On-Site April 2019

APRIL 2019

INSI DE

EYES IN THE SKY

CONC RE ON-S TE IT E PG .23

DRONES EARN THEIR KEEP

CRUSHING

FOCUS ON AGGREGATES

OUT TO TENDER

STAYING WITHIN THE LAW

CLEARING A PATH

MAKING WAY FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

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VOLUME 64, NO.3/ APRIL 2019

COVER STORY 16 Clearing a path

Dozer makers step up their technology to help less experienced operators gain traction

IN THIS ISSUE 7 Comment

16

Double standard deals Trudeau a body blow

10 News

The major developments

14 Construction Stats The key figures

41 Breaking it down Crusher evolution prompts contractors to rethink aggregates

46 UAVs

27

46

Job site uses for drones continue on an upward trajectory

COLUMNS 52 Risk Asset management comes to North America

54 Contractors and the law The idiosyncrasies of construction tendering

53 Index of Advertisers

CONCRETE ON-SITE 27

35

Major Winnipeg project brings concrete solution to longstanding bottleneck

The long-promised 3D printing revolution starts to find a niche in construction

On the Perimeter

Taking shape

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COMMENT

Double standard deals Trudeau a body blow

Get the latest construction news!

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At the start of the year, a healthy percentage of Canadians had never heard of SNC-Lavalin. An even larger number couldn’t have told you what business the company was in, let alone share a single detail about its legal troubles.

So much for that.

The public falling out between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former attorney general, put an end to any chance SNC-Lavalin had of settling its long-festering legal issues out of the limelight.

With no more than six months to go before the next federal election, the infighting has also considerably weakened the Liberal government.

Save perhaps a couple high-profile advisors, Trudeau has few people to blame but himself. Even if you take the prime minister and his office at their word, and accept that no “inappropriate” pressure was applied to halt the criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, the fact that there was pressure at all smacks of a double standard.

Within the engineering and construction industry, the Montreal-based company has a strong reputation as a major player in Canada and beyond, but ethical issues have been an open secret for years. The fraud and corruption charges laid against the company by the RCMP in 2015 for its actions in Libya years earlier were particularly troublesome, as a conviction would bar SNC-Lavalin from federal contracts for a decade.

Still, trouble for a Canadian company, even a large one, doesn’t necessarily mean a top staffer in the Office of the Prime Minister should be clashing with Canada’s attorney general over dinner at the Château Laurier.

In an impartial system, a large company should have to play by the same rules as a small one. Any attempt to apply double standards simply breeds resentment – just ask small businesses currently facing carbon taxes

when larger ones are partially exempt, or check in with one of the many small- to mid-sized Ontario manufacturers that went bust in 2008 even as the federal and Ontario governments bailed out GM and Chrysler.

Judging by two months of nearly unrelenting criticism and sliding poll numbers, Canadians have little sympathy for the sort of political manoeuvring that would have opened the door to a remediation deal for SNC-Lavalin. If nothing else, the scandal has dented Trudeau’s reputation and deprived him of two popular ministers – both of whom have since been expelled from the Liberal caucus. Whether or not the blowback will be enough to down the prime minister and the Liberals come October remains to be seen.

The next hurdle for SNC-Lavalin is easier to spot. Following the company’s failed attempt to reach a deferred prosecution agreement, a Quebec judge is currently deciding if criminal charges against the company warrant a trial.

SNC-Lavalin, meanwhile, has filed an appeal.

In other words, the company is in the exact same legal position it would have been in had the PMO never broached the topic. If convicted, experts tend to agree the company’s reputation would take a harder hit than its finances. The seemingly unending wave of negative publicity is another story.

All in all, it’s quite clear the federal government would do itself, the thousands of Canadians employed by SNC-Lavalin and the construction industry as a whole far more good if it focused less on changing the rules of the game and more on getting the billions of promised infrastructure dollars out the door.

David Kennedy / Editor dkennedy@on-sitemag.com

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CONTRIBUTORS

MEET OUR CONTRIBUTORS FOR THIS ISSUE NATE HENDLEY/ Freelance Writer & Author On the focus dozer makers are placing on in-cab technology: “With young people no longer flocking to construction jobs – and those who do enter the field tending to be very tech-savvy – it’s a pivotal move for the industry. Unlike previous generations, these young workers have grown up using computers, smart phones and video game consoles and have a natural feel for technology.”

JACOB STOLLER / Principal, StollerStrategies On the new perspective UAVs are providing builders: “Drone-related technology has exploded in the past few years… The evolution of software that converts collected data from drone cameras and other sensors into usable information has been equally robust. With sensors collecting, in some cases, 800 data points per second, the number-crunching capabilities are significant.”

DAVID BOWCOTT / Global Director – Growth, Innovation & Insight, Global Construction and Infrastructure Group at Aon Risk Solutions On the growing importance of asset management: “Whether its public-private partnership models that award concessions to a special purpose vehicle… or integrated project delivery models that create a collaborative environment, you can’t ignore the drive toward whole-life delivery models that go beyond the total cost of construction.”

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PUBLISHER | Peter Leonard (416) 510-6847 pLeonard@on-sitemag.com EDITOR | David Kennedy (416) 510-6821 dkennedy@on-sitemag.com ASSISTANT EDITOR | Jillian Morgan (416) 510-5201 jmorgan@on-sitemag.com MEDIA DESIGNER - TEAM LEAD | Lisa Zambri lzambri@annexbusinessmedia.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER | David Skene (416) 510-6884 dskene@on-sitemag.com ACCOUNT COORDINATOR | Kim Rossiter (416) 510-6794 krossiter@on-sitemag.com CIRCULATION MANAGER | Urszula Grzyb (416) 442-5600 x3537 ugrzyb@annexbusinessmedia.com Vice President | Tim Dimopoulos (416) 510-5100 tdimopoulos@annexbusinessmedia.com COO | Scott Jamieson sjamieson@annexbusinessmedia.com President & CEO | Mike Fredericks Established in 1957, On-Site is published

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IVONA ZEGREAN AND ALEXANDER SPRAGGS / Borden Ladner Gervais LLP On the idiosyncrasies of the construction tendering process: “By replacing negotiation with competition, the tendering process in construction is intended to bring more certainty, fairness and efficiency to the allocation of contracts. Despite this, the tendering system is an idiosyncratic mechanism, giving rise to certain obligations that may take some by surprise.”

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INDUSTRY NEWS

INDUSTRY>NEWS Ontario’s controversial Bill 66 to become law, big impact expected for construction markets in several cities TORONTO—A far-reaching piece of Ontario legislation passed its third and final reading at Queen’s Park April 2, with major ramifications expected for construction, among other industries.

The Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, better known as Bill 66, is poised to become law after clearing the legislature with the backing of Premier Doug Ford and the Ontario Progressive Conservative government. The province said the bill takes 30 separate actions to ease regulatory burdens across 12 sectors.

“Bureaucratic red tape is squeezing the mom and pop shops across our province,” said Todd Smith, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. “We’re getting government out of the way of our job creators to help bring jobs and investment back to Ontario.”

Among the long list of amendments included in Bill 66 are changes to how employers are allowed to calculate overtime

pay, increased day care class sizes, the repeal of certain toxic substances rules and the end to a stipulation that required employers post the Employment Standards Act in the workplace.

In the change most directly related to construction, the bill reclassifies several cities and institutions as “non-construction employers,” a move that will open up the tendering process for certain public contracts to non-union shops. Municipal infrastructure jobs in, most notably, Toronto, Hamilton, Waterloo and Sault Ste. Marie will be open for competition.

Ford and the Ontario PC government have been vocal advocates of reducing the cost of doing business in the province, but critics of the new bill say the changes show a “disdain” for Ontario workers.

“Bill 66 is going to cost Ontario workers by reducing the overtime hours they’re paid for, at the same time as it compromises health and safety,” Chris Buckley, president

of the Ontario Federation of Labour, said in a statement. “Longer hours for less pay with fewer safety protections. That’s no good for workers and it’s no good for Ontario.”

Among other areas, Buckley criticized the change that could classify cities and institutions non-construction employers.

The Carpenters’ District Council of Ontario has been another long-time critic of the move.

