Construction Business Magazine - Nov/Dec2011

November/December 2011 Vol. 9 No. 1

2011 VRCA Awards of Excellence Rod Goy, BCIT School of Construction Construction Safety

PM 40063056

plus Buildex Vancouver 2012 Preview

Congratulations to all

2011 VRCA Awards of Excellence Winners From All of Us At...

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Inside

Nov/Dec 2011 | Volume 9 No.1

06 Connections

PUBLISHER

Rod Goy As the new dean of BCIT’s School of Construction and the Environment, Rod Goy brings years of experience in education and construction to his role.

MANAGING Editor Contributing writers

Dan Gnocato dang@mediaedge.ca Cheryl Mah Robin Brunet Tyler Galbraith

09 Special Supplement

Kim Karn

2011 VRCA Awards of Excellence

Brian Martin

Bruce Knapp Grant McMillan John Singleton

Industry Focus

Jean Sorensen Clare Tattersall

49 Construction Safety The Coming Crisis in WorkSafeBC Costs Fire Safety Mitigation in Buildings

B.C./ALBERTA SALES

Dan Gnocato Tel: 604.739.2115 ext. 223

Departments 04 Message from the Editor

PUBLISHED BY

51 The Legal File

E&O Insurance: the Danger of the Switch Consultants’ Duties to Bidders and Contractors

53 Architect Corner

PRESIDENT Kevin Brown vancouver office 402-1788 W. Broadway Vancouver, BC V6J 1Y1 Tel: 604.739.2115 Fax: 604.739.2117

Is That Your Albatross or Ours?

54 Industry News

Toronto office 1000-5255 Yonge St. Toronto, ON M2N 6P4 Tel: 416.512.8186 Fax: 416.512.8344 Copyright 2011 Canada Post Canadian publications mail sales publication agreement no. 40063056 — ISSN 1710-0380 Return all undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Suite 1000 — 5255 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario, M2N 6P4

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February 8 & 9, 2012

Cover Photo

The Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon won a VRCA Gold general contractor award for PCL Constructors Westcoast.

Derek Lepper Photography Construction Business is British Columbia and Alberta’s construction magazine. Each issue provides timely and pertinent information to contractors, architects, developers, consulting engineers, and municipal governments throughout both provinces. Complimentary copies are sent bi-monthly to all members of the Architectural Institute of B.C., B.C. Construction Association, B.C. Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association, Consulting Engineers of B.C., Construction Specifications Canada — B.C. Chapter, Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, B.C. Ready-Mixed Concrete Association, Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C., Urban Development Institute of B.C. and Vancouver Regional Construction Association.

March 20 & 21, 2012

November 6 & 7, 2012

Editor’s Note

Accomplishments

E

veryone appreciates a compliment or recognition for a job well done. Whether it’s from your employer, friend or mother, it’s always nice to receive praise.

I regularly applaud my kids for their efforts and accomplishments — small or big. I’ve learned that praise is a very important parenting tool because kids love praise.

The construction industry recognizes praise for its members is valuable too. That’s why every year the VRCA honours companies and individuals for outstanding accomplishments with its Awards of Excellence. A sold out crowd celebrated some of the best in B.C. this past October.

Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon (on our cover) garnered Kelowna based PCL Constructors Westcoast the top award for a general contractor over $40 million. The unique resort on top of a

mountain earned a total of three gold awards.

The Jim Pattison Outpatient and Surgery Centre earned Nightingale Electrical a gold award and three silver awards for Bird Construction, Flynn Canada and Daryl-Evans Mechanical, making it the most honoured project this year. Read about all the winners in the following pages.

Also in this issue, we speak with Rod Goy, the new dean of BCIT’s School of Construction and the Environment. Well known in the industry, he brings a wealth of experience to the position and will be working to ensure programs are in alignment with industry needs.

In our safety focus, read about possible WorkSafeBC cost increases as well as how to mitigate fire risks in buildings. Two legal articles touch on two different and important issues: consultant duties and professional liability insurance. This

BFL Canada is a proud sponsor of the VRCA Awards of Excellence and we congratulate all of those nominated for recognition.

issue also carries our preview of Buildex Vancouver, set for February 8 & 9, 2012.

As this is our final issue of the year, we take this opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to bringing you more stories in the New Year.

Cheryl Mah Managing Editor

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Reflecting on a job well done

By Don Schouten, manager of construction, Industry and Labour Services, WorkSafeBC

A

s another year comes to a close, I want to commend you on a job well done. The construction industry has come a long way over the past few years, taking great steps to improve safety — and it’s worked.

In 2010, there were 6,785 claims in construction, a 5 per cent decrease from the previous year and a 28 per cent decrease from five years ago. And while the injury rate was still high in 2010 at 3.5 (the provincial injury rate was 2.3), it’s nowhere near where it was in 2006 when it was 6.3.

Collectively, however, we still need to continue to improve. One serious injury or fatality is one too many.

While there is still work to be done, one of the reasons for the improvement in safety is due to grassroots initiatives: workers and supervisors on the ground who see a safety problem and come up with a way to solve it.

There have been some amazing safety innovations this past year. Genius programs, policies, tools, or projects that didn’t take much work but resulted in a safer work environment. Every fall, WorkSafeBC sponsors a series of construction safety awards to recognize these very innovations. Let me share some examples.

Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd. understood the challenge workers have of properly using fall protection straps. Often, the straps are needed where there isn’t a supporting structure to attach the straps to. Stuart Olson Dominion solved this problem by incorporating the fall protection straps into PVC boxes during the slab layout process of erecting the buildings, the straps are essentially built right into the structure. This new process provides a simple and effective way to ensure workers can have fall protection wherever they are working.

The BC Place roof replacement was a huge endeavour that required there to be approximately 1,200 workers on site every day. With so many workers on site, it was vital for the construction company, PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc., to keep everyone in the loop with the plan and schedule. To accomplish this, they offered monthly lunch-and-learn sessions for their subcontractor field level supervisors. Led by the superintendents and project managers, these discussions centered on safety trends and worksite challenges. Through the sharing of information,

relationships developed between the various supervisors that helped improve jobsite coordination and safety for everyone on site.

Adera Development also received an innovation award this year.

In response to the changes to the BC Building Code to allow six storey wood frame construction, Adera Development undertook an indepth study of its current Course of Construction Fire Safety Plan (CCFSP). This resulted in Adera phasing the construction process with fire safety in mind. For instance, they reversed the construction schedule for wallboard, with lower floors proceeding upward instead of the common industry practice of from the top down. They also coordinated the installation and operation of firewall doors during construction. Adera’s example really speaks to the importance of and benefit of pre-planning for safety.

I’m sure there are many more innovations out there that we don’t know about. If you have an idea or something you’ve done in your workplace, I encourage you to submit it for next year’s awards. Recognition is only one perk. Sharing your idea with others who might use it to make their workplaces safer — that’s the biggest benefit of all.

Innovations and brainstorming solutions aren’t just about the frontline workers, either. It’s about employers encouraging creativity, initiative, and speaking up about their ideas. None of the award-winning ideas above would have taken off without the support of employers and their cooperation in making it happen. Encouraging innovative thinking to prevent injuries is a great way to engage workers and raise your workplace’s standard of safety.

This industry is busy and fast-paced, and I know you may not always take the time to stop and look back at the great work that you’ve done.

Because of your efforts, we can continue to improve safety in construction and truly create an environment that is safe to work. I look forward to next year and seeing where we’ll take safety next.

Please let me know what you think of this topic or any construction safety issue. Call me at 604.214.6989 from the Lower Mainland or toll-free elsewhere at 1.888.621.7233. Or email don.schouten@ worksafebc.com. I’d like to hear from you.

Connections

Passion for Education

By Cheryl Mah

H

aving a finger on the pulse of the construction industry is an important part of the job for Rod Goy. As the new dean of BCIT’s School of Construction and the Environment, Goy works collaboratively with industry, government and professional organizations to implement solutions in an educational framework.

Goy attends many industry events and meets annually with key industry members and organizations to “take the temperature” of important issues and to ensure the curriculum is in alignment with its needs.

“We have really close ties to industry and I spend a lot of time away form here but I need to be in the office too so it’s a balancing act,” he says.

As the largest trades training institution in B.C., the school plays a vital role in supplying the next generation of workers for the construction industry.

A pending skilled labour shortage has been identified as a major concern in construction circles for a number of years now. Just how big of a shortage? According to the Construction Sector Council, B.C. could be facing a shortage of 10,000 workers during the 2011-2019 period that will require recruitment from outside the local construction market to meet labour requirements.

“The construction industry is probably the most difficult industry to predict numbers. But labour market studies say we may be seeing a double digit [employment] growth over the next five years, working mostly on infrastructure and natural resource projects,” says Goy. 6

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He brings a wealth of industry knowledge to his new position with more than 30 years of experience in education and construction. Over that time, he has made many contributions to industry through his work on various regulatory government and industry bodies including sector councils.

“I’ve been involved in this training and educational process for a long time,” says Goy. “Education has definitely been the common connection throughout my career.”

The 57-year-old Burnaby native originally attended UBC to study music but left after the third year to become an electrical apprentice in 1975. His father was an electrician and during the summers he worked as an electrical helper, which paid for his tuition.

“I worked in construction for a couple of years and then switched to GE Canada, a motor winding shop,” recalls Goy. “I finished my apprenticeship with them and was there for 11 years. I loved the work and it took me all over the province.”

While at GE Canada, Goy also worked for IBEW as chief instructor responsible for developing a training curriculum for members. He then went on to teach with the Langley School District (after completing his teaching degree and B.A.) before becoming the training director of the Electrical Joint Training committee in 1992.

“That job allowed me to combine education administration, management and my knowledge of the apprenticeship system and I really liked it,” says Goy, who stayed there for 12 years.

In 2002, he sat on the Transition Advisory Committee to provide recommendations for a new industry training and apprenticeship system in B.C. He was one of the inaugural board members on the Industry Training Authority (ITA).

He joined BCIT in 2004 as associate dean and was responsible for the Industrial Construction Group. He oversaw the province’s largest electrical trades training and steel trades programs which include iron working, metal fabrication, welding, sheet metal, mining and piping. He became the acting dean in January 2010 before officially assuming the role of dean in July 2011.

As dean, he leads the school’s management team of 13 (plus administration).

He is currently busy leading and implementing a strategic plan for the school.

“Last year I was doing a lot to get the team together and making sure it was structured appropriately with personnel. This year is all about external factors that affect our industries, BCIT and where we’re headed,” he says.

For Goy, the best part of the job is the people.

“The folks that work in our school are outstanding and show amazing dedication,” says Goy, adding his daily commute from Abbotsford where he lives is his least favourite part.

His goals include developing activities that provide leadership and consistency with environmental responsibility; rebranding the school; and ensuring the school remains adaptable and flexible to industry’s needs by providing outstanding and relevant applied education.

“I want to make sure industry knows we’re the number one provider of human resource capital,” says Goy. The school offers a wide range of courses in three key areas: natural resources, building design and construction trades and building design and construction technology.

It offers several unique programs including two masters degrees in building science. These degrees are the first of their kind in western Canada and meets industry demands through applied research.

Applied research not only enhances the learning experience but the research helps to solve industry problems.

“The building science program, for example, evolved from the leaky condo issue and the masters degree adds the rigour that industry was asking for,” says Goy. “Products of our research have been helpful in terms of introducing construction techniques that will increase permeability but ensure proper ventilation.”

“Natural gas is a key part of the energy mix for our development.”

Ron Toigo Developer, Tsawwassen Springs Managing Director, Shato Holdings

Developers looking for the right energy mix to fit the scope of their project often begin with natural gas. That’s because homeowners demand it for the comfort, convenience, energy efficiency and lifestyle appeal. Business owners too, appreciate natural gas for the energy savings and positive contribution to their bottom line.

So before you start your next project, call your local FortisBC energy solutions manager about building natural gas into your plans.

Visit fortisbc.com/energyteam.

FortisBC Energy (Vancouver Island) Inc. and FortisBC Energy (Whistler) Inc. do business as FortisBC. The companies are indirect, wholly owned subsidiaries of Fortis Inc. FortisBC uses the FortisBC name and logo under license from Fortis Inc. (11-515 10/2011)

Energy solutions. We’ve got our best people on it.

Connections Programs reflect the demands of the market so not surprisingly sustainability has been at the forefront.

“The majority of our newest programs have been in the sustainability field — the natural resources portfolio,” notes Goy. “Three of our newest programs are ecological restoration, environmental engineering and sustainable resource management.”

Increased demand is also expected for construction management, estimating, supervising and planning as construction becomes more sophisticated. Popular courses include interior design, electrical and civil engineering.

Goy points to a number of recent announcements that will impact activity levels for the industry which will in turn also impact the school.

The biggest and most high profile announcement was Seaspan’s $8 billion federal contract for construction of non-combat vessels.

“Shipbuilding is construction but it’s a specific sector and they have not been so good on the apprenticeship side,” notes Goy, adding they were involved with Seaspan in developing the proposal. “If there’s truly going to be a skills shortage, then they need a strategy and change some of the ways that they do business.”

The challenge, he explains, is traditionally the shipbuilding industry does not hire apprentices but rather hires journeymen.

Other projects include the New Prosperity Copper Mine, Site C dam and the Kitimat liquid natural gas facility.

“The National Energy Board recently granted them a 20 year license to export natural gas. It’s the first natural gas export license since 1985,” says Goy. “It’s a good project…$3 billion in construction costs.”

Project construction could begin in 2012, with exports potentially starting in 2015.

BC Housing and the federal government also announced $180 million for building new affordable housing. The increased cost of lumber, says Goy, will be a boost for the forest industry especially once the U.S. economy picks up again.

“These are real announcements and plans that will really change the construction industry in B.C.,” says Goy. “Over the next five years, it looks really busy and it’s going to severely impact construction costs, scheduling, capacity and so on.

And that’s not counting any other projects that will be happening.”

The school will need to respond to the market pressures for workers.

“We’re going to be looking at immigration from other provinces and the States, so how do we as a training institute certify those folks?

We’re also going to be competing with Alberta,” says Goy, noting foreign trained workers will be another source but the skill sets vary from a “perfect fit” for the industry to not so much. “We’re going to have to deal with that range and we’ll be working with governments to help out.”

Although there’s always room for expansion in the curriculum, new programs will not be the focus moving into 2012.

BCIT builds.

Programs reflect the demands of the market so not surprisingly sustainability has been at the forefront.

“We have the right mix. It’s about providing added rigour and quality to those programs. So next year will be about renewal and redevelopment,” explains Goy, citing as an example the interior design program which is being redeveloped from a diploma to a degree.

When Goy is not busy at work, you’ll most likely find him on his 42 foot power boat with his wife Donna. “We’re boaters. It’s a lifestyle for us and we love it. It’s our ‘apartment’ in town,” he says.

His love of music has been passed onto his children while his two oldest have followed into the construction industry — one as an electrical apprentice and another as a general contractor.

Goy still plays the piano when he can. In his younger years, he played a variety of instruments, travelled on the road with his rock band, did recordings and wrote jingles but that was a “long time ago,” laughs Goy.

BCIT works.

BCIT measures.

Build a sustainable future with BCIT. > Leading edge technology > Dynamic partnerships > Innovative research Choose BCIT’s School of Construction and the Environment for your education and training needs.

bcit.ca/construction

BCIT plans.

It’s your career.

Get it right.

