Canadian Consulting Engineer June/July 2015

For professional engineers in private practice

JUNE/JULY 2015

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contents

June/July 2015 Volume 56, No. 4

Cover: Rehabilitated Cougar Creek in Canmore, one of the communities hardest hit by the 2013 Alberta floods. Photograph by Bill Corbett.

See story p. 10.

features Engulfed — Warding Off Floodwater in Alberta. After the 2013 floods, cities are spending millions on building dikes, dams, and other large structures.

By Bill Corbett 10 Saving the River Thames. Upgrades to the Vauxhall Pollution Control Plant in London, Ontario increased its capacity 10 times.

15

By Dillon Consulting Changing the Model. The Wandering River Regional Pipeline carries drinking water over 80 kilometres to Northern Alberta.

18

By Stephan Weninger, P.Eng., Stantec Algae — Bane of Our Lakes. Techniques for dealing with the problem at water treatment plants.

By Simon Breese, P.Eng., AECOM

How Bad Can It Be? See story p. 34.

Delays. Large construction projects are taking years longer than they’re supposed to — the public want to know why.

By Bronwen Parsons 22 Trash to Treasure. A handful of industrial symbiosis networks are being established across Canada.

By Sophie Kneisel 31

departments Comment

4

Up Front

6

Products 38 Advertiser Index

41

Next issue: Recreation and entertainment buildings; wood structures and fire protection; building controls; National Music Centre.

How Bad Can It Be? The amount that design consultants spend cumulatively in preparing Requests for Proposals is shocking.

34

By Cal Harrison MBA, CMC

on topic ENGINEERS & THE LAW Blacklisting Bidders.

Municipalities are shutting out firms involved in litigation.

By Owen Pawson and Alizee Bilbey, Miller Thomson 37

CONVERSATIONS Who’s Responsible? John Clague, P.Geo., president of APEGBC, discusses whether engineering companies as well as individual engineers need to be certified to practice.

42

June/July 2015

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

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comment FOR PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

engineer C A N A D I A N C O N S U LT I N G

Editor

Project delays need a cure

I

f you want to hear a real horror story of a construction project gone wrong, check out the problems at Berlin’s Brandenburg airport. After writing “Delays” (p. 22), I came across an article about the airport in the Toronto Star (“Germany’s failure to launch,” May 30). The massive new teminal is still not open three years after its due date. There are an astonishing 150,000 issues still to fix, and until they’re done the ticket halls and “ghost” hotel next door stand empty. The terminal won’t open for yet another three years, and the final cost is predicted to be $6 billion compared with $600 million when plans were conceived in 2006.

As the German media has pointed out, this is not a good example of the nation’s reputation for precision and efficiency. What’s worse, the terminal will already be outdated when it does open. It was planned for 22 million passengers a year with no provision for expansion, but planners say it will need to handle 44 million.

Canada’s media is also rife with stories of big infrastructure construction projects running into problems and being chronically delayed. The Toronto York Spadina Subway Extension, the new parkway in Windsor, Walterdale Bridge in Edmonton, a bridge in Victoria, to name just a few. Even in Vancouver, which has built LRTs relatively quickly and on time, tunnelling for the Evergreen Line just ran into problems. Unexpected sinkholes have delayed the schedule by several months so far. It’s not just transportation projects. A few years ago the Niagara Hydro Tunnel project was thrown seriously off kilter when the tunnelling had to be redirected.

Delays exact a financial toll on taxpayers, businesses, not to mention the contractors and design teams themselves. Delays are bad news for all.

One solution might be to use more public-private partnerships. Loath to put its investments at risk, the private sector tends to devote more time to up-front engineering in order to anticipate potential problems. Another solution widely promoted is that clients should hire engineering firms based on their qualifications and expertise (the QBS process). This approach contrasts with the more common one of hiring a firm based on who agrees to do the work for the lowest fee. The latter is just a recipe for disaster because it encourages bidders to underestimate the scope of work and the risks of what might go wrong in order to keep their fee competitive.

The fact is things will go wrong on big, complex projects no matter what the approach. Unforeseen site conditions, weather, worker injuries, are just a few of the wrenches thrown into the mix. Pre-engineering can only do so much. As one engineer pointed out, you will never have infinite resources to do infinite testing for every possible scenario.

Nonetheless, delays in construction are becoming a chronic and expensive problem. They show engineers, architects and contractors in a bad light. The construction industry as a whole needs to come together and figure out why the schedules and costs of so many large projects are being so badly underestimated.

Bronwen Parsons 4

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Canadian Consulting Engineer #3514

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Rick Radell

up front

TRANSPORTATION

Regina to be Bypassed The Saskatchewan government has awarded a P3 contract to SaskLink Global Transportation Partners (SGTP) for the Regina Bypass.

The 40-kilometre twinned highway is the largest transportation infrastructure project in SaskatchUnion Pearson Express on the elevated track at Toronto Pearson International Airport..

TRANSPORTATION

Union Pearson Express running Toronto's long awaited Union Pearson Express train began operating in early June, connecting the country's two busiest transportation hubs. Pearson International is in Mississauga outside Toronto and is often difficult to reach along congested highways. It was one of few international airports with no train service.

From Union Station downtown the UP Express route follows an upgraded GO commuter track northwest for 22 kilometres, with two stops. It then branches north at Highway 427 on a new elevated track for three kilometres. This "spur" crosses several roads and Mimico Creek before it reaches Terminal 1. The spur stands 28 metres at its highest point, providing riders with grand vistas of the downtown.

CH2M was the prime consultant doing program management for the overall project for Metrolinx. CH2M's role included scheduling, system integration and compliance monitoring.

AirLINX Transit Partners were contracted to design, build and finance the elevated spur and the airport station for a fixed price of $129 million.

AECOM provided the detail design for these projects and was the engineer of record. MMM was technical advisor, Hatch Mott MacDonald was the independent certifier, and Adamson was the station architect.

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At Union Station passengers embark at a sleek new enclosed platform off the Skywalk. MMM was the engineer and Zeidler was architect of this component.

The journey takes 25 minutes, currently on trains with diesel engines, although they can be converted to electric propulsion in the future. Around 2.35 million passengers are expected to use the train by the year 2018 and in its first year alone it will replace 1.2 million car trips.

AWARDS

Quebec consulting engineers “change the world” The newly named Association of Consulting Engineering Firms – Quebec/ Association des firmes de génie-conseil – Québec (AFG) announced the winners of its annual awards, "the Leonards" on May 12.

Held at the Grande Bibliothèque in downtown Montreal with 300 people present, the awards were presented

ewan’s history. It is also the province’s second P3 project. The consortium will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the highway.

Starting to the northwest of the city at Highway 11, the bypass loops south and around to extend east along Highway 1 to Balgone.

Several engineering companies are part of SGTP: Parsons, McElhanney, Urban Systems, Buckland and Taylor, Exp, Clifton Associates and Delcan.

Construction is anticipated to begin this summer, with completion by the fall of 2019.

GOVERNMENT

Ontario enacts long-term infrastructure planning The Ontario government has joined Quebec in legally committing to adopt long-term strategic plans for infrastructure. The two provinces are the only ones in Canada to have such rules. Ontario’s "Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act" passed in June and requires the province to table a long-term infrastructure plan within three years, then once every five years.

Stinson Transportation Centre, St-Laurent, winner of an AFG Award.

continued on page 8

June/July 2015

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under the theme: “Change the World.”

Guests included Martin Coiteux, Quebec’s Minister Responsible for Government and Chair of the Treasury Board.

The “Visionary Award” went to Maria Mingallón, P.Eng. of Arup Canada for ContemPLAY, an urban pavilion developed for McGill University.

Other awards were: Bouthillette Parizeau for the Stinson Transportation Centre in SaintLaurent for the Montreal Transit Corporation. The 38,400 sq.m industrial building is certified LEED Gold (buildings/mechanical-electrical category).

CIMA+ for the Westmount Recreation Centre. Among the challenges was the creation of an underground park and outdoor pool (buildings/structure).

Stantec for the Health and Social Services Centre (CSSS) on Point-de-l’Ile. This is a renovation of a building for 600 residents, adding geothermal and other energy-saving technologies (energy).

Golder Associates for Co-Composting of Soils Affected by PAHs and Heavy Petroleum Hydrocarbons, a project in east Montreal for Dow Chemical and Pétromont (environment).

Stantec and the Cree Nation of Mistissini for a 160-m wooden bridge, designed as a series of semi-continuous arches (transportation).

WSP for the Quartier des spectacles.

This urban design project of the City of Montreal creates a cultural space above and below-ground in a complex setting (urban infrastructure).

An award for Mentor of the Year was given to Roger Lagacé, P.Eng. of Bouthillette Parizeau.

In the Small and Medium-Sized Firm category Infrastructel won for developing a new 360-degree photographic method for manhole inspections.

Olivier Melhem, ing. of Bouthillette Parizeau won the Emerging Consulting Engineering Professional award.

INTERNATIONAL

McElhanney bridge in India survives earthquake Brook Robazza, EIT of McElhanney 8

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Consulting was at the site office of the firm’s Arrah-Chhapra Bridge project in northeast India when the earthquake tremors hit northern Nepal on April 25 and May 12.

Thankfully Robazza — and the bridge survived.

The 4.3-kilometre bridge is being McElhanney Consulting

up front

Brook Robazza of McElhanney (left) and Surya Prakash at the Arrah-Chhapra Bridge in northern India.

erected over the Ganges River, about 300 km. south of Kathmandu where a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck around noon on April 25. Then around the same time on May 12, a 7.3-magnitude quake struck the area.

Robazza recently earned his Ph.D in seismic engineering. During the first earthquake he was about 175 metres from the bridge. Even from a distance he could see the piers and pylons oscillating. Within five minutes he was on the move. “I ran over there pretty quickly and hopped on the footings as soon as I was sure the thing wasn’t going to come down on me.”

The bridge is in its fifth year of construction. The substructure and piers are complete, but the piers are not yet connected. Despite its vulnerable status, the seismic modelling studies held up. Inspections found only negligible flexural cracking at the base joints.

