Today, at the No-Dig North Conference in Niagara Falls, ON, the North American Society for Trenchless Technology Canadian Chapters announced the 99 Avenue Sanitary Trunk Bypass project as the winner of the New Installation Project of the Year Award! An independent review panel of industry professionals evaluated all of the award submissions for their level of difficulty/project-specific challenges, innovation/unique application of the technology, advancement of the technology, and technical excellence.
The 99 Avenue Sanitary Trunk Bypass project is a hallmark of modern infrastructure development, addressing the urgent need for the rehabilitation of a critical 1.1 kilometre sanitary trunk sewer in Edmonton, AB. Spanning over three years, this two-stage project demonstrated EPCOR‘s commitment to innovation, environmental stewardship, and community engagement. The project involved the construction of a 1.6 kilometre bypass sewer using advanced microtunneling technology, allowing for the safe rehabilitation of the aging trunk sewer. The project team overcame significant technical challenges, including complex geological conditions, deep tunnel alignments, and proximity to existing infrastructure, all while minimizing community disruption and maintaining strict environmental standards.
The successful completion of the 99 Avenue Sanitary Trunk Bypass project not only enhances the resilience of Edmonton’s wastewater system, but also sets a new standard for urban infrastructure projects across North America. This project is a testament to EPCOR’s leadership in infrastructure development and their dedication to improving the quality of life for the residents of Edmonton.
Congratulations to the members of the award-winning team, representing Associated Engineering, EPCOR, Shanghai Construction Group (Canada), and Stantec!
Yesterday, at the Engineers Geoscientists Manitoba 2024 Awards Ceremony and Recognition Lunch, our project team on the St. Andrews Lock and Dam Bridge Deck Replacement project was presented with the Team Achievement Award in recognition of the project’s ingenuity, impact, complexity, and ability to meet the client’s needs! This award honours a group who demonstrates excellence in, and major contributions to, the concept, design, and implementation of an engineering or geoscience work.
Project Mananger, Stephen Chiasson, along with Associated Engineering’s team members (Justine Meyers, Alex Lyon, Tracey Kucheravy, and Scott Arran) and two client representatives from Public Services and Procurement Canada were in attendance to accept the team award.
Public Services and Procurement Canada retained Associated Engineering to provide full engineering services for the planning, development, and implementation of the deck replacement and rehabilitation measures for the historic St. Andrews Lock and Dam facility, located in Lockport, Manitoba. Following a comprehensive detailed inspection in 2017, it was determined that existing bridge deck on the main truss spans was past its useful life and needed replacement. As part of the bridge deck replacement, Public Services and Procurement Canada also wanted to make functional upgrades to the bridge deck, rehabilitate the structure to extend its useful life span, as well as make accessibility upgrades to the facility.
Associated Engineering completed the rehabilitation and strengthening design for the St. Andrews Lock and Dam traffic bridge in Winter 2021, with construction commencing in Summer 2021. The scope of the assignment included the replacement of the bridge deck with a wider deck – incorporating proper driving lanes, as well as a divided sidewalk. It also included the general rehabilitation of the bridge so that the structure could carry full legal highway loading.
Congratulations to all of our team members, client partners, and subconsultants (Donald Luxton & Associates, WSP Canada, Hanscomb, Pinchin, TREK Geotechnical, Vista Environmental, and Joro Consultants)!
Tonight at the ACEC-Canada/Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards gala in Ottawa, ON, our team’s work on The City of Calgary’s Natural Assets Valuation project was presented with an Award of Excellence! Nadeer Lalji (Vice President & General Manager, Alberta South) and Twyla Kowalczyk (Manager, Strategic Advisory Services & Discipline Lead, Climate Resilience) accepted the award on behalf of Associated Engineering.
The City of Calgary’s Natural Assets Valuation project reveals the significant value of natural assets, such as forests, riparian areas, and waterbodies, and the services they supply. The study provides The City of Calgary with the information required to support decision-making and planning for land-use and natural asset management, protecting the environment and mitigating the effects of climate change. This transformational project paves the way for integrating built and natural asset management – a model for other communities.
