be a technology first for Alberta By Tricia Radison

A $32-million biorefinery slated for construction in Lacombe, Alta., is expected to turn tonnes of waste into energy and fertilizer, bringing economic, environmental and health benefits to the province. The Lacombe Biorefinery project will be the first facility of its kind in Canada. It will serve as an international demonstration and research centre to showcase a patented thermal hydrolysis process developed by Biosphere Technologies Inc. Construction is expected to begin in 2012 with production scheduled to begin in 2013. The process takes waste like animal carcasses, animal by-products and other

commercial and industrial organic waste materials and turns it into renewable electricity, heat, dry fertilizer, liquid fertilizer and inedible tallow. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Within about 40 minutes, the thermal hydrolysis process can take organic material and destroy pathogenic agents while retaining all the nutrients,â&#x20AC;? says Chris Thrall, president of BioRefinex Canada Inc., the company building the project and commercializing the technology. Waste is ground and put into highpressure thermal hydrolysis reactors. It comes out of the reactors in liquefied form, simply because organic materials have a large percentage of water. The output Alberta Construction Magazine | 23

commercial

Lacombe is in one of the largest livestock regions in the country, making it an ideal place for a large-scale commercial operation. then goes through centrifuges that separate it into nutrient fractions, including fatty acids, amino acids and minerals. Some of this material can be used to make fertilizer, which returns the nutrients to the soil, and some is used as feedstock for biogas production. The biogas will be produced in anaerobic digesters, which are large vessels that hold water and solid organic material in an anaerobic, or oxygen-less, state. “The biogas can then be cleaned up and put into the gas pipeline system for natural gas, or you can run it through a cogeneration unit and create electricity and heat,” Thrall says. The Lacombe Biorefinery project will be doing the latter.

Environmentally speaking, the thermal hydrolysis process is an attractive alternative to sending waste to a landfill or incinerator. It’s estimated that the biorefinery will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 350,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent over 10 years, a goal that has earned the project $10 million in funding from Alberta’s Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation. The thermal hydrolysis process also has international certification for destroying all disease agents and is a safe way to dispose of animal carcasses infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. “We get rid of food waste because people are worried about diseases,” says

Erick Schmidt, president of Biosphere Technologies and inventor of the process. “At the biorefinery, we can take that material, process it, get rid of the diseases and odour, and keep and save all the nutrients.” Schmidt has been working on bringing his process to market for more than a decade. After years of testing, there is now worldwide interest, generating the need for a showcase facility that proves the technology can work on a commercial scale. The facility will be located on a 13-acre site in Lacombe’s Wolf Creek Industrial Park. Lacombe is in one of the largest livestock regions in the country, making it an ideal place for a large-scale commercial operation. BioRefinex plans to process about 55,000 tonnes of material a year. Although the facility is still in the design stage, it is expected to include a processing area, office and lab space, and small demonstration greenhouses along the front to show the results of various fertilizers. BioRefinex had to obtain certification from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and must meet a number of detailed CFIA design requirements.

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24 | Fall 2011

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infrastructure

ILLUSTRATION: FORT MCMURRAY AIRPORT AUTHORITY

is on the way

Construction begins on $198-million expansion at Fort McMurray Airport By Chaz Osburn

Scheduled for opening in April 2014, Fort McMurray's new airport terminal building is designed to handle nearly twice the number of passengers .

For proof about how oil and Fort McMurray, Alta., are strongly intertwined, all you need do is look at oil prices versus annual passenger traffic statistics from Fort McMurray Airport. For five of the past six years, the average price of a barrel of oil has risen. For five of the past six years, passenger activity at the regional airport has also risen. The only time each dropped was during the dark days of the recession in 2009. And now, as the economy has picked up and the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thirst for crude is expected to grow, it is little wonder that passenger activity is expected to continue the upward trend as well. Alberta Construction Magazine | 27

infrastructure

AIRPORT RESERVE

PROPOSED VHF/UHF RECEIVER SITE LOCATION

EXISTING ATB

AIRPORT ROAD

EXISTING ATCT

EXISTING NORTH APRON

A RESA

AIRSIDE RESERVE

RESA

07L

WEST AIRPORT SERVICE ROAD

FUTURE EXTENSION TO 9,000 ft. RESA

EXISTING RUNWAY 07-25 (7,500 ft x 150 ft.)

RESA

AIRSIDE RESERVE

GLIDE PATH (RWY 25)

TAXIWAY JULIET

AIRLINE SUPPORT (BY OTHERS)

MET SITE

VEHICLE QTA 1

PROPOSED AWOS/ PROTECTION AREA

PROPOSED ATB

AIRSIDE BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL (5.97 ha.)

LANDSIDE BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL (2.56 ha.)

AIRSIDE BUSINES INDUSTRIAL (33.12

1 2 3

4 5

6 7

PROPOSED ATB PARKING LOT

5A 6

AIRPORT RESERVE

LANDSIDE BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL (7.85 ha.)

LANDSID INDUSTR

TERMINAL RESERVE (31.40 ha.)

ATCT / AIRPORT SUPPORT (5.64 ha.)

AIRSIDE RESERVE

HIG A HW Y6

AIRSIDE RESERVE

07R

PROPOSED RUNWAY 07R-25L (6,930 ft x 150 ft.)

AIRSIDE RESERVE

This map shows the location of the new terminal building (bottom circle) in relation to the existing terminal north of the runway (top circle). Long-range plans call for another runway, which is also shown here.

A $198-million expansion project now underway should bring some muchneeded relief. Construction has begun on a 14,000-square-metre terminal building— nearly five times bigger than the current terminal—in a new location south of the existing runway. Plans also call for a new apron (an area where planes can be parked) as well as more passenger parking. If everything goes according to plan—tendering closed in mid-July and a contract 28 | Fall 2011

was to be awarded about the time this issue went to press—everything should be finished by April 2014. Stantec Inc. is the project manager. “Our terminal building was built in the mid-1980s,” explains Sally Warford, chief operating officer of the Fort McMurray Airport Authority. “It was built for 250,000 people [a year]. Last year, we had passenger volumes of 714,000. We’re going to be close to 750,000 this year.”

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Major Accomplishments: ILLUSTRATION: FOR MCMURRAY AIRPORT AUTHORITY

The airport authority expects it’s just a matter of time before the airport joins the handful of Canadian airports that handle one million or more passengers a year. While some may have laughed a decade ago at the notion that Fort McMurray’s airport would see that many passengers annually, who could have predicted the amount of oilsands activity we’re now seeing? The reality is that the existing terminal building was designed for a peak-hour

Maintenance and construction of water treatment plants for the purge and treatment of drinking water (Sherbrooke (QC), Trois-Rivières (QC), Montreal (QC), Morocco, Mexico, France, United States and Antilles).

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 29

infrastructure PHOTOS: JOEY PODLUBNY

Oil and air

A look at the trend between the annual average price of a barrel of oil* and passenger activity at Fort McMurray Airport. $99.51

OIL PRICE $79.41 $66.01 $56.60

$72.20 $61.88

’05

’06

passenger activity

’07

’08

’09

’10

714,659

735,987 704,362

595,671 443,687

326,870 Top photo: Work on clearing the land for the new terminal building got underway this summer. Bottom photo: Passengers wait for their luggage in the current building.

’05

’06

’07

’09

’10

* WTI $US per bbl SOURCES: Fort McMurray Airport Authority, Oilweek

“ Last year, we had passenger volumes of 714,000. We’re going to be close to 750,000 this year.” — Sally Warford, Chief Operating Officer, Fort McMurray Airport Authority maximum of 200 people, according to the airport authority’s 2010 annual report. The current peak demand, however, requires holding space for 300. The new building addresses that and will have a peak-hour capacity of over 400. “It will [have the capacity to] handle almost a million and a half passengers 30 | Fall 2011

’08

once it opens,” Warford says. “The current drawings [include] three bridges—it could have four. The apron will match that size of a facility.” Those using the new terminal will enter from an access road that will be constructed off Highway 69. A large parking lot will be built nearby. There will be 1,700 spaces “to begin with,” says Warford, who adds that it’s not unusual now to have 1,500 cars parked in and around the current lot on long weekends or holidays. “Car parking will have electricity,” she says. “Right now, we don’t—not all the stalls have plug-in capability.” In addition to relieving the passenger space crunch, the new terminal building will have an area for retail businesses so customers can purchase food and drinks. And, with an eye towards the future, the airport authority has had

FAST FACTS Five fast facts about the Fort McMurray Airport: 1.

Current terminal opened in 1986.

Current terminal building is 2,950 square metres.

New terminal building will be 14,000 square metres.

Airport is 15th largest in Canada.

At 2,286 metres, the airport runway can handle a Boeing 737.

SOURCE: Fort McMurray Airport Authority

meetings with the Canada Border Services Agency to make sure the building would have adequate space for a customs area should the airport offer direct flights to the United States or other countries in the future. Warford says that of the top 32 airports in Canada, only Fort McMurray and Grande Prairie, Alta., do not have a customs area. The airport authority has a goal of obtaining international and U.S. charter services as early as this year. Mexico and Las Vegas are the primary targets. The current terminal building will remain once construction is completed on the new one. Should the growth trend continue, flyers could eventually expect to see another runway built. When that happens, however, is anyone’s guess. Says Warford, “That’s off in the future—till this one meets its capacity. It could take us 15 years. It could take 30.”

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 31

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industrial

the air Four large carbon capture projects inch closer to construction By Jim Bentein

The pieces are starting to fall into place as four ambitious, multi-billion-dollar projects aimed at capturing CO2 move towards construction. The projects are an outgrowth of the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Climate Change Strategy, which the province announced in 2008. The strategy is aimed at reducing projected greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 200 megatonnes by 2050. Of that, carbon capture and storage is projected to provide 70 per cent of Albertaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GHG emissions cuts. Total GHG emissions in 2009 in the province were 240 megatonnes, with emissions from the 109 large industrial facilities in Alberta reporting about 111 megatonnes. The climate change strategy includes a number of components that either have been put into place or will be. The first was the Specified Gas Emitters Regulation, which requires that industries emitting over 100,000 tonnes reduce emissions of existing facilities by 12 per cent. They can do this through using new technology, paying into a technology fund (at $15 a tonne) or buying emissions offsets. Another key element of the strategy is a $2-billion Carbon Capture and Storage Fund and that has been the spark that has ignited the go-ahead for four large carbon captureâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;related projects, which proponents say will eventually create thousands of new jobs. Alberta Construction Magazine | 33

industrial

reduction in greenhouse

The

would equal

gas emissions from these projects

one million vehicles

The projects are aimed at reducing GHG emissions by five million tonnes annually starting in 2015. That’s the equivalent of taking one million vehicles, or a third, of Alberta vehicles off the roads. The projects are: • Calgary-based Enhance Energy Inc.’s Alberta Carbon Trunk Line, a 240-kilometre pipeline that will transport CO2 from the Agrium Redwater Complex northeast of Edmonton and the North West Upgrader, which will be built near Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. The CO2 from those plants and from other CO2 producers would be transported to depleting conventional oilfields near Clive, Alta., and used in enhanced oil recovery. • Swan Hills Synfuels, which will tap into a deep, unmineable coal bed in the Swan Hills-Whitecourt area and turn the coal into synthetic gas. That gas will be used for enhanced oil recovery in the area and in a planned 300-megawatt power plant. • Project Pioneer, which would see partners TransAlta Corporation, Capital Power Corporation and Alstom Power and Enbridge Inc. develop a leadingedge “clean coal” power plant at the Keephills 3 plant west of Edmonton. • The Quest Project, which would capture and store 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 annually from Shell Canada Limited’s Scotford oilsands upgrader near Fort Saskatchewan. ALBERTA CARBON TRUNK LINE Susan Cole, president of Enhance, says engineering work on the four components of Enhance’s Alberta Carbon Trunk Line Project is well underway. The project includes drying and compression facilities for the CO 2 at the

34 | Fall 2011

taken off the road.

north end of the Industrial Heartland Region at the Agrium and North West sites, a pump station east of Fort Saskatchewan, to be called the Elk Island Pump Station, the pipeline operations and control centre at the Elk Island station, receipt facilities at the south end of the system near Clive, and a high–vapour pressure pipeline between the source and the delivery point. Initially, the 16-inch diameter pipeline (except for a small section that is 12 inches) will only deliver about 5,000 tonnes a day of CO2 to Clive, but there is the potential to expand its capacity to 40,000 tonnes daily with more pumping stations, she says. Most of the detailed engineering has been done for the CO2 capture facility at the Agrium plant and a 4,800-horsepower compressor has been purchased. CO2 from the North West Upgrader, on which final engineering is underway, will be “dry,” so all Enhance will need to do is to compress it for pipelining. Enhance, which has 20 employees overall, has retained two Calgary-based engineering firms to help with facility design: Caber Engineering Inc. and WorleyParsons Ltd. Construction on all the components will be underway by next year and the target date for the initial injection of CO2 at Clive is sometime in 2013. “We’ve already started the procurement of equipment and we’ve awarded about two dozen packages, mostly in Alberta,” she says. Enhance will have a 40 per cent working interest in enhanced oil recovery projects being developed by Fairborne Energy Ltd., which has the majority interest. Enhance is negotiating with other producers in the area as well, she says. “There’re 260,000 barrels of oil a day being produced in the U.S. as a result of

industrial

240 km 16”