The bridge is in Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. It is expected to improve the accessibility and prosperi-

ty of the region.

Infinity Engineering, which was acquired by Vancouver-based McElhanney in 2014, was the lead design firm for the conceptual and detailed design, and is doing construction supervision.

ASSOCIATIONS

Quebec association adopts new name The Association of Consulting Engineers of Quebec/Association des ingénieurs-conseil du Québec (AICQ) has changed its name. The new name is Association des firmes de génieconseil – Québec. It will use the acronym “AFG.” Claude Décary, former chair of the board, said the change indicates that the association has gone to a new level and that their intention is to focus on the positive contribution that consulting engineering firms make in Quebec.

(In recent years the reputation of the consulting engineering industry has been deeply affected by the fallout from the Charbonneau Commission of Inquiry and charges of corruption.)

Semantically the new name also puts the emphasis on the “firm” as opposed to the individual consulting engineer. The change also ties the Quebec association more closely with the national association, ACEC/AFICCanada. Most other provincial consulting engineering associations have renamed themselves according to the ACEC format in the past few years, although Consulting Engineers of Ontario, and Consulting Engineers of Alberta have not made the change.

The Quebec association has also appointed a new president and chief executive officer.

André Rainville was formerly chief executive officer of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ).

And on June 2, the association announced André Rainville, that the new chair for AFG president

June/July 2015

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up front

2015-2016 is Robert Landry of SNC-Lavalin. Landry joined SNC-Lavalin in 2013 and is senior vice-president of the company's infrastructure enRobert Landry of SNC-Laval- gineering – eastern in, AFG chair. Canada division.

The new website of the association is www.afg.quebec

through deep ocean outfalls into the Juan de Fuca Strait.

Originally a site on McLoughlin Point was identified for the treatment plant, but in April 2014, the town of Esquimault rejected the plans and

since then the Seaterra program has been “paused” while the region finds a new location.

Canada and the province have agreed to provide $500 million toward the new plant.

WASTEWATER

Victoria still seeks sewage treatment site On Vancouver Island a committee has developed a list of over 20 potential sites for a new wastewater treatment plant to serve the Capital Regional District (CRD).

Seven municipalities, including Victoria, Saanich, Esquimalt and Langford, are part of the so-called “Seaterra Program” which has to implement secondary wastewater treatment in the Capital Regional District by 2020 to meet federal rules.

Urban Systems is working with the CRD’s Eastside Wastewater Treatment and Resource Recovery Select Committee to provide the public with “high level” technical information on the various sites.

Charrettes were held at the end of May to allow members of the public to “dig into this new information, learn more and give input.”

Currently wastewater in the area receives only preliminary treatment prior to being discharged at outfalls in Clover Point and McLoughlin Point.

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June/July 2015

Canadian Consulting Engineer5/6/2015 9

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flood mitigation

By Bill Corbett

ENGULFED

Warding off floodwater in Alberta After the 2013 flood of the century in southern Alberta, engineers are drawing up plans for dikes, dams and other large structures to save vulnerable communities from future disaster.

Bill Corbett

I

n the spring of 2013, Wolf Keller, P.Eng., had just retired as Calgary’s director of water services. Flying home from a European vacation on June 22, he looked down and was shocked to see a city “half underwater." Shortly after those floodwaters subsided, his phone rang, and he was asked to head an expert panel charged with finding ways to protect Calgary from such future devastation.

It was the flood of the century in southern Alberta and the most costly extreme weather event in Canadian history.

The final toll was four lives lost, some 100,000 Albertans 10

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evacuated, more than $6 billion in losses and recovery costs, 1,000 kilometres of roads destroyed and hundreds of bridges and culverts washed away.

“It woke up a lot of people across Canada to the potential risk of geo-hazards,” says Eric Monteith, regional business leader in water for Stantec, one of dozens of consulting engineering firms that were involved in flood mitigation strategies following the 2013 event.

Substantial floods had hit Alberta previously, but most of them occurred long before development in many commu-

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flood mitigation

With little warning, streams and rivers overflowed their banks, submerging houses and other buildings. More than two dozen communities declared states of emergency.

Three municipalities were particularly hard hit: Calgary, High River and Canmore.

In Calgary, 6,300 homes were flooded and nearly 80,000 residents displaced. The downtown headquarters of Canada’s oil industry was partly submerged and without power for several days. The Saddledome, home to the Calgary Flames, was flooded to the 10th row of seating.

In the mountain community of Canmore the downtown was also flooded and parts of the Trans-Canada Highway were washed away. Dozens of houses along Cougar Creek were badly damaged, some teetering on the brink of being swept downstream. In the prairie town of High River, south of Calgary, the rampaging Highwood River forced the evacuation of all 13,000 residents, many for a considerable period of time.

Above: rehabilitated Cougar Creek in Canmore; 90,000 cubic metres of debris was washed down from the mountains into the creek.

nities had crept onto floodplains and alluvial fans. Certainly, towns and cities devastated by the 2013 flood were ill-prepared for its severity.

It started with the perfect storm. Conditions were already ripe — a substantial, melting Rocky Mountains snowpack, previous heavy rains and partially frozen ground all added up to precious little capacity for upstream watersheds to absorb more moisture. Then on June 19 a moist upper low pressure system from Colorado parked itself against the mountains and for three days unloaded torrential, tropical-style rains.

Calgary ponders dams, diversion tunnels, canals Over the past two years, each of the flooded municipalities has worked with the Alberta government to assess their flood protection options and implement short-term mitigation strategies. Now, they are embarking on major, longterm projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Not surprisingly, the lion’s share is destined for Calgary.

It’s the only large city in Canada situated at the confluence of two mountain rivers, the Bow and Elbow. During the storm, more than 200 millimetres of rain fell on those two watersheds and quickly funneled into the city, with peak flows cresting at 2,400 cubic metres per second on the Bow. To date, little attention has been paid to mitigation proposals on the Bow River, other than to negotiate with TransAlta to lower water levels in its upstream hydroelectric reservoirs during flood events.

Most of the focus has been on the Elbow River, with a provincial task force proposing three measures for handling a flood similar to 2013, a roughly one-in-200-year event.

One measure is a 4-kilometre diversion tunnel from the Elbow’s Glenmore Reservoir to the Bow River below the confluence of the two rivers. “While a tunnel has some engineering [and] geotechnical challenges, it’s relatively simple — a hole in the ground with gates. And it’s reliable,” says Keller, chair of Calgary’s expert management panel on flood mitigation. But at an estimated cost of some $500 million for 1:200-year protection, it’s easily the least cost-effective of the three options, according to a February 2015 report for the Alberta government by consultants IGI Group and Golder Associates.

A somewhat better benefit-cost solution, the report says, is a $344-million dry, earth-fill dam across the Elbow River at McLean Creek in the foothills west of Calgary. Traversing continued on page 12

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Town of High River, Engineering

flood mitigation

continued from page 11

a river gorge, the project would include a concrete spillway on the Elbow in 2013 only lasted one day,” says Keller. for discharging normal and flood flows, and an earth-cut spillway to protect the dam from extreme flooding.

Canmore controls mountain debris The hands-down economic winner, with an estimated The mountain community of Canmore, 100 kilometres to benefit-cost ratio of 2.07 is the Springbank off-stream reser- the west of Calgary, faces much different post-flood chalvoir, just upstream of Calgary. During a flood, a diversion lenges. While the Bow River swelled in and around the town weir on the Elbow would channel water along a 4.5-kilome- of 12,000 people in 2013, it was the discharge down steep tre canal to the otherwise dry reservoir. A modified channel tributary creeks of 250 millimetres of rain atop a melting would later release water back to the river. snowpack that caused the greatest damage. For example, The Alberta government rethe flood washed 90,000 cubic Substantial floods had hit Alberta cently approved the Springbank metres of debris down Cougar option, an estimated $264-million Creek, which is along one of the previously, but most of them project, with detailed design, engimost heavily developed alluvial occurred long before communities fans in Canada. neering and environmental imhad seen development creep onto pact assessments being undertakWithout adequate mitigation en by Stantec. Once land acquisimeasures, the town engineers their floodplains. tion negotiations are completed realized, a repeat disaster could with affected landowners, construction is expected to start in occur within decades. The valley’s geological record indi2016, with the reservoir operational by spring 2018. cates that the 2013 flood could have been much worse: a Meanwhile, the McLean Creek option is still being stud- massive landslide creating a debris dam that, once rupied. However, the province says its construction would be tured, could have claimed many lives and caused untold more expensive and complex and its environmental im- economic losses. pacts greater. The government also indicated the SpringSo the town decided to depart from the traditional bank reservoir’s capacity of 67.6 million cubic metres would Canadian practice of designing flood protection to withbe sufficient to mitigate 2013-level flows on the Elbow River. stand a 100- or 200-year flood. This hazard-based apCity officials are less sure. “For a system capable of han- proach does not account for the severity of consequences dling that severity of event, we’d probably need two of these to assets at risk in a worst-case scenario. By contrast, interthings [mitigation measures]. We were lucky that the peak national best practices have moved towards a risk-based method that evaluates the total social and economic consequences of flooding.

Hazard here refers to the type, frequency and magnitude of a flood, while risk calculates the consequences and severity of that hazard, expressed in economic and life loss.

“It [risk-based evaluation] is an approach used quite widely by the nuclear, chemical and transportation industries. Only fairly recently has it been used to assess geo-hazards in Canada, and it’s a more responsible approach than arbitrarily chosen hazard levels,” says Matthias Jakob, a senior geoscientist with BGC, a VancouverAbove: map of flood mitigation measures in High River. The town has already built 7 kilometres of permanent based engineering firm that consulted for Candykes as future protection. WorleyParsons helped with the project.

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flood mitigation

more on its mitigation options.

“Knowing what we know now, we probably wouldn’t have allowed all that housing near Cougar Creek,” says town manager of engineering Andy Esarte, P.Eng.. “But the economic and social costs of removing [the homes] now would be excessive. So we’ve come up with an engineering solution that’s the next best thing.”