Host Michael Tolboom talks about Canada’s changing climate, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, and strategies for improved climate resilience, on this episode of AE Live. Our guest is Twyla Kowalczyk, Associated’s Manager, Strategic Advisory Services, and Discipline Lead, Climate Resilience. She joins Michael to talk about how her career went from river engineering to climate change resilience and recovering from the impacts of climate change. Highlighting their interview is a discussion of Twyla’s role in helping the City of Calgary manage the flooding in 2013, and how cities prepare for extreme weather events.
We’re looking forward to next week’s No-Dig North, taking place in Niagara Falls, ON! Once again, we’re proud to be a supporting sponsor of Canada’s premiere conference for underground infrastructure professionals. In addition, several of our staff are involved in this year’s conference program.
Monday, October 28 | 8:00am-4:00pm EST| Room 223 | Good Practice Course: Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) | Speaker: Jason Lueke
The HDD Good Practices Guidelines course provides an in-depth overview of Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) and covers six topics: (1) operation and application; (2) equipment and materials; (3) planning, including surface and geological investigations, utility surveys, bore planning, and regulations and permitting; (4) job site safety; (5) risk reduction, troubleshooting and mitigation; and (6) design.
Tuesday, October 29 | 11:15am-11:40am EST | Room 221 | Chippewas of Nawash New Raw Water Intake Design and Construction | Speaker: Chris Lamont
The Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation (CNUFN) Water Treatment Plant and Distribution System projects are multi-year projects with the objectives of constructing a new water treatment plant (WTP) and distribution system upgrades to provide clean drinking water to the community and remove the present boil water advisory. The Water Treatment Plant project includes the construction of a new greenfield site WTP, and a raw water intake located within the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, Ontario. The focus of this paper is on the design and installation of the raw water intake pipeline shore approach by horizontal directional drilling (HDD). The intake pipeline shore approach was a 380 m long HDD installation of a product bundle consisting of one DN350 HDPE DR7.3 raw water pipe and two redundant DN125 HDPE DR7.3 casing pipes to provide a chlorine line for zebra mussel colonization control. This paper discusses some of the challenges associated with the construction of shore approach installations by HDD and considerations for designers including the importance of offshore geotechnical information, marine drill exit practices, and buoyancy control for product sinking and pullback.
Tuesday, October 29 | 1:35pm-2:00pm EST| Room 223 | Design Constraints and Construction Challenges for a 235m Microtunnel Crossing of a Highway and Creek | Speaker: Thomas Siuda
This paper will discuss the design constraints and construction challenges for the 235m trenchless crossing of Highway 400 and Dyments Creek as part of the Dunlop Street Trunk Sanitary Sewer Relocation project in the City of Barrie. The project was designed by Associated Engineering and construction was completed by Erritt Construction Ltd. The trenchless crossing was completed using microtunnel methodology featuring a pipe/tunnel size of 900mm inside diameter (1200mm outside diameter) along the 235m drive with limited cover under the highway and creek. Upstream and downstream connections along with site constraints resulted in minimal tunnel alignment and shaft staging location options, which led to constrained staging areas and limited tunnel cover. The limited cover under the highway and creek constrained the pipe/tunnel size to a 900mm inside diameter tunnel. This posed an expected challenge, as 900mm MT machines do not have pressure sensors at the face or access to the face of the machine for maintenance should unexpected ground conditions and/or boulders be within the alignment. Additionally, an unexpected challenge resulted from the change in soil material from silty sands to clays. Silty sands were expected for the entire alignment and thus the change required quick modifications on site for the equipment and bentonite viscosities. The paper will expand on the design solutions for the challenging sewer alignment options along with expected and unforeseen construction challenges and how they were overcome.