The Progressive Contractors Association of Canada (PCA), on the other hand, called the legislation “a significant step forward for fair and open construction tendering in Ontario.” It added that Bill 66 closed a “legislative loophole” that excluded the majority of the province’s construction companies from bidding on the public jobs.

“Now that municipalities, school boards and other public entities will soon be able to competitively procure their construction projects, we are urging them to embrace the legislation by giving all of their local contractors and construction workers a shot at working on taxpayer funded infrastructure,” Sean Reid, the PCA’s vice-president and regional director for Ontario, said in a statement.

Now clear of the legislature, Bill 66 will come into force pending royal assent.

10 / APRIL 2019

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CALGARY—The long-running project to encircle Alberta’s largest city with a high-volume bypass has entered its final leg.

The province said March 5 that it has finalized two contracts with three construction companies that will nearly wrap-up work on the 101-kilometre Calgary Ring Road. Construction has been underway on the project in numerous stages for more than a decade and the latest pair of contracts for the western segment of the route should keep crews on track to complete the whole of the ring by 2022. “This project is something the people of this city have been asking to have completed for nearly 50 years,� Brian Mason, the province’s minister of Transportation, said in a statement. “When complete, travel will be more efficient, industry will operate with fewer delays and, in the process, thousands of jobs will be supported. We will have shovels in the ground this spring.�

EllisDon will spearhead the larger of the two jobs after inking a $463 million deal. The contractor will build a three-kilometre stretch of highway between Old Banff Coach Road and the Trans-Canada Highway, very nearly closing the loop with the existing northwest segment of the ring road. The job includes 18 bridges, reconstruction work on the Trans-Canada and a pair of interchanges. The province expects the project to create about 2,400 jobs over the next four years.

A Flatiron and Aecon team, meanwhile, will be responsible for the final northern linkage. The two contractors won an $89 million deal to twin the Bow River Bridge, just north of the Trans-Canada.

The contract also includes widening about two-kilometres of the existing northwest portion of the ring road, which is also known as Highway 201 or Stoney Trail.

The project is expected to create 300 construction jobs.

The pair of projects will bring the ring

road one contract away from completion, and the province is moving on that job as well. It plans to issue a request for qualifications for the final southwest segment of the ring road shortly.

That five-kilometre leg will meet up with the portion being built by EllisDon and with

,%33 '2)0%

the under-construction Southwest Calgary Ring Road.

The province aims to have a contractor in place to start construction on the final stretch by spring 2020.

Crews are expected to have the entire ring road open to traffic by 2022.

PHOTO: KGL CONSTRUCTORS

Aecon, EllisDon and Flatiron win major contracts for work on Calgary’s ring road

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INDUSTRY NEWS Challenge to B.C. union rules for major infrastructure projects heads to province’s supreme court VANCOUVER—Four construction associations have begun a court battle with the British Columbia government over the Community Benefits Agreement introduced last year for large public infrastructure projects.

The NDP government put the new framework in action this January, starting with the $1.4 billion contract to build the new Pattullo Bridge and a $62.9 million four-laning project along the Trans-Canada Highway in the province’s interior. The $2.8 billion project to build Vancouver’s new Broadway subway extension will also be delivered using the CBA, with many others expected to follow.

Among other stipulations, the framework requires workers that have been on an infrastructure job for 30 days or more to join one of 19 unions. Critics, including the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, have said the CBA essentially creates a monopoly for the province’s Building Trades unions.

While the procurement process does remain open to both union and non-union contractors, non-union staff would be required to join the appropriate union after the 30-day period.

“Freezing 85 per cent of construction workers out of taxpayer-funded projects is unfair, discriminatory and just plain wrong,” Chris Gardner, president of the Independent Contractors and

Businesses Association (ICBA), said in a statement. “Clearly, the Horgan government will stop at nothing to reward its Building Trades union buddies, even if it means skirting the law.”

The other construction associations joining the ICBA in challenging the framework include the British Columbia Construction Association, the Vancouver Regional Construction Association and the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada. The CFIB and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce are also backing the lawsuit.

Along with arguing the CBA violates the rights of non-union workers, the coalition says the labour rules will cost taxpayers considerably. An assessment released last year by the CFIB, for instance, showed the deal could add between 10 and 20 per cent to the cost of infrastructure projects.

The province has admitted to the higher project costs, but argues the framework’s benefits more than make up for the increased spending.

It points to greater labour stability, improved safety and more apprenticeship and skills training opportunities as several of the key benefits. The government also says the labour rules will increase opportunities for Indigenous peoples and other groups that are typically underrepresented in the construction workforce.

Legal proceedings began in B.C.’s Supreme Court Feb. 27.

TORONTO—Ontario transit agency Metrolinx has revised the route of the soon-to-be-built Hurontario Light Rail Transit project, most notably chopping off a downtown loop that was included in the original plans.

The provincial crown agency pointed to “potential” budget pressures and “a more convenient route” as the motivation for the change. It said the province has already signed off on the scope changes to the $1.4 billion LRT. “The changes have been designed to reduce project costs while still achieving the project goal of providing a fast, reliable and seamless customer experience between the new Hurontario LRT line, the GO Transit network, and the local transit systems,” Metrolinx said in a statement.

The redrawn LRT map simplifies the original plan by eliminating the Mississauga city centre loop that included three

PHOTO: METROLINX

Citing budget pressures, Metrolinx scales back Hurontario LRT

stops and circled the Square One Shopping Centre. The main 18-kilometre route running along Hurontario between the Port Credit GO station and the Brampton Gateway Terminal will remain intact.

Metrolinx also said it will include provisions in the contract that would accommodate the Mississauga loop and a possible extension farther into Brampton.

Along with the significant rerouting, the province will put a pedestrian bridge originally planned for the LRT’s Cooksville stop on hold, as well as make changes to the street-scaping along the entire right-of-way.

The project is currently at the request for proposals stage. Metrolinx plans to award the contract and begin construction this year.

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CONSTRUCTION STATS A selection of data reflecting trends in the Canadian construction industry

COMMERCIAL BUILDING KEEPS POWERING NON-RESIDENTIAL SECTOR Construction in the non-residential building sector climbed again in January, reaching $4.4 billion on the month, thanks largely to continued strength in the commercial segment.

Data from Statistics Canada show a modest 1.5 per cent gain for non-residential building in the first month of the year, despite nearly flat performances for the industrial and institutional segments of the industry.

The commercial side of the business, meanwhile, posted a gain of approximately $70 million, or 2.5 per cent in January.

Workers Employed in Construction by Month 2018

2019

January 1,433.9 February 1,433.9 March 1,452.2 April 1,433.3 May 1,420.3 June 1,447.5 July 1,435.2 August 1,418.8 September 1,446.8 October 1,443.4 November 1,458.2 December 1,453.4 January 1,444.9 February 1,438.30

INVESTMENT IN NON-RESIDENTIAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

Sector Commercial Industrial Institutional/governmental

2017 Jan. 2232 599 1105

Feb. 2225 601 1099

March 2239 596 1094

April 2236 608 1112

May 2235 624 1149

June 2229 652 1169

July 2282 688 1212

Aug. 2298 704 1260

Sept.

2303 715 1267

Oct. 2300 733 1342

Nov. 2325 769 1358

Dec. 2359 793 1377

2018 Jan. 2368 814 1381

Feb. 2383 824 1380

March 2387 837 1368

April 2368 845 1327

May 2370 834 1270

June 2447 831 1222

July 2489 821 1177

Aug. 2498 830 1121

Sept.

2511 848 1087

Oct. 2496 850 1060

Nov. 2472 833 1030

Dec. 2473 827 1008

2019 Jan. 2543 831 1001

In millions of dollars SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA

EASING OFF THE GAS After nearly two years of putting the pedal to the metal, the capacity utilization rate in the construction industry slipped over the final six months of 2018.

The latest data from Statistics Canada show the metric, which measures the industry’s output against its forecast potential output, slid 2.2 per cent in the fourth quarter. This followed a 2.1 per cent decline the quarter before.

At the midpoint of 2018, the ratio sat at 93 per cent – the highest of any Canadian industry. By the end of the year, it had dropped to 85.4 per cent, indicating builders had more down time through the summer and fall.