The current flood mitigation measures taken along Cougar Creek include bank channeling, culvert protection and the placement in the creek bed of articulated mats. Supplied by IECS, the mats are a series of concrete blocks linked with steel cable to prevent the banks eroding in a debris flood. The town also in- Above: conceptual drawing of the planned debris flood retention structure for Canmore.

The 30-metre high concrete dam would allow water through under normal flow condistalled a debris net, a flexible ring that blocks tions. Rendering by ISL Engineering. boulders, trees and the like from washing down nadian Hydrotech, the 30-metre-high concrete dam would the creek bed.

The proposed long-term solution is to replace the de- normally allow water through but retain it at critical times. bris net with a $40-million debris flood retention struc- It is designed for a landslide flood far more devastating ture. Designed by Austrian engineering firm Alpinfra/Cacontinued on page 14

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June/July 2015

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

CANAM

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flood mitigation

continued from page 13

than the 2013 flood.

“We were surprised in 2013,” says Esarte. “We don’t expect to be surprised again.”

Permanent dykes at High River High River, 35 kilometres south of Calgary, has a history of flooding. But when 345 millimetres of upstream rainfall shot down the Highwood River in 2013, the peak flows of 1,820 cubic metres per second were more than double anything the town had experienced in a century, overwhelming existing protection systems.

Since then the town has been busy. “We built seven kilometres of permanent dikes along the river before last flood season,” says Reiley McKerracher, P.Eng., the town’s manager of renewal operations. “We’re miles ahead of what anyone else has done so far.”

With design and construction management help from engineering firm WorleyParsons, the town has built permanent dikes to guard against an upstream flow rate of 1,850 cubic metres per second, with an additional vertical metre of free-board protection. Interim dikes, offering

1,200 cubic metres per second of protection, have been added elsewhere in town until permanent ones can be built. The river’s flow capacity is also being increased by the removal of a rail bridge and the replacement of a vehicle bridge with one higher. Finally, the provincial government is buying and removing houses in two badly flooded communities.

Collectively, these measures are intended to sufficiently protect the town of 13,000 people from future flooding so that more expensive measures may not be needed. These include a proposed diversion of floodwater down a canal into a dry dam, and a $250-million-plus project that Dutch consultant Deltares said could not be economically justified, given expected annual damages of less than $1 million.

“Coming up with the right solutions for any affected community is challenging because of all the variables that have to be considered,” says Stantec’s Monteith. “In a lot of cases, the infrastructure itself is not overly complex. The challenge is balancing the risk versus the investment required.”

CCE Bill Corbett is a freelance writer based in Calgary.

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Dillon Consulting

wastewater treatment

By Dillon Consulting

SAVING THE RIVER THAMES Upgrades to the Vauxhall Pollution Control Plant in London, Ontario enable it to treat wet weather flows that are 10 times the plant's everyday capacity.

T

he Vauxhall Pollution Control Plant in London, Ontario was one of three in the city that were being overwhelmed by the extra stormwater flows during wet weather. Major flows from storms would discharge directly into the Thames River when it was too much for the plant to handle. The average and peak flow treatment capacity of the treatment plant is 20,900 cu.m/d and 34,640 cu.m/d, respectively.

Sending untreated sewage flows into the river was a major environmental concern, especially since the river was designated a Canadian Heritage River in 2000. Periodically wet weather overflows into the Thames had exceeded 100,000 cubic metres per day.

Dillon Consulting was retained by the city to design the upgrades to the plant to resolve the situation. The key objective was to reduce the number of bypass events, and to improve the level of treatment of the effluent that was discharged into the river.

The engineers were able to upgrade the facility, some sections of which date back more than 80 years, into a state of the art operation. It is now one of the first Ontario municipal wastewater treatment plants to have a wet weather strategy that involves flow diversion, chemically enhanced Above: new headworks building with air-make-up unit with heat recovery and ozonation. In front of the building are the primary clarifier ponds and to the right are grit removal tanks.

primary treatment, and chemically enhanced secondary clarification processes. Furthermore, the $5.6-million upgrades pulled together technologies already in use in the industry, but reimagined them in such a way that minimal new equipment was required, giving the city cost savings.

The new peak plant flows are nearly 10 times the plant's average daily capacity.

The wet weather operating strategy is considered so innovative that it has been adopted in other Ontario plants, including Toronto's Ashbridge's Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant and the City of London's Greenway Pollution Control Centre.

At the Vauxhall plant, the new inlet works incorporating screens and grit removal are sized to handle maximum wet weather flows up to 200,000 m3/d. Under dry weather flow conditions the effluent from screening and grit removal is sent to the primary clarifiers before biological treatment.

During wet weather flows, effluent from screening and grit removal is split between the biological treatment step and the chemically enhanced primary clarification stage.

During high wet weather flow conditions flows up to the maximum capacity of the biological treatment step are directed to this process step. The maximum peak wet weather treatment capacity of the biological process is 50,000 cu.m/d. The increased peak wet weather treatment capacity continued on page 16

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capacity of the biological treatment process, the overall maximum wet weather treatment capacity of the plant is increased to approximately 200,000 cu.m/d. Of this flow 50,000 m3/d receives full biological treatment while the rest of the flow is treated to achieve high effluent quality for excess wet weather flows.

At the new inlet works an innovative but easy-to-operate ozonation system was installed for odour control. It includes heat recovery, thus reducing the consumption of chemicals and energy.

The new inlet works building's main heating and ventilation unit includes an air-to-air heat recovery feature. The heat recovery system generally recaptures 40-45% of the energy for make-up air heating. To further enhance the energy efficiency of the heating system, dual ventilation rates are used along with occupancy sensors and gas detectors.

CCE

Owner: City of London Prime consultant/design, permits, construction administration, commissioning: Dillon Consulting (Louis Tasfi, Ph.D., P.Eng., Tihamer Csiba, P.Eng., Jeff Williams) Contractor: Baseline

Dillon Consulting

is achieved by the flow proportional addition of a cationic polymer and iron salt to the mixed liquor ahead of the secondary clarifiers. Chemical addition enhances the peak wet weather treatment capacity of the process by retaining the mixed liquor solids in the biological treatment step. The wet weather operating strategy involves the gradual increase of flows to the biological treatment to avoid "washing out" and losing the biomass inventory in the aeration tank. This strategy requires a sophisticated level of flow control as the wet weather flows increase. Effluent from the biological treatment process is discharged to the River Thames.

Flows in excess of the maximum wet weather treatment capacity of the biological process are diverted to the existing primary clarifiers. These were upgraded to facilitate chemically enhanced primary clarification, which increases the removal of solids and associated contaminants. An anionic polymer and iron salt are added proportionally to the inflow to enhance the efficiency of the primary clarifiers, and the treated effluent is discharged to the river. The chemically enhanced primary clarification process has a maximum treatment capacity of 150,000 cu.m/d.

In summary, by using the chemically enhanced primary clarification for wet weather flows and chemically enhanced secondary clarification to increase the treatment

Above: aerial photo of the plant in the eastern section of London, southwest Ontario. Aeration tanks (large grids) are flanked by the primary clarifiers (rectangles) and inlet building (square). Towards bottom of photo near the river are the secondary clarifiers (circular).

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June/July 2015

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water supply

By Stephan Weninger, P.Eng., Stantec

Above: the trenchless installation method greatly reduced the environmental impacts.

Changing the Model A design-build team completed the Wandering River Regional Pipeline across 88 kilometres of Northern Alberta, taking just over a year.

Stantec

A

complex and unique project, the Wandering River Regional Pipeline is the first regional water project in Alberta completed using a design-build delivery model. Completed by Graham Design Builders with Stantec as the prime consultant, the project is a textbook example of how cooperation, teamwork and communication between different stakeholders can have positive results. The 88-kilometre system was designed, constructed and put into operation in only 13 months.

The project won a 2014 Award of Excellence from Consulting Engineers of Alberta and won the 2013 Project of the Year from the Alberta Public Works Association.

Located in Athabasca County along Highway 63 to the oil sands in northern Alberta, the pipeline brings treated water north from the Aspen Regional Water system. The pipe extends from Boyle to Wandering River via Grassland.

The project also involved building a new 550-cu.m potable water reservoir at Wandering River and modifications to a reservoir at Grassland.

Wandering River’s existing water treatment plant lay in the way of construction for twinning Highway 63, so the plant was scheduled for demolition in December 2012.

With the new pipeline project awarded in July 2011, timelines were a concern. Without the pipeline the community would be left without potable water.

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In anticipation of possible delays, the team sought regulatory approval concurrently for the 300+ crossings — utilities, highways and environmental features — along the line.

Construction proceeded in locations where approvals were in place, even if approvals were still outstanding in nearby areas. This process meant that the alignment had to be moved several times during the early months of construction while approvals with long lead times trickled in.

Horizontal directional drilling Using horizontal directional drilling (HDD) to install nearly the entire 88-km length of the system greatly reduced the project's potential environmental impacts. Installing using the HDD method also allowed the project to be exempt from the requirement to obtain an approval under the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, which reduced the overall timeline by approximately six months. Also known as "trenchless" drilling, the HDD method allows pipe to be installed at a wide variety of depths with minimal disturbance to the surface. Excavations only occur at either end of a drilled section of pipe, often 300-500 metres apart. Once the desired depth of pipe is reached, a steering apparatus allows the drill head to manoeuvre horizontally through the ground before surfacing.

Due to the depth of the frost line in Alberta, the pipe on

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Stantec

water supply

this project was installed at a minimal depth of 2.7 metres with a depth of up to 6 metres in some areas.

The system consists primarily of fusible polyvinyl chloride pipe (FPVC) and represents the largest project by length of FPVC installed to date in North America. The FPVC allows the HDD contractors to fuse sections of the pipe together, enabling them to install greater lengths at one time. The FPVC pipe also gave cost savings since its larger internal diameter allowed the use of 150-mm diameter pipe. The HDPE pipe which is more commonly used for this application has thicker walls and would have required the use of 200-mm diameter pipe.