CO2 injection,” Cole notes. “We don’t see anything to stop us from moving in that direction in Alberta. The biggest barrier to its expansion is access to CO2.” As it is, Cole says there are only 20,000 tonnes a day of CO2 now being produced in Alberta, but most of it is in a diluted form as a by-product at natural gas processing plants, or coal-fired power and bitumen production. Cole likens the development of the Enhance project to the evolution of the Alberta Gas Trunk Line, the natural gas gathering system created in the 1950s by then-premier Ernest Manning. That line signalled the birth of the province’s natural gas industry and subsequently to its petrochemical industry. Cole predicts the project will lead to other similar projects and to unlocking billions of barrels of oil. There is the potential for Enhance to build lateral pipeline to ship CO2 to other fields in Alberta, for example. “I don’t think people realize what it will do,” she says. “I can see a lot more petrochemical plants and other uses of CO2 as well.” Cole says the project could lead to the development of more heavy oil upgraders and refineries in the province. “Rather than shipping our resources from Alberta, there is the potential for more value added here.” And the environmental benefits of the project are also significant “because 50 per cent of Alberta’s emissions are in the area where our pipeline is serving.” Cole maintains that there’s already proof the project will spur new development, since the North West Upgrader, which will ultimately involve an investment of about $5 billion, is somewhat linked with it. That project, which will ultimately upgrade 150,000 barrels a day and will

A CLOSER LOOK Details about thE project:

❱

The Alberta Carbon Trunk Line would be a 240-kilometre pipeline that will transport CO2 from the Agrium Redwater Complex and the new North West Upgrader. The CO2 from those plants and from other CO2 producers would be transported to depleting conventional oilfields near Clive, Alta., and used in enhanced oil recovery.

be built in three phases of 50,000 barrels daily, is being designed to produce 3,500 tonnes daily of CO2. Using what is called a gasifier-based process, the facility will also produce ultra-low sulphur diesel, diluent, ethane and other sought-after products. The project, on which final engineering is proceeding, is not receiving direct funding under the CO2 capture program. However, the province is giving it a financial boost by agreeing to sell North West discounted bitumen it is taking in lieu of royalties as part of its Bitumen Royalty in-Kind program. The project will create 8,000 jobs in construction, equipment supply and manufacturing. It will also mean several hundred permanent jobs. Work is now underway on the plant. North West formed an alliance with SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. and PCL Industrial Management Inc. for overall project management services and also for prime contractor site services. They are performing about 50 per cent of engineering, procurement and supply for the plant. IJK Consortium has been awarded the contract to fabricate the high-temperature and high-pressure vessels in the hydroprocessing and hydrocracking units of

Alberta Construction Magazine | 35

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industrial

the upgrader. (It’s a consortium of companies led by Japan Steel Works, Ltd.) Voice Construction Ltd. of Canada will do the earthwork and site preparation. Other companies involved in the project are Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (sulphur recovery unit) and Chevron Lummus Global LLC (residue hydrocracking unit). Lurgi AG of Frankfurt, Germany, was awarded the EPC contract for the gasifier (about $500 million). SWAN HILLS SYNFUELS The next development to have finalized negotiations with the province is the Swan Hills Synfuels project. Douglas Shaigec, president of Calgarybased Swan Hills Synfuels L.P., says the first $1.5-billion commercial phase of its in situ coal gasification project, which the province is helping to fund, is likely to be the first of several such projects that will eventually create hundreds of permanent jobs in the Swan Hills-Whitecourt area of Alberta. “We envision the development of multiple phases,” he says of the project, which Alberta Construction Magazine first reported on last year. “The coal resource is there and the market is there. While our first phase involves a plant that will produce electricity, we envision further phases that would involve the use of the output for liquid transportation fuel.” The in situ coal gasification project involves the conversion of coal that is so deep underground that it cannot be mined into a clean, low-carbon synthesis gas, or syngas. The project will be linked with the planned in situ coal gasification/Sagitawah power plant, which would produce 300 megawatts of electricity that Swan Hills would sell into the Alberta grid. The company seeks a partner to operate the power plant.

The company, which is still in the funding stage, plans to start construction in late 2012 or early 2013, with a project start-up in late 2015. The company has selected Edmonton-based PCL Industrial Management to build the clean syngas processing facility on a fixed-price, schedule-certain basis. The project has four components: a coal gasification plant, a power plant, a pipeline to carry the syngas to the power plant and the use of a pipeline to transport CO2 for enhanced oil recovery.

A CLOSER LOOK Details about thE project:

❱

Swan Hills Synfuels plans to turn the coal into synthetic gas, which will be used for enhanced oil recovery and in a power plant.

Swan Hills has operated a demonstration plant in the area since 2009. The $30-million plant was financed partially through an $8.83-million grant from the Alberta Energy Research Institute (now Alberta Innovates). As with the planned commercial project, it gasifies coal at a depth of 1,400 metres. It uses technology first developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. Company officials say advances in horizontal drilling helped make the project viable. The first commercial project would produce 17 million gigajoules a year of syngas and capture about 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 a year. Shaigec says the potential to expand the use of the technology in Alberta is vast, with the commercial project only occupying a surface area of five sections of land.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 37

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industrial

“ If [carbon capture and storage] can’t be made to work, it means the enormous energy we have in Alberta’s coal deposits stays in the ground.“ — Don Wharton, Vice-President of Sustainable Development, TransAlta Corporation

“We have the potential to develop projects 30 times this size,” he says. Swan Hills argues that it is vital to unlock the vast hydrocarbon reserve potential of deep coal in Alberta in an environmentally acceptable way. The Alberta Geological Survey has estimated there is 600 billion tonnes of coal in the Mannville zone alone (the coal the project would tap). The Mannville zone coals cover about one-quarter of Alberta and hold more than two times all of the energy in the oilsands. Shaigec says that, in addition to tapping those coals and producing syngasbased power, which is would produce less than half the CO2 emission of a coal-fired power plant, it is estimated the CO2 from the project could lead to about 70,000 barrels a day of oil being recovered. The project would create about 800 peak construction jobs and an average of 300–400 over the three years it is being developed. It would cost about $60 million a year to operate the project, which would create about 80 full-time jobs. PROJECT PIONEER Don Wharton, vice-president of sustainable development with Calgary-based TransAlta, says the company’s Project Pioneer could be the salvation of the coalfired power sector, as well as of Alberta’s and Canada’s thermal coal industry. “If [carbon capture and storage] can’t be made to work, it means the enormous energy we have in Alberta’s coal deposits stays in the ground,” he says. More than half of Alberta’s electricity is produced by coal-fired plants and TransAlta and partner, Edmonton-based Capital Power generate much of it. Pipeline giant Enbridge Inc. is also a partner, with all three owning

A CLOSER LOOK

equal shares. It would utilDetails about thE project: ize Alstom Canada’s proprietary chilled ammonia Project Pioneer involves process. develop a leading-edge Project Pioneer would “clean coal” power plant be “the cleanest coal-fired at the Keephills 3 power power plant in the world,” plant west of Edmonton. Wharton says. The project technology Aside from Alberta used would capture up providing $436 million to one million tonnes of in funding, the federal CO2 a year, which would government has allotted be used for enhanced oil $330 million. The prorecovery in nearby conject, including $600 milventional oilfields and lion in operating costs for stored underground. 10 years, would cost about $1.3 billion, Wharton says. Wharton says that front-end engineering and design is being done now, with Edmonton-based Stantec Inc. being the principal engineering firm involved. TransAlta and partners will probably make a final decision on a go-ahead for Pioneer later this year. It would be attached to Keephills 3, a 450-megawatt coal-fired generating facility located 70 kilometres west of Edmonton. TransAlta and Capital Power are partners in that plant, on which construction was completed last year. Wharton says the CO2 capture facility will be retrofitted to that plant and would capture about one million tonnes a year of CO2, which is about one-third of the emissions from Keephills 3. The partners plan to explore the potential for selling the captured CO2 for enhanced oil recovery, Wharton says. The partners would need to build a 50-kilometre pipeline to move CO2 to areas where it can be utilized for enhanced oil recovery or for storage. That cost isn’t included in the current price.

❱

Alberta Construction Magazine | 39

industrial

“ The CO2 would be injected more than two kilometres into the subsurface, in the Cambrian rock formation. Once injected, the CO2 would remain underground.” — Adrienne Lamb, Communications Specialist, Shell Canada

CO2 injection

(Approx. 2,100 metres)

40 | Fall 2011

A CLOSER LOOK Details about thE project:

QUEST The Quest Project The Quest project will would capture and involve the retrofit of store 1.2 million tonnes CO2 capture technolof CO2 annually from ogy to the existing Shell Shell Canada’s Scotford Canada Energy Scotford oilsands upgrader near Upgrader. The partners Fort Saskatchewan, Alta. in that project are the same as those involved in oilsands mining projects in northern Alberta that eventually may produce up to 770,000 barrels daily of bitumen. Shell has a 60 per cent share. Chevron Canada Ltd. and Marathon Oil Corporation each holding 20 per cent shares. Adrienne Lamb, communications specialist with Shell for the Quest project, says the project is in the regulatory review phase and the partners expect to make a final decision on a go-ahead early in 2012. It would involve an investment of $1.35 billion overall, with $745 million coming from Alberta, another $120 million from Ottawa and the remainder operating funding from the partners for 10 years. The Scotford upgrader, which was recently expanded to process 255,000 barrels daily, would have the CO2 capture unit attached to it, which would be designed to capture one million tonnes a year of CO2. “The CO2 would be injected more than two km into the subsurface, in the Cambrian rock formation,” Lamb says. “Once injected, the CO2 would remain underground.” The project could be designed to capture the CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. If the companies proceed, construction could start in 2012, with a completion by 2015. The partners have awarded the contract for the capture facilities to Calgary-based Fluor Canada Ltd. and the engineering and procurement contract for the pipeline was awarded to Calgary-based Tri Ocean Engineering Ltd.

❱

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42 | Fall 2011

The challenges may look similar to the last growth period, but companies are giving early thought to meeting them By Chaz Osburn Photos by Joey Podlubny

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For most of the year we’ve been hearing that the next boom for Alberta is just around the corner. While some may be asking “which corner?” others are taking the prediction seriously. They’re investing money, time and other resources to make sure they’re ready. Examples: • Canadian National Railway (CN) is spending $10 million on its rail line from Lac La Biche, Alta., to Fort McMurray, Alta., to increase capacity to the oilsands region. CN’s Fort McMurray yard gives customers direct rail access to major energy projects in development in Alberta’s Athabasca, Peace River and Cold Lake oilsands regions. • In announcing a $24-million addition to the Edmonton corporate campus in June, PCL Construction Management Inc. chief executive officer and president Paul Douglas made a point of emphasizing that the project was about positioning the company for the future. “We’re tremendously confident in the province of Alberta and where it’s going,” he said. Building now makes sense, he said. “In a couple of years from now we believe the province is going to be back in that boom cycle and we’re going to see escalation [of costs].” • Estimates are that anywhere between $140 billion and $250 billion in oilsands projects are under construction or proposed. “Here in Alberta, we’re gearing up for what could be unprecedented growth,” notes Alberta Energy Minister Ron Liepert. • Enbridge Inc. has $2.7 billion in pipeline expansions and new projects planned between now and 2014. Projects include the Norealis pipeline to serve Sunrise, Woodland to serve Kearl and the Wood Buffalo pipeline to serve Suncor Energy Inc. And Kent Cornelius, an Enbridge Inc. vice-president, told an oilsands conference in June that he expects a significant investment will be required for new and expanded infrastructure to support growth in the oilsands in the future. Of course, all of this happened before August’s wild stock market swings and renewed fears of another global recession.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 43

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E-T Energy’s pilot project (top and centre photos) and MEG Energy Christina Lake Phase 2B expansion (photo at right) are just two of the sites where construction activity can be seen.

But assuming that Scotiabank’s prediction earlier this year that Alberta, buoyed by the oil sector, will lead western Canada’s economic performance holds true, growth will average somewhere around 3.7 per cent. Much of what is driving this is the increasingly important role Alberta’s oilsands resource plays in the global energy picture. CLOSE TIES Daily production from the oilsands is reaching 1.7 million barrels, according to the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI). Not only are the oilsands “making an increasing contribution to the close energy ties between Canada and the United States,” CERI says, they are also playing a greater role in Canada’s gross domestic product. And there is no sign of a let-up. According to CERI, the estimated investments, reinvestments and revenues from operations of new oilsands projects will be $2 trillion between now and 2034. Of that, $253 billion will be “strategic initial capital.” That’s an important figure for this industry, as it includes construction. But you don’t need studies in Fort McMurray to tell you there is renewed activity in the oilsands. Talk to just about anyone there and they’ll tell you that

things are heating up. There’s more traffic on the roads. And it’s getting harder to find people for jobs. Just ask Bruce McGee, president and chief executive officer of E-T Energy Ltd. “We’ve been looking for an operations manager,” McGee said during a recent tour of the company’s pilot project north of Fort McMurray. E-T Energy leases on 16.5 contiguous sections of land just north of Fort McMurray known as E-T Energy Poplar Creek. The company uses a proprietary technology called ET-DSP—short for electrothermal dynamic stripping process. Unlike other in situ production methods such as steam assisted gravity drainage, an electrical current is used to warm the bitumen so it can be pumped out of the ground. Wells for the electrodes are drilled into the formation in a grid pattern. The spacing of the electrode wells is designed to provide the most efficient heating of the formation. Vertical production wells are then drilled into the formation to bring the heated liquid to the surface for storage. There are no resulting greenhouse gas emissions and water use is minimized. The technique is already in commercial use in the remediation of contaminated soils in the United States.