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November/December 2011

2011 VRCA Awards of Excellence

Building Excellence

Congratulations to all of our 2011 Awards of Excellence Winners

23rd Annual Awards of Excellence

General Contractor Over $40 Million

GOLD Sparkling Hill Resort — PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. SILVER The Jim Pattison Outpatient and Surgery Centre Bird Construction Company SILVER Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex TASK Construction Management

General Contractor $15 — 40 Million

Manufacturer & Supplier

GOLD Sparkling Hill Resort — M & K Ready Mix Ltd. SILVER Klahoose First Nations New Relationship / MultiCentre Holdfast Metalworks

Outstanding Woman in Construction Award Flavia Boffo Punzo — Boffo Family of Companies

GOLD Robert H.N. Ho Research Centre — Scott Construction Ltd. Life Time Achievement Award Robert Lashin, Houle Electric SILVER Penticton Aquatic Centre Stuart Olson Dominion Construction Ltd. Education Leadership Award SILVER TRU, House of Learning Marsha Gentile, Ledcor Construction Group Vanbots (A division of Carillion Pacific Construction)

General Contractor up to 15 Million

GOLD Mahony & Sons Public House Manley Design & Construction Management SILVER Klahoose New Relationship Building / Multi- Centre Cortes Island — Ledcor Construction Ltd SILVER Nanaimo Cruise Ship Terminal Vancouver Pile Driving Ltd

Electrical Contractor up to $2 Million

GOLD BC Hydro Field Operations Facility — Houle Electric Ltd. SILVER Canada Place Sail Replacemen — Houle Electric Ltd. SILVER Mahony & Sons Public House — Mustang Electric

Electrical Contractor Over $2 Million

GOLD Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre Nightingale Electric Ltd. SILVER Wesbrook Residential Tower — Bridge Electric Corp.

SILVER UBC Biosciences Renew — Western Pacific Enterprises

Mechanical Contractor up to $3 Million

GOLD Samuel Brighouse Elementary School Jeda Mechanical Ltd. SILVER The Garage — Paragon Mechanical Ltd. SILVER Garibaldi Secondary School — APCO Plumbing & Heating

Mechanical Over $3 Million

GOLD Royal Jubilee Hospital — Patient Care Centre Keith Plumbing & Heating Co. Ltd SILVER The Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre Daryl-Evans Mechanical Ltd. SILVER UBC Biosciences Renew — Division 15 Mechanical

President’s Trade Awards

GOLD Sparkling Hill Resort CN Architectural Millwork and Construction Inc. SILVER Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex — Whitewater Concrete SILVER Robert H.N. Ho Research Centre Concept Aluminum Products

Chairman’s Trade Awards

GOLD YMCA / Patina — Spectrum Painting SILVER Coast Meridian Overpass and Golden Ears Bridge LMS Steel Reinforcing Steel Group SILVER The Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre Flynn Canada

Induction into VRCA’s Life Members Ron McFee, Stuart Olson Dominion Construction

Member of the Year

Journal of Commerce/Reed Construction Data

Construction Workplace Health and Safety Innovation Awards

Gold Fall Protection Straps — Stuart Olson Dominion Silver Subcontractor Formen Lunch & Learn PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. Silver FPF Ramp (fence panel foot) — Nictin Holdings

Sustainable Construction and Innovation Award

GOLD IMEC Mechanical — Thermenex SILVER RDH Building — Fiberglass Thermal Space Innovation Award Houle Electric — Knight Street Bridge

Annual Safety Awards ZERO ACCIDENT FREQUENCY Canadian Dewatering McLeod Masonry Limited Status Electrical Corporation PCL Constructors Westcoast The Gisborne Group GENERAL CONTRACTOR 200,000 AND MORE PERSONHOURS PCL Constructors Westcoast The Gisborne Group TRADE CONTRACTOR 200,000 AND MORE PERSONHOURS Status Electrical Corporation Canadian Dewatering TRADE CONTRACTOR 10,000 to 49,999 PERSONHOURS McLeod Masonry Limited

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President’s message

On October 19th the Vancouver construction industry once again gathered to celebrate excellence in construction at the VRCA Awards of Excellence dinner. Although the last few years have been challenging for the industry, from the calibre of the projects receiving recognition, it is clear that the industry’s commitment to quality while meeting challenging conditions remains high.

It was extraordinary to see the great diversity in the projects that were recognized, as they ranged from a $240 million dollar hospital to more modest projects such as a pub. The winner of the General Contractor Award for a project over $40 million was the $70 million Sparkling Hill Resort, by Gernot Langes-Swarovski, creator of the crystal artwork and jewellery line. Over 3.5 million crystals have been installed in the resort, and it is an extraordinary building.

Clearly Vancouver contractors, suppliers and manufacturers are world class when it comes to quality and innovation. We were able to share some of these innovative ideas with

the industry as well as a result of the Awards of Excellence program.

The response this year from industry to the Awards of Excellence has been tremendous, demonstrating the pride and joy the industry takes in creating a vibrant community. All of the entrants in this year’s Awards of Excellence program are a testament to not only finished buildings and completed projects but also to the people that make the industry so rewarding.

We also celebrated individual achievement in a number of areas, showing what we all know — the industry is just as much about the people as it is about the buildings.

We would like to thank all of the volunteers of the VRCA for their tremendous effort in accepting, reviewing and judging some 220 entries in this year’s event. Particularly, we would like to thank Brian Martin and his awards committee for their unwavering efforts. The sheer logistics of visiting all of the sites has been formidable and the commitment of our volunteers to get the job done professionally

with fairness to all reflects on their past days as construction leaders.

VRCA is proud to be able to showcase on an annual basis the remarkable ability of our members and others in the construction industry.

Keith Sashaw President, VRCA

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Canada Inc. Insurance, Bonding and Construction Risk Specialists

Congratulations to all the winners of the

2011 VRCA Awards of Excellence

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Contractor Over $40 Million PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. — Sparkling Hill Resort gold General

A Sparkling Success By cheryl mah

Building a one-of-a kind resort on top of a mountain posed many special construction challenges for Kelowna based PCL Constructors Westcoast.

Officially opened in May 2010, Sparking Hill Resort is a $122 million European inspired resort that combines the concept of whole body wellness with the world-renowned Swarovski crystals as its overarching architectural theme.

“It’s a pretty unique project,” says PCL project manager Rupert Marshall. “There isn’t another facility anywhere in the world like that, incorporating a luxury health spa with Swarovski architecture. Never been done before.”

Situated on the top of Royce Mountain, just outside of Vernon, the 250,000 square foot spa resort sits on a spectacular 188 acre site overlooking Okanagan Lake. The 152 room resort, designed by Cannon Design, offers a myriad of amenities including conference space, exercise studios, a ballroom, dining venues and indoor and outdoor saltwater pools.

The 20 month project (started in July 2008) was fast-tracked by five months, finishing two weeks early and on budget. An impressive feat considering the project was built through the worst winter (2008/09) in Vernon’s history.

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“It’s basically constructed on a cut in the top of the mountain so it was very exposed to the worse winter we’ve had in Vernon in living memory. We had to deal with lots of snow and cold temperatures through the construction of the concrete frame,” says Marshall.

Double shifts were necessary for most of the project to bring it on time.

Just over 11,000 cubic metres of concrete was poured for the six storey cast-in-place reinforced concrete structure. It required excavating two storeys deep and 400 feet wide along the top of the ridge to put in a parkade, mechanical systems and more than 200 geothermal wells.

The geothermal system is expected to provide approximately 110 per cent of the hotel’s heating and cooling energy needs.

Excavation was made more challenging because blasting was not possible, notes Marshall.

The excavation also required substantial modifications to meet new seismic requirements.

Being on top of a mountain (one road in and out) meant site access and delivery of materials was fairly difficult.

“You’ve got narrow roads presenting safety challenges,” says Marshall, adding manpower at peak was about 200.

In addition, the many unique design aspects of the resort required innovative solutions.

“A lot of unique solutions or materials had to be designed and implemented to suit the owner’s requirements. Getting approvals on foreign equipment made it more challenging,” he says.

The resort’s 40,000 square foot spa, for instance, required specialized equipment to be imported from Europe. The spa’s signature treatment is the cold sauna — the first ever in North America.

The -110˚ C cold sauna is touted as beneficial for people suffering from chronic pain such as arthritis.

Modeled after Europe’s traditional wellness centres, the KurSpa houses seven unique sauna and steam rooms offering more than 100 treatments. Each room has a different temperature, scent, texture and stimulants with the goal to promote rejuvenation and relaxation.

More than two million loose crystals as well as Swarovski luminaries and lighting systems were used extensively throughout the building. Crystals are incorporated into fixtures, finishes, backs of dining room chairs, signage and the overall architecture including the signature 59-foot-high window wall in the lobby.

Composed of more than 90 uniquely shaped and sized pieces of glass, angled irregularly to

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replicate a crystal, the four storey atrium is supported by a complicated frame and unique cable tension system.

Creating the complex entrance crystal was one of the key challenges PCL faced. It required precise custom design and installation procedures.

“The design and construction of it was very technical in that you have a steel substructure and glazed frames over top of it. And the tolerances were extremely tight and because it’s not symmetrical, it made it extremely difficult to erect within the tolerances required,” says Marshall.

In order to meet those exacting tolerances, PCL’s survey team had to develop an innovative system of survey. Their effort was recognized with a SICA Innovation Award.

Despite the challenging terrain, tight time frame and record snowfall, PCL successfully delivered a landmark luxury spa and hotel destination that was the largest construction project in Vernon history.

“Certainly the owner had an incredible vision which they brought to fruition through this project. We had a good management team at the top and buy in from the trades. We had a team of experienced people driving the project through. It really was a good team effort,” says Marshall, who is particularly proud that 14

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the project was completed “without any serious safety incidents.”

The ingenuity needed to build the complex and technically challenging resort made Sparkling Hill the top honoured project at this year’s Vancouver Regional Construction Association Awards of Excellence. The com-

plex took home a total of three gold awards including top prize for a general contractor.

M&K Ready Mix Ltd. of Vernon and CN Architectural Millwork and Construction in Vancouver were also recognized for their contributions to the successful outcome of the project.

Everyone appreciates a collaborative structural solution

Nature gives us superb examples of creatures working together to build structures for their common good.

Public/Private Partnerships ( P3s ) are being recognized as the smartest way for us to follow Nature’s lead.

Glotman . Simpson brings an historically collaborative approach to solving P3 structural problems. We also combine high-level analysis with state-of-the-art 3D modeling. Our recent work on the Surrey Outpatient Care & Surgery Centre is a good example. This P3 required a flexible and open interior space,

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with unconventionally wide spans. We answered the architect’s vision with innovative and economical solutions.

The Surrey Outpatient Care & Surgery Centre is just one of a number of leading-edge structural solutions that we’ve recently developed. To find out more about Glotman . Simpson’s approach to engineering, please visit our website. You’ll see a number of our collaborative structural solutions there.

604 734 8822 glotmansimpson.com

Canada Line Station Langara 49th Ave

Gordon & Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre

Canada Line Station King Edward

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Contractor $15 - 40 Million Scott Construction Group – Robert H.N. Ho Research Centre gold General

Challenging Job Site By cheryl mah

Located on the Vancouver General Hospital campus, at Laurel Street and West 10th Avenue, the Robert H.N. Ho Research Centre project is a new seven storey addition to the existing Jack Bell research facility.

The research centre houses three internationally renowned research programs: the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility, the Vancouver Prostate Centre and the ovarian cancer research program (OvCaRe) and is named after Robert H.N. Ho in honour of his $15-million donation.

Designed by Musson Cattell Mackey Partnerships with CEI Architecture, the 69,350 square foot building has four levels of lab and three levels of offices which will house more than 150 research scientists, clinicians, trainees and staff.

Scott Construction started work on the sevenstorey, concrete-and-steel structure in the summer of 2009. The $27 million lump sum contract took 23 months to complete, officially opening this past September.

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“It was a very complicated location and coordination throughout was key,” says Scott Construction project manager Damien Sorbier.

Built on an existing parking lot, the single most significant challenge was the constrained site. Squeezed between two busy streets, an ambulance route and a line of old growth oak trees (that had to be preserved) on West 10th Avenue meant very little elbow room for crews.

“We really didn’t have a lot of room to build this building. It was about a postage stamp size — no room whatsoever so that was a huge challenge,” says Sorbier.

With no lay down area, materials had to be pre-loaded into the building and a crane actually sat inside a stairwell for awhile.

The project required carefully scheduled just on time delivery of materials which was further complicated by more than 300 change orders.

“We had a lot of change orders but the client worked closely with us to keep things moving,” says Sorbier.

The unique exterior envelope on the north and south sides was another challenge. The cladding system is comprised of composite metal panels, glazing, round windows and metal sun shading.

“The round windows were not easy to install and produce,” says Sorbier. “And there are these metal sunshades that create a kind of eyebrow style around the windows for energy efficiency.”

In addition to the exterior sunshades, other green features include light occupancy sensors, high efficiency cooling equipment, radiant slab heating and a white membrane roof.

The north stairwell is an architectural design feature of the building and serves as an attractive vertical artery that links researchers, staff and students.

“The feature stairs is full glass with glass guard rail and the hand rails are light features — really nice,” says Sorbier.

A six storey atrium joins the new building with the Jack Bell Centre, allowing staff to move seam-

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lessly between the two buildings. The centre remained fully operational during construction so work had to carefully planned and coordinated to minimize impacts to the campus operations.

Prior to construction of the new building, relocation of existing services were also required to maintain continued operation of the centre.

During excavation, unexpected soil conditions were encountered which required extra bracing and shotcrete. The 34 foot deep excavation was also made more difficult with the existing building on one side and an underground parkade on the other.

“We lost some time on the excavation but made it up during the build out,” says Sorbier.

At peak, Scott had 120 people on site. About 4,000 cubic meters of concrete was used in the construction of the facility. Interior walls are primarily drywall and glass brick.

Despite the extremely constrained site, Scott Construction made it all work and successfully delivered a world class facility that earned them a VRCA gold award of excellence for a general contractor on a project between $15-40 million.

Concept Aluminum Products also earned a silver trade award for this project.

“We made it work. Finished it on time, within budget. It was good team work,” says Sorbier.

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Contractor Up To $15 Million Manley Design and Construction Management — Mahony & Sons Public House gold General

Design-Build Solution

by Jean Sorensen

The design-build delivery system that fast-tracked an Irish pub at the new Vancouver Convention Centre has earned Manley Design and Construction Management the coveted Gold Award in the 2011 Vancouver Regional Construction Association Awards of Excellence in the category of general contractor on projects valued up to $15 million.

The award is for the construction of an authentic Dublin-style pub and restaurant, complete with millwork and fittings at the convention centre’s Burrard Landing and is owned and operated by Mahony and Sons Public House. It is the second pub-restaurant of its kind built for Mahony and Sons, with Manley handling the first build at the University of B.C. campus.

“Once we had all the approvals, the timeline of the (7,000 square foot) building itself went quickly. A building of this size would normally take eight to nine months but we were able to finish in 4.5 months,” says Allan Power, P.Eng, president and owner of Manley. The building permit was issued in October 2010 and construction started in November. By mid-March this year, the new facility was ready to open.

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Integral to achieving that efficiency was the company offering its design-build delivery process. This involvement allowed Manley to realize early the scope of the work, the best workflow, the materials that needed to be ordered and in what time sequence, and how to schedule several trades on site at once, Power says.

Once the work started on site, tradesmen could come to Power, who was able to make decisions on the spot. This reduced delays normally associated with projects as queries are shunted back to consultants who are off-site. “Because we were involved in the whole process and we had built for the client before,” Power says, “We knew what they wanted.”

Power says this also saved the client the cost of extra billing hours from consultants who might otherwise have had to visit the site or redraw plans.

With Manley involved in the design-build process with local consultants and familiar with Mahony and Son’s construction style in the past “we didn’t have a lot of change orders,” says Power.

The Irish Pub Company in Dublin, with offices in Atlanta handling North American clients, supplied the design for the project. Those change orders that did occur were not client-related but occurred to meet city requirements and unforeseen circumstances that arose in the building.

There were challenges on the site. The space that the pub and restaurant occupied was not intended to have a kitchen. Most kitchens require vents for exhausting heat and cooking odors.

…design-build can translate into dollar savings for clients, especially in the food and beverage industry…

“We had to drill into the floor and run the vents for the kitchen under the floor and out to the edge of the building,” he says, adding that most installations are straightforward.

The project was the first tenant in the new convention centre, tells Power and as a result, there was the need to comply with concerns of PCI Management, the city, and the convention centre staff. (The convention centre had opened and there was a need to work around convention activities).