Muskeg and other difficult terrain Throughout the construction teams encountered different terrains, which posed a threat to the timeline. Although much of the alignment paralleled roads, there were several stretches of private land, streams and a river to cross, as well as a 12-km section of undeveloped land. This land sat in muskeg, which meant that the installation had to be scheduled to proceed during frozen conditions otherwise the equipment would sink into the soils.

In some areas, unexpected gravel and boulders delayed the teams. On several occasions the drill was deflected below large boulders, but when the pipe was pulled back, the rock would settle and crush the pipe. Finding the offset rocks became a trial and error exercise of exposing the buried pipe. In areas where rocks and boulders were prevalent, the contractor shortened the drill lengths from 500 to 150 metres to minimize the production losses.

The most challenging crossing was under the Wandering River a few kilometres south of the community. The sandy soils required a conductor barrel to be installed to below the depth of the sand so that drilling mud pressure could be maintained.

The project was completed on budget and ahead of schedule and provides long term reliable clean and safe drinking water for the two communities and 70+ residences that lie along the pipeline. Despite Wandering River and Grassland being small communities, their relative remote-

Owner-client: Athabasca County Prime consultant: Stantec Consulting (Todd Simenson, P.Eng., Stephan Weninger, P.Eng., Scott Sanderson, C. Tech, Amber Mitchell, EIT, Don Munro, CET, Liang Liu, M.Eng., P.Eng., Andria Klatt, P.Eng., Qiguo Wang, P.Eng., Fathi Salma, P.Eng., Tony Clarke, CET) Design-build contractor: Graham Design Builders, Pidherney’s Other key players: Associated Engineering (owner's engineer), ParklandGEO (geotechnical), Shendel (mechanical), Vector (electrical), Landwest (land agent)

Above: the pipe was installed at a minimum depth of 2.7 metres, and up to 6 metres in some areas, due to the depth of the frost line in Alberta.

ness along Highway 63 makes them of strategic importance to the 11,000 vehicles that travel to and from the Alberta oilsands region daily. The new waterline and reservoir provide the communities with the resources they need as they grow as service centres along this energy corridor.

CCE

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June/July 2015

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water treatment

By Simon Breese, P.Eng. AECOM

Algae — Bane of Our Lakes Algae blooms are spoiling our lakes and clogging our water treatment plants. Here are a range of techniques to deal with the problem.

ŠGetty Images/iStockphoto/Ratikova

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lgae have always posed a challenge to water treatment plants, either through their tendency to clog filters, or due to issues such as taste and odour which can be challenging to address.

But the frequency and magnitude of algae blooms appears to be on the rise. This tendency is driven in part by global warming, and by more intensive land use around our watersheds, which increases their nutrient loading.

Of particular concern is the apparent global rise in harmful algae blooms caused by some species of algae, notably cyanobacteria, which can be toxic to humans and aquatic life.

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This article presents an overview of a wide variety of techniques that are presently employed in the water supply and treatment industry to address algae, either by managing algae growth at the source, or by removing algae or its metabolites at the water treatment plant.

As a general rule, given that the compounds that cause taste and odour (T&O) and toxins are initially formed as metabolic by-products within the algae cell, but become an issue primarily when released into the water, either by being excreted by the cell or through the death of the cell, it is almost always preferable to avoid

techniques that kill live algae cells, as this can exacerbate the issue.

The problems posed for a water treatment plant by algae can therefore also change seasonally. For example, early in the algae season, filter clogging due to live algae cells may be the primary concern, whereas later in the season the decline of the algae bloom and the resulting death of large populations of algae can result in taste and odour or toxicity issues.

Managing algae growth at the source While it is always preferable to under-

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water treatment

AECOM

take strategies preventing algae growth at the source, this is often difficult to achieve in a complex lake ecosystem where the water purveyor such as a municipality may not have complete control over the watershed.

A wide variety of techniques have been used, including: • selecting an alternative intake location: use of an intake designed to allow withdrawal of water at different depths, to allow the best quality water to be drawn; • reducing nutrient input from point and non-point sources; • precipitation of nutrients within the water body by the addition of chemicals; • dredging of lake sediments to physically remove nutrients; • de-stratification of the water body using artificial circulation; • aeration of deeper waters in stratified lakes to allow the use of these deep waters as a source instead of waters nearer to the surface prone to algae growth; • use of algaecides such as copper sulphate to prevent the onset of algae blooms; • bio-manipulation: seeding of the water body with species of fish or other aquatic life that feed upon the problem algae species; • sonication: use of ultrasonic irradiation to disrupt algae and retard their proliferation.

Given the complexity of lake ecosystems and the enormous variety in the number of species of algae, it is diffi-

Above: dissolved air flotation, or DAF, is generally considered the best available technology for physically removing live algae cells. The algae are gently floated to the surface using micro-bubbles.

cult to point to any one of these techniques as universally successful. When considering any of them, care is need-

It is almost always preferable to avoid techniques that kill live algae cells, as this can exacerbate the issue. ed to ensure that they do not give rise to unintended consequences. Careful liaison with all relevant regulatory authorities is also essential.

Managing algae and its metabolites at the plant If algae cannot be managed within the source itself, a variety of techniques can be employed, either to deal with the removal of live algae, or to deal directly with their metabolites.

Conventional water treatment plants are capable of 90% or higher physical removal of live algae cells, given that algae generally become captured within coagulant floc. For source waters prone to algae, it is preferable to rely upon clarification processes such as sedimentation or dissolved air flotation (considered the best available technology for algae removal) to remove the majority of the algae. Although filtration also is very effective, it will typically come at the price of significant reductions in the plant's productivity due to filter clogging.

Treatment techniques for addressing algal metabolites generally use either oxidative or sorptive techniques. Where oxidation is used, care must be taken to remove live algae as far as possible before applying the oxidant to avoid killing them.

Commonly employed oxidation techniques include: • Chlorination, which can be effective against many T&O-causing compounds and some algal toxins, but can result in disinfection by-product formation; • Potassium permanganate; • Ozone, which is highly effective against most algae related T&O, as

well as algal toxins; • Advanced oxidation, which typically employs a combination of ultraviolet irradiation of hydrogen peroxide or chlorine, or ozone oxidation of hydrogen peroxide, to form hydroxyl radicals extremely effective in the destruction of T&O or algal toxins; Sorptive techniques that are commonly used include: • powdered activated carbon (PAC), which is highly effective for the removal of both T&O and algal toxins if applied in sufficient dosages. PAC can become cost prohibitive unless the algae season is comparatively short in duration; • granular activated carbon (GAC), where coarse activated carbon is placed as a sorptive medium as part of a filter bed. GAC is also highly effective as long as the GAC retains sorptive capacity.

The effective life of the GAC can vary from a few months to several years, depending upon source water quality; • Biological filtration, whereby the growth of biomass on a porous filter media such as GAC is actively encouraged, commonly through the use of ozone upstream of the filter. This process cleaves long chain organic molecules into short chain assimilable organic carbon, which is useable as a food source by the biomass. A combination of ozone with biological filtration provides a dual barrier against T&O and algal toxins, although the removal efficiency in typical Canadian plants can vary seasonally, as biological activity slows dramatically in cold waters.

In summary, addressing algae related issues in a water treatment plant is a highly complex issue and the appropriate solution not only is highly case specific, but also can vary seasonally. Given this complexity, pilot testing is almost always recommended to ensure the long term sustainability of CCE any approaches.

Simon Breese, M.A.Sc., P.Eng. is technical director of water treatment with AECOM in Kitchener, Ontario.

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public affairs

By Bronwen Parsons

DELAYS DELAYS Large construction projects are taking years longer than they're supposed to — and the public want to know why.

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lmost every day across Canada news breaks that a major construction project is delayed. A subway or LRT line, a parkway, an airport, even a public square — it doesn't matter — chances are that long after the project was due to open the site is still a dusty mess, yellow hardhats and heavy equipment are about, and barriers are still up. The photo op and grand ribbon cutting have retreated to a far distant horizon.

In its March 31 edition the Toronto Star listed nine major transportation projects in the Greater Toronto Area that were up to seven years late, millions over budget, and sometimes both. Among the most notorious is the To-

ronto York Spadina Subway Extension, a line tunnelling 8.5-kilometres northwest of the city. In March it was $150 million over its $2.6-billion budget and heading for being four years late. The Toronto Transit Commission fired two top engineering staff over this and other construction fiascos.

The TTC is not alone in its troubles. By late April workers were still fixing deficiencies at the $145-million PanAm stadium in Hamilton. It was supposed to be open 10 months earlier.

In downtown Toronto the endless renovations to Nathan Philip Square at City Hall are legend. "What in heaven's name?" asked Mayor John Tory in April when he looked out his window and saw new construction fences being erected continued on page 24

©Getty Images/iStockphoto/badmanproduction/ Catalin Vicol

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on the plaza, reported the National Post. Changes to the plaza were supposed to have been finished in 2012. "I just was so aggravated because I really want to declare this project over, to declare it as an unfortunate chapter in terms of the expenditure and move on, learning lessons from the thing as to how we can stop this from happening," the mayor said. The budget has risen 50 per cent from $40 million to $60 million. Work has dragged on for so long that crews are now having to repair fountains that were installed three years ago as part of the renovations.

In Windsor the consortium building the Rt. Hon. Herb Gray Parkway to a future U.S. border crossing is reported to be paying $100,000 a day in fines because the 11-kilometre expressway is not open on time.

Western Canada does not escape. An expansion to Calgary Airport is running a year late, while Edmonton has three overdue projects: the Walterdale Bridge (a year late), the Metro LRT line (opening this spring, a year late), and the 102nd Street-Groat Road Crossing (work halted for weeks in April). According to the Edmonton Journal on April 8, so many projects have problems, Edmonton city councillors are questioning their procurement process. Councillor Michael Oshry said: "It might be a string of bad luck, but when you have three big projects late by this much, there might be something wrong with the selection."