“We’ve typically been able to pull a lot of people from eastern Canada, but they’re busy. The resources across Canada are drying up.” — Paul Douglas, President and Chief Executive Officer, PCL Construction Management Inc.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 45

feature Bruce McGee of E-T Energy (left photo) and the Poplar Creek pilot project site. (centre photo). CN’s Transload Facility (right photo) is the arrival point for many pieces of large equipment destined for oilsands projects.

Suncor president and chief executive officer Rick George told an oilsands conference in June that companies are taking a much more disciplined approach to spending now.

McGee’s goal is for E-T Energy to produce 10,000 barrels of oil a day at Poplar Creek. In April, the company struck an agreement with Total E&P Canada Ltd. whereby Total participates in E-T Energy’s field tests in return for financial and technical support. (McGee says he can’t reveal how much.) The agreement also provides options for future cooperation in the development of ET-DSP. That includes a global licence of the technology for Total and a working interest in E-T Energy’s operation at Poplar Creek. While it is a company that bears watching, E-T Energy is one of the smaller players in an oilsands world dominated by giants like Suncor and Syncrude Canada Ltd. And while many of those bigger companies are spending to expand production, they are just as concerned about costs as the smaller ones. Suncor president and chief executive officer Rick George told an oilsands conference in June that companies are taking a much more disciplined approach to spending now. Companies don’t want a repeat of the cost inflation seen just before the last recession. NO GOING BACK “Believe me, none of us want to go back to that,” George said. There will still be inflation, but “this inflationary period will be different than the last one.” Inflation aside, concerns about having enough workers to get jobs done are also very real.

46 | Fall 2011

Speakers at TD Securities’ unconventional energy conference in Calgary this summer raised the issue. Bill Lingard, president and chief executive officer of Flint Energy Services Ltd., shared what Flint has done to address the worker shortage. They include recruiting construction management staff from other industries and other countries. Flint has also accelerated apprenticeship programs. And it has improved control systems and workplace planning. At the height of construction activity a few years ago, Flint had 450 temporary foreign workers out of a peak field workforce of about 3,000, he said. “Even today we are experiencing shortages in certain trades,” Lingard told the conference. “So we’re using a small number of temporary foreign workers.” Flint has about 100 temporary foreign workers out of a total of about 1,500 construction workers in the field. Douglas, of PCL, said his company also needs qualified workers “to put our upgraders and big oil and gas projects in place. “We’ve typically been able to pull a lot of people from eastern Canada, but they’re busy. The resources across Canada are drying up, and we need to be getting our hands on the very best people right now and [are] looking to foreign recruitment and all the other things we’ve done in the past.” So how many workers is PCL looking for? “Thousands.”

Innovative Fortruss System offers superior strength, value, and flexibility Since 1967, Beaver Plastics Ltd. has produced highperformance, engineered products made from expandable foam plastics. In January 2011, the company launched its latest innovative product, Fortruss, which uses cuttingedge expanded polystyrene (EPS) forming technology for structural slabs. Beaver Plastics manufactures innovative and quality products in expanded polystyrene for the agricultural, construction, custom packaging, and geotechnical industries in North America. “For over four decades, we have worked with industry researchers and scientists to turn good ideas into quality products. Fortruss is the most recent addition to our product offering,” says Todd McCarthy, president of Beaver Plastics. Fortruss is a stay-in-place concrete forming system used to create suspended concrete floor and roof slabs for all types of structures, while providing excellent insulation value. “Fortruss is a simple, lightweight forming system for creating insulated suspended concrete slabs. Applications include floor systems, decks, and roof assemblies,” says Lyle Hamilton, sales and marketing manager for Beaver Plastics. Two components make up the Fortruss System: the Deck Panels and the Beam Forms. The Floor Panels are manufactured with EPS. The Beam Forms are also manufactured with EPS, but are wrapped with metal cladding. The metal cladding provides rigidity to the form system during installation and concrete placement, as well as providing plenty of attachment surfaces for utility installation and underside finishes. The Floor Panels bridge the gap between the Beam Forms, which are typically spaced at 24 inches on centre, and span in one direction. When assembled, the Floor Panels and Beam Forms provide the formwork for a suspended insulated concrete slab. The components remain in place to provide superior insulation with a 100 per cent thermal break. A key feature of the Fortruss System is the choice to place concrete in the beam and slab at the same time

(monolithic pour) or in two separate operations (twopour system). The Fortruss System can be used in residential or commercial applications for floors, decks, and roof structures (including green roofs) with clear spans of up to 40 feet. Pitched and sloped applications are also possible. Hamilton says since the company formally launched Fortruss, the system has been used successfully in many residential and commercial applications. “For commercial applications, the Fortruss System provides better clear span options than conventional truss systems with the additional benefit of fire-rated deck and/ or roof structure,” says Hamilton. Fortruss suspended slabs provide superior structure, fire safety, sound quality, R-Value, and provide the basis for efficient in-floor heating and thermal mass utilization. The Fortruss System is also net-zero ready, LEED-ready, energy efficient, and promotes disaster proof construction. Fortruss can be used with any conventional wall assembly and complements an insulated concrete forms (ICF) structure seamlessly. Beaver Plastics is headquartered in the Acheson Industrial Park, just outside of Edmonton, with manufacturing plants located in Chilliwack, B.C., and Uruapan, Mexico. “As building codes across North America move to incorporate new energy efficiency and structural design standards in both residential and commercial buildings, Beaver Plastics is leading the way with innovative highperformance building systems and wall assemblies. Fortruss, LOGIX ICF, Platinum 3000, and Insulworks provide tomorrow’s performance standards today,” says Hamilton.

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CRUNcH time Filling positions is about to become even more of a challenge for industry

ILLUSTRATION: ÂŠISTOCKPHOTO.COM/ William Bacon

By Jim Bentein

48 | Fall 2011

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If you’re an executive with a construction company, or an employee within a company expecting to build a large project over the next decade, the news is not good. A p a i r of ne w re p or t s — on e by t h e Construction Sector Council (CSC) and the other by the Construction Owners Association of Alberta (COAA)—give some hard numbers to the looming labour shortage we’ve all heard about. They project a shortage of about 320,000 construction workers in the country between now and 2019. The CSC study, Con str uc tion Looking Forward 2011 to 2019, compiled from Statistic Canada and other sources, acted as the baseline for the COAA report and for forecasts being used by the Alberta Construction Association, says researcher Larry Staples. He compiled studies for both Alberta groups; both studies came out in the spring. Staples also worked with the group headed by University of Calgary economist Robert Mansell, which produced a report in March sanctioned by the Alberta Chamber of Resources as part of its Task Force on Resource Development Alberta Construction Magazine | 49

ILLUSTRATION: ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/timoph

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DEALING WITH THE SHORTAGE The COAA study contains a number of recommendations to help industry deal with its workforce supply challenges, including: • Better planning of projects and more coordination between contractors and project developers so that there is more productive use of workers. • More modularization of project components, something that has already become widespread in the oilsands sector. • Getting government to allow for the import of temporary foreign workers from the United States, Mexico and countries much more accessible to Canadian industry. • Attracting more youth within Canada to take apprenticeships in the trades and developing strategies to keep people involved in apprenticeships after they have started them. • Changing the image of the construction sector to show prospective workers that it is now a much more stable area than it has been in the past. • Attracting more Aboriginals and women into the construction trades.

50 | Fall 2011

and the Economy. That report forecasts a similar shortage in the energy specific sector. T he C SC st udy says projec ted retirements, as baby boomers leave the field, will create a need for over 200,000 replacement workers. About one-third of the 320,000 workers that will be required will be needed to cope with growth. At least 40,000 of those workers will be needed in Alberta, across all skilled trades areas, Staples says. “Demographics accounts for the largest percentage,” he says. “But the demand for construction workers will be going up and up. In Alberta they’ll be needed to build oilsands projects and in central Canada to build power plants.” Unlike it has in the past, Alberta can’t necessarily count on a source of labour from central Canada and the Maritimes. That’s because the multibillion-dollar Lower Churchill hydro project in Newfoundland-Labrador and offshore oil projects will suck up the available labour supply in eastern Canada. As well, nuclear plant projects and other large projects are expected to create a need for workers in Ontario. Meanwhile, he says forecasters such as the Canadian Energy Research Institute, forecast a need for up to 500,000 workers

in the oilsands. Many of those needed will be construction workers. “That’s a big number,” he points out. George Gritziotis, executive director of the CSC, says about 1.1 million people are employed in Canada’s construction industry. About 70 per cent of them are “on the tools” while the rest are in management. That includes workers in heavy industry, and commercial and residential construction. BIG IMPACT “There are about 16 million people employed in Canada, so more than one out of 16 is involved in the construction sector,” he notes. “It’s responsible for 12 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product.” While no sector was spared the wrath of the Great Recession of 2008, the construction sector fared better than it had in past recessions. “In past recessions, the unemployment rate got as high as 20 per cent or 30 per cent in the sector, but in this past recession it was less than 10 per cent.” Both the national organization and Alberta organizations involved in the sector recommend a multi-pronged strategy to deal with the projected shortage, according to Staples and Gritziotis.

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Gritziotis says a serious concern regarding t he retirement of older workers is that the industry is the loss of “skill and technology transfer,” as less-experienced workers fill supervisory positions. On the other hand, opportunities for promotion will be attractive. “I don’t think a lot of tradespeople recognize the opportunities there will be to go beyond their tools, to supervisory positions,” he says. The good news is that the industry is being proactive, looking for solutions to the problem ahead of time. Staples says the associations involved with the sector speak regularly to governments, making them aware of what steps need to be taken. As an example, one problem in Alberta is that post-secondary institutions have their funding cut by the government as soon as the economy turns down. By the time the economy improves, the schools haven’t been able to ramp up programs fast enough. “The governments and the postsecondary institutions base the number of apprenticeship positions on the past two to three years,” he says. “As a result, there are often more apprentices that need training than there are positions at the schools.”

The thinking has always been that Alberta’s resource industry is a boombust sector. But that is changing, he says, because the oilsands plants are essent ia l ly ma nu factu ring faci lities. That has created a demand for trades beyond short-term construction projects. “The construction sector will be offering opportunities for great, longterm careers,” he says. The call for better planning is being addressed by Calgary’s SAIT Polytechnic, which is launching a new program in construction management. The industry is working with post-secondary institutions to fill other gaps. Staples says there’s a need for more professionalism in the industry, where absenteeism is twice as high on construction sites as in manufacturing. TACKLING ABSENTEEISM “That’s a multi-layered problem,” he notes. “It stems from difficult working conditions on sites and from management not often recognizing it needs to respond to those conditions. We need to make the industry more inviting if we are going to attract the next generation of workers.” There’s a huge untapped workforce in Canada, Staples and Gritziotis say.

“Only five per cent of construction workers are women,” Gritziotis says. “That compares with 50 per cent in the overall workforce in Canada.” Staples says steps need to be taken to accommodate women into t he workforce, starting with the recognition that they have family responsibilities. They might have to be given more f lextime, something that should be considered for the next generation of workers overall. Staples says the Alberta Chamber of Resources study he was involved in showed that the energy industry will continue to be the engine of Alberta’s grow th going forward. And it will be the source of most of the skilledworker demand. “We are blessed with numerous resources, but if we realize what the potential is under our feet we have an incredible opportunity. However, we have to get it right.” Gritziotis says it’s not too late to deal with the looming number of workers that will be needed in the industry. “I refuse to use the word ‘crisis,’” Gritziotis says. “The industry knows there is going to be this big need and it’s putting together strategies to deal with it. We don’t want it to hit us between the eyes.” Alberta Construction Magazine | 51

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THE MAGNIFICENT

& MOVERS SHAKERS

2011’s Movers & Shakers pursue excellence in varied roles You are about to meet seven people—people with drive, with vision, with passion—who are having an impact on Alberta’s construction industry. Whether that impact is directed at a single company or beyond, the seven we profile on the next 11 pages exemplify the notion that determination and hard work can and does make a difference. Our finalists were chosen based on a range of criteria, including professional achievements, experience, leadership, and industry and community involvement. Our 2011 Movers & Shakers have varied backgrounds, with some coming up through the industry and others not. But they share one thing in common: the pursuit of excellence.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 53

PHOTO: AARON PARKER

movers & shakers

Pat Cote and his brother Ed Cote are two of the three original employees of Whitemud Ironworks Group.