Power says that he was better able to negotiate and coordinate these concerns from all the parties because of his company’s centralized control of the project details from the initial planning phase through to build process.

Power says as many as 25 employees were on site at once and that included several trades. PCI management brought managers from other projects to the area to show them how Manley was coordinating the trades to expedite the work.

The professional work environment also made final inspections by the city easier and faster.

“The inspectors were more concerned whether we had the right papers at the end of a project,” he says, adding that they had visited while work was in progress and had seen the care and thoroughness that was in place to ensure that standards were being met.

“He had the confidence in the company from walking through that the right things were being done,” he says.

The main lesson that Power took away from the project is that design-build can translate into dollar savings for clients, especially in the food and beverage industry, as the revenue streams are initiated faster. Also, by being involved in the project’s design, there is greater control of costs as the project unfolds. Manley was able to bring the $2.36 million project in (with some change orders) for $2.5 million.

“Every week that the client is open early translates into extra revenue and that location does very well,” he says.

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Contractor Over $2 Million Nightingale Electrical Ltd. — Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre gold Electrical

State-of-the-Art Facility By cheryl mah

Proud recipient of the VRCA 2011 Gold Award of Excellence Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre Nightingale Electrical Ltd. 138-11121 Horseshoe Way, Richmond, BC V7A 5G7 Ph: (604) 275-0500 Fax: (604) 275-8900 email info@nightelect.com

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The Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre in Surrey is B.C.’s first stand-alone outpatient facility. What makes the centre unique is that it offers a range of outpatient services including day surgery, diagnostics and imaging (MRI, CT, scans, biopsies) with community services (specialized clinics and programs) all within one building.

The 345,000 square foot facility consists of 4.5 storeys above grade with 3.5 levels of underground parking for 615 vehicles. Lab, office and training space are on level one and digital imaging is on level two. More than 80 exam and treatment rooms are on level 3 while level 4 is comprised of six operating rooms and 10 procedure rooms.

Designed by Kasian Architecture Interior Design & Planning Ltd, the new building will provide centralized outpatient services, which means faster diagnosis, improved access and reduced wait times, and better health management and recovery.

The facility features the very latest in medical care with state-of-the art equipment including MRI, CT scanners, radiology, bone density, ultrasound, mammography, nuclear medicine and cardiac diagnostic equipment. Check-in is automated with arriving patients using kiosks to confirm their arrival and provide them with directions.

Nightingale Electrical was responsible for the $15 million contract to provide the complex electrical installation required to make it all work.

“This is not just another health care building. The purpose of it is to make healthcare a lot more accessible for people. It was a great project to be a part of in that sense,” says Nightingale project manager Rod Douglas, adding the importance of the project motivated crews.

The scope of work included all electrical systems for security, communications, power distribution and lighting. To put the project size in perspective, the job required 5,923 light bulbs, 155 kms of data wire, 4,000 data lines, 5,000 receptacles and 2,100 light switches. At peak, 85 electricians were on site for a total of 130,000 man hours.

Because this is a medical facility, there were redundancy and post-disaster requirements that had to be taken into account.

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“Hospitals are built with a high level of redundancy so they are not affected by a power failure,” says Douglas.

The project has two transformers for the building as a whole, each 1500 KVA, and two generators in parallel, each 600 kilowatts.

Hospitals are complex and demanding projects to not only design and construct but also to commission. They require higher standards in the installation and workmanship of electrical components as well commissioning.

“There’s a tremendous amount of commissioning and paper work and documentation to support the commissioning. Every circuit is commissioned,” notes Douglas.

The project was built and delivered under a public private partnership (P3) between Fraser Health and BC Healthcare Solutions (BCHS) consortium. BCHS is responsible for the design, building, financing and maintenance of the facility. Bird Construction and Bouygues International acted as design-build contractor on the project. Bird was responsible for construction.

This was the first P3 project for many of the project team members including Nightingale.

“It was a huge learning curve for everybody,” acknowledges Douglas. “It was our first P3 pursuit and we were successful.”

The main challenge was the very aggressive fast track schedule.

“With P3s there are no extensions. Dates have to be met,” says Douglas. “The construction was in advance of design which always makes it tough.”

Sustainability was another key design driver.

Targeting LEED Gold certification, the range of green features include recycled materials used throughout including 2,200 tonnes of pine beetle wood, low VOC materials, and efficient plumbing fixtures.

The facility features passive thermal and indoor air quality control using a high performance envelope and energy efficient heat recovery/reclaim systems. It has been designed to use 54 per cent less energy than the Model National Energy Code. Water consumption will be reduced by 30 per cent over a conventional building. The Outpatient Centre also has 19 electric re-fuelling stations.

“Lots of energy monitoring equipment was installed by us — well over $250,000 worth,” remarks Douglas.

While Nightingale faced the usual space constraints for installation, Douglas credits Kasian for coordinating space allocation well to minimize problems.

“Bird did an unbelievable job of putting this building up,” he continues. “They deserve a lot of credit for what they did out there.”

Bird broke ground in August 2008 with substantial completion in December 2010. The $237 million project was completed on budget, three months ahead of schedule and with zero change orders.

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The facility earned Nightingale a gold VRCA Award of Excellence and silver awards for Bird, Flynn Canada and Daryl-Evans Mechanical, making it the most honoured project this year.

“I didn’t expect to win an award on this. But it was a really successful project for us. We fought a lot of battles but it all worked financially and technically in the end,” says Douglas. “One of the best construction experiences I’ve had and I’ve been doing this a long time.”

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WHAT GOES UP MUST BRING COSTS DOWN No matter how high a building reaches, it’s the bottom line that’s most important. And with BC Hydro’s New Construction Program, developers can save even more money through energy-efficient buildings. Proven to be happier, healthier places to work and live, energy-efficient buildings also enjoy enhanced marketability, higher asset value, and lower turnover. And we’ll be there from the start, helping with building design, system design and lighting design. We’ve streamlined the application process and increased funding to help with initial cost barriers. So not only will your next project be energy efficient, but economically efficient as well.

If you’re in the planning stages of a new project, we’d like to tell you more about how we can help get you started on an energy-efficient building.

For more information, call 604 522 4713 in the Lower Mainland, 1 866 522 4713 elsewhere in BC, or visit bchydro.com/construction.

energy efficient lighting design Today, building energy efficiency into new high-end, high-profile mega-projects like the 2010 Olympic Village or the Vancouver Convention Centre seems like a pretty solid bet. Bigger costs up-front for state-of-the-art technology will almost certainly be equaled by bigger gains later, in greater marketability as well as substantially lower operating costs over the long-term.

But what about smaller projects, like offices and warehouses, or more modest multi-unit residentia l or commercial buildings, on tighter budgets and requiring a quicker turnaround? Is the latest in energy efficiency really cost-effective for them?

BC Hydro’s Luis Damy says it is, particularly energy efficient lighting design.

“For offices, warehouses and parkades in MURBs,” says Damy, program manager of the New Construction Program, “lighting makes up a large percentage—as much as 50 per cent—of ongoing electricity costs, but at the same time, going energy-efficient on your lighting is low cost in comparison to other new, high-end conservation technologies.”

BC Hydro’s New Construction Program (NCP) is offering what Damy calls “unprecedented and unbeatable” incentives that include $1,000 for creating an energy efficient lighting design that exceeds the B.C. building code by 10 per cent or more, and a sizeable incentive to help cover the costs of buying and installing the new lighting. Exactly how sizeable that incentive is depends on the total electrical savings of the energy-efficient design but, says Damy, “we increased our lighting incentives by 70 per cent a year ago, and the incentive is substantial.”

Damy cites Bontebok Holdings Ltd. as one of many examples where the NCP has worked to a developer’s advantage. Over the past three years, Bontebok has received more than $270,000 in NCP incentives for four warehouse projects, based on electricity savings of 1.63 million kilowatt hours in 679,000 square feet of space. Bontebok’s Ron Emerson is now a firm believer in working with his lighting designer, Cantec Electric, to create energyefficient lighting design because it “results in savings on operating costs, while the rebates from BC Hydro make the initial increase in capital costs palatable.”

Says Damy, “It makes sense to build energy-efficient lighting, as well as other measures if you can, into a new building at the design stage rather than to retrofit later on. Your operating costs are immediately lower so you don’t waste money, and you’re able to determine exactly what you want from the get-go.”

Jerry Wyshnowsky, director of energy and environment for Thrifty Foods, agrees. “Energy efficient lighting design early in the design process pays dividends in many ways,” he says. “Because of lower energy consumption, efficient lighting produces less heat, which means that we are not running refrigeration systems to remove the heat produced by lighting our products. The products look better and stay fresh longer. As a result there is less waste all around, which helps keep prices low.”

Important, too, for most building developers and designers is the fact that applying to the New Construction Program is easy.

For the Energy Efficient Lighting Design component, the lighting designer receives a lighting calculator spreadsheet that makes it simple to determine exactly what lighting will achieve the best energy savings — and the highest incentives — while still delivering the right quality and quantity of light to a space.

For more information about the New Construction Program and its full range of tools and incentives, visit bchydro.com/construction.

MAKING VANcOUVER MORE ENERGy EffIcIENT, ONE DAzzlING lIGhTING PROjEcT AT A TIME BEING POWER SMART MAKES BUSINESS SENSE Ever been dazzled by Vancouver at night? Chances are, you were looking at buildings with lighting designed by Nemetz (S/A) and Associates Ltd. For more than 50 years, Nemetz has provided electrical engineering and lighting design services for some of the most spectacular high-rises in Vancouver, including hotels, residential buildings and office towers. Lately, they’ve also worked with BC Hydro’s New Construction Program to help their clients incorporate energy efficiency into their new buildings, from the ground up.

“Energy efficiency is one of the most important design considerations for most major projects,” says company President Steven Nemetz, “because you really can achieve significant savings through the right lighting sources and controls.

We’re well-versed in what BC Hydro requires to qualify a project for the New Construction Program, and can help our clients take advantage of the program’s benefits, including incentives based on electrical savings.”

BC Hydro’s New Construction Program helps reduce the cost of building better, greener, more energy-efficient buildings.

Visit bchydro.com/construction or call 1 866 522 4713.

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Electrical Contractor up to $2 million Houle Electric — BC Hydro Field Operations Facility

Delivering a Gold Facility By robin brunet

Houle Electric project manager Chris Worthington, who along with project manager Jake Russell, provided electrical, datacom, DDC controls and other services for the new BC Hydro Operations Facility in Port Alberni, jokes, “There’s an old saying: the sun always shines when you leave Port Alberni.”

Worthington is referring to the bad weather that plagued Houle crews during the year they worked on the facility, but he quickly adds that more serious challenges arose.

“Jake, who was responsible for electrical, was obliged to hide much of his work, which wasn’t easy in a building with exposed wood beams, high ceilings and lots of glazing,” he says. “I was responsible for datacom, networking and HVAC, and fitting lots of pipes into a relatively small space was a task.”

Houle’s successful completion of the project led to the venerable contractor winning big at the Vancouver Regional Construction Association’s 23rd annual Awards of Excellence gala on October 19: it took home the Gold (in the category of electrical contractor up to $2 million).

BC Hydro required that the 23,000 square foot facility qualify for LEED Gold certification and consume just a quarter of the energy used in a similar-sized traditionally-designed building.

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Olynyk told the press, “The district office needs to be able to function as an emergency operations centre whenever required to do so — one of the primary reasons that the existing district office in Port Alberni was not renovated.”

The facility is crucial in improving service to 16,000 customers on Vancouver Island’s west coast, including Port Alberni, Tofino, and Ucluelet.

Nanaimo-based Russell and Worthington were involved in the early phases of construction.

While Russell’s crews coped with ways of installing electrical components so as not to detract from the interior architecture, Worthington’s crews underwent somewhat of a learning curve.

“Some of the building’s components — such as BTU meters — were new to us, so there was a lot of sitting down and reading instruction manuals,” he explains. “And frankly, there was also a challenge getting the mechanical people to install these components correctly.”

Solar heating, a geothermal field and gas fired boilers had to be linked to a complex monitoring system that would also keep tabs on air flow (which would be regulated with fan-installed air handlers), C02 levels and humidity.

“A lot of LEED has to do with monitoring, and individual rooms of the operations facility can be monitored and controlled remotely,” says Worthington.

Monitoring capabilities even extend to the building’s green roof, where the tiniest of leaks can be detected.

A more conventional task for Houle was ensuring that all the electrical systems could withstand earthquakes and other natural disasters.

“One advantage of the new building compared to the old one is that it’s located outside of Port Alberni’s tsunami zone,” says Worthington.

“However, we still had to ensure that it performs during emergencies.”

The building was turned over to the owners in December of 2010, but Worthington was still fine-tuning some of the controls in November of 2011 at the request of BC Hydro.

“I’m tweaking humidity levels because the building has slab heating and we don’t want the floors to sweat,” he explains.

Although the BC Hydro project doesn’t break any records for Houle in terms of size or complexity, Worthington says there’s always a sense of satisfaction being involved with a LEED project.

“It’s a beautiful facility, and the physical evidence of our handiwork is apparent if you enter the mechanical room, for example: you’d take one look and go `wow.’ We’re very satisfied with what we provided the client.”

The general contractor was Omicron Total Building Solutions.

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Contractor Over $3 Million gold Mechanical Keith Plumbing & Heating Co. Ltd. — Royal Jubilee Hospital Patient Care Centre

Fast Tracking Healthcare By robin brunet

To say that Keith Plumbing & Heating Co. Ltd. deserved its recognition at the Vancouver Regional Construction Association’s 23rd annual Awards of Excellence would be an understatement.

The North Vancouver-based contractor took home the gold in the category for mechanical contractor over $3 million for the new Royal Jubilee Hospital Patient Care Centre in Victoria — one of the most high-profile health care projects ever to be undertaken on Vancouver Island.

Although Keith Plumbing’s portfolio includes many prominent health care projects, construction manager Kevin Collier says the public-private Royal Jubilee project “was very challenging, with a very tight fast-track time frame. We started the job in September of 2008 and finished in December 2010.”

To put that into perspective: the 320,000 square foot Royal Jubilee is a 500-bed LEED Gold certified facility that cost $282.5 million.

“For starters, each room required medical gas outlets of medical air, oxygen, and vacuum,” says Collier. “Additionally, the plumbing had to have low-flow components in accordance with LEED standards, and the mechanical components had to contribute to the facility achieving a 40 per cent greater energy efficiency rate than a traditional hospital of this size.”

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A lot was at stake: the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) wanted Royal Jubilee to be an example of how public-private partnerships can deliver social infrastructure while integrating innovative, sustainable building practices for the betterment of the community. In short, VIHA hoped that in addition to the hospital being one the largest LEED Gold-certified medical buildings in North America, it would also set a standard for similar developments throughout Canada and the U.S. Collier remarks, “The mechanics of Royal Jubilee were very ambitious. The hospital was required to be ventilated with 100 per cent fresh air. Plus, each room required individual environment controls. Outside, rainwater would be captured on the roof and stored for irrigation in nine underground cisterns with a total capacity of 240 cubic metres. So there was a lot to accomplish in a limited space of time.”

At peak, Keith Plumbing employed 70 people on site.

Collier speaks for many of his colleagues involved in Royal Jubilee’s construction when he says, “apart from the tight schedule, one of the biggest challenges was the footprint of the site.

There was absolutely no room for a lay-down area, so equipment and material had to be installed immediately. What that translated into was trucks arriving on site daily and their con-

tents unloaded and hoisted away by cranes to their appropriate places. Scrupulous attention to ordering and delivery scheduling needed to be paid for the duration of the project.”

Royal Jubilee had its fair share of construction innovations, including 448 factory-built modular bathrooms, or `pods’, that were manufactured off site to be ready as needed — which enabled general contractor Acciona Lark Joint Venture to accommodate schedule changes and reduce installation time.