In Victoria, B.C., the unique Johnson Street Bridge ran into material supply problems and construction was at a standstill for 15 months. The budget has risen by the same steep curve we see in Toronto, from an original $63 million to $97 million.

It's not just the complex, high-profile projects that are running past time. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure released a report this spring that found more than half the province's highway construction projects were late during the 2013-2014 fiscal year. It's a recent trend: in 2008 only 29% of the highway contracts were delayed. Shantel Lipp, president of the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association, told the Journal of Commerce: "When I heard 51 per cent, that seemed high to us. We were shocked it had gotten to that point."

It's small comfort to know that Canada is not alone in this. KPMB International issued its "2015 Global Construction Project Owner's Survey: Climbing the Curve" in midMay. The report is based on 109 face-to-face interviews

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with the heads of companies and other organizations around the world that carry out large construction projects. The respondents were from across the Americas (38%), Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific. A quarter of them represented government agencies. Their capital budgets ranged from US $410 million to more than US $5 billion. These people told KPMB that fewer than one-third of their projects in the last three years were completed on time and on budget. Only 25% of their projects came within 10% of their original deadlines, and only 31% came within 10% of their budgets.

Clearly there is a problem.

Finding fault Delays inevitably mean spending more money, whether it's the developer forced to pay financial penalties and spend more on labour, or the general economic toll paid by society and businesses for the inconvenience of ongoing construction and the traffic snarls that result.

Construction projects are highly complex so there are myriad reasons why things can go wrong. There is weather.

An extremely harsh winter last year wreaked havoc on schedules, for example. And often there are unforeseen conditions, such as coming across an old sewer line that is in the way of new infrastructure. There are freak incidents, like the steel beams that bent several inches for unknown reasons when they were being installed on Edmonton's 102nd Street overpass during a windstorm in April.

In the media, blame for the delays is cast around like seeds in a farmer's field. The reasons are laid at the feet of contractors (for cutting corners and shoddy work that has to be redone); suppliers (sending inferior equipment); and designers (creating extravagant architecture and unrealistic green designs that demand more time). Sometimes the owners and politicians are held to account for managing things poorly, as in the case of the TTC subway.

And yes, consulting engineers are implicated. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Highways report, which was independently prepared by McNair Business Development, finds many reasons for delays, including contractors "stockpiling" projects to save work for the next season. But it also notes that problems have become worse since the Ministry began outsourcing more work to consulting engineers. The sheer volume of projects continued on page 27

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public affairs

in the province meant that too many small and inexpe- to be badly delayed unless it ends up in litigation. There rienced contractors and engineering companies that each poor decision and mistake is ferreted out in laboridon't have the capacity to do the work were being hired. ous — and expensive — detail. By that time, at least in Another problem was that engineering firms weren't public projects, the damage has likely been done and the being given enough authority by the Ministry to make taxpayers are on the hook for the cost overruns. continued on page 28 decisions, which led to hold-ups on site.

Chris Newcomb, P.Eng., chair of McElhanney Consulting in Vancouver, recalls that problems come about through traditional scheduling practices. Municipalities often don't approve their budgets for the design of projects until spring. "The artificial imposition of the financial year-end means that construction is jammed into the late summer and fall." As a result he says, "Construction bids are higher and the contractors have a compressed construction schedule. If How do you know winter comes early some projects that construction don't get finished until the following and environmental spring, the environmental impacts are aggravated due to rain washing standards are being mud into creeks, and engineers' estimet? mates are often overrun because of the uncertainty of it all."

By hiring an From a project management independent, point of view there are plenty of theories of why projects go wrong.

CCIL-member R.S. Means, the cost consultants, laboratory, you have cited misaligned schedules, can rely on late-stage changes in project scope, accurate, objective and unrealistic designs. and unbiased test A shortage of experienced staff is also causing problems, both in the results. private and the public sectors. And regulatory approvals can be a huge For quality stumbling block on any project, but assurance, insist particularly when First Nations are inon independent volved where there can be a lack of structure, with no clear process, aulaboratory testing. thority or deadlines.

In many cases the reason given for delays and poor projects is the all-too-common practice of hiring consultants and contractors according to who submits the lowest bid to do the work. "You get what you pay for" is not an axiom that owners who embark on construction projects THERE’S A CCIL-MEMBER LABORATORY NEAR YOU seem to believe in.

To find one, go to www.ccil.com or call us at 613-746-3919 No-one really gets to the bottom of what caused a particular project

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Soldiering forth and QBS Dr. George F. Jergeas, professor of project management at the Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary, gave a presentation in March on construction activity in the oil sands. As reported on March 24 by the Journal of Commerce, Jergeas believes what is needed to keep mega-projects on track is more attention at the "front end, the owner side of the business and the engineering side." "The more engineering is involved, the more complete and better quality the design," he said.

In Edmonton, Paul Ruffell, P.Eng., president of infrastructure for Tetra Tech EBA in Canada, says the same: "We're not often allowed to put enough engineering into projects at the start. If you were to have infinite money and infinite time, you could do a design that allows the project to be completed in a straightforward manner. But of course you never do have infinite resources, so you do the best design you can and then soldier forth and deal with the situations that arise and impact the schedule.

Ruffell believes that using a qualifications-based-selection (QBS) process to hire an engineer can help. In this method engineers are pre-qualified for a job based on their expertise,

so they can then sit down with the owner before the project's scope of work is established and first share with the client all the things that can possibly go wrong.

In contrast, where price is the deciding factor for hiring a consultant or selecting their proposed design, the competitors are almost bound to downplay potential problems.

"Pessimists don't win bids," says Ruffell. "You have to take the sunny view and say that things are going to align and everything will go swimmingly."

John Gamble, P.Eng., president and chief executive officer of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies-Canada in Ottawa, agrees. "The greatest source of disputes in any project is a matter of misaligned expectations. That is because most procurement systems are adversarial to begin with. Most procurement systems emphasize price. Some overtly, some subtly. What that effectively does is it encourages engineers, architects and contractors to minimally interpret the scope of work. It actually discourages them from identifying potential complexities."

In contrast, he says, the consultants selected through a qualifications-based process can focus on the client's needs. "Studies in the U.S. where they have had QBS in place for over four decades have demonstrated that both cost creep and schedule creep are dramatically reduced when QBS is used to select engineering and architectural consultants."

Gamble adds: "In the case of a P3 or design-build project, using QBS is an especially effective approach because the private consortia are taking a huge leap of faith. So it's more important than ever to have the right team."

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Public-private partnerships fare better In fact, public-private-partnerships (P3s) are turning out to be a better solution for bringing large infrastructure projects in on time.

TD Economics published a special report on March 31 responding to a previous one issued by Ontario's Auditor General about the cost of P3s, also known as "alternative financing and procurement (AFP)" projects.

The TD economists pointed out that an independent review of 37 public-private-partnership projects completed in 2014 had shown that 73% of them had been finished on time or

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public affairs

within a month of their scheduled completion date.

The primary purpose of the TD report was to show that even though P3 projects had cost more to finance than they would have using public funds, there was good reason. Before construction began on P3s the private consortia had accounted for potential risks and delays and built them into the price. In contrast, traditional projects frequently run into problems after construction, which causes budgets to escalate and deadlines to be delayed. "On the surface, P3s appear to have a higher price tag on the tangible aspects of the project than in a traditional procurement project," says the TD report. "However, that ignores the fact that the tangible costs in an AFP are a more complete pricing of all of the risks of the project."

The TD report also notes that one of the reasons that P3 projects come in closer to their deadlines is that a great deal of the engineering is done before shovels hit the ground. So it lists "time savings" as one of the primary benefits of the P3 model. It notes: "Although the tendering and contracting phase of a P3 may take longer due to the complexity of projects and contract arrangements, the construction phase is often accelerated. This minimizes public inconvenience and construction-time costs relative to traditional procurement. If a project is delayed, in most cases the private contractor would bear the cost."

In other words, the reason P3 projects are successful is because the private owners realistically assess the true risks before they start. So Ruffell is right: if owners put more time and effort into the engineering up front, then the chances of a project bumping into unforeseen difficulties and being thrown off schedule become less likely.

On a positive note, many projects do manage to be completed on time, and even ahead of time. Good news is no news, however, and the successes slip under the media radar. Recent examples are repairs to the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto (two months ahead of schedule), most of the Toronto PanAm Games venues including the complex Athletes' Village, and a new $278-million stadium in Regina, which in March was reported to be on track for opening in 2017.

But doesn't the public have the right to expect that all construction projects should be completed at least reasonably close to the promised due date? Is there really a valid excuse for so many chronic delays?

"It's about setting up expectations," says Ruffell. He suggests it would be better to be honest at the beginning of a project and warn the public that construction often meets unanticipated snags. It's a brave city manager who will stand up in council and admit it," he says, but if we are honest, "stuff does happen."

Another way forward is to have owners, engineers and contractors work together towards a solution. In Nanaimo on Vancouver Island a group of 140 people met all day on May 13 at the first annual Capital Projects Forum. Hosted by the Construction Council of Vancouver Island, the Royal Bank of Canada and Herold Engineering, the forum was to promote "constructive dialogue between owners, consultants and contractors." It was to "focus on pursuing better collaborative work between owners and the construction community, to communicate effectively, demolish silos and generate better project delivery outcomes."

Let's hope it works.

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2015-06-15 11:37 AM

environment

By Sophie Kneisel

Above: surplus bamboo from the Toronto Zoo panda exhibit is repurposed for different uses, including controlling soil erosion.

Trash to Treasure A handful of "industrial symbiosis" networks are starting to take hold in Canada. The idea behind them is that the output of one industrial plant becomes feedstock for another.

Synergie Québec The Centre de transfert technologique en ecologie industrielle (CTTEI) is a college centre of excellence that promotes industrial ecology under the name “Synergie Québec, in part by coordinating industrial, inorganic and mixed waste reclamation initiatives.