ED & Pat COTE Whitemud Ironworks Group Inc. Looking for ways to stay out in front Growing up on a farm in northern Alberta with six other brothers, Ed Cote and Pat Cote weren’t planning to create a thriving steel fabrication and erection company. But that’s just what they did with Whitemud Ironworks Group Inc., a homegrown operation headquartered in Edmonton that calls many major contractors valued clients. Ed, president of Whitemud, wanted to be his own boss and Pat, now vicepresident of sales and marketing, was a welder when Whitemud was founded 20 years ago. “There was only one employee other than ourselves,” remembers Ed. “Paycheques were few and far between. We would do miscellaneous fabrication and installation, and we weren’t too choosy about the work.” Today the company employs about 250 people and has two facilities in Edmonton, one in Surrey, B.C, and a drafting office 54 | Fall 2011

in the Philippines. Its crews also work in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Neither brother has had formal business training, but both have plenty of common sense that has translated into sound business policies and procedures. Ed says he hires the best in the business and, rather than micromanaging them, gives them the freedom to contribute their own ideas. Process improvement is a major focus. There is a formal step-by-step plan for process improvement in which an improvement team is established and charged with the task of improving something. The team’s mandate, goals, description of what success will look like and responsibilities are clearly defined and written down. Finally, a schedule—with due dates—is created and a person from management is appointed to help the team meet its goals.

“We have seen great benefits from the process. We also spend a great deal of energy working on improving the quality of our work as well as improving our skills,” Ed says. Moving forward, both brothers are concerned about labour shortages. “We’re already seeing shortages, and it’s going to get worse,” Pat says. Several strategies are in place for helping ensure that Whitemud can keep growing. Whitemud’s human resources department works diligently to source qualified labour from within Canada and abroad, and Whitemud is working to adapt to a changing world. “New workers coming out of school might not know how to weld, but they do know how to use a laptop,” Pat observes. “We’re looking for new ways to automate and watching what’s coming out on the market, trying to stay in front of things.”

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Dolores Eaton founded IVIS in 1996.

DOLORES EATON IVIS Inc.

A passion for excellence Dolores Eaton, the president, chief executive officer and founder of IVIS Inc., isn’t content with simply getting a job done. “I want to be an efficient company, providing the best service to our customers—not just doing a job but doing an excellent job,” she says. “This requires each and every staff member to make good decisions when working on a job site to ensure they give the customer the best service possible and provide a solution.” After 24 years in the food service industry, Eaton made a major change and founded IVIS—a trenchless sewer and pipe rehabilitation company based in Edmonton—in 1996. Since that day she has grown the company from the ground up. IVIS boasts 38 employees and provides underground infrastructure solutions for companies, municipalities, contractors, communities and 56 | Fall 2011

private property owners in Alberta and British Columbia. Eaton admits that she fell into the construction industry through a part-time job, but she liked it immediately. “The work we do is kind of like conducting an investigation. It’s always interesting and the projects and solutions are always different.” Eaton’s strong work ethic, no doubt formed in part during five years in the armed forces, underlies the company’s success. She also believes in delivering good service, providing clients with a range of recommended solutions and helping them determine the best option. Clients aren’t her only concern. IVIS has a strong health, safety and environmental protection program and employees are included in decision making. Says Eaton, “I give each and every one of my staff the ability to give their input into how IVIS would be able to be run efficiently.”

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SAIT Polytechnic’s Irene Lewis recognizes that the construction industry is a major driver of the economy.

IRENE LEWIS SAIT Polytechnic

Preparing the workforce of tomorrow One of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women for 2010, Irene Lewis, president and chief executive officer of SAIT Polytechnic, has been making an impact in the construction industry since she joined SAIT in 1998. She was instrumental in bringing the International WorldSkills competition to Calgary in 2009, helping to create interest in the trades among young Albertans. She’s also driving several projects at SAIT that promise to bear great dividends for the industry—notably a $400-million Trades and Technology Complex and a new bachelor’s degree in construction project management that SAIT began offering in fall 2011. SAIT’s Applied Research and Innovation Services department is also involved in identifying and developing green building technologies. “The construction industry is a key driver of our economy, and SAIT is dedicated to

providing the skilled workforce the industry needs to continue enhancing Alberta’s prosperity,” Lewis says. “Beyond that, we strongly believe in construction as a rewarding and challenging career path, and we want to encourage more young people to consider it as a first-choice option.” Programs related to the construction industry at SAIT are Gold Seal accredited, including the new B.Sc. in construction project management. “We provide opportunities for employees and employers to raise their levels of expertise and be recognized for their competence, and we encourage our students to be proud of their skills and their craftsmanship,” Lewis says. Known for her ability to build relationships, Lewis has drawn closer ties between SAIT, students and industry. Industry partners work with SAIT as advisors to programs and were integral to the development of the new construction management degree. Alberta Construction Magazine | 59

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movers & shakers

Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta’s minister of employment and immigration, wants safe work sites.

THOMAS LUKASZUK Alberta Employment and Immigration Advocating safe sites and people to work on them Nowhere is the need for quality workers greater than here in Alberta. But as the economy heats up, companies face a huge question: where to find them? Thomas Lukaszuk, Alberta’s minister of employment and immigration, seems to have a sensible solution. He has been urging the federal government to rethink its Temporary Foreign Workers Program. Right now, there is a four-year limit on a foreign worker’s stay in Canada. After that, workers must leave the country and wait another four years before applying to again work temporarily in Canada. Changing that and concentrating on immigration would help employers—and the workers themselves—in the long run, Lukaszuk has argued. But it’s not only the temporary foreign workers issue that has caught our attention.

Lukaszuk, who has been in his current role since January 2010, has been a tireless advocate in making sure that Alberta’s job sites are safer for workers. You’ve no doubt read about—or perhaps you’ve been involved first-hand in—the safety inspections at job sites conducted by his office or have heard about his goal to have 132 Occupational Health and Safety officers on the job by 2014. That’s a 55 per cent increase from the 86 officers on the job around the time he assumed his current role. “I hope this sends a strong message to any company or worker in Alberta who feels the law doesn’t apply to them,” he told the Edmonton Chapter of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering earlier this year. “That’s 132 officers delivering a message that no company, no individual is above the law.” Alberta Construction Magazine | 61

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Canadian Dewatering has grown dramatically under Dale Marchand.

DALE MARCHAND Canadian Dewatering L.P.

Growing and growing and growing... Since accepting the role of president of Canadian Dewatering L.P. in 2004, Dale Marchand has led the company’s growth from 60 to over 400 employees with corresponding incremental revenue results. Just as impressive? During recent economic lows, Marchand and his team enabled the company to keep on growing. “We’re very focused on what we do best: fluid management, transportation and water control,” he says, explaining the company’s success. Raised in Fort McMurray, Alta., Marchand, who has a graduate diploma in management and has taken numerous leadership and personal development courses, has worked with business units of Mullen Group, Canadian Dewatering’s parent company, since 1990. Career progression led him to be promoted to manage an oilsands-focused company, Northern Underwater Systems, when Mullen purchased it in 2004. That company

merged with Canadian Dewatering in 2007. Today, Canadian Dewatering has eight branches throughout western Canada. The company focuses on providing pumping, diving, barging, dewatering, high-pressure cleaning and sediment control services to a variety of industries. Strategic planning allows Canadian Dewatering to position itself to quickly take advantage of new opportunities. Tailings management in the oilsands is one example. “As we exited 2008, there was industry talk of ‘dirty oil,’” Marchand says. “Oilsands operators are under the Directive 74 microscope, and we saw how we could help. We are in the fluid management business. We’ve been working in oilsands for years, and we had the frontline leadership to deploy resources in that region.” Marchand is proud of the accomplishments and success of the Canadian Dewatering team to-date, and is eagerly anticipating future milestones. Alberta Construction Magazine | 63

PHOTO: CHRISTINA RYAN

movers & shakers

Calgary native Michael Powell became president of BURNCO in May 2010.

MICHAEL POWELL BURNCO Rock Products Ltd. Leadership for the second century In May 2010, Michael Powell became the first president in the nearly 100year history of BURNCO Rock Products Ltd. who is not a member of the Burns family, but he feels right at home. After 19 years in the building materials industry, most recently as chief financial officer at TIM-BR Marts Ltd., a national building materials buying group, Powell is well prepared for the challenges of operating a growing company. Born and raised in Calgary, Powell earned a bachelor of commerce degree from the University of Calgary and went on to receive the chartered accountant designation in 1991. Initially hired by an oil and gas company, he was transferred to a roofing manufacturer, working first as controller and later as director of sales for western Canada. He’s been in building materials ever since, and he’s excited to lead BURNCO into its second century of business. 64 | Fall 2011

A fourth-generation family business headquartered in Calgary, BURNCO turns 100 in 2012, making it a bit of an Alberta institution. Even while preparing to celebrate its centennial, the company, which has around 800 employees, continues to grow. BURNCO acquired three landscape centres in British Columbia this past April, giving the company more than 60 locations. The company is also seeking other opportunities in each of operating division. “We believe that our financial strength allows us to buy quality assets at prices today that are more reasonable than they were three or four years ago,” Powell says. “We have also seen that there are numerous independent businesses in our industry that do not have firm succession or exit plans, and we feel that we are well positioned to work with these owners for mutual benefit.”

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Table of Contents Plan to curb sprawl gets an emerald .................. 68 An anchor app ............................................................. 68 There’s a mouse (plane) in the house.................. 69 Stuart Olsen dominion wins hospital work . .... 69 TWD’s new offices ...................................................... 70 New pavilion recognized ........................................ 70

& projects

ILLUSTRATION: ALCOA

Look mom, no hands ................................................ 71

people, products

CLEAN CLADDING Alcoa Architectural Products has begun marketing a new aluminum cladding panel that the company says can clean both itself and the surrounding air. How does it work? The panels have a titanium dioxide– based coating that repels particles of dirt when sunlight and moisture combine. “Even the smallest amount of rain or humidity in the air, such as morning dew, will activate EcoClean,” the company says. “Each time this happens, the water washes the dispersed pollutants from the building, leaving the facade cleaner than before. This is how facades remain clean and attractive for many years, only requiring infrequent cleaning.” This self-cleaning capability means that cleaning costs are reduced over a building’s lifetime, says Guy Scheidecker, marketing and distribution manager for Alcoa Architectural Products. The company says its EcoClean cladding is as easy to process and fit as traditional cladding products. This new aluminum cladding panel is designed to make it difficult for dirt to stick.

To learn more, check out excellence-in-innovation.eu.

STYLISH AND SAFE PHOTO: MOEN

When building or remodelling a washroom, don’t overlook safety when it comes to these common bath essentials—towel bars, paper holders and shelves. As our population ages, more products are coming on the market that combine safety with style and functionality. For example, Moen Incorporated’s new line of grab bars with integrated accessories includes: • Grab bar with towel bar—ideal for stability when transferring in and out of the shower or tub. • Grab bar with paper holder—assists users when lowering or raising themselves on and off the toilet. The curved design allows the paper to be replaced easily. • Grab bar with shelf—provides stability in the bath or shower, keeping items conveniently within safe reach. Grab bar with shelf

HOW TO submit items Does your company have news about personnel changes or new products? Or did it just land a new project in Alberta? We want to know about it. Here’s how to get your news to us. Email items to: cosburn@junewarren-nickles.com or send it to: Editor, Alberta Construction Magazine, 6111-91 St. NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 6V6 or fax to: (780) 944-9500 Please include the full name and location of the company.

Check out moen.ca to learn more. Alberta Construction Magazine | 67

people, products, projects

The City of Edmonton was recognized for its commitment to environmental excellence by winning a 2011 Emerald Award for its Capital City Downtown Plan. The plan was designed to enable Edmonton to become more sustainable, vibrant and accessible. It contains initiatives to reinvigorate the downtown area to improve the quality of life of Edmontonians and curb suburban sprawl. The Emerald Awards recognize and reward excellent environmental initiatives undertaken by large and small corporations, individuals, not-for-profit associations, community groups and governments. The awards are handed out by the Alberta Emerald Foundation. Key players involved with the Capital City Downtown Plan included: • DIALOG—prime consultant and urban design • HB Lanarc—urban planning • Urban Plans Consulting—planning • Steer Davies Gleave—land use planning • Carlyle + Associates—landscape architecture • Bunt & Associates Engineering—transportation • CP Ross Consulting Group—resource planning • NBBJ—arena planning • GP Rollo & Associates Ltd.—land economist

AN ANCHOR APP PHOTO: PHOTOS.COM

PLAN TO CURB SPRAWL GETS AN EMERALD

Designed to assist professionals in choosing the best anchor for their application, the Hilti North America Anchors Selector App for iPhones is now available on iTunes at no charge. The app allows users to browse and choose anchors based on a variety of criteria including load values, location, base material and baseplate geometry.

A “Find Anchor” feature makes searching for general information about a Hilti anchor easy and includes valuable information such as hole diameter, embedment depth, setting instructions and list of tools needed for installation. Using the “My Favorites” function, users can save their searched for or most frequently used anchors for quick reference in the future. The Hilti North America Anchors Selector App can be downloaded at www.us.hilti.com/iphoneapp. The app is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad with software version 4.2 or newer. For more information, visit hilti.ca.

Providing service in Alberta for 54 years Edmonton & area.

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

68 | Fall 2011

PHOTO: POWER ADHESIVES

people, products, projects

STUART OLSON DOMINION WINS HOSPITAL WORK THERE’S A MOUSE(PLANE) IN THE HOUSE If you’ve ever tried to remove excess dried glue from woodwork, you know it is not an easy job. Now there’s a tool that changes that. It’s called the Mouseplane, which is produced by U.K.-based Power Adhesives Limited. Modelled after a computer mouse, Mouseplane is essentially a small plane that is designed to fit comfortably in a person’s hand to smoothly finishing glue lines without the gouging normally caused by the angle of hand chisels. A 60-second demonstration on the website (www.mouseplane.com) shows how easy and safe the tool is to use. It also gives the key features of the Mouseplane.