A

“ r q t a d

In thousands of workers, seasonally a djusted SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA

CONSTRUCTION EMPLOYMENT SLIPS AGAIN IN FEBRUARY A lackluster few months in the construction labour market has pushed industry employment across the country down by thousands of workers.

The latest seasonally adjusted figures for February, show the industry lost about 6,600 workers, or 0.5 per cent, through the shortest month of the year. The job losses stand in contrast to the overall Canadian labour force, which inched up 0.3 per cent.

Though it’s the third-straight negative month for construction, year-over-year, the industry remains positive, with 0.6 per cent more people employed than in February 2018.

93%

Summer 2018

85.4%

End of 2018

SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA

14 / APRIL 2019

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3/27/19 12:10 PM 2019-04-15 2019-04-02 1:10 9:34PM AM

BULLDOZERS

Dozer makers step up their technology to help less experienced operators gain traction

BY NATE HENDLEY

I

t’s a new reality that’s impossible to overlook. Skilled operators are becoming tougher and tougher to find. While equipment manufacturers can’t exactly help Canadian contractors fill seats, they are making the equipment easier to run and the cabs more appealing.

“It’s harder and harder to find operators and technicians,” says Sam Meeker, Caterpillar’s product application specialist for dozers. “[Customers] want machines that are easier to operate and more intuitive.

That’s what drives the features in the cab such as the touch-screen. It’s intuitive and makes it easy to find and access the feature that you’re looking for.”

“Also, quieter cabs with better visibility are popular,” he adds. “[The aim is to] get that new guy in the seat faster and make him proficient as quickly as you can.”

Max Winemiller, the director of product management for CASE Construction Equipment’s Road Building & Site Prep division, echoes the sentiment. Customers want

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Clearing a path

and video game consoles and have a natural feel for technology.

As contractors, and the OEMs they rely on, take on new challenges, this is what the latest dozers have to offer:

CATERPILLAR

CATERPILLAR “reliable, smart machines that help them tackle the trained operator gap and high turnover so they can be competitive with the next contractor,” he says.

With this in mind, telematics, grade control and ease-of-operation are key considerations for bulldozer manufacturers.

There’s also a trend towards greater in-cab amenities.

According to Cory Brant, product consultant for Crawler Dozers at John Deere Construction & Forestry, the company has

focussed on bolstering cab comfort features along with making dozers easier to operate and cheaper to maintain. “These improvements help address the struggles customers are facing while trying to find and retain skilled operators,” he says.

With young people no longer flocking to construction jobs – and those who do enter the field tending to be very tech-savvy – it’s a pivotal move for the industry. Unlike previous generations, these young workers have grown up using computers, smart phones

The D6 XE with an electric-drive powertrain and the D6 with a fully-automatic four-speed power shift transmission are Caterpillar’s biggest new releases in the dozer department.

“The D6 XE system has some marked improvements over the D7E,” Meeker says.

“We have a new style of generator that’s more efficient and requires less service. The inverter has been improved and the control systems updated. The electric drive gets about 10 per cent more productivity and burns about 10 per cent less fuel than a power shift.”

As the name suggests, the D6 XE runs differently than conventional dozers.

“When the engine is running, it’s spinning a generator and it is generating electricity,” Meeker says. “We don’t effectively store any electricity, however. It’s not like a battery-operated car… The key reason this tractor is so efficient is because we can run the engine at lower RPMs.” Both the D6 and D6 XE can fitted with a push-arm blade or VPAT (Variable Power Angle Tilt) blade system.

The company’s Cat Connect GRADE technology package can include Cat Slope on-sitemag.com / 17

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BULLDOZERS an entry-level cross slope machine control solution through Lecia Geosystems. “The system is simple, inexpensive and intuitive,” he adds.

The SiteWatch Telematics system, meanwhile, “is standard and allows great value for owners to manage their fleets and dealers to assist customers with tracking machine needs, maintenance, etc.,” Winemiller says.

Case has upgraded M Series undercarriages to reduce wear and improve performance and recently started to offer its first eight cubic yard blade on the 2050M LGP bulldozer configuration.

CASE

JOHN DEERE

JOHN DEERE Indicate, which offers basic slope information to the operator, and Cat GRADE Slope Assist that tweaks blade position. Bulldozers can also be equipped with the Cat LINK telematics system to collect and transmit data.

Caterpillar offers the Attachment Ready Option (ARO) feature, which provides mounting brackets and hardware that simplify the installation of aftermarket grade control systems.

CASE Case’s M Series dozers were the first in the

industry to feature a Selective Catalytic Reduction Tier 4 engine designed to reduce fuel use, enhance power and offer a lower hood profile for better visibility, Winemiller notes.

Over the years, the company has continued to innovate.

It’s now introduced the Hydrostatic Drive to the M Series and Universal Machine Control “which allows any of the three major machine/grade control systems to be attached without changing wiring harnesses,” Winemiller says.

The company offers SiteControl CoPilot,

John Deere’s new 280-horsepower 950K dozer features a Power-Angle Tilt (PAT) blade capable of moving 8.6-cubic yards of material. The dozer is the largest on the market to be equipped six-way PAT blade, making it well-suited for earthmoving duties, according to Nathan Horstman, product marketing manager for Crawler Dozers with John Deere Construction & Forestry.

The 950K PAT dozer was recently fitted with SmartGrade, the company’s factory-integrated 3D mastless grade control system.

The technology allows for automatic blade control.

A solution called Auto SmartGrade lets operators “dial in several settings, such as Material Type, Load Level and Activity Type. This feature allows the grade control system to be used early in the construction process,” Brant adds.

Deere also recently outfitted the smaller 650K, one of the company’s most popular models, with SmartGrade. Like all the company’s dozers, the 650K is also equipped with a dual path hydrostatic transmission, making it “extremely easy to operate,” according to Horstman. “Hydrostatic dozers provide superior control and maneuverability with features such as counter rotate, full power turns, hill hold and infinitely variable travel speed.”

Fuel-saving features on the 650K include Auto Idle, Auto Shutdown and Eco Mode. The latter is a standard feature on all John Deere dozers that automatically

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BULLDOZERS

KOMATSU adjusts engine RPM to save up to 20 per cent in fuel.

John Deere then offers the WorkSight telematics system. The JDLink feature lets customers connect remotely with their dozers via a desktop or mobile device to receive alerts and updates on machine performance, location and maintenance.

Another feature called Service ADVISOR Remote gives John Deere dozers the ability to receive wireless software updates in the field.

KOMATSU Komatsu recently introduced the D155AX-8 Low Ground Pressure (LGP) dozer for better performance in a number of tough environments.

“Compared to the standard D155AX-8 undercarriage, the LGP has a 12 per cent wider track gauge, 9.3 per cent longer track on ground and 38-inch wide track shoes,” says Jonathan Tolomeo, product marketing manager for dozers at Komatsu America Corp. “Ground contact area is increased by 72 per cent for improved floatation in soft ground while the long and wide undercarriage provides better stability on slopes and machine balance.”

Komatsu also released a new D65PX18/D65PXi-18 wide VPAT arrangement with seven per cent wider track gauge, 36-inch extreme service clipped grouser track shoes,

“

In the construction industry, machines perform more random tasks. It will take some time before autonomous utilization catches up.”

– Jonathan Tolomeo, Komatsu

seven per cent wider blade and 14 per cent lower ground pressure, Tolomeo adds.

The company’s innovative SIGMADOZER blade employs a protruding cutting edge that, according to Tolomeo, “easily penetrates the ground like a spade nose shovel” to break up material and quickly load the blade for increased production.

On the high-tech front, Komatsu has introduced a New Dozing Control (NDC) feature for its Intelligent Machine Control (iMC) dozers. NDC makes automatic dozing control more efficient and can boost productivity by 40 per cent versus previous automatic machine control modes, the company says. The KOMTRAX telematics system wirelessly transmits the dozer’s location, performance and utilization data to a computer or mobile device.

KOMTRAX and Tier 4 Final certified engines are now standard on new Komatsu dozers.