One of the Synergie-Québec industrial regions is the Brome-Missisquoi Centre local de developpement (CLD) in Cowansville. Oriana Familiar, the centre's sustainable development advisor, says they have managed to inventory 145 items from 15 participating companies. More than 20 potential exchanges were identified, along with 40 more possible “synergies” with businesses outside the region.

There are many potential synergies involving organic waste from factory cafeterias or the agricultural sector, Familiar says. Packaging and chemical products are another area with lots of potential.

Implementing the 20 exchanges identified in this first phase involves working on the technical, legal and

logistical aspects. “We would like to achieve at least half of the 20 this year,” Familiar says. “We will be calculating the impact of the exchanges as they are implemented.”

Funding for the second (implementation) phase is dependent on a positive response from the participating municipal governments, businesses and the CLD, and has yet to be secured.

Second Cycle In Quebec City, a company headed by Frédéric Bouchard, ing. is one of Synergie Québec's main competitors. A major difference is their funding. “Second Cycle has a business model that doesn't require public dollars,” Bouchard says, although he acknowledges that the company started up using a government grant.

He describes Second Cycle as a mixture of consulting and brokerage, with a huge network in Quebec. It facilitates waste exchange by offering a website and counselling services, lab analyses and logistics. “We provide the

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continued on page 32

Canadian Consulting Engineer

Partners in Project Green, TRCA

O

ne man's trash is another man's treasure" has always been a fact of nature and is equally true today in our high-tech constructs. In its basic form, industrial symbiosis is a "trash to treasure" equation. But somewhere in a tangle of acronyms, public funding, environmental organizations and well-intentioned efforts, this essentially simple idea often seems to get buried.

Defined as “the establishment of mutually beneficial relationships between organizations to more effectively and efficiently manage resources,” industrial symbiosis was originally intended to create waste-to-feedstock linkages, thus moving industry to a circular economy. Collaborations have since been expanded to include energy, water and even services like transportation.

Just how complicated can it be to find a way to use byproducts (anything from plastics to energy) to create other products, rather than generating costly waste? It seems the answer is very different, depending on whom you ask.

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continued from page 31

Above: bee habitat made from surplus bamboo.

technology, they [clients] use the web site to facilitate exchanges.”

One such exchange is the re-use of scrap plastic for new plastic products.

Second Cycle sends samples to the plastic plant that is looking for raw material; if the scrap (which would otherwise be waste material) can be used, Second Cycle arranges for pickup and transfer to the factory.

“Many brokers try to sell scrap in Asia and China. We try to close the loop locally: we need to find our own way to re-use, not to ship [waste] somewhere the legislation is more lax.”

Bouchard believes there is a common misconception that an industrial zone can be a closed loop in itself, but says this is actually very difficult to achieve. “Waste generators and receivers don't match up [because the pool is too small].” Province-wide networks function well, and while region-wide can also work, he says “the volume is very small – a pallet versus a truckload.”

Partners in Project Green: A Pearson Eco-Business Zone Second Cycle's reach now extends to Ontario, where the company works with Partners in Project Green: A Pearson Eco-Business Zone. Partners in Project Green was originally created to service the 12,000 hectares of industrial lands at Pearson International in 32

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Mississauga, but the network now extends into municipalities beyond. It National Industrial Symbiosis works with leading companies to pro- Program mote the adoption of sustainable busi- The gold standard for industrial symness practices, with its major focus on biosis has to be Industrial Synergies’ four areas: energy, water, waste and National Industrial Symbiosis Program. Peter Laybourn, a British conengagement.

Formerly part of the Synergie Qué- sultant, created NISP in 2002. bec project, Project Green is now using “Industrial symbiosis is a systems apSecond Cycle's exchange platform which, according to Bouchard, offers a network that is 20 times larger.

Synergies underway include shipping leftover bamboo (pandas at the Metro Toronto Zoo eat only 20 per cent or less of what they're fed) to a farm where it is used to control soil erosion. Another program involves retrofitting and distributing Coca-Cola's concentrated beverage drums as rain barrels to promote urban community rainwater recovery.

Top: repurposing dead ash trees into lumber at a Bentall Kennedy Project Green is in business park in Toronto. Above: Coca-Cola repurposes its syrup the process of launch- containers into rain barrels for community gardens.

Partners in Project Green, TRCA

ing Second Cycle's online exchange for companies to post information about their waste products. “[Use of] the platform is free, and our staff will facilitate the exchanges,” says Malaz Sebai, Project Green's project manager for waste management.

Partners in Project Green is funded by the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA).

When it started in 2008, the organization had one full-time and one halftime TRCA employee; it now has a staff of 12 and a growing mandate. “We're incorporating minimal program fees to meet a goal of being 20 per cent selfsustaining,” Sebai says.

Partners in Project Green, TRCA

environment

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environment

proach to a more sustainable and integrated industrial economy that identifies business opportunities to improve resource utilization: materials, energy, water, capacity, expertise, assets etc.,” Laybourn explained in a videotaped seminar in Vancouver in 2012. “[It involves] innovation and culture changes, but it's achieved through profitable business enterprises. A 'synergy' is in a way just a business transaction, but typically it benefits more than one party and the environment as well.”

As opposed to a six-month process resulting in 20 to 60 potential synergies, NISP puts 50 people in a room for a half-day session and nets 300 potential synergies (a record was set in Mexico, where a session resulted in 600 synergies).

The proprietary platform has been adapted for use in 20 other countries.

NISP-Canada was launched last March at GLOBE 2014, and is now seeking funding for its Metro Vancouver pilot program.

“We are pulling together the investments to launch NISP-Canada,” says Tracy Casavant, P.Eng., executive director of Light House Sustainable Building Centre Society, the Vancouver-based non-profit leading the NISP program in Canada. “Our goal is to secure a mix of government and private investment, with the majority of funding from the various levels of government. We have applied to Western Economic Diversification for approximately 40 per cent of the funding, and are seeking other funding commitments.”

The figures indicating NISP’s success are, if anything, under-represented, Laybourn says in the video.

“It’s interesting what happens when you do a value for money, because if we achieved that (39 million tonnes of CO2 reductions, 10,000 jobs created, 1.2 billion Euros in cost savings, over five years), but spent a fortune in getting there, it’s not so good. But we’re spending cents (73 Euro cents) on reducing carbon by a tonne. So it’s a very cost-efficient way of reduc-

ing things like landfill and carbon … and it’s got a benefit:cost ratio that’s basically off the scale for a government-type investment.”

Given these numbers, here’s another common phrase to apply to the

Sophie Kneisel is a freelance writer based in Baltimore, Ontario, and a former editor of Canadian Consulting Engineer.

DID YOU JUST SPEC

THE END OF YOUR CAREER WITH THE WRONG WATERPROOFING?

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state of industrial symbiosis in Canada: CCE “What’s the hold-up?”

June/July 2015

15/12/2014 2:02:35 PM

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business

By Cal Harrison MBA, CMC

How Bad Can It Be? The amount of money that engineers and architects spend cumulatively in preparing Requests for Proposals to compete for projects comes under analysis — with disturbing results.

©Getty Images/iStockphoto/roberthyrons

S

everal years ago I was in Victoria, B.C. doing a presentation to the local chapter of the Canadian Association of Management Consultants about selling professional services. As usual, part of my discussion included bashing the costs, ethical issues and inaccuracy of the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.

As we were wrapping up, one of the attendees raised his hand and said, “Cal, I would bet money that if you added up the cost of all the time spent writing proposals by all the proponents to an RFP, then those costs would be greater than the fees available in that RFP!” That thought hit me like a Dustin Byfuglien slap shot and tormented me for years because I knew he was right. But how could I take this idea to the world?

Finally one day I had the answer.

I designed a simple experiment to try and benchmark for professional services firms how frequently the total costs of writing a proposal exceed the fees for the winner.

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For example, if 10 firms spend $5,000 each writing proposals in response to an RFP, the total proposal writing cost is $50,000. If the fees available to the winner of that RFP are $40,000, then the proposal writing cost (what I call the “industry response cost”) is greater than the fees to the winner. I consider that to be an indicator of a very low-efficiency process. What I wanted to see was just how frequently this inefficiency happens.

So I analyzed the RFPs in three professional services categories available on MERX (the electronic tendering service for those bidding on Canadian government contracts) on one single day. I analyzed for three types of service: Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services (PAMSS); Information Processing and Related Telecommunications Services (IT & Telecom); and Architect and Engineering Services (A&E).

I reviewed hundreds of RFPs and did an estimate of the hours I believed it would take to respond to each RFP. I multiplied that by a standard hourly

rate to come up with the cost of writing a typical proposal for each specific RFP. I then multiplied that cost by 50% of the total number of individuals that downloaded the RFP. In other words, I assumed that only half of the companies that downloaded the RFP would actually submit a proposal) which gave me the industry response cost for that RFP. With that I was able to compare the industry response cost to the fees that the winning firm would receive based on a budget stated in the RFP. If no budget was stated then I did not use that RFP. The results were very interesting, as shown below.

FREQUENCY THAT REQUESTS FOR PROPOSALS COST MORE THAN THE PROJECT

Professional, Administrative and Management Support Services (PAMSS)

17%

Information Processing and Related Telecommunications Services (IT & Telecom)

33%

Architect and Engineering Services (A&E)

67%

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business

Outside the obvious observation — that the frequency indicated in the table above is way too high in all categories (67% for A&E!) — there exists another interesting question: Why are the numbers so different? To that I do not have a good answer but I do have two thoughts.

First, the numbers seem to increase as the complexity of the professional services increases.

While architecture and engineering consulting can be a very complex process, when you layer on technology variables (hardware, legacy systems, software, networks, security, etc.) or design and construction variables (materials, location, weather, building codes, legislation, etc.), it’s easy to see how the proposal writing process could take much longer for A&E firms compared to the companies in the other two categories. (As well, I am sorry but I must say that architects are notorious for giving away too much thinking up front, especially in things like design competitions, which other sectors like advertising have somewhat successfully tried to outlaw for years.)