“We were responsible for hooking up the pods, which was fairly straightforward, but it was quite an experience to have these things brought to the site — six at a time, usually — and dropped into position,” recalls Collier. “It was an effective construction solution, and the pods integrated seamlessly into each room.”

Another noteworthy installation was that of the air handling units. “No crane was large enough for them, so each one was lifted to the roof by the tower crane and a mobile crane working in conjunction,” says Collier, adding that eight units were hoisted aloft altogether.

Collier is proud of Keith Plumbing’s contribution to the Royal Jubilee Hospital Patient Care Centre and the VRCA win.

“The award coincides with us recently completing our 100th year in business,” he says. “It’s a good way to round out 2011.”

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Mechanical Contractor Up To $3 Million Jeda Mechanical — Samuel Brighouse Elementary School

Sustainable Education

Courtesy of Perkins+Will Canada Architects Co

By cheryl mah

Boasting geo-exchange heating and cooling, and solar panels to collect energy for supplying hot water, the new Samuel Brighouse Elementary School promises to set a new standard for energy efficient educational facilities in Canada.

Jeda Mechanical spent 14 months on the job, providing a complete mechanical installation. The mechanical system designed by Cobalt Engineering includes geo-exchange, in-floor radiant heating, solar collectors and capillary mat systems.

“Everything on this project was about building green,” says Jeda president Jim Myers, noting the school is touted as being one of the most energy-efficient, lowest carbon emitting elementary schools in the country.

Featuring several high-performance sustainable strategies, the new school is a landmark example of efficient green school design. Originally slated for a seismic upgrade, it was decided that it would be more economical going with a full replacement. School District #38 identified the project as an opportunity to showcase environmental stewardship. The school itself would act as a teaching tool.

The 48,000 square foot wood frame and concrete building was completed by construction manager Ellisdon in two phases. The $16 million project consisted of the construction of a new two storey facility plus the demolition of the existing school.

Officially opened in April 2011 (first phase), the school features classrooms, a library, multi-purpose space, a refurbished gym (existing gym was retained) and a Neighbourhood Learning Centre.

...the new school is touted as being one of the most energyefficient, lowest carbon emitting elementary schools in the country.

The K7 elementary school, designed by Perkins + Will, is targeting LEED Gold. This was the Vancouver firm’s first elementary school project.

A number of sustainable strategies were incorporated into the design including natural ventilation, natural daylighting, green roof and a high albedo roof. Plans include energy reduction through triple glazing and a high performance envelope.

Jeda was faced with installing multiple and extremely complicated mechanical systems on a tight schedule.

“The aggressive schedule was the biggest challenge and very tight mechanical rooms meant our guys had to be very good at installing the equipment to fit,” says Myers. “We had to bring all the mechanical systems together and tie them all in and get them commissioned in a very short period of time.”

Ground source heat pumps are located in the mechanical room to extract the ground energy via approximately 16,000 linear feet of vertical boreholes. The central plant uses a combination of geoexchange and exhaust air to water heat pump heat recovery to produce the heating energy required for the building.

The mechanical system strategy integrates a semi-passive solution with the use of trickle ventilation, radiant in-floor heating and exhaust air heat recovery.

“There was about $850,000 worth of very high efficient HVAC equipment that went in there,” says Myers.

In addition, solar thermal collectors located on the roof of the school harvest solar energy to heat domestic hot water. The heat collected from the solar panels that cannot be used right away within the building is stored in the geoexchange field.

According to Cobalt Engineering, the building is designed to achieve an energy use intensity of 88 kW-hr/m2/yr and to have energy consumption 55 per cent better than ASHRAE-90.1. As part of the design, multiple energy meters are integrated to the system so that the energy can be accurately monitored from every component.

“The amount of monitoring will be beyond any other school in Canada and will allow an accurate analysis of the system performance in addition to retro-commissioning in the future,” says Cobalt mechanical engineer Jean-Sebastien Tessier.

For their efforts on this project, Jeda Mechanical was recently awarded a VRCA Gold Awards of Excellence for a mechanical contractor. This is the third straight year that Jeda has been honoured with a VRCA award.

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TRADE AWARD CN Architectural Millwork and Construction — Sparkling Hill Resort gold PRESIDENT’S

Overcoming Mother Nature

By Clare Tattersall

Carved into a granite cliff overlooking the majestic Monashee Mountains and Lake Okanagan in Vernon, B.C., is a stunning feat of construction — Sparkling Hill Resort.

Opened May 2010 adjacent to the Predator Ridge Golf Resort, the European-style 152-room wellness hotel and health spa is inspired by the angles of the Swarovski Crystal, elements of which are incorporated into every aspect of the 250,000-square-foot structure. This includes the stairway in the stunning three-storey glass atrium, which CN AMAC (short for CN Architectural Millwork and Construction Ltd.) manufactured the wood cladding for.

“There are little pieces of crystal in the (stair) panels,” explains Lokesh Nair, one of five project managers who oversaw the company’s work on the critically acclaimed resort. “We cut out holes in all the panels and installed the crystals that way.”

This, Nair says, required great attention to detail, which he believes is partially responsible for the company’s Vancouver Regional Construction Association award win. He also attributes the company’s recent recognition by the regional construction industry to the standard of quality CN AMAC provided and the 35-plus years of experience his dad, Chandra, brought to the project.

However, this is not to say the award was expected.

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“It was a big surprise for us,” says Nair.

A well deserved one at that.

Over the course of 11 months, from April 2009 to March 2010, CN AMAC worked diligently to fulfill its contractual obligations; specifically, to manufacture and install the architectural millwork throughout the $122-million luxury resort, including the restaurant and retail store. This was no easy feat considering the development was fast-tracked and the company was working on multiple projects simultaneously, including the prestigious Fairmont Pacific Rim in downtown Vancouver, which had to be completed prior to the 2010 Olympic Games.

“It was quite the juggling act,” notes Nair.

“Both projects were for very prestigious owners and neither could be delayed.”

Further complicating the project was the fact that much of the onsite work at Sparkling Hill Resort was scheduled to be completed during the winter of 2008/09, which turned out to be one of the worst in Vernon’s history. This made transport not only up the mountain to the resort but between Vancouver and Vernon challenging, the latter primarily because heavy snowfall shut down the main artery connecting the two cities — the Coquihalla Highway — a few times.

“Regularly, it’s a four and a half to five hour commute between the two (cities) but since there were major troubles on the highway, this affected it,” points out Nair.

To prevent deliveries from being delayed, CN AMAC closely monitored highway weather conditions via CCTV roadside cameras and built in a two day time cushion or buffer to its truck trips.

As well, “If we knew bad weather was coming, we would have the (manufacturing plant) crews work double shifts or a second shift to make sure we’d deliver the load ahead of time,” notes Nair.

The inclement weather in the Okanagan Valley that winter also threatened the integrity of the millwork. Because wood expands and contracts in response to changes in temperature, CN AMAC’s installers had to continuously take thermal readings of the onsite storage facility to ensure the quality of the company’s products.

“The size and scope of the project was never an issue. We’re used to handling projects of this type of complexity,” says Nair. “Rather, it was the location of the job, the timing of the project and the weather difference between Vernon and Vancouver that really provided the greatest challenges.”

But none were insurmountable for this Vancouver-based company, which has since relocated its facilities to Burnaby

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The San Marco SMH 420 Self Erecting Crane provided to Westridge Construction has an under-hook height of 77 feet, a jib length of 137 feet and a lifting capacity of 8,820 pounds. It was the right size of equipment for the construction of Innovation Place. Innovation Place in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan is a $12 million, 69,500 square foot, three storey cast-in-place concrete office complex.

According to Gerry Wiebe, vice president of sales & marketing for Eagle West Cranes & Equipment, space for a crane was very limited at this particular site. The SMH 420 has a very small foot print, 14 feet 9 inches by 14 feet 9 inches, which made it an ideal choice for the project. Another key benefit to Eagle West’s Self Erecting Cranes is that they are fully operational in approximately 3-4 hours from delivery to the jobsite.

Since the crane does not require any concrete footings or foundations mobilization, costs were kept to a minimum. Prior to the crane arriving on site, Westridge Construction was using manual labour and telescopic forklifts to move materials in and around the site. The crane enabled them to have one centralized unloading point for all deliveries. Once the materials arrived, the crane could unload and distribute them much faster, safer, and less labour intensive than with telescopic forklifts and manual labour. This also enabled them to avoid the use of an off-site staging yard.

David Labbie, project superintendant stated that by utilizing the SMH 420 they were able to increase the on-site service area by at least 50 per cent and on-site production increased by over 45 per cent. Manual labour was significantly reduced, with a large increase in production. Labbie said that the crane allowed them to place materials exactly where they wanted them, reducing risks associated with manual material handling. He also went on to say that the San Marco SMH 420 Self Erecting Cranes brought increased safety to the entire jobsite.

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Trade Award Spectrum Painting — YMCA/Patina gold Chairman’s

Special Challenges

By Brian Martin

For Spectrum Painting the refurbished Vancouver YMCA and accompanying condo tower turned into pure gold. Winner of this year’s Chairman’s Gold Trade Award, Spectrum is very much a family affair.

The Burnaby company was founded in 1991.

It includes president and chief estimator, Joe Racanelli along with his wife Glenda, son Adam and daughter Lianne.

Racanelli is quick to point out that in addition to family members there are number of “very valuable” staff members who are not members of the Racanelli clan. Among them is Steve Zukanovic, a supervisor who has been with the company for 16 years.

Zukanovic was an active member of the team that handled the $2.5 million job at the “Y”. The project, says Racanelli, was the largest the firm has ever undertaken. At the peak of work they had some 20 painters on the job. The developer was Concert Properties and the general contactor was Bosa Construction.

The project consisted of two stages. One was the YMCA building on Burrard Street in downtown Vancouver. The second was the 42-storey Patina condominium tower that was built adjacent to it. The “Y” is an historic building and needed some special handling by the designers, 30 construction business

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the developers and the contractors. Although completely rebuilt the exterior facade was maintained to preserve its heritage appearance.

Inside, the project presented special challenges for the painters. For one thing it involved very high walls and ceilings in both the atrium area and the new swimming pool.

In addition to working in high areas Spectrum had to provide paint that’s specifically designed to last despite the high humidity and chlorine content that comes along as a natural part of a swimming pool environment.

No oil-based paints were used anywhere in the building. All the paints — both interior and exterior — were water-based.

Racanelli explains that federal environmental regulations require that oil-based paints be phased out. Very few of them are left, he said, and even those will be gone shortly.

Painting the interior of the condo tower to a large extent meant doing the same floor over 42 times. It may sound simple. But, it’s not. As the Patina is a Concert Properties development top-notch quality was required throughout for both painting and wall papering. This, he says, was achieved.

It can become a challenge, however, as delays beyond the control of the painters tend to eat

up valuable time. The painters are at the end of the chain — they come in when virtually every other trade has finished. This means they can be impacted by the woes anyone else — from the original excavating contractor to the drywallers — encounters. Nonetheless the final date for substantial completion remains the same. It can, he says, involve some interesting days. Despite those days, however Spectrum finished the job on time and on budget.

The Patina is unlike many concrete high rise towers that simply have grey concrete exterior walls. The Patina is painted a cheerful off white. This, of course, was a major part of Spectrum’s contract along with coating the apartments’ balconies with roll-on water proof membranes. The high rise exterior presented Spectrum with some of its largest challenges.

The tower is about 400 feet high. It gets very windy 400 feet above the street and much of the work was done during the winter. There were a few days when the wind was such a problem the painters’ platform had to be kept on the ground.

Despite some of the complications and difficulties, it is a point of pride that the entire project was handled with no workplace injuries.

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& Supplier of the Year gold MManufacturer & K Ready Mix Ltd. — Sparkling Hill Resort

Complicated Delivery

By Clare Tattersall

The largest single pour approximated 500 cubic metres, which required 50 delivery trips up to the summit of the Commonage Range.

Almost three years ago, in April 2008, the largest building permit in the history of Vernon, B.C., was issued to Sparkling Hill Resort. Soon after, construction began on this unique mountaintop project, which boasts many other “firsts.” Not only is the destination wellness resort the first hotel in the world designed around the Swarovski Crystal — $1.9 million worth of crystals are sprinkled throughout the property — the development is the largest in the city and it’s the biggest project the recipient of this year’s Manufacturer & Supplier of the Year award has ever undertaken.

“It was the hugest in terms of (concrete) volume that we ever put into one project, and volume translates into dollars,” says Mitch Mitchell, owner of family-run M & K Ready Mix Ltd. In total, the Vernon-based subtrade — one of many local suppliers and contractors that worked on the project — supplied and poured 11,300 cubic metres of concrete in a 19-month period between August 2008 and February 2010. Much of this was needed for two levels of underground parking and back-of-house facilities. The largest single pour approximated 500 cubic metres, which required 50 delivery trips up to the summit of the Commonage Range.

“We had 10 trucks on the go that day,” notes Mitchell, adding each trek took 30 minutes.

Once a truck reached the peak it then had to turn around and back into the jobsite, which Mitchell says was the equivalent of 12 city blocks away.

Why? “The owner didn’t want any of the natural vegetation destroyed, so access to the site was very limited,” he explains.

Further complicating the delivery of the concrete was the fact that the drivers had to obey a 30 kilometre speed limit along the two kilometre access road that ran through Predator Ridge Golf Resort, located adjacent to the $122-million development.

“This was to ensure we didn’t disturb the people at (Predator Ridge),” says Mitchell.

Other project challenges included the timeline — the development was fast-tracked — and exceptionally severe weather during the winter of 2008/09. In fact, it was the worst winter in Vernon’s history.

“Cold weather (negatively) impacts the drying time of concrete, so during the winter months we had to add chemicals to it to accelerate the hydration process by about three to four hours,” explains Mitchell, who rated the project a nine out of 10 in terms of complexity.

In total, M & K used 17 different concrete mix designs throughout the duration of construction to ensure the general contractor, PCL Construc-

tors Westcoast Inc., never had an issue with strength failure and, consequently, delay charges in spite of the extreme weather conditions in which much of the product was placed.

Looking back on his company’s involvement in the project, which was completed in spring 2010, Mitchell attributes M & K’s success (and, ultimately, its recent recognition by the Vancouver Regional Construction Association) to its motto. “We treat people like we would like to be treated,” he says.

Case in point: In late 2008, PCL completed thawing a large area of ground and required the slab be poured on Christmas Eve. “There was a big storm that day but I recognized that if the slab didn’t get poured, all the work and money that went into thawing the ground would go down the tube and PCL would have to start over after Christmas.”

So, M & K worked up until 9 p.m. to ensure the contractor could promptly proceed with the building. This, Mitchell says, served to strengthen an already solid relationship with the contractor.

“From the get-go we had PCL’s trust because we had done other jobs with (the company). Because PCL felt comfortable that we were doing what was in their best interest without watching us day and night, we were able to get on with our work.”

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General Contractor — Project Over $40 Million BYBIRD Joint Venture The Jim Pattison Outpatient and Surgery Centre

SILVER General Contractor — Project Over $40 Million

The new Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre in Surrey comprises more than 300,000 square feet. The facility consists of 4.5 storeys above grade with 3.5 levels of underground parking for 615 vehicles. The P3 project was a joint venture between Bouygues Building British Columbia Inc, and Bird Design Build Limited.

Designed by Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd., the Centre is B.C.’s first stand-alone outpatient facility. The building contains six operating rooms and 10 procedure rooms. The facility atrium includes retail space for a commercial pharmacy along with food retail services and education and meeting spaces. Construction involved 4,000 cubic metres of soil excavation around the foundations; 17,000 cubic metres of concrete and 200,000 metric tons of structural steel. The project is targeting a LEED Gold certification.

Located in Coquitlam, this project was budgeted at $62 million; however Task Construction brought it in at $52 Million — $10 million under budget and 10 months ahead of schedule. The project involved both renovation and new construction. Prior to the renovations the centre was rated as one of the five worst buildings in Coquitlam in terms of seismic stability.