Wednesday, October 30 | 1:35pm-2:00pm EST | Room 221 | Mill Creek Combined Sewer Replacement – Design and Construction Challenges | Speaker: Chris Lamont
The Mill Creek combined sewer trunk conveys wastewater and rainwater from south Edmonton to the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant. As it is a combined system, high intensity rain fall can impact the normal operation of the system and can result in combined sewer overflows into the Millcreek Ravine. In addition, other primary sanitary trunks were inspected and assessed as high priority areas for rehabilitation due to the deteriorating condition of the existing combined sewer running within the Millcreek Ravine. The first phase of the project constitutes the design and build up a 13m×4m×4m energy dissipation chamber ~10m below the upstream existing 2100mm tunnel elevation with an access and a drop manhole structure directing the wastewater through the new, 30m deep, 2100mm ID tunnel. This part of the project successfully completed with the construction of secant pile working shaft adjacent to elementary school kids play area, construction of liner plate retrieval shaft within a compact working space in the community park and 2100mm ID concrete pipe with HDPE liner installed by Microtunnelling through sandstone and clay shale. Hand tunnel connections were completed through sandstone and clay till to connect to the new trunk on the upstream and downstream, bypassing existing overflow structures in the Millcreek Ravine.
During the past five years, the City of Lethbridge and surrounding area in Southern Alberta have experienced flooding, extreme heat, out-of-season snowstorms, and extreme storms. City residents are increasingly aware of climate risk, especially drought. Climate change threats include public health and well-being, economic, physical (built) infrastructure, and environmental impacts.
The City of Lethbridge had previously completed multiple initiatives and plans that considered environmental sustainability and climate change, including a Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (focussed on City assets), Municipal Development Plan, Energy Conservation Master Plan, Lethbridge City Council Action Plan, and Department Adaptation Planning.
The City sought to expand on the previously completed climate-risk assessment to consider community-wide risks and provide a holistic understanding of risks posed to Lethbridge and the greater community. As well, there was a desire to quantify the economic cost of climate change if no adaptation occurs and to gather diverse perspectives to better qualitatively understand how climate hazards will impact Lethbridge.
The Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan is focussed actions the City can take to adapt, while also recognizing that external organizations and residents have a role in improving resilience.
The City assembled a multi-disciplinary team, including engineering, municipal operations, and management, along with community and climate planners, who helped to ensure social equity was meaningfully incorporated. The team began by reviewing existing municipal climate and related plans to identify opportunities to align corporate initiatives with adaptation, and develop a vision and principles to guide long-term decision making.
We worked with a subconsultant (All One Sky Foundation) to complete a cost of inaction economic analysis which showed that Lethbridge at-large is already experiencing costs due to climate impacts. The community is projected to see an annual total cost of $77.2 million by 2025 if no adaptation occurs. Compared with 2025, projected costs are roughly three times higher by 2055 and nine times higher by 2085. Avoiding climate adaptation has a cost.
The Lethbridge Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan helps the City to align their past efforts to find efficiencies, such as cost savings, opportunities, and co-benefits. Project Manager and Technical Lead, Twyla Kowalcyzk, explains, “The Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan helps demonstrate that the City is taking meaningful action to ensure community safety in the face of climate risks. Public engagement also supported increased local understanding of climate hazards and how individuals can improve their own resilience.”
Climate risks are complex and there are many potential impacts. Given this complexity, it is important to have clarity on the highest risks in order to focus efforts and investment. Gaining support and direction from Lethbridge City Council is key for climate adaptation, for example, building internal buy-in and securing budget/resources.
Twyla says, “Clarifying what the highest climate impacts are and what initiatives can reduce risk helps to prioritize adaptation actions and allocate resources to the most impactful efforts. This approach also helps to show alignment with existing initiatives/processes and climate.”
The project team completed extensive community and stakeholder engagement. Jeff Zukiwsky, Senior Strategic Advisor, tells us, “We held workshops to develop a vision and principles for the Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan to inform the risk assessment, as well as adaptation actions. Nine workshops were held with 74 stakeholders and resulted in 660 hours of participant time spent in meetings. Two public surveys gathered 169 resident comments on the Vision + Principles and 258 comments on the actions.”