Alberta Infrastructure has selected Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd. as the construction manager for three hospital projects valued at $421 million, the company reports. Details of the work: • A $200-million redevelopment of the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital involves expanding space for ambulatory care and maternity services, as well as the emergency department and operating rooms. Also, the hospital’s mechanical and electrical systems will be upgraded. Construction is expected to begin this fall. The project is planned to be brought on stream in phases, beginning in 2013 and ending in 2015. • A $113-million redevelopment of Chinook Regional Hospital in

Lethbridge involves renovation of a significant portion of the hospital and the addition of a new multi-storey wing to expand the emergency department and inpatient areas, as well as women’s health and neonatal units. Construction is expected to begin this fall and completion is anticipated in 2013. • A $108-million new Edson Healthcare Centre will support the delivery of quality health services to the people of Edson and surrounding communities. To replace the existing Edson Healthcare Centre, the new facility will be built on a new site with construction expected to start in 2012 and completion anticipated in the spring of 2014.

Pipe & Fittings Fusion Machine Rentals & Sales On Site & In Class Training Fabrication Field Services Manholes & Catch Basins

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 69

people, products, projects

TWD’s NEW OFFICES

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PHOTO: DIALOG

Reveal a new you

Ontario-based TWD Technologies, an engineering-procurement-construction management consulting company that provides project development, has opened an office in Calgary and moved its Edmonton office to a bigger office near Edmonton. Both moves, according to the company, were a result of growing demand. The Calgary office provides project management and engineering services. It is Calgary Place 1, Suite 750, 330-5th Ave. The Edmonton office is now at Unit 287, 2055 Premier Way in Sherwood Park.

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70 | Fall 2011

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Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital’s new Robbins Pavilion has been recognized for design excellence by the City of Edmonton. Held annually, the Mayor’s Awards for Universal Design recognize projects that demonstrate creative sensitivity toward the accessibility of persons with disabilities. The new Robbins Pavilion is the largest addition to the hospital campus in a decade. The six-storey, 33,330-square-metre Robbins Pavilion consolidates all Women’s Health programs and services into the Lois Hole Hospital for Women within the Robbins Pavilion. DIALOG was responsible for the architecture, interior design and structural engineering. The accessibility consultant was Ron Wickman Architect Ltd., and EllisDon Construction Services Inc. was the general contractor.

PHOTO: DELTA FAUCET CANADA

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LOOK MOM, NO HANDS Did you know that one in three Canadians leaves the water running when brushing their teeth? It took an Angus Reid survey to find that out, reports Delta Faucet Canada, which, it just so happens, commissioned the survey. But that aside, Delta Faucet has announced that its Touch2O.xt Technology, which enables the user to turn the water on by simply approaching the faucet’s sensing field or tapping the faucet anywhere on the spout or handle, is now available on lavatory faucets from the Addison and Lahara bath collections. Delta Faucets first used the technology on kitchen faucets. For more information, see deltafaucet.ca.

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Your Building Materials experts. Alberta Construction Magazine | 71

FORMING THE

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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.

aca report

Government listening and responding to ACA concerns by Ken Gibson ACA Executive Director

T h rou g hout 2 011, t he A lb er t a Construction Association (ACA) has been very active in its three core services: • Government advocacy • Promoting the development of a skilled workforce • Development and promotion of industry-standard practices GOVERNMENT ADVOCACY ACA advocated that the provincial government not consider delivery of apprenticeship training by private sector parties, whether they are unionaffiliated or non-union affiliated. The premier confirmed that the proposed private sector delivery will not move ahead at this time. ACA recently reviewed recommendations concerning the bundling of

projects within public private partnerships (P3s), having some experience under the Alberta Schools Alternative Procurement projects to draw upon. AC A h a s r e c om m e n d e d t h a t i n ci rc u mst a nces where A lber t a Infrastructure (AI) determines that P3 procurement is suitable in accordance with recommendations previously put forward by ACA, ACA further recommends that AI ensure that the procurement methods of its private partners are based on securing competitive bids and participation from the widest possible array of subcontractors, suppliers, designers and facility maintenance providers. One way that the ACA feels this can be achieved is by awarding points to concessionaires (including their design, construction and maintenance team

members) during the request for quotation process for having and articulating a plan to engage and involve the local (Alberta) industry participants in the execution of the project. Adoption of this recommendation may enable more firms to be viable partners in the delivery of these projects. ACA initiated the development of a coalition of employer associations, the Council of Employers, to lead industry input to the Alberta government’s workplace safety legislation and policy. ACA expects the council to take shape over the next year. This spring, ACA undertook a complete review of all its public policies to: • E nhance grassroots input in the review and development of ACA policies

Promotion of Careers in Construction Promotion of Careers in Construction Industry Practices & Partnerships Industry Practices & Partnerships Government Advocacy Government Advocacy Public Relations Public Relations

STANDING AD NEW AD TO COME

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

E-mail: E-mail: info@albertaconstruction.net • Web Site: www.albertaconstruction.net info@abconst.org • Web Site: www.abconst.org

Calgary • Edmonton • Fort McMurray • Grande Prairie • Lethbridge • Lloydminster • Medicine Hate • Peace River • Red Deer

Calgary • Edmonton • Fort McMurray • Grande Prairie • Lethbridge • Lloydminster • Medicine Hat • Peace River • Red Deer

Alberta Construction Magazine | 73

aca report • R eview existing and develop new policies in advance of a new provincial government administration anticipated to be in place after Fall 2011 In addition to a review of existing policy documents, local construction associations have been invited to submit proposed policy resolutions on an ongoing basis. The payoff for this work will be more effective advocacy for our member companies to address their issues. ACA’s public policies can be accessed on the association website: www.albertaconstruction.net

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PROMOTING A SKILLED WORKFORCE A priority of ACA’s Workforce Strategy is to ensure the construction industry has sufficient skilled workers to meet future demand and to replace an aging workforce. Future workforce scenarios for the next 10 years produced by both industry and government underline that even if all labour sources within Canada are fully utilized, our industry will still need to recruit beyond Canada’s borders. To that end, ACA is working on advocacy strategies with: • Other construction associations in Alberta, • Other employer associations in Alberta, and • The B.C. and Saskatchewan construction association. The goa l of t hese strategies is to improve t he responsiveness of Tempor a r y Foreig n Worker a nd permanent immigration programs for the unique needs of the construction industry. INDUSTRY STANDARD PRACTICES As an ongoing service, ACA communicates with design consultants and owners as to industry standards of practice. In 2011, ACA has been very active in communicating industry opposition to the practice of nonrefundable deposits. ACA also urged that Alberta Health S er v ic e s (A HS) adopt i ndu st r y- sta nda rd pract ices for procuring

74 | Fall 2011

aca report c onstruction services. The responsibility for AHS projects valued in excess of $5 million was transferred to Alberta Infrastructure in 2010. AHS retains responsibi lit y for procuring projects valued at less than $5 million, which has at times been more onerous than for the larger projects. The government has advised ACA that in response to our advocacy, a review of AHS practices has commenced. ACA will continue to monitor as revisions are implemented.

Future workforce scenarios for the next 10 years produced by both industry and government underline that even if all labour sources within Canada are fully utilized, our industry will still need to recruit beyond Canada’s borders.

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Maximizing the efficiency of the industr y is one means to address skills shortages and is one response of our industry to the competitiveness agenda of the provincial government. Research undertaken for Productivity Alberta has highlighted the need to boost the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) across all industry sectors. Local construction associations have provided great leadership in providing ICT solutions for the industry through the electronic plansroom. Productivity Alberta and ACA plan to complement this leadership by partnering to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the information and tools necessar y to make good decisions to evaluate, choose, invest in and adopt ICT. AC A i s p a r t ic ip at i ng i n A I ’s Building Information Modelling (BIM) Task Group to ensure contractors perspectives are considered in developing strategies for the implementation of BIM in Alberta public projects.

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 75

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aca report

PHOTOS: ACA

43RD ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT WINNERS

The Alberta Construction Association hosted its 43rd Annual Golf Tournament at the Alberta Springs Golf Course outside of Red Deer, Alta., on May 26. Though a bit chilly and rainy, nothing slowed the play for the full tournament of 144 golfers.

3. 1. ACA chair Colin Ward, left, presents the Low Net prize to Nathan Neudorf of Integrity Builders Inc. 2. ACA chair Colin Ward, left, awards the Low Net Director prize to ACA past chair Malcolm Holbrook of Pockar Masonry Ltd. 3. ACA chair Colin Ward, left, presents the Low Gross prize to Ted Jones of Atlantic Industries Limited.

THE LEDCOR GROUP OF COMPANIES Ledcor can be who you need us to be, do what you need us to do. We have been doing it since 1947 - the right way. Always. Our diversity allows us to see the job from many angles. We are always prepared to undertake new challenges. Expand our capabilities. Travel with you to new markets. Let’s grow. Together.

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 77

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eca report

Summer may have been wet, but the job market was hot By the Edmonton Construction Association

What a summer it was at the Edmonton Construction Association (ECA)—or not! Following years of drought, Edmonton experienced record rainfall, wreaking havoc on worksites and causing unavoidable construction delays. The upside? Edmonton’s trees look fabulous. Alberta’s labour market caught fire in June. “We can now say that we have fully recovered all the jobs lost in the 2009 recession,” said Alberta Employment & Immigration spokesman Darrell Winwood. From October 2008 to July 2009, Alberta lost 73,600 jobs. From July 2009 to June 2011, Alberta regained 76,800 jobs. Alberta created more new jobs in June (22,000) than all 50 U.S. states combined (18,000)—even though the U.S. population is 85 times larger than Alberta’s. “Edmonton and area member firms are already reporting a very tight labour market, much earlier than the predicted 2012 return to critical levels,” said Darlene La Trace, ECA executive vice-president.

AN INDUSTRY FIRST During June, ECA became the first local construction association or builders exchange in North America to host a Building Information Modelling (BIM) Project, the Meadows Recreation Centre & Library, on behalf of a public owner. “We were pleased to host this project on behalf of the City of Edmonton and applaud their leadership in not only using BIM, but collaborating with their local construction association in making the 5-D model available to industry through us. This project was still tendered using traditional methods, COOLNet Edmonton and Link2Build, but the virtual model was also made available for viewing in ECA’s state-ofthe-art i-Room,” said Rich Horning, ECA operations manager. The association was pleased to see the City of Edmonton embracing the technology

because of the benefits afforded by BIM, such as greater construction efficiency and reduced costs on paper, energy and construction materials. Construction projects designed and built through BIM are more efficient than projects completed through conventional construction practices. Conventionally, hundreds and hundreds of sets of drawings are used on industrial, commercial and institutional construction projects. With BIM the use of paper is reduced. The model of the project developed through the BIM process is housed in a database. Laptop computers, tablets and perhaps an i-Booth on the job site will become the primary source to view drawings on projects, saving thousands of tons of paper (and many trees) annually. Utilizing BIM on construction projects saves energy and construction materials. Construction projects typically have many clashes where unforeseen challenges arise Alberta Construction Magazine | 79

eca report

454526 Edmonton Exchanger & Manufacturing Ltd that Our largest product is the value we pass on2/3v to our ·customers. dcv

A WIN FOR ALBERTA Photo: ECA

Creating Value for our Customers

on the job site. If the conf licts are not discovered prior to construction, the fix will result in wasted construction materials and energy. Additionally, contractors are looking for more efficient estimating, virtual project phasing and highly accurate clash-detection in order to become more competitive. Said Paul Forgues, operations manager Edmonton-area, EllisDon Construction Services Inc.: “EllisDon strongly believes that BIM reduces the environmental impact of the construction industry. We have taken steps to implement BIM to improve the costefficiency of the construction process by reducing rework and consequentially waste and carbon production. BIM enabled prefabrication and other lean construction principles hold the most promise to reduce waste. In addition to this, by managing and communicating in the 3-D computer environment, we are collaborating virtually and therefore have also greatly reduced the need and dependency on paper documents and reprographics.”

Wouldn’t you rather have just one supplier to meet all of your Custom Steel Fabrication and Petrochemical Refinery Maintenance requirements? Edmonton Exchanger features a wide range of products and services for applications in various industries that include oil and gas, petrochemical and power generation. Our custom steel forming division specializes in the fabrication of largescale pressure vessel components, and features steel forming capacities that are some of the largest of their kind. Additionally, we provide on-site plant maintenance services for the petrochemical industry, fertilizer plants and refineries. Our services range from controlled bolting and portable field machining, to complete turn-key plant and refinery shutdown projects.

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80 | Fall 2011

Darlene La Trace

On June 24 in Washington, D.C., Darlene La Trace, executive vice-president of ECA, was awarded the coveted Management Award at the International Builders Exchange Executives’ (IBEE) 64th Annual Conference. The award recognizes exemplary skill, vision and leadership in managing the individual’s builders exchange or construction association.

eca report

“We have taken steps to implement [business information modelling] to improve the cost-efficiency of the construction process by reducing rework and consequentially waste and carbon production.”

Where do I find a

Professional Electrical Contractor?