THE FUTURE Along with intelligent systems like grade

control, alternative powertrain technologies are also gaining ground. Breakthrough products include Caterpillar’s D6 XE – the world’s first dozer with a high-drive electric drive powertrain. “The XE is what you could call our next generation electric drive, the D7E being the first generation electric drive that [entered service] in 2009,” Meeker says.

Despite the advancements, a fully electric dozer remains a steep engineering challenge.

Komatsu, for example, excels at hybrid excavator technology but “dozers just don’t offer an efficient opportunity for energy storage/re-cycling,” says Tolomeo. “Komatsu is looking at many different powertrain drive systems, but the current focus is on torque converter/lock up on the larger dozers and hydrostatic drive on the smaller dozers.”

Meanwhile, the massive amount of momentum behind grade control and other semi-autonomous systems prompts a serious question: why not just introduce fully autonomous dozers and remove the human factor altogether?

According to the experts, safety and the state of the technology are the two big challenges that stand in the way of driverless dozers. For now, it remains to be seen if work crews, the public and insurance providers are ready to accept autonomous bulldozers at crowded construction sites in populated areas.

As for the technology, it’s relatively early days, but there are reasons to be optimistic.

“Autonomous vehicles have become commonplace in the mining industry, where work is more repetitive and the job sites are more secure,” Tolomeo says. “In the construction industry, machines perform more random tasks. It will take some time before autonomous utilization catches up to the [level of the] mining industry.”

If driverless dozers remain a future dream, Meeker points to the growing prominence of semi-autonomy, which still requires an operator in the cab, but takes an increasing number of functions out of human hands. “It’s all about trying to make the machines more efficient, easier to operate. There’s been a rapid increase in technology over [the] last few years,” he says.

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APRIL 2019

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APRIL 2019

ON THE PERIMETER

WINNIPEG’S CONCRETE SOLUTION

27

IN THIS ISSUE: www.on-sitemag.com 24 Concrete news

2:36 PM

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| 32 Pavers and curbers | 35 The 3D printing revolution

2019-04-15 1:10 PM

PHOTO: MJMA AND PATKAU ARCHITECTS

CONCRETE NEWS

Wood construction renaissance may not be quite all it’s built up to be, report says WINNIPEG—Sustainability has taken on an increasingly important role in Canadian construction in recent years. The energy-intensive processes required to manufacture concrete and steel have, at least in part, propelled another age-old building material back to the fore.

In numerous projects across the country, developers have turned to traditional lumber and innovative wood products, such as cross-laminated timber, to reduce a building’s impact on the environment while ensuring the design remains structurally sound.

While many life cycle assessments (LCAs) show using wood can lower a building’s carbon emissions, a new study from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) finds these analyses often overlook several important factors in assessing the “cradle-to-grave” emissions of building materials.

Most notably, the Winnipeg-based think tank said typical LCAs do not track or account for “biogenic” carbon – a category that includes carbon losses related to soil disturbances, imperfect reforestation efforts and the conversion of old-growth primary forests to less productive secondary forests.

A rendering of a new 14-storey mass timber and concrete hybrid tower planned for the University of Toronto campus.

The study, which was commissioned by the Cement Association of Canada, adds that these sources can account for up to 70 per cent of total lifecycle emissions and “challenge the prevailing assumption wood construction materials are less carbon intensive than steel or concrete and should be favoured.”

About 30 per cent of all Canadian GHG emissions come from built environments.

And while the IISD study argues that LCAs are the proper tool to employ when deciding what building materials to use, it says stakeholders across the country need to develop more robust standards to ensure all analyses are tracking consistent metrics.

The study adds that policy makers should focus on building efficiency and longevity when working to decarbonize the built environment.

“This study identifies serious gaps in the way we currently account for carbon

emissions from building materials, particularly emissions from forestry products,” said Jay Malcolm, a University of Toronto forestry professor and member of the study’s advisory committee.

“We need to strengthen our metrics to make sure our strategies to reduce carbon from buildings hit their mark,” he added.

Meanwhile, wood buildings continue to rise.

Many builders and governments have already made up their minds about the material’s sustainability credentials. British Columbia, for instance, said last month it would amend its building code to allow construction of 12-storey wood towers, up from six previously. Premier John Horgan said the move is part of the province’s effort to “realize our low-carbon future.”

The change gets a jump on similar changes to the national building code expected next year.

Sika to buy Ontario-based concrete maker King Packaged Materials OAKVILLE, Ont.—Sika AG is making a major move into the Canadian concrete market.

The Switzerland-based chemical company and building materials supplier said March 7 that it has agreed to buy Oakville, Ont.’s King Packaged Materials Co. for an undisclosed price.

The family-owned Ontario firm is currently part of KPM Industries Ltd. and has a workforce of about 180. It manufactures a range of concrete and related building products, including dry shotcrete, grouts and masonry mortars. With three production plants — one located in Brantford, Ont., another in Boisbriand, Que. in the Montreal suburbs and a final facility in Sudbury, Ont. — King serves mainly the construction and mining industries in the two provinces.

While Sika will acquire the concrete production assets of

KPM, the company’s construction and fabricating divisions will remain under the KPM banner.

Sika said the deal will significantly expand its presence and growth potential in Canada.

“With the acquisition of King and its broad and highly complementary product offering we will further strengthen our presence in Canada and open up exciting new cross-selling opportunities,” Christoph Ganz, Sika’s regional manager for the Americas, said in a statement. He pointed to the home improvement, tunnelling and mining segments as three key areas Sika expects to see growth following the purchase.

While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Sika said King posts annual revenues of about $81 million.

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of this year.

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4/9/19 9:34 AM 2019-04-09 2019-04-15 1:04 1:10PM PM

On the Perimeter PAVING

Major Winnipeg project brings concrete solution to longstanding bottleneck

BY DAVID KENNEDY

I

For years, the intersection of PTH 59 and PTH 101, commonly known as the Perimeter Highway, relied on a pair of traffic lights to smooth out a crossroads that never quite lined up. Drivers looping around Winnipeg’s ring road heading east, for instance, needed to come to a

complete stop, turn right, briefly drive south and then turn left, just to continue in the same direction.

The antiquated set-up often slowed traffic to a crawl. Meanwhile, ever-increasing volume on the two roads, now totalling some 70,000 vehicles each day, only

PHOTO: NELSON RIVER

nfrastructure rarely ages gracefully.

When there isn’t much elegance to the original design, 20 or 30 years can be particularly cruel.

The junction of a pair of provincial trunk highways northeast of Winnipeg was just such a case.

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2019-04-01 2019-04-15 1:44 1:10PM PM

E

PAVING

PHOTO: LAFARGE

Y

worsened the bottleneck.

“That’s one of the busiest intersections in the province,” says Diana Nicholson, a project manager with Nelson River Construction Inc. “There’s lot of heavy truck traffic on the Perimeter and the communities just outside the city have really grown, so there’s a lot of people commuting into the city.”

In the warmer months, cottage traffic heading north along PTH 59, or Lagimodière Boulevard, only compounded the issue.

Overhauling the juncture was a tall order, but armed with a budget of $204 million, the construction team was up to the task. After just over three years of construction, a modern interchange – that includes 11 bridges and incorporates more than 70,000 cubic metres of concrete – began a phased reopening last fall.

That’s not to say there weren’t a long list of challenges along the way.

THE DREADED FULL STOP Like other aging pieces of infrastructure across the country, the major problem at PTH 59/101 required a major fix.

“This interchange was kind of an anomaly,” Nicholson says. “The magni-

tude of this project was massive, relatively speaking, for Manitoba.”

Plans for the new interchange would see the obstructive pair of traffic lights bulldozed and replaced with a slightly modified cloverleaf. With the full stops exchanged for a series of ramps, vehicles could keep moving in all directions.

THE PAVING PROJECT BY THE NUMBERS Concrete Pavement: 237,120 m² Asphalt Bridge Deck Overlay: 18,600 m² Asphalt Roadways: 55,950 m² Asphalt Shoulders: 56,800 m²

To add longevity to the interchange, the province also opted to pave with concrete as opposed to asphalt. “Manitoba typically uses concrete pavements in high traffic volume scenarios,” according to a provincial spokesperson. “Concrete was used at the PTH 59 and 101 interchange project as this interchange sees some of the highest traffic volumes in the province.”