City staff, external stakeholders, and residents-at-large emphasized the importance of supporting vulnerable populations. Makenzie MacKay, Resilience & Sustainability Advisor, says, “Our project team had to consider vulnerability and equity across different neighbourhoods and demographics throughout the project. We worked with stakeholders to find meaningful ways to incorporate insights into final deliverables. Several adaptation actions focus specifically on supporting vulnerable populations.”
Associated supported the City in working with the Kainai Ecosystem Protection Association (KEPA) and help them to understand the role that the City can play in supporting KEPA’s work, as it relates to the Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan. We learned about Indigenous observations of climate hazards in the Lethbridge area and heard specific stories about the risks and impacts to vulnerable populations such as Elders. The Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan includes a land acknowledgement and a list of Indigenous organizations to partner with, in alignment with feedback from the Kainai Ecosystem Protection Association.
The final report brought all of this information into one cohesive, easily digestible package. The Climate Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan gives a clear direction for the City based on data, technical best practices, and community perspectives and priorities. The plan is pragmatic and public-facing – a resource to guide Lethbridge through its climate adaptation journey.
The City of Port Moody has a population of approximately 33,500 residents (2021) and is a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District in British Columbia. St. Johns Street is the main traffic corridor through Port Moody and originally had narrow sidewalks and no provisions for cyclists. The City sought to integrate active transportation facilities for all ages and abilities along this constrained corridor.
Public engagement confirmed the need for better walking and cycling infrastructure, the need to maintain access to local properties and businesses, as well as the importance of trees and landscaping to the community.
Associated Engineering served as the lead consultant for this active transportation project, led by our Vancouver-based transportation planning and traffic engineering group, with support from our infrastructure group and Red Deer-based landscape architecture staff. Our services included corridor and active transportation planning, traffic analysis, safety review, a HOV (high-occupancy vehicle) lane utilization study, stakeholder and public engagement, concept development, preliminary and detailed design, and tender and construction services, including contract administration and site inspection.
Associated undertook a conceptual and functional multi-modal transportation planning and engineering study along St. Johns Street from Ioco Road to Albert Street. Project Manager, Ana Varhaug, tells us, “We explored the potential removal of the existing HOV lanes, and repurposing the space for active modes. One of the challenges was that HOV-lane removal is unprecedented and required buy-in from TransLink, as St. Johns is part of their Major Road Network.”
Our transportation planning and traffic engineering team developed decision criteria based on HOV-lane warrants, traffic operations, and transit performance data and developed a rationale for replacing the HOV lanes with active transportation facilities.
This evidence-based approach was able to concisely demonstrate that the existing HOV lanes are under-utilized and identified how the HOV-lane removal benefits sustainable transportation modes, thus supporting TransLink mode split objectives and the City of Port Moody’s Master Transportation Plan.
Associated supported the City in collaborating with TransLink to address their requirements. Monique Beaudry, National Discipline Lead, Transportation Planning, tells us, “As part of this work, we completed a review of the study corridor including traffic forecasting, traffic micro-simulation modelling and analysis using Vistro, and a safety assessment. As well, we developed initial concepts and prepared an HOV Lane Removal Report for stakeholder review.”
In Phase Two of the project, Associated’s team developed conceptual options for active transportation facilities on the study corridor. The preferred solution was selected through an options evaluation process and in consultation with key stakeholders and the public. Associated helped to facilitate the engagement meetings and provided engagement materials.
The project was endorsed by Port Moody’s City Council and proceeded to preliminary and detailed design and construction of active transportation infrastructure for all ages and abilities from the Barnet Highway to Moody Street, approximately 1.3 kilometres in length.
Associated prepared the detailed design, including the addition of bike lanes and multi-use pathways, widening of existing sidewalks, the addition of rain gardens into curb bulges, raised crosswalks, retaining wall design, streetlighting, landscaping (including streetscaping), and signage and pavement markings.