Second, IT and A&E projects are often bigger budget projects, so it makes sense that their proposals would need bigger budget as well. As scale increases, and variables increase, so too might proposal writing cost volatil-

ity (possibly increasing exponentially instead of in a linear fashion when complexity increases).

ican Public Works Association (APWA) and American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC-US) has clearly indicated that price is a poor selection criterion. So by re"I am not suggesting we just award moving price as an evaluation projects without some sort of process, criterion we remove a lot of but I am suggesting that we make the the proposal writing cost while also improving the qualprocess better." ity of the selection outcome.

The real purpose of these numbers, (2) Better fraud protection. Price is however, is not to nail down what the easy to manipulate, whereas expertise cost actually is, but simply to accelerate is easily and objectively evaluated (with the discussion about how we can re- a trained eye) and also difficult to fake. duce the industry's response cost for So selecting based upon qualifications professional services projects and ulti- and not price, provides much better mately increase the quality, integrity protection against procurement fraud and value to the end user (which is — protecting the buyers from allegaoften the taxpayer). tions of impropriety and the end user I am not suggesting we just award (again, often the taxpayer) from the projects without some sort of process, misuse of their funds. but I am suggesting that we make the (3) Easy to implement. Changing to process better.

QBS is almost a “costless change” as it And I believe that a qualifications- requires no new people, no new techbased selection (QBS) process, with a nology, no new legislation, and no new budget disclosed to the vendors, and a policy writing. Just a decision to change, price negotiated with only the most some support from management (and qualified vendor, will be a significant maybe politicians), and a bit of training improvement compared to the current on how to shift from a Request for Prouse of a priced-based RFP in the pro- posal, to a Request for Qualifications fessional services buying process. using a QBS-based scoring rubric.

Why? For three simple reasons.

So what are we waiting for? CCE (1) Lower cost and better quality decision-making. It takes a lot of time Cal Harrison, MBA, CMC, is the president and money to try and predict the price of Beyond Referrals, a Winnipeg based of a project, and research by the Amer- consulting firm. Cal@BeyondReferrals.com

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TC Thermenex Inc. designed and installed the innovative system, which captures and transfers thermal energy among the buildings through water circulation. This technology makes it possible for the chillers and heating system to operate at their most efficient point, while ensuring an optimal indoor environment. "Cheap systems are no longer the focus of most clients,” said Ian Hall, Principal of Thermenex. “They want value and energy efficiency; we give them both."

Three heat exchangers and thirty-four Grundfos pumps consisting of ten VSM close-coupled vertical space miser pumps, seven UPS 3-speed wet rotor circulators, and seventeen MAGNA3 all-purpose variable speed circulators were utilized in the Thermenex system. The combination of pumps was selected for their efficient operation, compact size and simple installation, which were essential for this retrofit application. The MAGNA3 in particular was selected for the following reasons: • MAGNA3 is the obvious choice having the lowest power consumption in the North American market, with the fastest return on investment. It can achieve energy savings up to 75%, and as much as 85% with its unique AUTOADAPT control.

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The City Centre District Energy System is expected to be operational in spring 2015. The infrastructure is anticipated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 480 tons during its first year of operation.

Grundfos is the world’s largest manufacturer of pumps and pumping systems. Grundfos’ Canadian headquarters is located in Oakville, Ont. 1-800-644-9599, www.grundfos.ca

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2015-06-15 2:35 PM

engineers & the law

By Owen Pawson and Alizee Bilbey, Miller Thomson

Blacklisting Bidders In a disturbing trend, a B.C. municipality is refusing to work with contractors and consultants who have been involved in recent litigation brought against it.

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contractor, J. Cote & Son Excavating, is suing the City cised to punish or “get even” for past differences. of Burnaby in B.C. because of a new provision in its Hancon Holdings Ltd v Nanaimo (City) is similar to the J. tender documents. J. Cote calls it a “reprisal clause." Cote case. At issue was the provision in Nanaimo’s tender The clause states that Burnaby will not accept tenders documents giving Nanaimo the absolute discretion to reject from any party that is, or has been within the last two years, a tender if the tenderer had been engaged in legal action involved in legal proceedings initiated against Burnaby against Nanaimo in the previous five years. The Court acarising out of a contract for works or services. The clause cepted Nanaimo’s evidence that it adopted the provision for effectively forces consultants or convalid business reasons, including the "ACEC stated that such tractors who are currently working rationale of avoiding high legal costs for Burnaby who may have a dispute that would be incurred by taxpayers a sanction effectively with the city to choose between purto defend against subsequent legal discourages firms or suing their legitimate legal rights actions if the contract was awarded to and bidding on Burnaby contracts contractors from pursuing their the tenderer. for the next two years.

But these cases can be distinlegitimate legal rights..."

In its notice of civil claim J. Cote guished from the lawsuit between J. argues that the clause financially punishes contractors for Cote and Burnaby. In both Sound Contracting and Hancon, exercising their legal rights. Burnaby has responded that the Nanaimo had the discretion to decide whether to accept or clause was incorporated and implemented on bona fide pol- bypass the tender. In the J. Cote case, the clause prohibits, icy reasons based on financial, economic, social or political without discretion, any tender from a tenderer who has factors or constraints. Burnaby denies the allegation that the been involved in legal proceedings against Burnaby in the clause infringes the rule of law or the right of reasonable ac- last two years. The automatic disentitlement distinguishes cess to the courts, because the clause does not preclude any- this case from the others and may cause the clause to fall one from commencing legal proceedings against the city. into the category of “punishment” for past differences — J. Cote is precluded from being considered for any ten- something which the Court in Sound Contracting specifiders issued by Burnaby because of an action the contractor cally rejected. It may prove difficult for Burnaby to demoninitiated in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in De- strate that past legal proceedings, no matter how reasoncember 2013. That action arose out of a previous contract able, warrant automatic disqualification. with Burnaby for the construction of sewers, the installation The Association of Consulting Engineering Companiesof service connections and paving. J.Cote has performed Canada (ACEC) has released a member advisory opposing contracts for the city totalling $14.8 million since 2005, so the practice by any municipality or public agency of prohibbeing prohibited from tendering is significant for them. But iting a firm from participating in the procurement process the loss of the opportunity to bid on future public contracts because the firm has past or current litigation with that with Burnaby also seriously impacts any firm that routinely municipality. In the advisory, ACEC stated that such a sancperforms contract work for the city. tion effectively discourages firms or contractors from pursuSimilar issues have been raised in the past. In Sound Con- ing their legitimate legal rights, based on a threat of being tracting Ltd v City of Nanaimo the B.C. Court of Appeal found barred from future participation in projects. that Nanaimo could, based on the "privilege clause" inIf J. Cote is unsuccessful and the clause remains in Burnacluded in its request for tenders, exercise its discretion and by’s tender documents, consultants and contractors who are bypass the lowest bidder for a project. The Court stated that currently working for Burnaby will be obliged to choose bethe previous dealings between the parties provided addi- tween pursuing legitimate legal claims arising from their tional criteria that Nanaimo could consider and that such contract with the municipality and obtaining future concriteria were “probably the best indicator of how a proposed tracts. For any firm reliant on public sector projects, the relationship will come to work out in practice." However, economic consequence of such a choice could be significant. contined on page 38 the Court did state that this discretion should not be exerJune/July 2015

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products HVAC

LG Electronics has launched the first air-cooled VRF (variable refrigerant flow) unit with matching voltage for the Canadian market. The LG VRF 575V is the first product designed specifically for one region "and a perfect example of our commitment to the Canadian market," said Thomas Yoon, president and CEO of LG Electronics Canada. By removing the need for a step-down transformer and heavier gauge cables, installation costs are reduced. The units can be easily used in retrofits and new buildings.

Lennox has expanded its light gas and electric commercial Raider rooftop unit with 6-ton units and new 14 SEER units available in 3-5 tons. www.lennox.com Navien now provides Revit with Building Information Modelling (BIM) drawings for its NPE, NCB, and NHB series models of condensing tankless gas water heaters and condensing combi boilers. Navien also provides application drawings at the same link. http:// us.navien.com/Engineers_Architects/Page1/Specifications

engineers & the law

contined from page 37

Nanaimo continues to include a "litigation clause" in its request for tenders that specifies that Nanaimo may, at its absolute discretion, reject a bid submitted by a company if it has been involved in a legal action against Nanaimo in the previous five years. Even if the Court in J. Cote recognizes the distinction between Nanaimo’s discretionary litigation clause and Burnaby’s automatic disqualification clause, and J. Cote is successful in its case, Burnaby may simply add a discretionary element to its clause.

Municipalities and cities should carefully consider the implications of such clauses, discretionary or not. The reputation of a contracting authority is very important given the small, well connected design professionals and construction contractors who bid on such projects. When the economy is robust, bidders may decline to participate in tenders with onerous clauses. This is especially true of good firms that are most likely to have other opportunities that do not require them to CCE give up their legitimate legal recourses.

Owen Pawson is a partner with Miller Thomson, LLP in Vancouver.

Alizee Bilbey is an articled student with the firm. E-mail opawson@ millerthomson.com 38

Daikin has added a new floor mount indoor unit to its ductless product line of air conditioners. The new FVXS is for use with the multi-zone MXS comfort systems, and is available now in 9, 12 and 18 MBH capacities. www. daikin.com The Vitocrossal 300 CU3A gas-condensing boiler from Viessmann is a compact, floor-standing unit from 19 to 199 MBH. With 95% AFUE efficiency and operation of up to 90° C, it incorporates the Inox-Crossal SA240 316Ti stainless steel heat exchanger.