Flatiron Construction Canada Ltd. served as the general contractor for the

project, and subcontracted the paving portion of the job to Nelson River. The Manitoba builder was responsible for about 240,000 square metres of concrete roadway, plus numerous stretches of asphalt pavement on the road’s shoulders and certain bridge decks.

Earth started moving in summer 2015, but with unaccommodating, wet weather through much of the first two construction seasons, crews laying the groundwork faced an uphill battle.

“Manitoba has a very heavy kind of clay soil,” Nicholson says, adding that the mud work, which fell under Flatiron’s scope of work, was tough going with all the precipitation.

The importance of the intersection to the overall Winnipeg-area road network also posed a major obstacle.

“The biggest issues involved staging the concrete construction in a manner that allowed traffic to continuously move through the project site,” a provincial spokesperson acknowledges. “This meant construction was broken down into many small parts.”

Throughout construction, crews were required to keep four lanes of PTH 59 and two lanes of PTH 101 open at all times.

The stipulation was necessary to ensure commuters and truck traffic could still make their way in and around the city, but it created headaches for the roadbuilders.

Before the initial demolition work could even begin, for instance, crews had to lay a significant amount of temporary pavement for an east-west detour. All told, the project involved some 15 separate phases and no shortage of traffic switches that confused and aggravated drivers.

A CONDENSED SCHEDULE Following the weather-related delays that hampered much of the prep work in the first two seasons, the majority of the concrete paving needed to be put on hold.

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PHOTO: NELSON RIVER

PAVING

of concrete paving in one season.”

Concrete and aggregates supplier LafargeHolcim stepped onto the project during its second year. The company transported concrete to the site during the 2016 and 2017 seasons from its readymix plant on Dawson Road, about 10 kilometres southwest of the interchange, but the concrete trucks weren’t exempt from the gridlock around the construction site.

They often became tied up in traffic jams as concrete crews sat idle waiting to pour.

This changed the following spring when an on-site batch plant came to the rescue.

Lafarge moved an Axiom RMX200 to the job for the final season, substantially cutting round-trip times to keep up with the demanding schedule that had been tightened into 2018 by the earlier delays.

“This not only allowed us to provide superior service to the project but also benefited the rest of our business by lowering the truck demand required for the pours due to the short turnaround to our on-site plant,” says Jason Ryz, sales manager for ready-mix concrete at LafargeHolcim in Winnipeg. “We were regularly supplying 1,000-cubic-metre pours or more daily, servicing the pours with 10 trucks on average.”

In addition to the ready-mix for the paving and bridge decks, Lafarge’s Aggregates division supplied the project with 250,000 tonnes of road base, while its Precast unit built bridge girders.

As supplies flooded onto the site throughout the 2018 construction season, Nelson River ran two concrete paving

crews of more than a dozen workers each to stay on schedule. A pair of base crews of similar sizes worked ahead, “desperately trying to keep ahead of the concrete guys,” Nicholson says. “Without those guys working their asses off,” there’s no way the road would have been finished on time, she adds.

NOT THE TYPICAL MANITOBA JOB Along with the large scale of the project, the interchange design, particularly when it came to pouring the concrete, was complex.

Between non-standard lane widths and types of steel Nelson River wasn’t accustomed to using on other Manitoba Infrastructure projects, Nicholson says her team had its work cut out for it.

“We weren’t able to just have a big open space where we were able to lay gravel and concrete very efficiently,” she says. “It was done in these funny shapes all over the place. We had to constantly move our pavers and change paver widths, which takes quite a lot of time.”

To make up some of that lost time in the final year, the company rented a Gomaco GP3 to complement its other equipment. The machine made it easier to accommodate different widths and “made a difference” in finishing some of the smaller pieces, Nicholson says.

As the days got shorter last fall and Winnipeg’s weather turned colder, the paving teams had to stay on the job when they’d normally have packed it in for the season.

“Winnipeg’s climate, with its short

construction season, also proved challenging,” a provincial spokesperson says.

“Long work hours and temperature control means… were used to increase production.”

As the pavers rolled forward on particularly cold days, workers were sent back to cover freshly-poured concrete with insulating tarps designed to keep some of the heat in the concrete. This, while months earlier crews had been forced to add ice to the concrete during high-heat days because the tight schedule didn’t allow for any lost time.

Lafarge was also forced to change up their mix due to the weather. Ryz points to a Winnipeg stipulation that requires no fly ash be used in concrete when the temperature drops below -5 C. When a chill set in, the concrete mixes contained “straight” concrete powder.

In the end though, even the temperamental Winnipeg weather couldn’t keep the construction team, which numbered about 600 across all aspects of the project, from wrapping up the work. The interchange began reopening to traffic in stages in September – though some of the finer details remain on the docket for this spring. Nelson River, for instance, still has diamond grinding to do on about 80,000 square metres of concrete pavement, as well as some asphalt paving on certain smaller sections.

As of last fall, Manitoba remained under budget on the project, having spent approximately $250 million on construction, plus land acquisition. It had set aside $275 million for the job initially.

The province is also planning for the future. Currently, PTH 101 spans four lanes through the interchange, with two in each direction. The realignment put the infrastructure in place to expand it to six lanes when necessary.

The nearly-complete interchange erases a one-time blot on the Perimeter, while the road’s concrete surface and enhanced design are expected to provide it with the durability to age a little more gracefully than the clunky intersection it replaced.

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OnSite_

Zero Turn for Mobility, A Fun New Spin for Pavers

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PAVERS AND CURBERS

Equipment focus The latest in concrete pavers and curbers

Wirtgen

Gomaco Zero-turn is the big focus this year for Gomaco. As the construction world converges on Munich for bauma 2019, the manufacturer is highlighting its new GP4, along with several other zero-turn machines, for the international audience. The slipform paver is capable of paving widths of up to 12.2 metres (40-feet).

Its dual-telescoping roller frame uses smart systems to ensure accurate widening and allows for automatic width reference. Meanwhile, the company’s G+ control system knows the location and position of each of the paver’s track and can make adjustments as required.

With its SP 64i Wirtgen is bringing high performance and versatility to its four-track model. The inset slipform paver, which is equipped with a Tier 4 Final engine boasting 245 horsepower, delivers the performance demanded by North American customers. Hydraulic rotational drives allow for a steering angle of 90 degrees, while the machine’s track units let it turn on its own axis. The SP 64i can pave widths of between 2.0 and 7.5 metres (6.56 and 24.6 feet), with a paving thickness of up to 450 millimetres (18 inches).

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Power Curbers With more technology finding its way onto the job site, Power Curbers is looking to compatibility. The company’s 5700-C curb machine is now compatible with Trimble’s PCS900 automated guidance system. The solution gives 5700-C users another option, adding to Topcon and Leica systems that were already operational. The PCS900 system uses Trimble Total Stations and a 3D design model to control elevation and steering, taking the place of a conventional stringline. Power Curbers says the new offering will translate to a more efficient job site, tighter control of material yields and higher precision.

Across Canada, infrastructure departments tackling paving projects for high-volume stretches of road, such as the PTH 59/101 interchange, often rely on concrete. Once workers get to the job site, concrete paver and curber manufacturers are stepping up to make crews’ lives a little simpler

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Taking

3D PRINTING

SHAPE

3D printing revolution on the horizon

BY JILLIAN MORGAN

Sika’s 3D printer at the Widen, Switzerland technology centre PHOTOS: SIKA AG

A

er

t Sika AG’s research facility in Widen, Switzerland, the nozzle of a 3D printer pumps out billowy concrete at one metre per second. The material cures almost instantly, just in time for the machine’s printing arm to deposit the next layer. In a steady, continuous movement, it brings a distinctive structure to life.

Gearing up to release its first commercial printer at the end of the year, Sika is one of several to industrialize the process.

At volumes up to four tons per hour, the

printer promises to push out concrete “so rapidly, inexpensively and precisely that it can be used on construction sites,” the company announced last June.

That volume is in another league compared to the majority of 3D printers on the market, which typically peak at 100 to 200 kilograms per hour, according to Frank Hoefflin, the company’s chief technology officer.