Associated delivered tender period services, and conducted site inspections and contract administration duties. Civil Engineer, Artem Zaporozhets, explains, “Construction was completed in August 2024, providing users with safer and more accessible active transportation connections and improved transit access.”
Subconsultants supporting the project delivery included Evolve Traffic Solutions (traffic modelling), Braun (geotechnical), Diamondhead (arborist), and AES (electrical).
Associated’s key personnel on the project include Ana Varhaug, Monique Beaudry, Breanna Jackson, Artem Zaporozhets, Chris Cheng, Alex Hackney, and Jason Bennett.
Community leaders and residents across Alberta have become more aware of the social, environmental, and economic impacts of the changing climate. In recent years, we have seen the direct and indirect effects of climate hazards that cause many impacts on communities, including its residents, businesses, property, built and natural infrastructure, and economic well-being. The floods in Calgary and High River; wildfires in Slave Lake, Fort McMurray, and Jasper; and the early snowstorm in Calgary had devastating social, environmental, psychological, and economic impacts.
The Government of Alberta recognized the need for practicing professionals within government and public services within municipalities across Alberta to have a basic awareness and understanding of climate change, so governments at all levels can effectively consider and incorporate climate change into policy, planning, and delivery of infrastructure projects.
Project Manager, Juliana Tang, tells us, “The program was targeted to professionals across multiple sectors. The core training concentrated on climate science, risk identification, risk management, economics, and communication, with a deeper dive into four focussed areas: infrastructure, community planning, watershed management, and agriculture.”
Associated Engineering led this project with support from 13 subject matter experts (SME), who developed and delivered the training program. They included technical and experienced professionals, including practicing engineers, scientists, researchers, analysts, and educators from professional organizations, government, and academia. Each of the SMEs were selected for their local, national, and international expertise, bringing 15 to 30 years of experience in their respective fields.
A Technical Steering Committee was created to help guide the content development of the training program. This Steering Committee featured SMEs from four key Alberta governmental departments: Transportation, Infrastructure, Agriculture, and Municipal Affairs.
Associated Engineering facilitated carefully planned workshops and meetings to engage key people for their input and feedback. Juliana says, “The success of this program was due in part to the project management team’s ability to manage expectations, clearly identify the key objectives to avoid miscommunication and out-of-scope content, and maintain the goal of delivering basic awareness training.”
Through this program, over 300 professionals across Alberta have been trained since early 2022 and over 50 new university graduates placed in climate-change adaptation-related projects. This placement program allowed young professionals to obtain valuable climate change adaptation work experience.
This work was done in collaboration with the University of Alberta for job placements. Juliana shares, “Many of these young professionals were offered opportunities to continue work in climate change adaptation and become future leaders in this field.”
All of the training information, resources, and recordings are accessible online through the ClimateWest.ca website. This knowledge transfer and sharing process engages all professionals across disciplines and at multiple levels so that they are better informed during the decision-making process.
Today, this information is shared with other municipalities within and outside of Alberta.
Associated Engineering is proud to be a supporting sponsor of the 2024 Pacific Workshop on Nature-based Coastal Solutions, hosted in Vancouver by the Pacific Chapter of the Nature-based Coastal Solutions Community of Practice from October 8th to 10th!
Water Resources Engineer, Eric Finney, will be presenting a case study titled “Colquitz Park: Applying Green Shores Principles in an Estuarine Environment in Southern Vancouver Island” during the third day of the conference (October 10th) in Session 7 beginning at 1:00pm.
Colquitz Park lies on the left bank of the Colquitz River which discharges into a shallow basin (Portage Inlet) in Saanich, BC. The shoreline has experienced significant erosion and loss of riparian habitat due to encroachment of residential areas and regular mowing. The District of Saanich desired that the park be restored using nature-based solutions, whilst aiming for Green Shores for Shoreline Development (GSSD) accreditation. Objectives included to stabilize the shoreline, improve the riparian habitat, identify climate-related risks and solutions, and provide guidance to recreational activities.