TASK Construction Management performed seismic upgrades, replaced the existing spectator arena and curling ring, did a complete refurbishment of the facility, expanded the spectator arena to hold another 500 seats and installed an indoor walking track for seniors. They also built two new NHL sized arenas with locker rooms, function room for the curling club and several food and beverage facilities. In addition they provided a new entrance, lobby and sports hall of fame. Throughout construction the centre continued to operate.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $62 million

Task Construction Management — Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $237 MILLION

SILVER General Contractor — Project $15 to $40 Million Stuart Olson Dominion Construction — Penticton Aquatic Centre Stuart Olson Dominion Construction completed the work for the $23.3 Million Penticton Aquatic and Community Centre. The renovated facility features a state-of-the-art competition pool, a leisure pool and a newly enlarged family hot pool, as well as improvements to the fitness facility and family change rooms.

This project had a number of daunting challenges that were successfully overcome by the contractor. Number one being a hard deadline, which required completing what is usually a two year project in only 15 months. They also faced a major design overhaul on structural steel and the team lost a week due to a slope stability issue. To catch up they implemented a night shift for several months. They asked the trades to start early and introduced second shifts and acceleration of material deliveries. Tasks were shuffled around.

Work was done out of order as it could be completed, making construction flow difficult. The 15,000 square foot expansion is targeting LEED gold.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $23.3 million 32

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SILVER General Contractor — Project $15 to $40 Million

SILVER General Contractor — Project Under $15 Million

Carillion Pacific Construction — TRU House of Learning

Ledcor Construction — Klahoose New Relationship Building

Designed by Diamond + Schmitt Architects, the Brown Family House of Learning at Thompson Rivers University is a 77,000 square foot four storey structure. The building features a library, classrooms, study areas, computer labs, faculty offices and a 300 seat lecture theatre with state-of-the-art technology for lectures, conferences and meetings. Wood has been used extensively to meet the province’s Wood First Policy.

Carillion Pacific Construction (formerly known as VanBots Construction) successfully completed the project on time and on budget.

The LEED gold project involved fast track design and construction. It started as construction management at risk and was converted to pure construction management. Environmental considerations played a large role in the building which incorporates a geothermal heating and cooling systems, a 1,300 plant living wall, a green roof and triple-glazed curtain wall system.

With a design inspired by the West Coast Salish longhouse tradition, the Klahoose New Relationship Building stands on a rock bluff above squirrel cove. Built for the Klahoose First Nation, the 14,000 square foot building is a split-level timber framed building with two wings. The project was completed in December 2010.

Due to its remote location, Ledcor Construction utilized BIM 3D modeling to coordinate the design and manufacturing of the heavy timber and structural steel. Many of the materials were prefabricated off site. The remote location also made delivery of materials and supply of cement a challenge. In addition, the project team faced inclement winter weather. Clad in locally-sourced old growth cedar that was milled by residents on site, the building is a focal point for the community.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $23 million

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $6.9 million

SILVER General Contractor — Project Under $15 Million Vancouver Pile Driving — Nanaimo Cruise Ship Terminal

Overcoming scheduling and manpower challenges, Vancouver Pile Driving successfully delivered a new cruise ship terminal for the Nanaimo Port Authority. The marine component of the facility was comprised of berthing and mooring dolphins, a series of transfer bridges and gangways and the floating concrete arrivals pontoon.

The project involved designing and building three floating pontoons that were manufactured in North Vancouver and shipped to Nanaimo. Each of the pontoons was 315 feet by 50 feet. They were used to create a berthing facility for cruise ships. In addition there were three berthing dolphins and three mooring dolphins. Pile driving was done using what are called “spin fin piles,” resulting in time and cost savings. When driven these piles rotate into the ground and achieve tension capacities far in excess of conventional piles. The project was substantially completed in April 2011.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $14 million November/December 2011

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Trade Contractor — Chairman’s Award Flynn Canada — The Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre

SILVER Trade Contractor — Chairman’s Award

Flynn Canada was recognized for its work on the exterior panels on the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre in Surrey. Flynn began work on the project a full two years before construction started. All architectural panels — and there was a large array of them — were pre-ordered so they were onsite when needed ensuring the construction schedule was met. The company was an active partner in the facility’s design.

LMS Reinforcing Steel Group completed two large projects in the Maple Ridge area which totaled $4.4 million. The first was a $2.2 million contract to supply and place reinforcement steel for the Golden Ears Bridge. The bridge is owned by Translink and was built by Golden Crossing General Partnership, a public / private partnership involving Bilfinger / Berge from German.

The second project was another $2.2 million contract to supply and install rebar on the Coast Meridian Overpass project. The Overpass is a multi-span bridge connecting highway traffic over the CP Rail yard.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $2.7 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Bird Construction

Trade Contractor — President’s Award Whitewater Concrete — Poirier Sport & Leisure Complex

Whitewater Concrete was contracted to TASK Construction Management on the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex, the City of Coquitlam’s all season recreation facility. The project involved renovating existing facilities as well as constructing new facilities. All the work was completed without disrupting the various programs at the Centre which were able to continue throughout construction and renovation. The project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $2.6 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Task Construction Management 34 construction business

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LMS Steel Reinforcing Steel Group — Coast Meridian Overpass and Golden Ears Bridge

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $4.4 million

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Trade Contractor — President’s Award Concept Aluminum Products — Robert H.N. Ho Research Centre

Concept Aluminum Products won for a $1.4 million contract at the Robert H N Ho Research Centre which shares the campus of Vancouver General Hospital. It is Vancouver Coastal Health’s latest world-class facility for the advancement of translational healthcare research.

The exterior of the building is comprised of composite metal panels, glazing and metal sun shading. Concept Aluminum supplied and installed both the interior and exterior curtain wall systems along with doors. The “eye brow” window shades were particularly challenging.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $1.4 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Scott Construction Group

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SILVER Mechanical Contractor Award — Over $3 Million SILVER Mechanical Contractor Award — Over $3 Million Division 15 Mechanical — UBC Biological Sciences Building

The Biological Sciences Complex at UBC consists of two completely renovated buildings, the West Wing and the South Wing. New advanced mechanical systems have been implemented throughout both wings. They are designed to optimize energy performance, increase water efficiency and improve storm water management. Using a sophisticated energy recovery system, thermal energy is recovered from the building’s exhaust system and reused. Rain water is collected and directed in a bioswale, where it’s filtered and used by native vegetation.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $11.5 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Scott Construction Group ARCHITECTS: Acton Ostry Architects

Daryl-Evans Mechanical — Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre

Daryl-Evans Mechanical Ltd. completed a $20.8 million contract at the Jim Pattison Outpatient Care and Surgery Centre in Surrey. This very large contract was for the mechanical portion of a $237 million contract with BC Healthcare Solutions, the P3 consortium which built the centre. Specialty mechanical systems include a large medical air/ gas system, process chilled water systems, process steam systems (for humidification and sterilization), and a blended propane/ natural gas fuel system with on site storage to allow the facilities mechanical systems to continue to operate in the event of utility service disruptions.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $20.8 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Bird Construction ARCHITECTS: Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd.

SILVER Mechanical Contractor Award — Up To $3 Million

SILVER Mechanical Contractor Award — Up To $3 Million

APCO Plumbing and Heating Co. Ltd. — Garibaldi Secondary School

Paragon Mechanical Ltd. — The Garage

APCO Plumbing and Heating Limited won for its work at Garibaldi Secondary School in Maple Ridge while contracted to Double V Construction. This $2.8 million contract covered the mechanical portion of a $22 million project that included both renovations on and additions to an existing school. The school’s heating and cooling system was replaced with a new energy-efficient geo-thermal system, and the new wing features in-wall heating and cooling.

Paragon Mechanical Ltd installed the mechanical systems for the Garage, a redevelopment project built by The Haebler Group. Located in the heart of Gastown, the Garage is a $18.5 million project that took two of the oldest historic buildings in Vancouver and upgraded them into one new complex with retail, offices and studio apartments. The project uses high-efficiency water and energy systems, and active and passive mechanical systems to improve indoor air and comfort.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $2.8 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Double V Construction ARCHITECTS: Bingham Hill Architects 36 construction business

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CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $1.1 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: The Haebler Group ARCHITECTS: Acton Ostry Architects

Proud recipient of the

Bridge Electric is Silver proud toAward be a recipient of a VRCA VRCA 2011 of Excellence 2007 Award of Excellence. for the Wesbrook at UBC Congratulations to all participants and recipients.

Congratulations to all participants and recipients

SILVER Electrical Contractor Award — Over $2 Million Bridge Electric — Wesbrook Residential Tower

Bridge Electric won for a $2.4 million contract at the Wesbrook Residential Tower on the UBC Campus. The general contractor was Ledcor Construction. The 17-Storey tower was completed in 24 months. A key to finishing on time was a quick and co-ordinated fast tracked phased design-to-tender process. The early phased tendering of the major trade packages, including electrical, provided budget certainty for the owner.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $2.4 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Ledcor Construction ARCHITECTS: Musson Cattell Mackay Architects

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SILVER Electrical Contractor Award — Over $2 Million Western Pacific Enterprises — UBC Biosciences Renew

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The newly renovated Biological Sciences Complex at UBC involved very complex electrical and mechanical work to breathe new life into the facility.

Combined, the two represented 35 per cent of the project cost. Extensive pre-planning was required for Western Pacific Enterprises to successfully deliver this new state-of-the-art complex. The design and construction of the project were completed in less than 19 months, under budget and ahead of the program’s schedule.

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Managing Projects ~ Building Trust CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $5.3 million GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Scott Construction ARCHITECTS: Acton Ostry Architects

www.taskcm.com/business-construction 1.800.845.8275 November/December 2011

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Electrical Contractor Project Up To $2 Million Houle Electric — Canada Place Sail Replacement

The fabric of the internationally recognized five white sails at Canada Place was replaced with new tension fabric that mimics the specifications of the original five-sail design. Among the most difficult challenges Houle Electric faced was the difficulty of accessing many areas on the project. Houle worked together with Ledcor Construction to create a series of strategies and innovations to permit access to various difficult areas at different points of the schedule.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $120,000 GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Ledcor Construction

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Electrical Contractor Project Up To $2 Million Mustang Contracting — Mahony and Sons Public House

The Mahony and Sons Public House is a new 7,000 square foot Irish pub at Burrard Landing, part of the Vancouver Convention Centre West. Surrey based Mustang Contracting provided a complete electrical installation for this design/build project. Challenges included performing electrical work in confined spaces.

CONSTRUCTION VALUE: $110,000 GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Manley Design & Construction Management

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Sustainable Construction and Innovation Award This award recognizes sustainable construction and innovation that is having proven economic, environmental and/or social benefits, contributing to sustainable building practices.

The innovation is recognized as a robust building project, product, or service.

Gold » IMEC Mechanical Thermenex Developed five years ago by IMEC Mechanical’s Jim Weston, Thermenex is an acronym for “Thermal Energy Exchange.” Thermenex is a completely new and innovative approach to the conditioning of buildings. It minimizes the creation of heat and maximizse the reuse of thermal energy for both heating and cooling, effectively lowering energy use and GHG emissions.

It is a unique patent pending method of using a water filled pipe to manage a building’s heating and cooling demands. The Thermenex system concept treats the building as a resource for thermal energy. With Thermenex, the building’s mechanical system now treat the returning air and water not as a problem to be reheated or re-cooled but as a possible solution for other de-

mands in the building. Thermenex was recently installed in the City of Coquitlam’s Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex. Currently, UBC is installing two Thermenex systems on its campus.

Silver » RDH Building Fiberglass Thermal Space RDH Building was recognized for its work engineering and designing the Fiberglass Thermal Spacer. It is a low cost alternative to cladding support systems on exterior insulated walls. It separates steel girts from the back up wall, providing an exterior wall that insulates at least twice as well as the industry standard approach, yielding energy savings for the building owners for the life of the building. It is an innovative new building product which can be used to improve the R-value of exterior insulated non-combustible wall assemblies.

Innovation Award » Houle Electric Knight Street Bridge This was an electrical upgrade of the distribution cable, lighting and the reconnection of the cables at the underside of the bridge to the old substation on the south side of the Fraser. The old cable had been too accessible for thieves that kept snipping off the cable connection to the substation and selling it. Translink and BC Hydro’s objective was to lower their annual costs.

Houle developed in house a safe working platform cage for their workers that was cantilevered over the bridge side and moved as required over the 2 km length while the new cable was installed. This allowed bike and pedestrian passage while the work was carried out. The platform was checked out by engineers and approved for employee safety.

Supplying products communities are built on.

The Langley Concrete Group of Companies supplies a complete line of precast concrete products for use in the construction of standard storm, sanitary sewer construction.

Knowledge Products Ability Experience

In addition we produce a range of proven systems for the treatment of storm water effluent, detention and oil water separation.

Call our offices to discuss your requirements with our experienced sales and production team. We will work with you to achieve a cost effective, value driven solution for the long terms needs of the community infrastructure.

The Langley Concrete Group of Companies 20152 Logan Ave., Langley, B.C. V3A 4L6 Phone: 604-533-1656 Toll Free: 1-800- 667-9600 E-mail: info@langleyconcretegroup.com

Concrete pipe Box culverts Manholes

Stormceptor Oil water separators PVC Lined products November/December 2011

Perforated pipe Catch basins Custom Precast construction business

39

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Individual Awards 2011 EDUCATION LEADERSHIP AWARD Marsha Gentile, Ledcor Construction Group

LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Robert Lashin, Houle Electric

Robert Lashin, president of Houle Electric, has had a long history of commitment and dedication to the construction industry. Over the years, he has demonstrated exceptional skills and dedication to Houle Electric and the construction industry within which it has grown successfully. Company milestones achieved under his leadership include growth from 100 to 450 employees, opening of the company’s three additional branches including Kelowna, Kamloops and Kitimat. The addition of these new divisions has increased sales by 500 per cent.

He has dedicated countless hours to the electrical contracting and construction industries in the way of volunteer work with various associations.

Past and present appointments include: Electrical Contracting Association of BC board of directors, current chairman; Construction Labour Relations board of directors, current 2nd vice president; VRCA board of directors, over 10 years; past chair; BC Safety Authority: past member board of directors, five years (including founding year).

Marsha Gentile joined Ledcor in 1995 and held the position of project coordinator, before being promoted to construction sustainability specialist. She provides training, mentoring and support on Ledcor LEED systems and processes. She is one of the first construction professionals in Canada to achieve CSBA certification having completed the course in 2010. She is actively involved in lecturing, teaching, and volunteering her time across North America presenting a “Lesson Learnt” approach to LEED and sustainable construction.

Her experience comes from helping Ledcor construction teams deliver 40+ LEED projects and two Living Building Challenge projects. Her “Lesson Learnt” approach provides simple industry guidelines to what can be a complicated process.

This has greatly assisted professionals throughout the construction industry in Canada to understand the necessary approach to sustainable construction.

OUTSTANDING WOMAN IN CONSTRUCTION AWARD Flavia Boffo Punzo — Boffo Family of Companies

A graduate from BCIT and involved with the family business since 1987, Flavia Boffo Punzo has extensive experience with residential, commercial, and industrial products. As a principal of Boffo Family of Companies, she plays an integral part in making sure each project reflects the core values of the company, incorporating sustainability, timeless design approaches and an emphasis on tradition at every stage of development.

Some of the projects that she has worked on include the $18 million Riverpointe residential development, the Evergreen tower and the Parkhill Twin tower.

The company was founded by her father (Terry) in 1963 with the core values of honesty, integrity and hard work. Over the years, the company has grown and expanded successfully into many areas of the development community.

Induction into VRCA’s Life Members Ron McFee, Stuart Olson Dominion Construction 40 construction business

November/December 2011

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Construction workplace Health and Safety Innovation Awards Gold » Fall Protection Straps Stuart Olson Dominion Falls are one of the leading causes of work fatalities in the construction industry. A constant challenge for construction workers is the correct use of fall protection straps. Commonly they are needed in places where there is no supporting structure on which to attach the straps. The project superintendent and CSO at the Stuart Olson Dominion Willingdon Park project found a more efficient solution to installing the straps.