— Paul Forgues, Edmonton-Area Operations Manager, EllisDon Construction Services Inc. Since taking the reins at the ECA, La Trace has led an 84 per cent increase in membership and a 263 per cent increase in projects hosted each year. She was also recognized for exemplary insight, vision, creativity and foresight in achieving the first successful i-Room in North America for BIM member training and project hosting. IBEE members represent over 75,000 construction and construction related businesses across the United States and Canada. It’s to La Trace’s credit that she was selected from this large and diverse field of possible contenders. The board of directors appreciates the vision and commitment that she brings to her role, a vision that is shared and engages the entire organization. The result has been an association that represents the needs of its members with a strong and confident voice. The board is proud to acknowledge this career milestone and congratulates La Trace for positively showcasing the ECA as a leader in the Industry. READY TO CELEBRATE 80 YEARS It was 1931 when a group of Edmonton contractors started the local builders exchange. Eighty years later, ECA will gather Oct. 29 to celebrate eight decades of service to the construction industry. The association is ramping up for the milestone event by gathering archives and planning for a night to remember. Mark your calendar.

455190 Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta Professional Electrical Contractors, PECs are 2/3v · dcv Educated in all Aspects of Business

Since 1993 the ECAA received professional status under the Professional and Occupational Associations Registration Act as Professional Electrical Contractors (PEC), making them the first trade Association in North America to grant professional status to electrical contractors.

• • • • • •

Project Management Estimating Accounting Safety Principles Legal Issues Affecting Contracting Business & Public Relations PECs are accountable for their work and business practices and strive for excellence in the Electrical Industry.

For more information on PECs Call the

Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta Ph. 780 451-2412 Email: ecaa@ecaa.ab.ca

Toll Free 1-800-252-9375 Web: www.ecaa.ab.ca Alberta Construction Magazine | 81

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PhotoS: CCA

cca report 1. Rob Otway of PCL talks about the importance of the Gold Seal Program. 2. Signing the MOU (from left) are: CCA president Jim Clement, PCL’s Rob Otway, SAIT president and CEO Irene Lewis, and Barry Brown, chairman of the National Gold Seal Committee. 3. CCA president Jim Clement, left, presents SAIT’s Irene Lewis and Larry Rosia with a $25,000 cheque that will be used to buy tools and equipment for the SAIT Trades and Technology Complex. 4. Twenty people received their Gold Seal Certificates on July 6.

Prestigious designation for SAIT’s Trades and Technology Complex

By Amy Smith CCA On what was probably the hottest day Calgary has seen all summer, the Calgary Construction Association (CCA), in partnership with SAIT Polytechnic and PCL Construction Management, hosted the Gold Seal Designated Project Celebration at the SAIT campus on July 6. SAIT’s new Trades and Technology Complex was the structure being recognized and it is the first educational facility to be designated as a Gold Seal Project in Alberta. An audience of over 550, comprised of the participating design consultants and the various trades, along with owners

of local construction firms and on-site construction personnel, came for the celebration. In addition, the group witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) where the four partners—PCL, SAIT, the Canadian Construction Association and CCA— committed to collectively promote the national Gold Seal Program and strive for construction excellence. Official sentiments to the group began with Barry Brown, chairman of the Canadian Construction Association Gold Seal Committee, who flew in from

Winnipeg. Brown opened the celebration by thanking the partners involved in this designation and indicating the benefits to the industry. “The buyers of construction services know that they are getting professional work and a project of excellent quality based on national standards of excellence,” he said. Rob Otway, district manager of PCL Construction Management, explained that it is PCL’s 105th year and the PCL team has always been an active participant in the construction industry. “It is important to us to raise awareness of Alberta Construction Magazine | 83

PhotoS: CCA

cca report

1. CCA BBQ volunteers (from left) Shaun Guilcher of Concept Electric, Kim Connell of CANA, Rob Bromberg of Davidson Enman Lumber, Serena Holbrook of Pockar Masonry, Rick Allan of SimplexGrinnell, Victor Jensen of Botting and Associates, Richard Neal of Ferguson Glass and David Wunsch of Lockerbie and Hole. 2. The crowd lassos up some lunch. 3. Country rockers Easy Street keep things lively.

YEP goes western with its second-annual summertime Stampede shaker By Ryan Hagen CCA

The Calgary Construction Association’s Youth Employment Program (YEP) hosted its second-annual Stampede barbecue on July 12, and this year’s shindig proved to be even better than the last. The weather cooperated this year, which allowed guests to spill into the CCA parking lot, soak up some rays and be entertained by the always countryrockin’ band Easy Street. With over 300 guests clad in their Wranglers and Stetsons and ready to lasso up some lunch, the barbecue team had its work cut out on the grill. But nobody went home hungry and CCA volunteers were slinging burgers right until the final bell. The support received for this year’s barbecue from the CCA membership was tremendous, much like the support it provides year-round for the YEP.

84 | Fall 2011

The reason for the support from its members is simple: youth are the future of construction. Most of us in the construction industry by now have been inundated with statistics on the looming labour shortage, and savvy companies understand that the future starts today by investing in young workers. Many pundits are saying that the next labour crunch is going to be even worse than the last time around, given that 2011 is the year baby boomers start turning 65 and a tidal wave of retirements is fast approaching. The Construction Owners Association of Alberta estimates that over 320,000 construction workers will be needed by 2019 and Alberta will demand a large chunk of that number. The need for young workers is paramount and the Youth Employment Program is one resource for both

employers and young, budding construction workers to take advantage of. YEP interviews, screens and provides youth with a construction safety course before sending them out into work experience, saving employers time and legwork. Since 1999 the CCA’s YEP has been facilitating opportunities for youth in the construction industry when they might not have had the chance otherwise. The program has been a great success to date, driven by forwardthinking companies that are aware of the importance of training and mentoring today’s youth. For more information on how to get involved with the YEP, or to apply, visit www.yepcca.cc or contact YEP coordinator Ryan Hagen at (403) 262-4898 or yep@cca.cc.

cca report

“The construction industry is very excited with the introduction of the new four-year Bachelor of Science program in Construction Project Management.” — Jim Clement, President, Calgary Construction Association the Gold Seal Program,” he said. “The Gold Seal Program is an example of continuous improvement, which takes ourselves to another level of education and understanding, and collectively improve our industry.” Other representatives from PCL included Blaine Maciborsky, vicepresident, Bruce Sonnenberg, operations manager, and Jason Portas, construction manager for the Trades and Technology Complex. “The Gold Seal designation for the new Trades and Technology Complex is a mark of pride for SAIT, for PCL and the construction industry,” said Irene Lewis, SAIT president and chief executive officer. “We look forward to teaching our students the art and science of construction in this spectacular new complex, which itself has been built to the highest standards.”

The 740,000 square foot facility will be able to accommodate 8,100 additional full-time and part-time students each year. Lewis concluded by calling the Trades and Technology Complex a “dream piece.” After the signing of the MOU, CCA president Jim Clement brought greetings on behalf of the construction industry. Jim noted that all the construction-related programs offered at SAIT are accredited Gold Seal courses. “I must say, the construction industry is very excited with the introduction of the new four-year Bachelor of Science program in Construction Project Management,” said Clement. The Construction Project Management program will start in September with 32 students. With the looming labour

shortage, the construction industry will need over 40,000 new workers over the next decade in Alberta alone and this facility will assist in the recruitment of those individuals. The CCA has donated two $4,000 scholarships and eight $1,500 scholarships to individuals in their first year of study in the Construction Project Management degree program. The event concluded with Clement presenting SAIT’s Lewis and dean of construction Larry Rosia with a $25,000 donation towards the continued expansion needs of the campus. Since 2004, the CCA has made an annual $25,000 contribution to SAIT Polytechnic, and this year the funds will be utilized to assist in the purchasing of new tools and equipment for the all-new Trades and Technology Complex.

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 85

Super-

sized Much-needed new crossing for Highway 63 at Fort McMurray pushes the envelope in bridge construction By Godfrey Budd

Biggest load bridge is designed to handle at once: 6.4-metre-wide, 1.1-million-kilogram load New bridge is 33 metres wide, 472 metres long

PHOTO: CH2M HILL

Bridge can handle daily traffic flow of 45,000â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 50,000 vehicles

Rather than tear down existing bridges to handle the increased volume of Highway 63 traffic moving to and from Fort McMurray, this new 33-metre-wide deck was added.

86 | Fall 2011

Total weight of structural steel is over six million kilograms

Deck area of bridge—biggest in Alberta—is 15,576 square metres

Bridge has six concrete piers

Foundation for each pier consists of eight vertical shafts of reinforced concrete that descend 17 metres below the Athabasca River riverbed

With completion of a new five-lane bridge across the Athabasca River, Fort McMurray is now home to the biggest bridge in Alberta. The $127-million bridge, where Highway 63 crosses the river at the northwestern corner of the city, is 33 metres wide and 472 metres long with a deck area of 15,576 square metres—the province’s biggest deck. It includes a 4.2-metre-wide sidewalk and major utility lines. The bridge has been designed and built to accommodate a large daily flow of traffic of 45,000–50,000 vehicles and the massive trucks and trailers ferrying huge pieces of equipment from the Edmonton

Alberta Construction Magazine | 87

PHOTO: CH2M HILL

reduce, reuse, rejuvinate

Photos at top left and bottom left show the construction progress in 2009 of the new seven-span steel bridge that runs parallel to two others. The existing truss bridge handling southbound Highway 63 traffic (photo at upper right) will remain in use.

area northwards to the oilsands mining sites and other industrial construction projects in the region. The new bridge can carry up to a 6.4-metre-wide, 1.1-millionkilogram (1,100-metric-tonne) overload, “which is 12.5 times our usual designs,” according to Alberta Transportation. The seven-span steel bridge runs parallel to two existing bridges, one built in the 1970s and the other a steel lattice truss bridge that cannot handle very high loads. “The [older] 1950s bridge, with steel lattice over top, carried two lanes of northbound traffic, but it could not move large pieces of equipment,” says Trent Bancarz, a spokesman for Alberta Transportation. “So, with a big load, a northbound load had to run north on the southbound bridge. With traffic detours, that works, but it’s not ideal. There are a lot of oversized loads moving northbound, and we 88 | Fall 2011

need to have the infrastructure to accommodate that.” That would appear to be about to happen. The new Athabasca Bridge is part of more than $600 million spent by the province on transportation projects for Highway 63 since 2008. With the two older bridges remaining in operation and the planned addition of new interchanges nearby, the traffic delays and detours often involved in crossing the Athabasca at Fort McMurray should soon be a thing of the past. The region’s climate and the need to avoid damaging the river’s ecosystems, including the fish that live there, imposed some constraints. The seven-span I-girder bridge has six concrete piers, with the first three constructed on the northwestern side of the river in 2008 and the next three in 2009.

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reduce, reuse, rejuvinate

“ The bridge was originally designed for an overload gross vehicle weight of 1,080 metric tonnes, but with the added stiffeners, it can now take 1,300 tonnes.” — Malika Ali, Bridge Specialist, CH2M HILL

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for a project in San Francisco Bay to, well, what was used for the Athabasca Bridge. Local terrain conditions, of course, are a major consideration. The bed of the Athabasca is hard limestone. The foundation for each pier consists of eight vertical shafts of reinforced concrete that descend 17 metres below the riverbed. The shafts are of substantial girth, with a diameter of 1.8 metres each. Two options were considered for the bridge superstructure: pre-cast NU girders and steel I girders. NU girders were ruled out in part because the maximum span, 76 metres, exceeded the maximum span of 2.8-metre-deep NU girders, which is 63 metres. “The only possible design option to make the NU girder system feasible would have been in conjunction with special variable-depth, pier-section, haunchedgirder sections, with girder depth varying between 2.8 metres and 3.5 metres, with post tensioning,” says Malika Ali, a structural engineer and bridge specialist at CH2M HILL. “This alternative was found to be very expensive.” A steel superstructure was chosen, with three-metre-deep I girders spaced 3.3 metres apart for the straight section of the bridge, the lion’s share of the structure. Girders for the final flared span on the east side are 3.9 metres apart. Extra stiffeners were added that run the length of the girders. It was relatively inexpensive to add the stiffeners at the fabrication stage rather than as a subsequent

reduce, reuse, rejuvinate add-on after the bridge was complete. The increased bridge strength is substantial, however. “The bridge was originally designed for an overload gross vehicle weight of 1,080 metric tonnes, but with the added stiffeners, it can now take 1,300 tonnes,” Ali says. Bridges of this kind are typically craneerected, but not here. Instead, an approach known as the “incremental launching method” was used. It’s a method that has been used since the 1940s, says Ali, but typically for smaller crossings. “It has been successfully applied for the erection of torsionally stable, concrete-box girder structures throughout the world,” Ali notes. “The technique has also been used for launching small steel bridges in North America and Europe. However, this method has rarely been used to launch a really large group of girders simultaneously. It is one of the widest launches ever done in North America.” With the total weight of the structural steel used for the bridge exceeding six million kilograms, it was also one of the heaviest steel bridge launches on the continent. PREPARE FOR LAUNCH Incremental launching method involves assembling sections of the bridge superstructure on one side of the crossing. The sections are then pushed horizontally, or launched, into their final position using jacks. The launching is done in a series of increments so that additional sections can be added to the rear of the superstructure unit prior to subsequent launches. “An inclined launch nose attached to the leading segment of girders facilitated touchdown at the piers,” Ali says. “At the end, you’re pushing the whole weight of the girder system.” Using the incremental launching method instead of crane erection made it possible to install the superstructure on the 20-metre-high piers without the need for more berms. “As well as shortening the construction season, it helped minimize river disturbance,” Ali says. “Otherwise, a berm for the girders would have had to be constructed.” Incremental launching method is also used for deep valleys, deepwater crossings, steep slopes or poor soil conditions and in other such locales whose characteristics make equipment access difficult.