Recognizing that riverine flows in the urbanized Colquitz River would play a significant role in erosion processes, our project team, led by Associated Engineering with support from DHI, focussed on modelling this channel. We conducted a frequency analysis on available flow data and adjusted these values for an assumed return period based on an analysis of projected climate change effects. We then developed a HEC-RAS 2D model of the channel and the basin considering various tidally-influenced boundary conditions that reflected different sea level rise scenarios.
The modelled results were used to develop several restoration concepts for review by the client. These concepts incorporated specific nature-based solutions intended to embody green shores principles, with the goal of gold level certification. Techniques implemented include strategic vegetation selection and placement, redesigning existing storm outfalls to include more natural features, main channel regrading, restraining public access to designated areas, and inclusion of limited erosion protection through adding channel roughness. The hydraulic model also represents a value-added feature of the project which can serve as a backbone for future flood mapping for the client.
Implementation of the design is planned for the summer of 2025, with final assessment of Green Shore certification occurring shortly thereafter.
Located in southern Saskatchewan, Kahkewistahaw First Nation envisioned developing land as a legacy for future generations. Leaders conceived a commercial development on their 16-hectare urban reserve in Saskatoon to attract and support First Nation businesses and entrepreneurs, diversify the Kahkewistahaw economy, and provide permanent jobs for their people. However, a number of complex challenges stood in the path of development.
Located close to Saskatoon’s John G. Diefenbaker Airport, strict zoning regulations governed development of the land. Building height restrictions to ensure safe runway approaches would need to be relaxed, but regulatory approval of new airport zoning regulations could take up to five years, delaying development.
The Kahkewistahaw First Nation retained Associated Engineering to provide project management, land-use planning, and engineering expertise to develop the land and help realize Kahkewistahaw’s vision for a business park near Saskatoon’s airport.
Project Manager, Bill Delainey, tells us, “Associated Engineering participated alongside leaders and members of the Nation to develop a project vision, learn the Nation’s goals, understand the limitations of the site, and agree on what could be built. In collaboration with the Nation, the team undertook site and infrastructure planning, including developing complex approaches to overcome regulatory aviation restrictions and infrastructure issues.”
City of Saskatoon infrastructure was needed to service the site, in particular, a stormwater pond, which was projected to take years for the city to design and construct. Furthermore, Associated Engineering determined that the neighbourhood pond could not service an area in the northeast corner of the site. As well, to comply with Transport Canada regulations, the stormwater ponds had to drain within 48 hours.
In addition, the project had to meet the expectations of the First Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which had purchased land on the site and were anxious to construct their new headquarters.
As lead consultant, Associated Engineering led communication and collaboration efforts with stakeholders to facilitate the approvals required for the project to proceed, as well as undertaking project management, planning, design, and construction administration. Our team engaged in consultation and negotiation with the City of Saskatoon, the Airport Authority, NavCanada, and Transport Canada, along with contractors, utilities, and other stakeholders, all the while keeping Kahkewistahaw fully informed and in control.
“To address the lack of municipal stormwater infrastructure, we designed an interim stormwater system that can easily be converted to eventually connect to the city’s permanent stormwater system, once constructed in the future. Advanced modelling was conducted to inform the design, and facilitate a successful transition to a future, permanent infrastructure network.”
The temporary ditch system can be filled-in without affecting any paved surfaces or buildings. The site was divided to store some of the stormwater by directing it to the northeast. A portion of the land was allocated to build a stormwater retention pond so that the area to be developed would be drained by ditches into the pond.
The Kahkewistahaw Landing Business Park opened in November 2022, delivered on time and within the Nation’s $4 million budget. Kahkewistahaw First Nation realized their dream for a business park that provides economic development opportunities, offering jobs and long-term economic security for their people.
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