After several brainstorming sessions, they incorporated the straps into the structure of the building and provided adequate protection to ensure they were not damaged. The use of fall protection straps that are poured into suspended concrete slabs provides an easy and effective means of fall protection for trades that are required to perform leading edge work.

member OF THE YEAR AWARD Journal of Commerce / Reed Construction Data

Silver » Subcontractor Formen Lunch & Learn PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. The BC Place Roof project is a $350 million roof replacement and complex renovation to an existing 55,000 seat stadium. It has an extremely aggressive schedule requiring many trades to work simultaneously. Approximately 1,200 workers are on site each day.

With so many workers on site, it was vital to keep everyone in the loop with the plan and schedule. To accomplish this PCL offered monthly lunch and learn sessions targeting subcontractor field level supervisors. Led by PCL superintendents and project managers, these discussions centred on safety trends and worksite challenges. Through the sharing of information, relationships developed between the various supervisors that helped to improve jobsite coordination and safety outcomes.

Throughout the course of these lunch and learns various trade supervisors also presented information to the group about their scope of work and work methods.

PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc.

Silver » Nictin Holdings FPF Ramp (fence panel foot) This product is unique and innovative as it solves the large public safety problem that we have all over the country, where construction fencing is used. This innovation reduces workplace and public safety risk as it is bright in colour, tapered and sloped, very low profile and has a non slip texture. It lets workers and the public know that there is a fence foot here. It is user friendly with all types of walkers, strollers, buggies, shopping carts, bikes, skateboards etc.

ANNUAL SAFETY AWARD ZERO ACCIDENT FREQUENCY: Canadian Dewatering McLeod Masonry Limited Status Electrical Corporation PCL Constructors Westcoast The Gisborne Group

GENERAL CONTRACTOR 200,000 AND MORE PERSONHOURS PCL Constructors Westcoast The Gisborne Group

TRADE CONTRACTOR 200,000 AND MORE PERSONHOURS Status Electrical Corporation Canadian Dewatering

TRADE CONTRACTOR 10,000 to 49,999 PERSONHOURS

A surety solution that’s right for your business It can be hard to prepare for everything that life can throw at your business. At Aviva Surety, we work hard to understand your unique needs, and offer knowledgeable business advice and a customized facility to help build your competitive advantage in the construction market.

Aviva Surety is one of Canada’s most trusted and valued surety advisors. To find out how we can arrange a surety facility for any class of business, talk to your broker today.

For more information on Aviva Surety, call us at (604) 643-7218 or (780) 945-2202, or visit us at www.avivasurety.com

Aviva and the Aviva logo are trademarks of Aviva plc and used under license by Aviva Canada Inc. and its member companies.

McLeod Masonry Limited November/December 2011

construction business

41

ARE YOU A DO YOU WOULD YOU

SUPPLIER OR SERVICE PROVIDER? TARGET CONTRACTORS AND BUILDERS?

PHOTO: DIETER JANCZAK

LIKE TO WORK WITH BUILDING OWNERS, PROPERTY MANAGERS, DEVELOPERS, ARCHITECTS AND INTERIOR DESIGNERS?

Last chance for BUILDEX Vancouver Join over 13,000 industry professionals at Western Canada’s largest tradeshow and conference for Construction, Design and Real Estate.

With over 600 exhibits, 50 seminars and 120,000 square feet of networking opportunities, you cannot miss this show!

Supplier or Exhibitor? Book your booth for best locations. Act today! Less than 10 booths remain available.

For more info and to reserve your exhibit space at BUILDEX Vancouver, please contact: Mike Pelsoci mpelsoci@mmart.com o. 604.730.2034

Ben Carson bcarson@mmart.com o. 604.730.2032

FEBRUARY 8 & 9, 2012 VANCOUVER CONVENTION CENTRE

DIAMOND SPONSOR

buildexvancouver.com

REGISTRATION OPEN

Don’t miss BUILDEX Edmonton The largest event of its kind in Edmonton, BUILDEX has become a must-attend trade show and conference for the Design, Construction and Property Management Industries. BUILDEX Edmonton is your gateway to the Northern Alberta market.

Supplier or Exhibitor? Secure your position at the 2012 show today! Limited number of high-profile locations still available.

EDMONTON EXPO CENTRE, NORTHLANDS

For more info and to book your exhibit space at BUILDEX Edmonton, please contact: Wolfgang Ortner wortner@mmart.com o. 403.241.1088

MEDIA PARTNERS

Ben Carson bcarson@mmart.com o. 604.730.2032

MARCH 20 & 21, 2012

DIAMOND SPONSOR

buildexedmonton.com

REGISTRATION OPEN INDUSTRY PARTNER SPONSOR

Plan ahead for BUILDEX Calgary With over 4000 industry attendees and 250+ exhibits, this is Alberta’s largest industry event to NETWORK, EDUCATE and DISCOVER. Supplier or Exhibitor? Start your planning early and secure the best booth locations.

For more info and to book your exhibit space at BUILDEX Calgary, please contact: Wolfgang Ortner wortner@mmart.com o. 403.241.1088

Mike Pelsoci mpelsoci@mmart.com o. 604.730.2034

NOVEMBER 6 & 7, 2012 BMO CENTRE, STAMPEDE PARK

buildexcalgary.com

VANCOUVER • F E B 8 & 9 , 2 0 1 2 EDMONTON • MARCH 20 & 21, 2012 C A L G A R Y • N O V 6 & 7, 2 0 12

BUILDEX shows are about designing, building and managing real estate. buildexshows.com • 1.877.739.2112

More than 20,000 attendees annually • 800+ companies exhibit each year

Are Your Most Valuable Assets Disappearing?

Small and medium sized construction companies can be at a disadvantage when employees and skilled job seekers look beyond their wage rates

ICBA membership gives you access to a powerful suite of programs to help you attract and retain skilled workers

• Employee Health Benefits • Apprenticeship Bursaries • Individual Pension Plans • Safety and Management Training • Group Retirement Programs • Wage and Benefit Surveys • Exclusive hotel, gasoline, and retail discounts

Call 1.800.663.2865 or visit www.icba.ca

buILDeX is about designing, building and managing real estate

February 8 & 9, 2012

VanCouVer ConVention Centre We s t

www.buildexvancouver.com

PHoto: FreDeriCK Lin

Our Biggest Show Yet! BUILDEX Vancouver is excited to welcome over 13,000 industry professionals to the Vancouver Convention Centre West on February 8 & 9.

This year’s seminar line-up has something for everyone. Annual seminar highlights include a Conversation on the Construction Market with the VRCA, an Architectural Keynote Panel, a Real Estate Outlook for the Vancouver Market, and the Interior Design Keynote Panel.

Also returning for 2012 to open BUILDEX, is the CEO Breakfast sponsored

by ICBA and Wilson M. Beck Insurance. Other special events taking place during BUILDEX include the IIDA/IDC Leaders Breakfast and the BOMA BC luncheon.

New for 2012 are partnerships with CHBA BC and the NKBA, these two associations have seminar streams throughout the 2 days of BUILDEX, keep your eye out for them in the planning guide and online.

There are over 60 seminars available and we encourage you to visit www. buildexvancouver.com for full details and to register.

As always BUILDEX Vancouver presents the largest tradeshow floor of its kind in western Canada with over 600 exhibits to explore from across the industry. Tradeshow floor access is FREE if you pre-register prior to the January 25 Early Bird Deadline.

Finally we would like to extend a thank you to our exhibitors, sponsors, industry partners, speakers and everyone else that helps make this event possible.

We look forward to seeing you on February 8 & 9!

Visit the tradeshow floor where you will find over 600 exhibits.

Multiple Industries: One Show buILDeX Vancouver encompasses multiple industries including: 3 CONSTruCTION

3 PrOPerTy MaNaGeMeNT

3 reNOVaTION

3 reaL eSTaTe DeVeLOPMeNT

3 INTerIOr DeSIGN / arCHITeCTure

3 FaCILITIeS / OPeraTIONS MaNaGeMeNT

DIaMOND SPONSOr

PLaTINuM SPONSOr

GOLD SPONSOr

INDuSTry ParTNer SPONSOr

MeDIa SPONSOrS

SPECIAL FEATURE | 2012 BUILDEX Vancouver Show Preview

Seminar Highlights W06 – Managing Gen y: Transform your Leadership to attract, engage and retain the Next Generation of Workers

T09 – Quality at the edge — emerging Hardware & Software for Design & Construction

Wednesday, February 8 • 8:30am – 10:00am What’s the matter with younger workers today? They’ll quit a good job just to go to another for an extra dollar an hour. They are impatient to advance without first paying their dues, or gaining enough experience.

Many see the construction industry as facing a crisis of “entitlement” where younger workers are concerned. So how do tara Landes you keep them committed and on the job? How do you inspire loyalty in the crews when older workers will stay longer, but not the young guys? How do you train someone who thinks she knows it all already? Any why bother if she’ll just take it elsewhere?

The answer rests not with them, but with you, their leader.

Attracting, engaging and retaining young workers is essential for every firm in the building industry continuum. This timely, insightful session explores first how, and why, these next generations of workers are different. Then, using best practices, it will give practical advice to show how you can take action today and transform your own, and your team’s leadership style to attract, retain and manage these essential, next generation workers.

At the end of this seminar the learner will have been exposed to leadership and team-building best practices as it relates to managing younger workers; be given insight into their own leadership style through the eyes of younger workers; and, with this information, identify proven approaches to implement.

Thursday, February 9 • 10:30am – 12:00pm The design and construction industries are at the leading edge of revolutionary changes in the communication of information between project teams both in the office and in the field.

Emerging tablet computers together with purpose designed software allow field and office workers alike to easily access a project’s design & construction documents from the field, iden- Brian Palmquist tify progress and challenges, track issues to resolution, capture and communicate evidence, records, best practices and new knowledge, all “on the fly”.

The presenter will explain why design and construction, traditionally technological stragglers, now find themselves at the forefront. He has been evaluating emerging tablet and Smartphone hardware and the web-based “cloud” software that is optimized for it — five tablets running four different operating systems and two new key softwares so far. He will present an objective analysis of available tools with an emphasis on ease of use and cost effectiveness.

Presenter: Tara Landes, President, MRSI Benchmarking Inc.

W12 – The Digital evolution: bid Submission from Fax Machines to Smartphones Wednesday, February 8 •10:30am – 12:00pm This seminar will address the changes that the digital era is having on a fundamental construction business practice “bid submission”. Over the past 20 years bid submission has moved from a stressful hardcopy, courier and fax based process to an online process that can take place from almost any location. Our panel of early adopters will share their experiences and lessons learned when they made the switch to new technology.

Presenters: Manley McLachlan, President, BC Construction Association Christine Monroe, Manager – Supply, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and CM2 Ventures Scott Bone, Manager - Supply and Fleet Services, City of Prince George

W29 – Construction Keynote Panel: Conversations on Construction Wednesday, February 8 • 2:30pm – 4:00pm 2012 promises to hold lots of challenges for the construction industry, ranging from uncertainty in the financial sector to changing markets to impending skills shortages, all of which will impact everyone in the construction industry.

Our panel of industry experts will share their views on emerging trends, changing practices and global issues that will the industry will be facing. Come ready to participate in this discussion so your company can prepare itself to deal with these forces.

Presenter: Brian Palmquist, Director, Quality Management, Ledcor Construction Limited

T15 – Sustainable Site Management: Save Time, Save Money and boost your business!

Thursday, February 9 • 1:00pm – 2:30pm In a competitive economy, having your business stand out in a crowd of peers is imperative. A construction site speaks volumes on the professionalism, craftsmanship and quality of your trade.

This session will address how sustainable site management can relate to high standards, environmental protection, and overall homeowner satisfaction. Learn how to reduce hazards, improve Juliet Hoffman efficiency, save money and protect resources all while ensuring your site promotes the level of expertise and professionalism that is required to grow your business.

Presenter: Juliet Hoffman, MSc. Conservation Consultant, Certified Eco Energy Advisor

T16 – Communicating in a Crisis — What to Do and Say When the “you Know What” Hits the Fan Thursday, February 9 • 1:00pm – 2:30pm Although Canadian companies involved in designing, building and managing real estate do millions of dollars in business every year, many simply aren’t prepared to face the news media if they become involved in a crisis, such as a worksite fatality, or other controversial issues. The Crisis Communicator Grant Ainsley will talk about why it’s vitally important to have a communications Grant ainsley policy that everyone in your company needs to learn, understand and buy into.

Ainsley will also talk about what companies need to do and how they should act if they get into a communications crisis and he’ll explain how social media has upped the stakes even more when it comes to the chances of getting into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. He’ll discuss why being responsible, honest and real will take you much further than any media spin doctor.

Presenter: Grant Ainsley, President, Grant Ainsley Inc.

Keith sashaw

roger Bayley

sarah Clark

Dee Miller

Don nishimura

Moderator: Keith Sashaw, President Vancouver Regional Construction Association Panelists: Roger Bayley, Principal, Roger Bayley Inc. Mark Casaletto, Managing Director, RCD Canada Sarah Clark, President & CEO, Partnerships BC Dee Miller, Vice-President Finance & Administration, JJM Construction Ltd. Don Nishimura, President & Chief Operating Officer of Scott Construction Ltd.

Meet & Greet Networking Reception FEBRUARY 8 • 5:00PM – 6:00PM network with your peers. enjoy beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres.

Visit www.buildexvancouver.com under “special events” for further details.

SPECIAL FEATURE | 2012 BUILDEX Vancouver Show Preview

February 8 & 9, 2012 VanCouVer ConVention Centre West

Exhibitor List

(Current to December 9, 2011)

21st Century Roofers Ltd. 2nd Century Rug Co. A Squared Construction A.K. Draft Seal Ltd. Abell Pest Control Inc. Abet Corporation ACO Systems Ltd. Acrytec Panel Industries Active Fire & Safety Services Ltd. Adfast Advanced Building Products, Inc Advanced Geothermal Systems Affiliated Roofers LTD Affinity Building Systems Inc. (Quiktherm) Air Quality Engineering Inc. Albrite Lighting Ltd. All Weather Windows Ltd Allied Windows American Express Ames Tile & Stone Ltd. Ampco Grafix Apex Granite & Tile Inc. ASSA ABLOY Canada Assured Thermal Atlas Anchor Systems USA Co Award Magazine AZEK Building Products Bailey Metal Products Ltd. Barker Manufacturing Inc. Barkman Concrete Ltd. Basalite Concrete Products BASF Canada Inc. BC Apartment Owners and Managers Association BC CITO BC Construction Association BC Construction Safety Alliance

BC Safety Authority BC Wood Specialities Group Bell Mobility Best Choice Built-In Vacuums BFL Canada Insurance Services Inc. Bitzer Canada BL Innovative Lighting Black & Decker Hardware and Home Improvement Group Blue Grouse Wine Cellars BMS Plumbing & Mechanical Systems Ltd. BOMA BC Bosch & Siemens Home Appliances Group Bramalea Elevator Ltd. Broco Glass Group Brodi Specialty Products Ltd. Building Technologies C.R Laurence Co., Inc C/S Construction Specialties Company C3 Integrated Solutions Canadian Construction Institute Inc. Canadian Home Builders Association of British Columbia Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Canadian Property Management Magazine Canadian Stone Industries Can-Cell Industries Inc. Cansel Survey Equipment Inc. Canstar Restorations Ltd. Cascade Aqua-Tech Ltd. Cascadia Energy Centra Windows + Restorations Centura Floor & Wall CERACLAD

CertainTeed Corporation Certainteed Gypsum & Insulation CGC Inc. City Elevator Ltd. Colonial Countertops Condominium Home Owners Association Construction Business Magazine Constructive Solutions For Business Inc. Cool Air Rentals CoreBrace, LLC Corflex Partition Inc. Coulson Manufacturing Ltd. CP Distributors Ltd. Crown Roofing & Drainage Limited Curaflo of BC Ltd Curly’s Carpet Repair Custom Building Products Custom Ornamental Ironworks Daizen Joinery Daltile of Canada Inc. Danver Daro Flooring Construction Inc. DaSal Industries Ltd. Decortec Home Lift Inc Delco Fireplaces