“You can make some really nice things [with those models]. You can even build some little bridge and balconies…

But they’re not really interesting for the construction industry,” he says. “For the construction industry to be [interested] we’re looking at three to four tons per hour. That’s a different ballgame.”

The concept of 3D printed structures isn’t new, though the technology has gained traction in recent years, particularly in the residential sector as a method to quickly build homes at a fraction of the cost.

“When you look at the construction industry, in general, it’s the one area that on-sitemag.com / 35

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3D PRINTING has seen the lowest productivity over the past 80 years compared to any other industry,” Hoefflin says. “Part of the reason is, of course, you have some very basic materials like concrete that really haven’t changed for many years.”

The process of mixing and pouring concrete, though fine-tuned in some respects, has largely stayed unchanged for the last 50 years, he says.

“3D printing is clearly an attempt to change this – to allow the industry to gain, on one hand, a lot more productivity, but also give it the opportunity to go to new frontiers,” Hoefflin adds.

He isn’t the only one to see the value of 3D printing in construction.

The Conference Board of Canada released a report in November 2018 analysing the potential of 3D printers to build homes in remote Northern communities, where high construction costs make it difficult to address the region’s housing shortage.

In Nunavut alone, the cost to construct a new public housing unit can cost upwards of $550,000 – three times the cost of building the same unit in Toronto – according to the not-for-profit think tank. The report estimates the cost of 3D-printed homes could be one-fifth of that number and take considerably less time, with a 400-square-foot house constructed in the span of 24 hours.

“While it’s not yet clear whether the technology can address

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3D PRINTING

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– Frank Hoefflin, Sika or overcome some of the key issues that construction projects must contend with in Northern and remote environments, it’s not hard to see how 3D printing construction could potentially have a meaningful impact in Canada’s North,” Stefan Fournier, associate director of Northern and Aboriginal Policy at CBoC, said in a release.

3D printing would leverage locally available materials and reduce reliance on the shipment of construction supplies to isolated communities, CBoC says. It would also allow for design flexibility, which could aid in designing homes that “reflect local culture and values.”

For Hoefflin, that flexibility is a key advantage of 3D printing, which allows the industry to go beyond boxy structures.

“This is what the construction industry has been optimizing for the past 100 years: how to build a straight wall,” he says.

“That’s why most buildings are just regular flat, straight surfaces with a 90 degree angle.”

3D printers won’t replace traditional concrete pouring, Hoefflin says, but the equipment could facilitate the construction complex building designs without the added cost.

“Eventually, this type of technology will go much further than just building parts of buildings,” he says. “I think there will be a lot of impact to the service industry. Eventually, a lot of companies will pick up equipment like this and will be able to work together with interior designers and others to really provide a very high degree of individualization to the building industry.”

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CRUSHING

BREAKING IT DOWN

Crusher evolution prompts contractors to rethink aggregates

BY JILLIAN MORGAN

PHOTO: WIRTGEN GROUP

T

he steep cost of hauling off and disposing of rubble from job sites, only to purchase and truck in virgin aggregate from far-off quarries, has motivated the construction industry to turn its garbage into gold.

Geoffrey Faber, territory manager West at Rubble Master Americas Corp., says crusher OEMs are taking notice.

“Contractors are spending more money every day than they were the day before,” he says. “Manufacturers have changed their mindset when it comes to crushers because they see the opportunities. They see contractors that are actively paying trucking costs, paying disposal fees, paying repurchase prices and they say, ‘Look, if we can build a crusher that could alleviate all of that pain, there’s a market here.’”

Crushing materials for use on job sites, namely road building projects, has become a more attractive venture in recent years with the evolution of mobile, track mounted crushers. High-powered operation, low fuel consumption and intuitive technology form the bedrock of innovation across all models.

Both on- and off-site, contractors are taking advantage of material recycling to drive productivity, save on costs and lower their environmental footprint.

Available in four models, the MOBISCREEN EVO feed capacity ranges from 350 to 500 TPH (tons per hour). The machines’ large feed hopper aims to offer installation flexibility, while its extra-wide feeding conveyer is designed to offer optimum throughputs.

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PHOTO: RUBBLE MASTER AMERICAS CORP.

CRUSHING

Weighing 90,000 pounds, the RM 120GO! compact model features a production capacity of up to 385 TPH. With a focus on fuel efficiency, the workhorse features a diesel-electric drive system.

TAKING CONTROL OFF THE JOB Builders behind the Regina Bypass, Saskatchewan’s largest-ever transportation infrastructure project, have taken material quality into their own hands.

At a well-oiled crushing operation off-site, crews processed upwards of 10,000 tons of material each day over the course of two seasons – totalling two million tons of aggregate – to be used for the road’s infrastructure.

The $1.2 billion project encompasses 40 kilometres of new four-lane highway,

20 kilometres of resurfaced four-lane highway, 55 kilometres of new service roads, five kilometres of twinned highway and 12 overpasses.

“Within that, we’re placing about a million tons of asphalt,” Garrett Doyle, the project director with Graham Construction, says. “In terms of other granular materials, probably three or four million tons of granular materials between road base and foundations for the roads and the seawall backfill.”

The project, slated to wrap up in 2019, is led by a joint venture comprising Graham, Parsons Canada Ltd., Carmacks Enterprises and Vinci Canada. A subcontractor completed all crushing for the project at a pit provided by the province.

Processing materials from a single source allowed the team to quickly produce quality materials, Doyle says,

which helped the project to meet its daily efficiencies and reduce overhead costs.

“When you’re controlling the crushing operation you have better control of your quality,” he adds. “[Getting] an efficient operation running that’s producing quality material, [without] any rework or any rescreening or re-crushing, is really key and that went really well here at the bypass.”

READY TO GO ON-SITE While off-site crushing plants boast big advantages for contractors, the introduction of mobile track-mounted crushers in the last couple decades has marked another major advancement in the equipment.

Jeff MacDonald, president of Mississauga, Ont.-based Amaco Construction Equipment Inc., says those models have

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CRUSHING

The 154v3 Impactor from McCloskey International is designed for asphalt recycling, concrete recycling, rock crushing, construction and demolition. It features an open chassis, hydraulic adjustable magnet and a large double deck prescreen.

made on-site crushing a viable option for more construction companies.

“These track plants – you come in, you track it off the float and then you’re crushing in like five minutes,” he says.

“It’s made the ability to be more productive very high.”

Faber echoes MacDonald, adding that Rubble Master’s crushers are fully hydraulic, making for a speedy set-up.

“You can set up a Rubble Master crusher on a job site in 25 minutes flat – done, over-with, ready to work,” he says. Unveiled in October 2018, the RM 120GO! track-mounted crusher is just one of the company’s models offering this key advantage. “That’s a major advancement, especially for contractors,” Faber adds.

“Years ago, you’d bring the crusher and then you’d have to bring the screen and you’d have to bring all these conveyors just to do simple recycling.”

Now, all of those components are packaged up in one machine – an innovation that saves more than time. “[The machine] comes in, the return system folds out, you do a safety inspection and you start crushing,” Faber says.

“You’re immediately ready to go and you’re immediately making money.”

For MacDonald, the rise of trackmounted models has made crushing more affordable for contractors.

“That’s why it’s taken off so much,” he says. “When you crush it on-site, you actually have a useable product that has value… With virgin materials being more rare and farther from market, the recyclable materials are a viable resource to turn into a construction building product.”

Now that on-site crushing is becoming more commonplace, the industry is looking beyond concrete rubble.

“Our line of compact scalping screens, which are used to screen dirt or classified dirt or soil… have become much more popular in the last five years,” Faber says. “[Contractors have] taken that mindset to concrete rubble pretty well with on-site crushing. Now, they’re looking at other materials and trying to minimize their costs and their impact on the environment by reusing as much as possible on the job site.”

EFFICIENCY Despite the drive to advance mobility and ease-of-use on-site, OEM’s aren’t forfeiting efficiency and power.

Seamus Loftus, technical sales manager at Wirtgen Group, says high production capacity and fuel efficiency are core offerings for Kleemann GmbH, a subsidiary of Wirtgen.