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PHOTO: NORSEMAN

trade talk

Interlocking heavy-duty tarps shield The Bow from the harsh extremes of Calgary weather.

Cold comfort Choosing the right winter enclosure to keep workers safe and warm through Alberta’s coldest months By Joseph Caouette If you’ve visited downtown Calgary during the past couple of years, you’ve almost certainly noticed The Bow. You’ve also probably noticed a large white sheet wrapped around the building, billowing in the wind. That simple covering is actually a unique weather enclosure system designed specially for the project by Norseman Inc. It’s not a single sheet but a series of interlocking heavy-duty tarps, all attached to a cable system. As work

was completed on one floor, the tarps simply slid up or down to shelter the next. The enclosure blocks out the harsh winds, ensuring that work can continue come rain or snow. But in addition to keeping the weather out, it also keeps the construction materials in. “They not only wanted it enclosed for safet y, but t hey didn’t want a bunch of debris going out the sides,” says Percy Gendall, Norseman’s vicepresident of sales.

Gendall is a big proponent of the safety value of enclosures. “It stops any type of debris falling away from the building,” he says. “There have been some situations in downtown Calgary where they have had accidents w it h debris fa l ling out of a high-rise. “If these [enclosures] are fixed properly, they’ll stop the debris from coming out and it’ll also protect anything from coming into the building too.” Alberta Construction Magazine | 93

PHOTO: NORSEMAN

trade talk

Insulated tarps must be securely fastened to a building to ensure they do not flutter in the wind.

“They’ve given me calls, saying, ‘What the heck? [The tarp] went up in flames!’ Well, that’s

However, not every construction project is as massive and challenging as The Bow. For many contractors, a lightweight, disposable enclosure system may be all that’s needed. So how do you choose a cold-weather enclosure system that works for you? Disposable systems can include anything from lighter polyethylene tarps to specially designed roll stock that can be wrapped around the scaffolding and then thrown out when the job is done. These systems are often more affordable, but they have their limitations. “If you do use what they refer to as the lightweight tarps, they really shou ld not be used at elevation,” explains Ian Haig, marketing manager, Enscaf Corp. Such enclosures typically 94 | Fall 2011

cannot withstand the stronger winds found higher up. That’s why most supply companies also offer more durable reusable enclosure systems. These tarps are typically thicker and heavier, insulated and scrimreinforced to prevent tearing. They’re also specifically designed for use as an enclosure system, which means they can be easily installed using built-in connectors that lock the tarps together. Ensuring t he tar ps are locked together securely is key to the longevity of the enclosure. These systems may seem strong, but constant exposure to the wind can still rip a tarp to shreds. “What you want to avoid with a winter enclosure is flutter,” Haig says. “Once the tarps start flapping, they will destroy themselves.”

Everything comes down to installation. It doesn’t matter if you’ve purchased a cheap tarp or a top-of-the-line enclosure system unless you put the effort into setting it up correctly. “There are guys who just throw them up and hope that it works,” says Michael Corbett, regional sales manager for Layfield Environmental Systems. “It all depends on the seams when you’re putting them together.” Gendall has also seen careless contractors do damage during installation. “They do it quick and easy and they poke tie wires through the side. What you’ve done is you’re starting to rip the fabric,” he says. “The basic thing is taking the time to install it properly.” One rip or loose seam and t he enclosure can easily be pulled apart

trade talk PHOTO: AARON PARKER

A well-sealed enclosure, when combined with a heater, can easily maintain a comfortable work environment at even 40 below.

because it’s not flame resistant. But for whatever reason, a lot of people believe that it is.”

— Michael Corbett, Regional Sales Manager, Layfield Environmental Systems

by the wind. Unless it’s securely fastened, you can wave that tarp goodbye. And most likely, it will wave right back. Of course, there’s wind and then there’s wind. On a blustery day, a securely fastened tarp could easily turn your scaffold into a rather shaky ship attached to a giant orange sail. For that reason alone, many of the higher-end enclosures are built so that their connectors—which could be anything from bungee cords to tie wires to pins—release once the wind hits a certain speed. For example, Corbett says that when Layfield’s WeatherPro tension enclosure system is buffeted by winds exceeding 80 kilometres an hour, it is designed so that “it will just give away rather than take the whole scaffolding down.”

One of the most vital safety features, however, is one easily taken for granted: resistance to f lame. As Corbett points out, that’s one thing contractors should never assume. “They’ve given me calls, saying, ‘What the heck? [The tarp] went up in f lames!’” he says. “Well, that’s because it’s not f lame resistant. But for whatever reason, a lot of people believe that it is.” That overconfidence can lead people into big trouble. Anyone using a coldweather enclosure to protect workers will almost certainly be using it with some sort of heater. In those cases, safety precautions are a must. “Whenever there’s heat around, they should be using flame-retardant materials,” Haig says.

He explains that his company only sells f lame-retardant enclosures. The additional cost is minor in Haig’s eyes. “It’s about another 10 or 15 per cent over the price of the product, but it really is a safety issue.” A well-sealed enclosure, when combined with a heater, can easily maintain a comfortable work environment at even 40 below. But there is such a thing as being too efficient for your own good sometimes. Corbett has seen tarps destroyed not only by the elements, but also by workers who find the enclosure just a tad too snug for their liking. “They’ll take their knife and cut a window into the tarp,” he says, laughing. “If it’s getting too warm, wouldn’t you just turn off the heat?” Alberta Construction Magazine | 95

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Photo: Schulich School of Engineering

business of building Janaka Ruwanpura, civil engineering professor at the Schulich School of Engineering in Calgary, at the site of the new Energy Environment Experiential Learning Building on campus. The Schulich School is working on several software projects to improve efficiency on construction sites.

TECH TOOLS Software ingenuity is reshaping construction, but can the industry embrace change? By Joseph Caouette

Anyone who has ever overseen a construction project has surely experienced it. It’s that nagging question that drives you to distraction, keeps you up at night, makes you forget your wedding anniversary (or at least that’s your excuse): “How do I know the work is going well on the site?” But for the engineers and developers dedicated to bringing software innovation to the construction industry, it’s just another problem waiting to be solved.

Alberta Construction Magazine | 97

Photo: Schulich School of Engineering

business of building

Janaka Ruwanpura of the Schulich School of Engineering demonstrates the i-Booth, an information hub designed specifically for the construction industry.

“You can’t really reach people over the phone all the time, and you can’t be continuously doing that anyway,” says Kamal Ranaweera, a research engineer working with the University of C a lga r y ’s Schu l ich School of Engineering. “Sooner or later it becomes like a kind of noise.” Stopping the noise and improving communication is key to the smooth operation of any construction site, but linking the office with the job site has always been a logistical challenge for the industr y. Thanks to computer technology and software innovation, those communication barriers are beginning to fall, improving productivity in the process. 98 | Fall 2011

For Ranaweera, the solution was simple enough: install a camera so project leaders could monitor progress on a City of Edmonton drainage tunnel construction project wherever they are. Why travel to the job site when it can travel with you? The camera captures everything that goes into the tunnel shaft and sends this data back to a central server in Ca lgar y, where ever y t hing is run through an image recognition program and time stamped. The system disting uishes concrete tunnel liners from other objects entering the shaft—say, buckets to scoop up dirt, for example. At one metre in length, the liners offer a

convenient means of charting the tunnel’s growth. Out of this data, graphs are created to show daily or cumulative progress, and can even be plotted against simulation models showing where the project should be at any given stage. “It can help the project management make sure they allocate the resources and do the optimum work to meet the plan,” Ranaweera says. EASY ACCESS Anyone involved in the project can log into an online site containing all of the data gathered by the camera—including, most notably, videos of everything lowered into the tunnel, whether it be a liner or not.

business of building “We show you what we fou nd through the system,” the engineer says. “If you want to verify, if you think there’s something wrong, you can still go and have a look at it. And with a mouse click you can rectify it.” Improved communications and productivity also forms the core of another Schulich project, the i-Booth information kiosk. The system features a 32-inch touch screen that allows workers on-site access to everything from project plans and drawings to weather forecasts and safety information. “It brings information from the head office of the contractor and the owner’s offices into the job site in real time,” explains Janaka Ruwanpura, a civil engineering professor and Canada Research Chair in project management systems at the Schulich School. He has overseen the project through testing and development, and hopes to commercialize it by the end of the year. Ruwanpura says the i-Booth was inspired by the concerns of workers who felt there was a lack of communication on the construction site. “If they k now the construction details a little bit better, they can work with the foreman, plan ahead and do a good job,” he says. He stresses the importance of holding an informative, engaging toolbox meeting with workers on the site—and the more interactive, the better. “If something is not interactive, you will not pay attention.” “For instance, if the foreman wants to show a safety lesson related to the project, he could show that during the toolbox meeting,” Ruwanpura says. “That gets the attention of the workforce.” In other words, visuals matter. And that’s why the project is evolving to include additional features like 3-D models, according to Lahiru Silva, a PhD student at Schulich helping test the i-Booth at a PCL site in Calgary. He is working on linking the i-Booth to building information modelling technologies, allowing workers on-site access to more detailed project information. “They have the opportunity to see what’s going on and issue their concerns,” Silva says.

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 99

business of building

"We help the contractors collect the labour, equipment and materials information in accordance with the contract they have with the owner, so that they can capture their timesheet data and report their daily costs and progress to the owner and get their work approved." — Scott Cuthbert, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Time Capture VIEW FROM THE FIELD Any software technology used in the construction industry has to take into consideration the view from the field. That’s what Scott Cuthbert, chief execut ive of f icer of Dig ita l Ti me Capture, found in his experiences implementing financial software in the construction industry. He says he would come across programs that were “corporate systems that belong in the ivory tower, not the job site.” “Ty pically, in 90 per cent of the cases, people in the field were forced to use Excel spreadsheets to collect the information and then re-key that information into their financial systems,” he adds. Cuthbert’s solution was to design timesheet management software that could serve the purposes of the industry, doing everything from same-day cost reports to budget comparisons and invoicing. “We help the contractors collect the labour, equipment and materials information in accordance with the contract they have with the owner, so that they can capture their timesheet data and report their daily costs and progress to the owner and get their work approved,” he explains. “And then, at the same time, bring hours and costs into their internal system so they can do payroll and process costs.” The software may be ready for the industry, but is the industry ready for it? Cuthbert admits the Canadian construction industry can be slow to embrace new technologies. 100 | Fall 2011

He notes that his Edmonton-based company has had more success in the United States, where about 65 per cent of its client base resides. The remainder is in Canada. “It’s frustrating because we definitely built it with the oilsands challenges specifically in mind,” he says. The reasons for the slow uptake in Canada are hard to pin down. Cuthbert admits there is some skepticism in the industry towards the value of new technologies, but at the same time, “the construction industry is extremely focused on leveraging technology to improve environmental impacts and productivity.” The difference may simply be cultural, he suspects. “In our experience, we’ll have conversations on and off with companies in Canada for over a year before they start to understand the value [the software] can bring…versus folks in the United States who are a little more entrepreneurial in that they’ll give something a try even if they’re not 100 per cent sure it’s going to work for them. “They’re afraid of not improving productivity, whereas Canadians seem to be afraid of doing something that will negatively impact productivity.” But not all anxiety is limited to the head office. Workers on site can also struggle with the presence of new technologies. When Ranaweera began work on his camera-monitoring project, he found some workers on the job site were worried about being recorded constantly.

“It’s kind of like Big Brother is watching over your shoulder,” he says, although he also stresses that this is not the purpose of the technology, or even within its capabilities. “If you see the video clips, you can see some people but you can’t see who they are—they’re just like moving sticks because we’re not focusing on them.” Any new technology is bound to provoke some concerns on the part of workers, but with a younger generation raised on digital media entering the workforce, the acceptance of change is growing. Even older workers are learning to adapt to new technologies like the i-Booth—albeit with a little help from Silva, who has to show them the ropes first. It just takes a little training, he says, but they eventually overcome their initial reluctance to use the technology. “With the touch-screen function, it’s a lot easier [to use] than mouse and keyboard.” As systems like the i-Booth and devices like tablet computers and smart phones begin to spread throughout construction sites, digital project information will quite literally be at your fingertips. And with that, the old days of digging through piles of plans and drawings every time you need to confirm a project detail may be coming to a close. For people like Silva, those days can’t pass soon enough. “I think it’s high time for the construction industry to move from paper to the soft copies,” he says.

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safety beat

Proper construction of a scaffolding system and hazard awareness are important foundations to scaffolding safety training.

Safety first Scaffolding training ramps up in Alberta as new code promises better practices By Godfrey Budd Scaffolding safety training is on the rise in Alberta, is becoming better codified and is assuming an increasingly important role in the province’s construction industry as a whole, according to scaffolding safety experts. “We’re doing a lot of scaf folding training in Alberta these days,” acknowledges Stewart Van Dyke, owner of Critical Safety Ltd., a safety training and consulting company in Calgary. “The phone is ringing a lot as employers are trying to get people trained. There’s been more scaffolding training in Alberta over the last two years than there was over the previous five.”