Design Quarterly Magazine Detail Pressure Washing Ltd. Dicon Global Inc. Dinoflex Group LP DMX Plastics Ltd. Downtown Surrey Business Improvement Association Dunleavy Cordun Associates Inc. Dural Dutch Green Design Inc. DYG Windows Ltd. Earth-Line SSL Edgewood Matting Eltec Elevator Ltd Engineered Assemblies Inc. Euro Gutters Ltd. EuroLine Windows Inc European Flooring Everest Woodcarving Co. Expocrete Concrete Products Fab-u-Floors Finning Canada Fireplaces Unlimited Inc Firestone Building Products FirstOnSite, Edenvale Division

Visit our website For further information on these and other exciting seminars, or to register please visit

www.buildexvancouver.com

SPECIAL FEATURE | 2012 BUILDEX Vancouver Show Preview

Fitness Town Inc. Five Star Building Maintenance Ltd. Flextherm Incorporated Fluke Electronics Canada LP Folding Sliding Doors Canada Ltd. Forbo Flooring Systems FortisBC Four Seasons Insulation Fox Blocks Fraser Valley Industries Garaventa Lift BC Garland Canada GE Lighting General Paint Genesis Restorations Ltd. Gentek Building Products Giacomini S.P.A. GL Stone Glacier Pacific Insulation Glass World Global DEC-K-ING Goodbye Graffiti Inc. Gordon R. Williams Corporation GoRici Inc Grappo Basalto Enterprises Ltd. Green Sheet Construction Data Greentop Lighting Griff Building Supplies GTW Cabinets Guang Dongguan Kin Long Hardware Products Co., Ltd. Guardian Building Products Distribution Hafele Canada Inc. Hambro Hardwoods Specialty Products Harvey’s - Kuppersbusch Hays Specialist Recruitment Canada HD Supply Facilities Maintenance Hettich Canada L.P. High Profile Roof Care Inc. Homeowner Protection Office Houle Electric Limited Hurd Windows & Doors ICAN Tile Distribution Ltd. ICBA IDIBC – Interior Designers Institute of British Columbia IFMA – British Columbia Chapter IMAGINiT Technologies InfraRed Imaging Solutions Inc. Innotech Windows Canada Inc. Innovation Stones Ltd. Innovative Fall Protection Integrated Pest Supplies Ltd. Inter Provincial Roof Consultants Ltd. Interior Designers Institute of BC Interior Designers of Canada IREM BC Chapter 50 ISC Doors and Windows Inc ITW Construction Products I-XL Masonry Supplies J & S Cabinet Doors Ltd.

J&T Distribution Inc. (Stelrad/Express Radiant) Jaga Canada Climate Systems inc.

James Hardie JELD-WEN Windows & Doors Johnsonite Julian Tile Karndean International Kartners Kate Holland Landscape Kerrisdale Lumber Kitchen Craft KJA Consultants Inc. KM Roberts + Associates Ltd. Konstruktor Corporation KSI Koben Systems Inc Leisure Baths Ltd. Levelset Technologies/ProSpec Levey Wallcoverings Leviton Manufacturing of Canada Light Power Logix Insulated Concrete Forms Lowe’s Canada LSC Pre-cast Systems Lynden Door Inc Magna IV Engineering Mainland K2 Stone Malco Products, Inc. Mansonville Plastics MAPEI INC. Maple Leaf Self Storage Margranite C&S Group Marquis Fiberglass Windows Inc. Marvin Windows and Doors Masonry Institute of BC Max Wall Construction Maxium Financial Services Maxxon Corp Mayne Coatings Corp McGregor & Thompson Hardware McKillican Canadian MediaEDGE Communications West Inc. Mercedes-Benz Canada Metal Building Group Metl-Span LLC Metro Vancouver Metro Wallcoverings Midland Appliance Morse Canada Systems Inc. Moulding and Millwork Nana Wall Systems Natural Resources Canada (Equipment Division) Neogard Networx Renovation & Construction Networx Windows & Doors NewGen Technologies Nichiha USA Nissan Canada NKBA NLD Reserve Advisors Northern Contours, Inc. & Element Designs, Inc.

Northwestern Systems Corp.

NUNA INNOVATIONS INC Old World Door On Side Restorations OSRAM SYLVANIA Ltd. Overhead Door Company of Vancouver PacBlue Digital Reprographics Pacific Home And Art Centre Ltd. Pacific Range Hood (Canada) Ltd. Paisley Products of Canada Incorporated PAMA Pangaea Natural Stone Para Paints Patcraft Designweave PBIBC/RCITO Pella Windows and Doors Penfolds Roofing & Siding Ltd. Peoples Trust Company Philips Lighting (div. of Philips Electronics) Picasso Mouldings Pigeon Patrol PJ White Hardwoods Ltd. Plasti-Fab Ltd. Ply Gem Poly-Mor Canada Inc. Pontek flooring Distribution Power House Building Solutions PPG Pittsburgh Paints Precise Parklink Inc. Precision Gutters Protecto Wrap company PSS Poly Surface Solutions Public Works and Government Services Canada Quad-Lock Building Systems Ltd Quantum Lighting Inc. Ramos Holdings Ltd. RCABC Reed Construction Data Regal Ideas REIC Greater Vancouver Resisto Resolution Repographics/Fraser Valley Repo.

Rev Sales & Marketing Robinson Lighting & Bath Centre Rocky Mountain Stoneworks Roof Consultants Institute Schluter Systems (Canada) Inc. Schock Canada Sea-Jae Builders Ltd. SignSource Architectural Signage Simson-Maxwell SJ Imports Ltd. Skyline Building Systems Skyline Deficiency Solutions Solaira Heating Systems Inforesight Consumer Products Solid Rock Fencing Sound Advice Source Floor & Specialties Inc. dba Henderson Mat Standard Products Inc.

Stanpro Lighting Starline Windows Starpatch Concrete Products Steels Industrial Products Ltd stilewood international door and window Stonecraft / Aggressive Distribution Inc. Studio G3 Glass Graphic Group Ltd. Swiss Solar Tech Ltd. SYNLawn Westcoast Ltd T.O.C. Green Pro Taiga Building Products Ltd. Talia Distribution (Cavavin) Talius Tansi Media / Trade-Bid.com Taymor Industries Ltd. Tech-Crete Processors Ltd. Techno Metal Post BC LTD Tendu Stretch Ceiling Group Terratek Energy Solutions Inc. The Grounds Guys Landscape Management Inc. Tigertel Communications Inc. Tile Safe Products ToddTian Business Management Corporation Total Power Ltd. TR Trades Reproduction Trail Appliances Trex Tufdek Unisource Universal Lighting Technologies Inc. University Sprinklers Upper Canada Forest Products LTD. Valley Countertops Industries Vancouver Regional Construction Association VaproShield Vertelight Company Vicwest Corp.

Viessmann Manufacturing co. Ltd. Viewpoint Construction Software VingCard Elsafe Vinyltek Windows Wall2wall Media Warmly Yours Radiant Waste Management WBI Home Warranty West Coast Windows Westcoast Outbuildings Inc. Westeck Windows Mfg Inc. Western Elevator Ltd. White River Hardwoods-Woodworks, Inc. Wide Plank Hardwood Ltd. Willis Supply Wine Cellar Depot Wishbone Site Furnishings Woodtone Worksafe BC Yardi Systems, Inc. YouRHere Inc Zurn Industries Limited

Early Bird Deadline January 25 register by January 25 to benefit from lower seminar prices and Free admission to the exhibition. you will also receive your badge in the mail before the show!

Visit www.buildexvancouver.com for more information.

Construction Safety

The Coming Crisis in WorkSafeBC Costs

By Grant McMillan

claims and can also assist with advice and submissions on claims appeals.

It is important to note that the EA has full access to the WorkSafeBC claim file and this can be very helpful when it comes to managing a claim or achieving as safe, prompt Return to Work.

The EA can also assist with appeals against Occupational Health & Safety orders and penalties from WorkSafeBC officers.

To contact the EA office nearest you, call toll free within BC and Alberta: 1.800.925.2233.

2. The BC Construction Safety Alliance

T

here is a crisis building within WorkSafeBC. And employers within the construction industry will bear the full force of the impact.

The construction industry’s safety record has been steadily improving. In fact, the injury rate (the number of WorkSafeBC claims/per person working) is at its historical low.

But costs are about to run out of control.

This is because those workers who are injured are staying off longer on their WorkSafeBC claim. Average duration is the average number of days on workers’ compensation for all claims.

Each industry is tracked separately.

From December, 2008, to December, 2010, the construction industry average duration increased from 52.5 days to 74.3 days. This is a 43 per cent increase! Every one of these extra days off will result in the growth of costs for construction companies.

This growth in time off work will inevitably lead to substantial increases in the assessments that must be paid by construction employers to pay for these higher costs.

The recession and our fragile economic recovery are probably major factors. The lack of jobs to return to probably means that more workers remain on workers’ compensation because it provides income at the rate of 90 per cent of their pre-injury net earnings.

But the construction industry has to step up and take a more proactive role.

This role also has to recognize that workers’ compensation is only for work-related injuries and diseases. And that when a worker is able to return to work, the workers’ compensation payments to that worker should end.

With this in mind, construction companies need to become more active with Return to Work and Stay at Work programs. And companies need to contact the WorkSafeBC person who is handling the claim to let them know you want to work towards a safe, prompt return to work.

In the past, construction employers may also have been focused on securing new jobs rather than on Return to Work plans for injured workers.

We now need to focus as well on Return to Work plans or our rates will skyrocket.

There is help available — at no charge — from three excellent sources.

1. The Employers’ Adviser The Employers’ Adviser (EA) is a service that is free to employers — you already pay for it within your WorkSafeBC assessments. (The EA is located within the Ministry of Labour, not within WorkSafeBC so it offers independent advice and assistance).

The EA provides independent advice, assistance, representation and education to employers. They can assist with claims, health and safety and assessment issues. For example, the EA can help an employer with questions about difficult

Construction employers can earn a Certificate of Recognition from the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

This will help you to reduce injuries and costs.

(The COCA board of directors created the BC Construction Safety Association that then merged with another association to become the BC Construction Safety Alliance.)

You can earn a reduction of up to 15 per cent off the base rate by implementing an acceptable safety program and a Return to Work program.

The BCCSA will help you do this. www.bccsa.ca The BCCSA can also help with setting up, training and other resources on injury management. Contact: Vernita Hsu at 604.636.3686 or toll free: 1.877.860.3675.

3. The Nurse Advisory service at WorkSafeBC The Nurse Advisors were put in place over two years ago at the request of COCA. Nurse advisors can assist employers with return to work assistance, disability management and claim updates. This is a free service.

The Construction Nurse Advisors have access to ALL available WorkSafeBC claim file information; will do job site visits to your worksite to facilitate Return to Work planning; and will assist employers to develop injury/disability management programs.

The Nurse Advisor can help to expedite a safe and early Return to Work, and this will reduce the duration of the claim.

The Construction Nurse Line is open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Call: 604.279.8155 or Toll Free: 1.877.633.6233.

Remember: You have a right to all of these services — but they can only work for you if you contact them to exercise your right.

Grant McMillan is president of the Council of Construction Associations, an organization that represents the interests of 16 construction associations in B.C. with respect to all WorkSafeBC issues.

November/December 2011

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Construction Safety

Fire Safety Mitigation in Buildings

By Kim Karn

L

ocal building and fire codes address measures that must be built into, and maintained within a building to ensure a minimum level of fire safety. Fire hazards, and the risks associated with those hazards, will always exist. Through recognizing the hazards within a building, and managing the risks, owners and building managers ensure a superior level of fire safety. Codes and standards can only go so far to address building fire safety, but the fact is that human behaviour also plays a role in maintaining a fire safe building environment.

To effectively develop fire safety provisions within a building, there must be an understanding of not only the fire hazards, but also the risks associated with those hazards. There are fire hazards associated with both the uses within a building and the design of a building.

For example, the hazards associated with the building design and the uses within a lowrise office building will vary significantly from those associated with a hazardous goods process plant. Based on the uses within these two buildings, the hazards and risks would be lower in the office space than in the process pant. However, based on the constructed design of the spaces, the hazards associated with the office building may be higher than the constructed design hazards in the process plant. Take for instance an unsprinklered office building which includes combustible interior finishes, millwork and

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furniture, with an interconnecting convenience stair between two floor levels. These factors would all lead to fire spread following ignition.

However, the design of the process plant would likely include noncombustible construction, compartmentation and an automatic fire suppression system. Therefore, should a fire occur, the design of the process plant includes greater fire mitigation factors than does the low-rise office building.

There will be fire hazards associated with the design and use of any building. It is the responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure these hazards are recognized and managed appropriately.

A common strategy for managing and mitigating fire hazards is through the development of a fire risk assessment. A fire risk assessment is a method of determining relevant fire scenarios for a building, or portion thereof. The risk assessment also identifies the probability of fire occurrence for each fire scenario and the possible consequences of such a fire. The risk assessment aims to either reduce the likelihood of a fire occurrence, or recommend measures to deal with the consequences should they occur.

For a fire risk assessment to be successful, all relevant stakeholders must be identified and included in the decision making processes. Since stakeholders represent different interests and viewpoints, each stakeholder may have a different opinion of the expected outcomes and pur-

poses of the risk assessment. Therefore, a clear understanding of the goals and objectives must be identified and agreed upon as an initial step in the risk assessment process.

Once the goals and objectives, as well as the hazards, have been identified, mitigation strategies are developed. There are always methods of risk mitigation designed into buildings. For example, active fire protection, such as automatic sprinkler systems, as well as passive fire protection, such as compartmentation, will minimize the effects of a fire and assist with occupant evacuation.

These types of risk mitigation features are commonly required by local codes. However, based on specific fire hazards, whether localized or throughout the building, additional mitigation strategies may be necessary.

Risk mitigation should include building management, good housekeeping and the education of occupants as well. Factors such as reducing hazardous and combustible fuel loads, maintaining clear evacuation routes, evacuation planning and conducting fire drills all play a significant role in fire safety.

When owners and managers understand the mitigation strategies, the risk assessment can be used as a basis for fire safety management decisions within the building to effectively prioritize risks.

Other benefits of a fire risk assessment include: •A ssist in achieving approvals from the local authorities; •D emonstrate compliance with codes for acceptable risk levels; • Minimize business interruptions and costly down-time; • Promote positive image of the organization to the community; • Demonstrate due-diligence; • May reduce liability in the event of a fire occurrence.

A fire risk assessment can be carried out at any phase during the design and construction process. However, developing a risk assessment during the early design stages of a building project will be beneficial for all stakeholders involved. The early development of a risk assessment will allow for greater design flexibility to manage the fire risks. In addition, there is a greater probability that early risk identification will lead to cost effective and aestheticallypleasing design solutions.

There are many risks associated with fire hazards. It is essential that building owners and managers understand the risks and implement proper mitigation techniques to minimize costly downtime, losses and injuries.

Kim Karn is a manager at Larden Muniak Consulting, building code & fire protection consultants in Calgary.

Legal File

E&O Insurance: The Danger of the Switch

By John Singleton

P

rofessional liability insurance, or E&O insurance, is of course designed to protect the professional against claims alleging liability for damages arising out of an error, omission or negligent act in the performance of professional services for others.

The professional buys the insurance for protection. But sometimes when the right procedures are not followed when replacing one insurer with another, the professional can end up with no protection. Let me give you an example, a real life example.

Professional liability insurance is now usually “claims made and reported” insurance. That is not just a fancy phrase for the purpose of marketing the insurance. It has real meaning and requires a keen understanding, particularly when a decision is being made to switch carriers.