Multi-boiler installations are possible, with eight boilers up to 1,592 MBH. www.viessmann.ca Emerson Climate Technologies has joined the EnOcean Alliance which focuses on wireless technology that harvests energy. In the first instance Emerson will use the technology in sensors for its food quality monitoring system for retailers. The Alliance is dedicated to creating interoperability. Nearly 400 companies currently belong. www.emersonclimate.com contined on page 40

professional directory Experts in Measurement, Analysis & Control

905-826-4546 answers@hgcengineering.com www.hgcengineering.com

For information on placing an advertisement in the Canadian Consulting Engineer Professional Directory, contact Maureen Levy, Senior Publisher, 416-510-5111, email: mlevy@ccemag.com, or Vince Naccarato, Sales Manager, 416-510-5118, email: vnaccarato@ccemag.com

www.canadianconsultingengineer.com June/July 2015

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2015-06-15 2:35 PM

Specifier’s Literature Review

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The Canam InfoTech Express bulletin, aimed at the consulting engineering community, is intended to keep decision-makers informed about the various products Canam fabricates. By consulting Canam InfoTech Express, designers will learn how to make optimum use of Canam products for the benefit of their customers. Registration is free of charge at www.canam.ws/engineers. For more information, contact us at www.canam-construction.com SUPPLIER: CANAM

If you were planning to rout and seal your asphalt joints after they fail, think about the added costs of repairing what you’ve already done. Denso Re-instatement Tape is a polymer modified bituminous strip that is cold applied and designed to seal the joints between asphalt, concrete and steel, the first time. Re-instatement Tape seals around catch basins, manholes, utility cuts and next to concrete curbs prior to paving. Do it right the first time with Denso Road Products. For more information contact: Blair Slessor at 416-291-3435, email: Blair@Densona-ca.com, or visit our website at www.densona.com SUPPLIER: DENSO NORTH AMERICA INC.

KRYSTOL TECHNOLOGY: THE DURABLE WATERPROOFING SOLUTION

Kryton International Inc. is the inventor of the crystalline waterproofing admixture and has been waterproofing concrete structures with its proprietary Krystol technology since 1973.

Kryton’s innovative technology leads the way for the construction of more durable, resilient and sustainable concrete structures. Kryton manufactures and exports its products to more than 50 countries globally. To learn more, visit www.kryton.com or call 800.267.8280 SUPPLIER: KRYTON INTERNATIONAL INC.

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CCIL represents the independent, private-sector testing industry in Canada. The more than 330 member facilities across the country play a vital role in ensuring the quality and safety of roads, buildings, manufactured goods, crops, food, air, water, soil and more. Because CCIL members are independent, they are able to conduct investigations and render reports objectively and without bias. This independence is fundamental to ensuring the highest level of confidence in the results. Find a CCILmember laboratory near you. Go to www.ccil. com or call us at 613-746-3919.

SUPPLIER: CCIL

Resolving or preventing environmental erosion issues - Cable Concrete® is the first choice of engineers, planners, conservation authorities, communities, municipalities and general contractors. IECS is seen as the leader in providing successful, sustainable erosion solutions to protect the environment and by extension, likely protect physical, human, livestock and wild life assets. 1-800-821-7462 | www.iecs.com SUPPLIER: IECS

LG MULTI V IV 575V: COMMITTED TO THE CANADIAN MARKET. Once again, LG raises the bar for the HVAC industry with the introduction of Canada’s first 575V Air-Cooled VRF and low ambient solutions. With the elimination of transformers and smaller wiring, stakeholders can expect easier installation and considerable initial and operational cost savings.

For more information, please visit www.LGVRF.ca or call 1-888-824-6211.

SUPPLIER: LG ELECTRONICS CANADA

2015-06-15 2:35 PM

WEG E-CATALOG MOBILE APP

MACH-PROAIR™: ENERGY CONSCIOUS, VERSATILE VAV

This application will allow WEG Electric Motor customers in NEMA markets to search an electronic catalog for motors and produce data sheets and technical drawings. The application will also allow the user to download or email PDF data sheets and drawings. The app is available for iOS, Blackberry, Android. Go to www.pamensky.com/downloads SUPPLIER: V.J. PAMENSKY

Engineered to exceed the specifications for a wide variety of Variable Air Volume (VAV) applications, the Reliable Controls® MACH-ProAir™ is a fully programmable BACnet Building Controller (B-BC) with numerous downloadable standard codes and flexible I/O options, all priced to meet a modest budget, as it continues the Reliable Controls® tradition of intrinsic simplicity, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. www.reliablecontrols.com/products/ controllers/MPA SUPPLIER: RELIABLE CONTROLS CORPORATION

ELIMINATE FUSING WITH THE NEW VICTAULIC COUPLING FOR HDPE

SIMPSON STRONG-TIE OFFERS IN-PLACE REPAIR SOLUTION

The new Refuse-to-Fuse™ Victaulic Style 905 coupling is specifically designed to quickly join 2"- 6" high density - polyethylene (HDPE) pipe ranging from SRD 7-17 and eliminates the need for fusing.

10 times faster than traditional fusing, the Style 905 can be used on buried services. The coupling meets or exceeds the rating of the pipe. Exceeds bend capabilities specified in PPI (Plastic Pipe Institute) by a factor of 2X. To learn more, visit Victaulic.com and download PB-905: http://static.victaulic.com/assets/ uploads/literature/PB-905.pdf or contact viccanada@victaulic.com with any questions.

SUPPLIER: VICTAULIC

The Simpson Strong-Tie® FX-70® Structural Repair and Protection System is an innovative solution for severe structural damage of concrete, steel and wood piles commonly found in marine environments. This system makes in-place repair of damaged piles possible and practical. By eliminating the need to dewater the repair site or take the structure out of service, FX-70 dramatically reduces the overall cost of restoring the damaged structure. For more information, visit http://www.strongtie.com/rps SUPPLIER: SIMPSON STRONG-TIE

products

contined from page 38

PUMPS

HYDRONICS

New space-saving vertical mount pumps for industrial applications such as washing or degreasing systems are available from KSB. The Etanorm V pumps are designed to be installed in tanks with the pump components submerged and the motor in a dry location above. "Wet" models have silicon-carbide shaft bearings lubricated by the pumped medium.

"Dry" models are for where the product does not have good lubricating properties and have sealed ball bearings to support the drive shaft. The pumps are available for heads up to 100 m and capacities up to 740 cu.m per hour. www.ksb.ca

Victaulic has a new Compact Pressure Independent Balancing and Control Valve. The (Compact-P) TA Series 7CP from IMI TA advances hydronic balancing with increased diagnostics. Designed as a cost-effective option for tight fan coil cabinets, the series has a high flow capacity and low pressure drop for decreased energy consumption. www.victaulic.com

ELECTRICAL

GE Industrial Solutions' two-high SecoGear air-insulated MV switchgear is expected to be available later this year.

The ANSI/IEEE-rated medium-voltage portfolio is intended for mission-critical and commercial construction applications. www.ge.com 40

The Plastics Pipe institute's Project of the Year was awarded to REHAU for its radiant slab heating and cooling system in Ontario's LEED-Silver certified École Secondaire Jeunes sans Frontiers in Brampton, Ontario. The 91,000-sq.ft. school's hydronic system uses RAUPEX 5/8in. O2 Barrier pipe and 42 PRO-BALANCE manifolds. www.na. rehau.com

www.canadianconsultingengineer.com June/July 2015

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Canadian Consulting Engineer

41

2015-06-15 2:35 PM

conversations

Interview

Who's Responsible?

John Clague of APEGBC weighs the question of whether engineering companies as well as individual engineers should be certified to practice.

J

Andrea Sunderland, APEGBC

ohn Clague, Ph.D., P.Geo., has been a geoscientist for 24 years. An author, consultant, and media spokesperson, he teaches at the Department of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He is also the 2014-2015 President of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC).

CCE spoke to him in May just after he returned from a trip to Chile.

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On

Ta

Q. In APEGBC's Innovation magazine you said that one of your priorities for your term of office at the association is to explore the possible benefits of regulating companies as well as individual engineers. In Ontario and Saskatchewan consulting engineering firms already have to register for Certificates of Authorization in order to practice.

Is that not the case with APEGBC? "We are regulating individuals, but companies have a huge role. You see that when Certificates of Authorization were intro- we have disasters ..." duced into our province's Engineers and Geoscientists Act about 12 years ago, but for some strange It's not just big companies. We have had buy-in from reason we don't have a provision that would make it illegal firms with one to two employees as well. So this success for companies to practise without that certificate. I don't has allowed us to achieve our objective, which is to enunderstand why that provision was not included when the sure that companies are abiding by the highest standards Act change was approved. We've looked at the question of quality management in engineering. And we've done periodically and know that there might be resistance from this with the enthusiastic cooperation of companies. some of the companies. It’s a very complex issue, especially since our level of authority is unclear without that Q. Is the goal to provide the public with more assurance? provision. So at present we're only able to regulate indiYes, that's the intent. Before this program, I often felt viduals. We can't regulate companies. that we are only regulators in part. We are regulating inInstead, APEGBC has approached the issue through dividuals, but companies have a huge role. You see that our OQM — Organizational Quality Management — pro- when we have disasters — for example, the Mount Polley gram. We introduced it three years ago as a voluntary tailings pond breach. There were individuals involved in that, but companies were involved as well. program targeted at companies.

Who is responsible when you have a disaster like that?

The OQM program is intended to help companies use structured standards of practice or quality management Or when you have a situation as in Ontario with the Elliot programs. We provide certification to the companies and Lake Mall collapse? Individuals? Companies? Or both? If organizations on a cost recovery basis. Much to our plea- you are going to be a strong regulator you need to have sure the program has been a tremendous success. Right some control over companies as well as individuals. At now over 300 organizations are participating, including present we're making some progress with OQM and we're — with one exception — the 25 largest employers in en- getting good feedback from companies. They feel this is a very valuable program.

CCE gineering and goescience in B.C. 42

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Her decision to cut energy costs by 70% with LED lighting was a great idea.

And a great start.

Once your clients start seeing the benefits of our incentives for LED lighting, they will want to look into making other areas of their facility like HVAC, pump systems and building automation more efficient too. When they do, they’ll be joining thousands of organizations across Ontario who are already enjoying the energy savings that our programs deliver.

Take a look at their stories and our incentives at

saveonenergy.ca/business

Subject to additional terms and conditions found at saveonenergy.ca. Subject to change without notice.

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