“Our jaw crusher and cone crusher interlink measure the feed rate and balance the plant so that the feed and output are fully utilized for optimum

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performance,” he says. “A constant feed to the cone results in great product cubicity, fantastic fuel efficiency and good, even metal wear, all the while maintaining a constant production flow. All big pluses to anybody who is crushing on the job.”

The company’s flagship machine, the Kleemann Impactor, has “proven itself time and time again in quarry and site,” Loftus adds. “Aggressive pre-screen, underpan feeder and closed circuit plant, once again bearing fuel efficiency in mind, are just some of the main features that make it such an impressive plant,” he says.

The push for fuel-efficient operation is just one of a number of advancements trickling down from Europe, with another being telematics, which allow owners, operators and manufacturers to see how a plant is operating, MacDonald says.

“Much of it has to do with power,” he adds. “With the change… to Tier 4 diesel,

there’s always an interest in looking to see how the cost of powering a plant can be reduced because the cost of running diesel engines gets higher and higher.”

While the last several years have been marked by a shift away from mechanical plants to hydraulic-drive operation, MacDonald says the next wave of innovation will focus on electric.

“Everybody’s trying something different, something new,” Loftus says. “A lot of our larger stuff can be run off line power; by running the electric plant we can really get ahead of the game with fuel savings.”

Kleemann’s MOBISCREEN EVO screening plants, launched in early 2018, feature a hydraulic drive designed to produce high output with low fuel consumption and a mobile control panel.

DIALED IN Manufacturers are keeping an ear to the ground to better respond to the needs of

contractors. Many of the recent advancements in crushers are the result of manufactures listening to their customers, Faber says.

“We have direct relationships with our end-users and we learn not just about what they want to do with their crusher but we learn about their business as a whole,” he says. “Then we take the information and we relay it back to the design engineers and we relay it back to the owner.”

MacDonald says the end-user is looking for reliability. While the initial investment in a crusher might seem intimating, he says the equipment will ultimately save contractors money.

“They need a machine that’s safe, they need a machine that’s simple, and they need a machine that’s easy to operate,” Faber adds. “Those are the three keys to success from say, a 100-foot view. That’s what you’re looking for if you’re a contractor.”

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UAVS

the view from

ABOVE Drone technology brings a new perspective to job sites

BY JACOB STOLLER

D

rivers may be frustrated with traffic disruptions related to two ongoing highway interchange projects in Saskatoon, but at least they’re not in the dark.

Thanks to a series of narrated drone-created videos on the city’s website,

they can view an excellent, high-level picture of what’s been accomplished on the projects and what lies ahead over the next few months. Watching the progress, authorities are finding, eases the anxiety.

“At times it’s difficult for people to see why they’re being obstructed by construc-

tion so much, so it’s easier if they have an overall perspective,” says Brad North, construction modeling specialist for PCL Construction in Saskatoon, which created the video as part of its work as general contractor on the project.

Public information websites are nothing new, but the quality of the Saskatoon presentation, compared with traditional images and diagrams, clearly raises the bar. It also shows just how far the technology has come.

Public visibility is one of many emerging use case categories for drones in the

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construction industry. These generally fall into two categories – the sharing of visual information, as in the above example, or the use of drones for measurement purposes.

AN EYE IN THE SKY Perhaps the most common application is the use of drones to conduct inspection work that would otherwise put workers in harm’s way. Drones can capture videos of the undersides of bridges, thermal photos of building facades, or high-resolution imagery from precarious locations such

as the top of a wind turbine. “You reduce worker exposure and eliminate the risk of injury when doing these inspections when you utilize a drone,” North says.

The unique visual oversight of job sites that drones can provide is, understandably, extremely valuable for planning meetings, review sessions, or the sharing of best practices.

“We were pouring a seven-lane bridge deck in Saskatoon and used the drone to monitor the start of this large pour,” North says. “We were observing pump locations, concrete truck access, and location of

testers, and you get a better perspective from the air in real time. With this information we were able to make informed decisions that improved workflow. We also sent this footage to other PCL offices that had similar projects to aid in their planning.”

Visual images can also be used to enhance site plans. On a recent project, North mapped a job site with 1,600 high-resolution photos, and superimposed computer-aided design (CAD) drawings.

The result is an up-to-date site plan where you can actually zoom in on a bootprint in the ground.

On the measurement side, drone surveys are gaining wide use for planning and progress monitoring. EllisDon, for example, is using drones to monitor progress on the earthworks excavation on the Toronto Port Lands project, which involves re-routing portions of the Don River.

“We’re using drones to keep track of progress based on the quantities that are being moved on the site,” says Sophie Croteau, virtual design construction coordinator at EllisDon. “The idea is that we can measure and compare those numbers to the daily rate or the monthly rate that we’re expecting. If the numbers don’t match up, we can find out why, and we learn that earlier than we would otherwise.”

Two basic correction technologies are used to improve the accuracy of drone surveys so that they can be used for such purposes. Real-Time Kinematics (RTK) reference a number of established ground points to ensure accuracy, and employs a continuous communication link between a rover such as a drone and a satellite receiver acting as a base station in order to provide corrections to GPS readings in real-time. Post-Processed Kinematics (PPK) require fewer reference points on the ground, and make corrections after all of the data has been captured and uploaded. Each method has pros and cons, and as Croteau notes, it’s important to have good technical advice on which way to proceed.

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UAVS survey team to complete, accuracy varies depending on the method and equipment being used. While ground surveys can achieve accuracy of within a few millimetres, some commonly used drone-based methods get between three and five centimetres.

It’s important, therefore, to match the collection method with the application.

“We were planning an access road to a remote site, so we used similar drone mapping techniques to generate contours of the layout of the land and used the contours to plan our access roads,” North says. “This was high level – not as accurate as we would need for actual building, but sufficient for cut and fill volumes and estimating costs.”

EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY The development of drone-related tech-

nology has exploded in the past few years.

In 2015, investments in drone start-ups increased fourfold over the previous year, and today, the selection of drones and accessories is increasing rapidly. Drones suitable for use in construction applications range from consumer-based models priced around $1,500 to high-end models in the range of $20,000, which might be equipped with a thermal camera or a battery warmer for use in cold weather.

The evolution of software that converts collected data from drone cameras and other sensors into usable information has been equally robust. With sensors collecting, in some cases, 800 data points per second, the number-crunching capabilities are significant.

“There’s lots of buzz about drones, and that has captured the imagination of the industry,” says Andrew Evans, a product

manager with Topcon Positioning Group.

“But getting the data into the hands of the people that need it quickly has always proved challenging. So we’re seeing the processing and data prep tools that are making that possible.”

The software phenomenon is part of the Internet of Things (IoT) trend, where input from sensors on drones, machine control systems and a wide range of other surveying systems is ported into a unified environment in the cloud and made available through a user interface. Topcon’s MAGNET Collage is a widely-known software platform in this space.

Software has also made possible the autonomous flight option, where drones follow pre-programmed flight patterns.

Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Kespry provides self-flying drones on a subscription basis.

“You don’t have to know how to fly a

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UAVS requirements. “You have to know your area, and if a bylaw exists for drone use,” North notes. “For example, in some cases, you might need a filming license and approval from local authorities, in addition to NAV Canada. So this can be challenging.”

Another issue is privacy. There are concerns that workers, or subcontractors, are being spied on by drones, so there need to be measures in place to counter that. “We post signage to let people know when there’s a drone up there capturing data,” North says, “and we make sure

“

“You need to involve people who know about how drone surveying works and also understand how the new Transport Canada regulations will affect drone operations.”

PHOTOS: PCL

– Sophie Croteau, EllisDon

drone,” says Jason Nichols, senior product marketing manager at Kespry, “you just push the button and fly it.”

Kespry’s unlimited flight subscription model encourages contractors to experiment with different use cases. For example, a contractor could use a drone survey to submit a more accurate bid on a site where a lot of excavation is involved, or to provide evidence that a job was completed properly.

The autonomous flight function, however, doesn’t necessarily eliminate the need for trained pilots. “We do use autonomous flight features on these drones,” says North, “but we also ensure that our pilots are trained and can fly without the aid of GPS so that if something happens with the flight plan, we can bring the drone back

manually. Our pilots have to understand flight controls and be able to react under pressure.”