“Claims made and reported” means that the policy in question will only apply to claims that are made against the professional during the currency of the policy (“the policy period”) and reported to the insurer, or its designated agent, also during the policy period. The coverage also often provides that if the insured becomes aware of a “circumstance” during the policy period which the insured might reasonably conclude will give rise to a formal claim at sometime in the future, the “circumstance” is to be reported. The consequence of doing so is that if and when a formal claim arises out of that “circumstance”, coverage under the policy will deem to have been triggered at the date the circumstance was reported.

Professional liability policies contain another critical feature to be taken into account when thinking of switching insurers. It is a “prior knowledge” condition. It stipulates that the policy will not apply to claims brought against the insured arising out of potential claim circumstances or an error, omission or negligent act of which the insured was aware at the inception date of the policy.

The real life example had all of these provisions in both an existing policy and a new policy purchased when the firm in question (“the old firm”) merged with a “new firm”.

Before the merger, the old firm was involved in a project in which the owner had taken issue with the quality of the end product, identifying possible construction errors and possible errors in design and the provision of field services. Of course the professional’s immediate reaction was that the problems were all construction related and in no way implicated the professional, a common reaction to a potential claim situation.

Notwithstanding the professional’s attitude, internal correspondence demonstrated an awareness that there was a possibility the situation might give rise to a claim in the future and that the insurer should be notified of the situation.

Soon thereafter, and before the situation was reported to the existing insurer, the old firm merged with the new firm. The old firm’s policy expired shortly thereafter and the old firm was added to the new firm’s policy as an insured party. In the application for adding the old firm to the new insurance, the officer signing the application failed to disclose the situation encountered earlier by the old firm.

Within a month of the merger, the situation the old firm had become aware of matured into a formal claim brought by the owner of the project against both the builder and the old firm.

The matter was immediately reported to the new firm’s professional liability insurer.

The new insurer took the position that the claim now advanced against the merged firm was not covered by its policy because it arose out of a situation or circumstance of which the insured was aware prior to the inception date of the new policy. The new insurer said the insured should look to the policy being carried by the old firm at the time the situation arose. But when the new firm reported the situation to the old firm’s insurer, the insurer of course took the position that there had been no claim made or reported to the old insurer during the course of the policy.

In other words, the “claims made and reported” condition of the old policy had not been met.

So faced with a claim in excess of $1 million, the new firm found itself without insurance. Not a pleasant place to end up in.

An autopsy on the foregoing situation should lead one to adjust their risk management program to assure the following: 1. READ your Professional Liability Insurance Policy when it is received and clarify any doubts with your insurance broker. You must

understand this coverage to preserve the many valuable advantages it gives you.

2. Whenever faced with a potential claim situation, even if you think it is someone else’s fault, err on the side of caution and report the matter to your insurer. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing so.

3. When switching firms, or merging with another firm, exercise extreme due diligence to make sure that all potential claim situations have been reported and duly reported to the existing professional liability insurer.

4. In applying for replacement insurance, due diligence is once again required by canvassing all members of the firm to determine whether they are aware of any situations which might reasonably be expected to give rise to a claim in the future. Any such situations need to be reported to the new perspective insurer and, of course, if there are such situations they should be immediately brought to the attention of the existing insurer.

5. Of critical importance is to compare the old policy wording with the new policy wording to make sure that the two coverages are not mutually exclusive.

Professional liability insurance is one of the most valuable assets a professional can own. The foregoing example makes it painfully obvious that it is an asset that requires close attention if it is to be preserved.

John Singleton, Q.C., is a partner in the law firm of Singleton Urquhart LLP in Vancouver.

November/December 2011

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Legal File

Consultants’ Duties to Bidders and Contractors

The Implications of Preparing Tender Documents

By Tyler Galbraith

G

enerally, a consultant contracts directly with an owner to design a project and prepare tender documents for that project.

The consultant will therefore owe the owner a contractual duty to carry out these tasks in a reasonable and competent manner. However, in designing a project and preparing the tender documents pursuant to its contract with the owner, legal duties may arise between a consultant and a contractor, independent of the contract between owner and consultant.

The central duty typically owed by a consultant to a contractor is that the project it has designed and specified is “buildable”. Put another way, a consultant makes a representation to each bidder that the project can be built as designed, drawn and specified by the consultant.

This duty flows from the legal concept of negligent misrepresentation. Liability for negligent misrepresentation arises where (1) there is a duty of care based on a “special relationship” between the consultant and the contractor; (2) the representation is untrue, inaccurate, or misleading; (3) the consultant acts negligently in making the misrepresentation; (4) the contractor reasonably relies on the misrepresentation; and (5) the reliance is detrimental to the contractor.

Based on this legal framework, the courts have held a consultant undertakes to provide information (i.e. the tender package) for use by a definable group of persons with whom it does not have any contractual relationship (i.e. bidders). The purpose of supplying the information is to allow bidders to prepare a price to be submitted, and consultants know this. Bidders rely on the information prepared by consultants in preparing their bids and such reliance upon the consultants’ work is reasonable. Accordingly, a cause of action against a consultant will arise where the information provided by the consultant in the tender documents is untrue, inaccurate or misleading, the bidder relies on the information and suffers damages as a result.

Based on this, the courts have held that a consultant must exercise such reasonable care in the preparation of tender documents so as to ensure the information presented reflects with reasonable accuracy the nature of the work and its factual components so as to enable the bidder to prepare a proper bid. The tender documents must be prepared having in mind the average bidder, not a bidder who has special knowledge or experience. Among bidders there will be some who are unusually cautious and conservative, others who have specialized knowledge, others who have general knowledge and others who may be bidding with little or no experience on the type of project being put out to tender. The information should be clear and intelligible to all bidders.

If the consultant has not verified specific information presented, it has a duty to inform bidders in clear terms that it does not vouch for its accuracy so as to put the bidder on notice that the bidder must investigate the doubtful element. Further, if having learned during the tender period that there is a mistake or inaccuracy in the tender documents, the consultant has a duty to bidders to inform them of the true facts.

Even after the construction contract is signed with the successful bidder, the consultant still owes a duty of care to the successful bidder that the project is “buildable”. While it is true that the consultants’ work is incorporated from the tender package into the construction contract, this only means that the representations in the tender documents also become the representations of the owner. The courts have held that the contractor relies on the accuracy of the consultant’s design just as much after it enters into a construction contract as it did before, during the tender process when it prepared its bid.

While the scope of the duties owed by a consultant can be circumscribed or abrogated by clear and unambiguous disclaimers or exclusion clauses, the inclusion of such clauses in the tender documents or construction contract will lead to increased bid prices to take into account the increased risk placed on the bidders.

In the normal course, a consultant owes a duty of care to those that are induced to bid on a project on the basis of the tender documents prepared by the consultant. A bidder is entitled and expected to rely on the tender documents as conveying the best information that consultant can give. Therefore, a consultant who provides information that is misleading, incomplete or inaccurate may be liable to a bidder that relies on the information and suffers damages as a result, despite the fact that there is no contractual relationship between the bidder and the consultant.

…a consultant who provides information that is misleading, incomplete or inaccurate may be liable to a bidder…

Tyler Galbraith is an associate with Jenkins Marzban Logan LLP. Contact him at tgalbraith@jml.ca 52

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Architect Corner

Is That Your Albatross or Ours?

Teaming with a Contractor on P3s: An Architect’s Perspective

by Bruce Knapp

R

emember 10 years ago when your average $50 million building came by once every few years? The architect and consultants tracked the opportunity, tended to their business development relationships and went to lunch with their contractor friends.

“Do you have any projects coming out to bid soon?” the contractors would ask. They would head back to the office, update their pipeline and patiently wait for the Invitation to Tender ad in the local industry paper.

How things have changed in less than 10 years!

No more tender sets ordered, returned, counted and discarded. Our former client — the hospital board, the school district, the university — is now our “end-client.” Our actual client in a public-private-partnership (P3) is typically a sophisticated multi-national consortium of development, management, construction and financing expertise formed in the past 10 years to capitalize on this new business — buildings as concessions.

When I started in P3s I imagined that expectations around the table would be high. But in a fast-track-phased-multiple-tender-package-withBIM-thrown-in-and-risk-through-the-roof kind of way? One British architect I interviewed found the experience exhausting.

Was I missing something in the Ancient Mariner look he gave me, as he explained that after he completed three P3 bids in a row, he slept on a desert island beach for six months? And he despaired that none of them was the best piece of architecture he could do.

I lunched with one of my contractor friends, a very successful fellow equally able to balance risk over breakfast, hone his hard bid by the afternoon and negotiate a plate-full of extras by dinner. He could sleep at night knowing that construction was a wild wonderful ride for those with guts, great instincts and two steel spheres the Spanish are always referring to. Now he looked wideeyed and ragged with a few P3s under his belt.

Winning was great, but now there was the added strain of being his vonsultants’ design manager, his authority’s “partner,” and his project co’s downloaded risk-holder.

Now my contractor friend was the Ancient Mariner and his three albatrosses of risk, schedule, and reviewed status weighed heavily on his shoulders. Wasn’t this the guy who ate risk for breakfast?

P3s exist for some fundamental reasons that appeal to a range of potential clients: 1. P3s transfer project risk to someone who will accept it and deliver.

2. P3s change the status quo by pushing on all aspects of the project.

Stantec is part of the consortium on the Vernon Jubilee Hospital Diagnostic and Treatment, a P3 project.

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”

— Eric Hoffer 3. P3s can spawn innovation in finance, design, delivery and maintenance, if that is what is desired.

How can you, together with your consultants, navigate your team’s way through a successful P3 project with your bid a winner, your deliverables met, your team in shape and your owner’s pride spurring you to do it all again the next time for money?

Here are 10 P3 Success Steps for Contractors and Consultants, your guide to a buried treasure of a decent P3 experience: 1. Lock the entire team in a room and read the project brief and the project agreement. For a week. No one escapes.

2. Understand the winning way. While mediocre bids occasionally triumph, vigorous design skill coupled with construction know-how and savvy seems to win.

3. Fund the effort and the fun. Even pirates had rum provisions, don’t be picayune.

4. Focus on a culture of collaboration. Eat a lot of meals together, then you won’t argue so much and you’ll forge relationships that need to last for years.

5. Be proactive and creative. Listen to each other.

6. Innovate. Discover un-explored synergies — these lead to innovations that spur the team on.

7. Be smart with uncertainty. P3s and D/Bs open a box of fear big enough to make grown people meet all day long and into the night.

Leadership in construction coupled with leadership in design is a powerful offering.

8. Utilize each others’ differences. Contractors live in a world of cost, schedule and contract risk.

Consultants understand clients and situations, and know what makes a winning approach. Failure to listen to each other’s passion and knowledge is at your mutual peril.

9. Lever relationships at each level of the team. Working in new ways together can be very unsettling, and potentially destructive, if not handled well.

10. Buy an eye patch and release your inner buccaneer! If you are good at this P3 and D/B business, chances are you will be teaming up to do it again, this time with gusto and smarts.

Bruce Knapp, MAIBC, is a senior principal at Stantec Architecture in Victoria, B.C. November/December 2011

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Industry News

Advertiser Listings

Fundraising Efforts The Building Foundations Campaign, a three year fundraising effort launched by the Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation, coincides with construction of an eight-storey Critical Care Tower, which is the centrepiece of a $512 million expansion and redevelopment of Surrey Memorial Hospital.

EllisDon, the contractor building the tower, has taken on a leadership role in the campaign. The company will help raise $1 million from the construction industry.

“Surrey’s rapid growth has been good for many companies in our industry,” says EllisDon vice president and BC area manager David McFarlane. “I would encourage all our colleagues to give back to the community by supporting health care.”

Construction of the Critical Care Tower began earlier this year and will be complete in two stages.

A new Emergency Centre will open in 2013 while the rest of the Tower will be ready in 2014.

PLC Rebranded Portland Limestone Cement (PLC), which was approved for use in B.C. early this year, was rebranded Contempra this past October by the Cement Association of Canada. Contempra is a new brand of cement in Canada that decreases CO2 emissions by 10 per cent while still producing concrete with the strength and durability of regular Portland cement.

Contempra is included under the name PLC in the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) cement and concrete standards, now referenced in the 2010 National Building Code of Canada. It is now approved for use in Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia as well. It will be approved for use in the other provincial jurisdictions once they adopt the 2010 NBCC or update their references to the current cement and concrete standards.

Calling for Submissions The Masonry Institute of BC is calling for submissions for its 2012 Masonry Design Awards.

The awards showcase and recognize design excellence in B.C. projects that feature brick, block and stone. Submissions for projects are due February 1st, 2012. Projects must have been completed since June 2008, and submissions require project descriptions, details and photographs.

Winning projects will be featured in the Construction Business May/June 2012 issue. Visit www.masonrybc.org for more information.

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ECA Inaugural Awards The Edmonton Construction Association held its first ever Awards of Excellence on October 29, 2011 when the industry gathered to celebrate the association’s 80th Anniversary. Several awards were presented at the gala.

A&B Concrete Pumping (2007) Ltd. was the big winner, picking up the Sustainable Construction and Innovation Award for introducing a pumping concrete washout program. The company also earned the Manufacturer & Supplier of the Year Award.

General Contractor of the Year honours went to Jen-Col Construction Ltd. The Award of Excellence for General Contractor project over $15 million went to Ledcor Construction Ltd. for their work on the Art Gallery of Alberta. Flynn Canada also won for their contribution to the project.

The General Contractor project up to $15 million went to Clark Builders for the ATCO Gas North Operations Centre. Priority Mechanical Ltd. won the Award of Excellence for a Trade Project up to $1 million for its work on the Ormed Headquarters.

In addition two individual awards were presented. The Educator of the Year went to Paul Paridaen of Fillmore Construction Management Inc. and Patricia Long of Storage Solutions of Alberta Ltd. was named the Outstanding Woman in Construction.

Aviva . ..........................................................41 BCCA . .....................................................OBC BCCSA ....................................................... 38 BC Hydro..............................................22/23 BCIT ............................................................. 8 BFL Canada Insurance Services Inc .......... 4 Bridge Electric . ......................................... 37 Buildex .................................................42/43 Eagle West Cranes .................................... 29 Flynn ...........................................................13 Fortis BC ...................................................... 7 Glotman Simpson ......................................15 ICBA ...........................................................44 ICS Group ...................................................19 Jenkins Marzban Logan . .......................... 52 JLT ............................................................... 11 Langley Concrete Group ......................... 39 Levelton ......................................................21 Nightengale ...............................................20 RCABC ..................................................... IBC Reliable Equipment . ................................. 35 Singleton Urquhart ................................... 25 Task Construction Management ............. 37 Western One ...............................................17 Wilson M Beck Insurance ........................IFC WorkSafe BC................................................ 5

Edmonton LRT Awarded SNC-Lavalin in joint venture partnership with Graham Infrastructure (the North Link Partnership) has been awarded a contract for approximately $300 million by the City of Edmonton for the Edmonton North light rapid transit (LRT) project to provide construction management services, provision of labour, materials and equipment for all construction work, and testing and commissioning of the system for handover to the city.

The North LRT is a 3.3 km extension from the existing Churchill underground station adjacent to City Hall to the site of a proposed new NHL hockey arena and commercial development. Work on the North LRT project began in March 2011 with a scheduled completion date of December 31, 2013.

P3 Excellence The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) honoured eight 2011 award winners for innovation and excellence in publicprivate partnership infrastructure development in Canada. Recognized for outstanding achievement in the areas of project financing, service delivery, and infrastructure investment, this year’s recipients include two highways, two courthouses, a government data centre, a concert hall, and Canada’s national cryptologic agency.

Gold Awards went to the Sea to Sky Highway, a $600 million project to improve the safety, sightlines and slope stabilization of the 95 kilometre long section of Highway 99 highway from West Vancouver to Whistler, B.C.; L’Adresse Symphonique, a $259 million new acoustic concert hall in Montreal that provided $46.8 million in cost savings; and Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, a $90 million LEED Gold certified correctional facility. Read about all the winners at www.pppcouncil.ca.

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