In Europe, scaffolding work has its own trade designation. In Alberta and elsewhere throughout North America, it is an activity within the carpentry trade. Accordingly, the Alberta Carpenters Training Centre, headquartered in Edmonton, with training facilities in Calgary and Fort McMurray, Alta., as well, provides training in scaffolding erection and safety. The centre’s facilities also offer training in carpentry, construction safety and related courses such as forklift training and commercial door hardware installation. Len Bryden, the centre’s director of training, says that although there has

been no dramatic spike in scaffolding training, some related courses have seen a sharp rise in demand. Though not scaffolding training per se, one, an Oi l Sands Safet y Association– approved course dealing with confined space safety, is important for many scaffolding projects these days. Attendance figures for this oneday course have risen steeply since 2 0 0 8 , w he n 18 4 p e ople p a r t ic ipated. In 2009, 689 took it. In 2010, 855 took it, and, by June 30 of this ye a r, 6 73 p e ople h a d t a k e n t he course, with the year-end total likely over 1,000. Alberta Construction Magazine | 103

PHOTO: JOEY PODLUBNY

safety beat Good safety knowledge, say training experts, can make the difference between life and death.

CREATING SAFE ACCESS “It’s useful for scaffolders, boilerma kers, welders a nd pipef it ters,” Bryden notes. “Scaffolders have to create safe access for the other trades.” The Carpenters Training Centre provided scaffolders’ training at all levels to 516 people in 2009 and 610 in 2010. The expected total number of trainees this year is about 600. But

are absorbed. Our assessment process is rigorous. We don’t always pass everybody. We treat it seriously, as good safety knowledge can on occasion make a difference between life and death.” T he t ra i n i ng cent re i ncrea sed spend ing on deliver y of t ra ining courses and programs by about 16 per cent in 2010 over 2009—from $1.7 million in 2009 to $1.98 million in 2010.

“There are different [safety] laws and regulations around the country. This can create problems for manufacturers.” — Al Squire, Director and Past President, Scaffold Industry Association of Canada some scaffolders’ training programs have been extended from t hree to four weeks. “It’s important to focus on quality of training, not just quantity, not just focus on getting a lot of people through training fast,” Bryden says. “Instead, we spend a lot of time on the hands-on portion, and focus on high-quality training. It’s important that the principles 104 | Fall 2011

Including overhead, wages, administration and other costs, Bryden says the total budget for the training centre in 2010 was about $4 million. T here a re about 10 accred ited scaffolding training institutes in the province. “The carpenters, Critical Safety, and Urban [Scaffolding Ltd.] are all [Scaf fold Industr y Association of

Canada]–supported programs,” says Wendy Larison, in charge of training at Urban and the current treasurer for the association. “They’re very similar and abide by standards set by the [Canadian Standards Association] and the 2009 Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Code Section 23.” A stricter Occupationa l Hea lt h and Safety (OH & S) code and tighter C a nad ia n St a nd a rd s Associat ion (CSA) standards have coincided with t he increased emphasis on sa fet y training in recent years. But, says La rison, whi le t he CSA produces standards t hat shou ld be fol lowed “it is up to industry to enforce and police them.” N o t i n g t h a t Ur b a n p r o v i d e s courses lasting from one day to two weeks, she says scaffolding training has two main parts. “The first focus is the proper building of a scaffold, so that it’s a safe place to work,” she says. “The second focus is on hazard awareness. This has five main areas: 1) Fall protection and guardrail; 2) Falling objects; 3) Electrical; 4) Col lapse hazard f rom w ind, weather conditions, too much weight, collision with a moving object, like a

safety beat PHOTO: JOEY PODLUBNY

forklift, for example, the freeze-thaw cycle—any of those factors that could cause the scaffold to collapse; [and] 5) Proper access—that means an appropriate ladder or stairway [up the scaffold] that’s not full of obstacles, and not climbing up the scaffold itself.” There do, however, seem to be obstacles for achieving optimal standards for some safety issues.

Canada does not have a one-sizefits-all regulation for scaffolding.

PLENTY OF DIFFERENCES Says Al Squire, a past president of the Scaffold Industry Association of Canada who is now a director of the association, “There are different laws and regulations around the country. This can create problems for manufacturers. Also, it can be difficult to design fall arrest equipment for lower heights—that’s three metres or less. The issue has not been resolved in North America. But in France, for example, it has. They prefer to prevent the fall in the first place. Before you go to the next level, you install the guardrail. That can include top-rail, mid-rail, toeboard and mesh in some urban areas.”

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Alberta Construction Magazine | 105

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Some lower heights can be hazardous because of what is below—cold, deep, fast-moving water, for example. “That [French] method is cost-effective, because by the time the guys are erecting the next level or lift or scaffold, they’re able to work more efficiently and safely,” Squire says. It is expected, though, that the new CSA Z797-09 Code of Practice for Access Scaffold would address at least some of the sector’s safety issues and challenges. “It’s one of the best documents around and incorporates best practices from jurisdictions from across North America. It’s anticipated that Alberta OH & S will adopt it,” says Critical Safety’s Van Dyke. He says that, in Alberta, sound practices are generally followed on industrial and other complex commercial and infrastructure projects. “But problems tend to surface on sma l l commercia l projects where there can be a lack of awareness,” he says. “The new [Canadian Standards Association] code could help remedy this lack of knowledge.”

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& directory

the legal edge

Unknown insurance and unnamed insureds by Tim Mavko Reynolds, Mirth, Richards & Farmer LLP

Sometimes subcontractors have insurance and they don’t even know it. Take, for example, liability insurance. Typical liability insurance protects against claims and lawsuits by third parties. This means when a neighbour sues because a misplaced auger hits a water line and floods his lands, the liability insurance of

A wrap-up liability policy, however, is a single insurance policy that extends the coverage to many, if not all, of the players working on the project, from the owner to the contractor and then down through the layers of subcontractors. Suitably worded, one policy covers them all. And rather than specifically naming each party that

half-built building or stockpiled lumber burns because of, say, a poorly placed propane heater, the builders’ risk insurance covers the cost. If the description in the policy of who is insured is broadly worded, subcontractors might benefit without being specifically named. In strict legal terms, they are unnamed insureds.

When the owner or general contractor buys the wrap-up insurance, subcontractors several tiers down may not even know it’s there. the negligent owner, contractor or subcontractor (as the case may be) would step in. Conventional stand-alone liability insurance protects only the particular person or specific entity named in the policy. So, a policy naming the owner protects the owner. Similarly, a policy in the name of the contractor insures the contractor. Subcontractors who want similar protection (and they all should) need policies in their own names.

is insured, the policy describes them as a class or group. As long as someone comes within the description, he is covered. Similarly, a properly worded broadcoverage builders’ risk policy might extend to everyone working on the project. Builders’ risk insurance is property insurance, which means it covers the value of the project’s buildings, materials and perhaps equipment against accidental damage or loss during construction. If a

But when the owner or general contractor buys the wrap-up insurance, subcontractors several tiers down may not even know it’s there. They may never see the policy nor ever know that the general contract says they are supposed to be covered. Worse yet is the problem when the policy does not clearly say it extends beyond those specifically named, nor refer to or describe the class of unnamed insureds. Alberta Construction Magazine | 109

the legal edge

Instead of the owner, general contractor and umpteen subcontractors each buying their own policies for essentially the same coverage, one or two policies cover them all. This saves money. That was the problem an Alberta court faced a few years ago in the case of Alberta Ltd. v. Thibeault Masonry Ltd. A building burned down during construction and the question was whether the owner’s builders’ risk policy covered the subcontractor blamed for the fire. The policy itself was silent about unnamed insureds. All the policy said was that it insured “all buildings during the course of construction.” But this wording, along with an appreciation for the general purpose of builders’ risk insurance, led the court to the conclusion that the insurance was meant to cover all the subcontractors’ work as well. Thus, this particular subcontractor was insured—without being named or described in the policy.

Such wrap-up or broad-coverage insurance has some obvious benefits. Instead of the owner, general contractor and umpteen subcontractors each buying their own policies for essentially the same coverage, one or two policies cover them all. This saves money. Also, it’s to everyone’s benefit for everyone to have insurance and a single policy ensures there are no gaps. And because there is one insurer instead of many, there are fewer disputes over who should cover what when a claim is made. There is a less obvious, but equally important, benefit to being an unnamed insured under a broad-coverage policy: one gets shielded from claims made by the insurer itself. When an insurer pays

build, sustain, and connect your knowledge 556772

out a claim on behalf of an insured, the insurer has the right to go after the wrongdoer to recover the money paid. This is called the right of subrogation. And an insurer can pursue that right against any wrongdoer—except its own insured. And that was other issue in the Thibeault Masonry Ltd. case. After the insurer paid the owner’s claim of $3.5 million for the burned building, the insurer tried to sue the subcontractor to recover the cost. The insurer’s lawsuit turned on whether the subcontractor was insured under the policy. When the court found that the insurance covered the subcontractor, the claim was dismissed. The insurer could not sue its own insured.

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Nominate Your Top Project Today! This is your company’s chance To be recognized for ouTsTanding work. Not only will your project be featured in our winter issue, but all winners will receive original artwork of their projects and all entries will be showcased at an awards luncheon in December. don’T waiT, enTer your projecTs Today—nominaTions are now open. Go to www.albertaconstructionmagazine.com to enter*.

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New This Year!

For the first time in the history of Top Projects, we will be celebrating Alberta’s top construction projects of the year at a special awards luncheon on Dec. 1, 2011, in Calgary. Join us as Alberta Construction Magazine reveals the winners of its 10th annual Top Projects awards. sponsorship opporTuniTies are now available for This inaugural evenT. Promote your company or product to this targeted audience through varied sponsorship opportunities at the event itself. Make sure to visit www.albertaconstructionmagazine.com for a complete list of rules, deadlines, judging criteria, sponsorship opportunities and information on how to enter projects and attend the awards celebration.

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time capsule

Time Capsule

CALGARY’S OLD CITY HALL One occasion you may have overlooked this summer was the 100th anniversary of Old City Hall in Calgary. The downtown landmark is proof that while Calgary may strike the casual observer as a relatively new city, it is also one with a rich architectural history. William M. Dodd is credited with the design of the sandstone building. Dodd—who also designed Regina City Hall and several prominent Calgary buildings such as Knox United Church—was dismissed as manager of the construction project in 1909 due to cost overruns, according to the Glenbow Museum. Though details of his education are missing, Dodd was a rather well-known architect and served as vice-president of the Alberta Association of Architects in 1907 and 1908, according to the museum.

What is known is that the city hall building was built between 1907 and 1911 at a cost of $300,000. Believe it or not, that was a huge cost at the time. The building occupies the site of the first city hall, which was built in 1885 and demolished after the Dodd-designed building was completed. The building was officially opened on June 26, 1911, by the leader of the opposition (then the Conservatives) Robert Borden, according to Calgary Public Library research. The library also reports that the sandstone used in the construction came from the a quarry up on what is now 17th Avenue SW and the clock in the prominent clock tower was ordered through D.E. Black Jewellers at a cost of nearly $4,000—a fraction of what you would pay for a Rolex.

photo: glenbow museum

Calgary’s Old City Hall, as shown when it was still under construction. Note the empty clock tower.

112 | Fall 2011

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ACO Systems Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 AGF- Alberta Rebar Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 Alberta Construction Safety Association. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ATB Financial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Beaver Plastics Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 & 92 Bobcat Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Brandt Positioning Technology . . . . . . . . . . Inside back cover Brandt Tractor Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inside front cover Brock White Canada Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Brytex Building Systems Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Business Information Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 & 85 Calgary Construction Association. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Cal-Gas Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Canadian Dewatering LP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Canadian Western Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Canessco Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Cantherm Distributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Carmacks Enterprises Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Cat Rental Store. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Outside back cover Chase Operator Training. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chemco Electrical Contractors Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Constructive Solutions for Business Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Davidson Enman Lumber Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Edmonton Construction Association. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Edmonton Exchanger & Manufacturing Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Electrical Contractors Association of Alberta. . . . . . . 81 & 82 EllisDon Construction Services Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Ener-Spray Systems Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 General Motors of Canada Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Grant Metal Products Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 ICS Group Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 IVIS Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Ketek Industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Klimer Platforms Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Kubota Canada Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Ledcor Industrial Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Levelton Consultants Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Lloyd Sadd Insurance Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Madsen Street Developments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Manulift EMI Ltee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 MAPEI Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Mazer Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Merchandise Mart Properties Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Mount Royal University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 NAIT Corporate and International Training. . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 New West Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Northland Construction Supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 PCL Constructors Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Petro-Canada/Suncor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Phoenix Fence Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Proform Concrete Services Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 & 114 PwC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Renfrew Insurance Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Reynolds Mirth Richards & Farmer LLP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102 Ritchie Bros Auctioneers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Rocky Mountain Honda Powerhouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 RSC Equipment Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Sandale Utility Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Sawridge Inn & Conference Centre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 SEAL IT Waterproofing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Sherwood Nissan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Skyjack Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Skyway Canada Limited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 SMS Equipment Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Spatial Technologies Partnership Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Steels Industrial Products Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Superform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Supreme Steel Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Telus World of Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Toole Peet Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Truck Outfitters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Urban Scaffolding Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Vet’s Sheet Metal Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Voice Construction Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 WesternOne Rentals & Sales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Western Surety Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Williams Scotsman of Canada Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Wolseley Engineered Pipe Alberta. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Workers’ Compensation Board-Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Working In Limited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 WorleyParsonsCord Ltd.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

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