ADOPTION ISSUES Pilots are required by law to be certified

by Transport Canada, and this June, new stricter regulations will come into effect.

These will include tougher qualifications for pilots, restrictions about where and when drones can be flown, special requirements for operation near airports, and certification of the drones themselves.

The advanced exam, which will apply to contractors, involves both a theoretical and a practical component. The new regulations are available on the Transport Canada website.

There are, however, other regulatory

every supervisor on the job site is aware – it’s in their tailgate meetings.”

According to Croteau, contractors also need to be aware of the standards of traditional surveying, and to understand the implications of using drone data in place of information collected in traditional ways. “You need to involve people who know about how drone surveying works,” Croteau says, “and also understand how the new Transport Canada regulations will affect drone operations.”

The construction industry has often been resistant to new technology, but there is a “cool factor” that is allowing drones to gain momentum toward wider acceptance. “People may not realize the extent of how drones can be used, but this is a trendy topic that everybody knows about,” Croteau says. “That makes it easier to actually apply.”

Croteau is less certain that dronebased technology is transforming the construction industry. “I’m not sure it’s changing the industry,” she says. “It’s just adding a different tool for gathering more data.”

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RISK

By David Bowcott

Asset management comes to North America

T

he construction industry is moving towards a more integrated approach.

Though this column primarily focuses on construction and its associated risks, I’ve been interweaving the concept of asset management into my articles over the past several years to highlight a profound shift within construction.

Increasingly, the industry is opting for project delivery models that account for the total cost of ownership of an asset and attempt to improve communication between the design, construction and operations stakeholders.

Whether it’s public-private partnership models that award concessions to a special purpose vehicle to design-build-finance-operate-maintain an asset, or integrated project delivery models that create a collaborative environment, you can’t ignore the drive toward whole-life delivery models that go beyond the total cost of construction.

More and more asset owners are collaborating with key stakeholders related to the development and operations of their assets to better manage their investments – thus the rise of asset management.

A strong measure for the growth of asset management has been the expansion of asset management focused associations, conferences and events. Several of these associations and events seem to have got their start in Europe and parts of Australasia, and are now migrating to new regions, such as North America.

The Institute of Asset Management (IAM), the Global Forum on Maintenance and Asset Management (GFMAM), the Asset Management Council (AMC), Energy & Utilities Alliance (EUA) and Maximo User Conferences are just a few of the prominent examples.

We’ve also seen growth in North American-focused asset management associations like the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP), the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada (PEMAC), the Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM), and several asset-specific associations like the Water Environment Federation (WEF).

The spotlight on asset management continues to grow, driven by the launch of the ISO 55000 asset management standard in 2014 and advances in technology integration into physical assets, such as IoT, machine learning and digital twin technology. The emerging interest in asset management seems to be a driving force behind the desire for new delivery models that contemplate more collaboration with all asset stakeholders.

As further evidence of this growth in Asset Management globally and in North America in particular, IAM is launching its inaugural North American Conference, taking place from October 1st to 3rd in Chicago. I am fortunate enough to be the co-chair of this event and look forward to helping the North American market place learn more about the trends and thought leadership related to asset management. Hope to see you there!

I’ve spent quite a bit of time hanging out with leaders of the global asset management community over the past 10 years.

These people are dedicated professionals with one simple goal in mind: to optimize the balance between cost, performance and risk as it relates to their organizations’ portfolio of assets. A truly noble cause as I can attest based on the data of the insurance sector that improperly constructed, operated and maintained assets are the cause of many losses suffered by the insurance sector. Further, the cost to society of improperly constructed and operated assets is truly epic in size, amounting to trillions of dollars.

Still, one thing I’ve noticed about the global asset management community is the lack of participation from the construction community.

There are representatives from the design community, however, I fail to see any meaningful participation from the construction sector, namely from main contractors and subcontractors. This has always puzzled me, as it is the construction sector that transforms design into operational asset reality. How can such an important role within the asset’s life not be more involved in discussions related to optimizing asset performance?

If there’s one piece of advice I can to leave with both the construction community and the asset management community, it’s to get to know each other on a much deeper level.

Perhaps this IAM conference is an ideal venue for construction stakeholders to learn more about asset management, and for asset managers to get to know the trials and tribulations of the construction sector. I have no doubt deeper collaboration between these two groups will lead to better assets, as well as a better economy.

David Bowcott is Global Director – Growth, Innovation & Insight, Global Construction and Infrastructure Group at Aon Risk Solutions. Please send comments to editor@on-sitemag.com.

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CONTRACTORS & THE LAW

By Ivona Zegrean and Alexander Spraggs

Construction tendering 101

B

y replacing negotiation with competition, the tendering process in construction is intended to bring more certainty, fairness and efficiency to the allocation of contracts. Despite this, the tendering system is an idiosyncratic mechanism, giving rise to certain obligations that may take some by surprise.

The invitation to tender is a representation that bids will be considered by the owner. The bid itself constitutes an offer, which, if accepted by the owner, will generally result in the two parties entering into a construction contract. However, the peculiarity of the construction industry is that the relationship between the parties is governed not only by the construction contract itself, but also by a further contract, which arises automatically when a bid is submitted.

That first contract is referred to as Contract A and governs the conduct of the tendering process and the selection of the winning bid. The substantive construction work is governed by Contract B. The coming into existence of Contract A depends on the parties’ intention to initiate contractual relations by one party requesting, and the other party submitting, a bid. If the owner is merely requesting proposals without a commitment towards entering into a contract, Contract A does not arise when a contractor submits a proposal.

The main terms of Contract A are, generally: the bid is irrevocable for the time specified in the tender, and both parties must enter into a construction contract upon acceptance of a tender.

Deviation from Contract A’s terms may amount to a breach of contract and give rise to liability for damages.

The owner enjoys more bargaining power in determining the obligations of the contractor during the tendering process through the wording of the invitation to tender. This is why, in the absence of language to the contrary in the invitation to tender, the law implies certain terms in the contract to rectify this imbalance.

Implied terms include the owner’s obligation to treat bidding contractors fairly and to select only a bid that complies with the terms of the invitation to tender.

Owners are free to, and usually will, include privilege clauses in the invitation to tender, which give them wide discretion in assessing and selecting bids. Courts will interpret privilege clauses narrowly, but will usually give effect to an express privilege clause, even if doing so would override implied terms, as long as the there is evidence of the parties’ intention to be bound by it.

The implied term of fairness encompasses the obligation of

the owner to assess bids on the basis of the criteria set out in the invitation to tender and not to rely on hidden preferences and undisclosed standards in selecting a bid. The duty of fairness has also been held to represent a prohibition against “bid shopping” – meaning the owner cannot solicit a bid from a contractor with whom it has no intention of dealing and then use that bid as leverage to drive down prices.

The obligation to select only a compliant bid usually arises automatically if the tendering is conducted through a bid depository system. Unless provided otherwise in the invitation to tender, a bid need only be substantially compliant with the terms of the invitation to tender. Substantial compliance is an objective test, which will be satisfied if the bid complies with all the material terms of the tender call. Owners may include a privilege clause in the invitation to tender entitling them to accept a non-compliant bid or to waive an informality or defect in the bid. Such a clause will be closely scrutinized by the court and will not entitle the owner to waive a material non-compliance. For example, failure to disclose the value of any imported steel was considered to be a material non-compliance, and the owner could not rely on a privilege clause to accept the materially non-complaint bid The need for compliance also includes the requirement that the bid be delivered in the specified form and within the time called for in the invitation to tender. A tender submitted less than one minute after the specified time was found to be non-compliant in British Columbia but compliant in Ontario, a result that indicates substantial compliance with timing requirements may be the safer route to follow.

If the invitation to tender contemplates the parties entering into the actual construction contract, both the contractor and the owner are entitled to demand that such terms be enforced.

A refusal to enter into Contract B following a successful bid is a breach of Contract A. The focus of the law of tendering is on giving effect to the parties’ intent to initiate contractual relations by the submission of a bid in response to an invitation to tender, while promoting fairness and competition in the tendering process.

Ivona Zegrean and Alexander Spraggs practice construction law at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP. This article is provided for general information only and may not be relied upon as legal advice.

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