TAC Awards and conference report 2022

Direct by Design

Canada conference 2022 and TAC Award celebrations

Shani Wallis, TunnelTalk

The conference gathering in Vancouver provided a window into the vibrant activity of the national tunnelling association and the busy program of underground construction currently underway and planned for across Canada. More than 800 delegates participated in the proceedings of the four-day event that included a short course and workshops on Wednesday, keynote speeches and three consecutive sessions of technical presentations on Thursday and Friday, a welcoming reception and Young Members social on Wednesday evening and the Gala Awards Dinner on Thursday evening.

The keynote speeches were given by three women: two senior engineers representing owners and a local politician concerned with the investment of taxpayers’ money in major infrastructure. Cheryl Nelms described an intense programme of work being planned by Metro Vancouver for water and wastewater services while Amanda Farrell of IT Corp explained the different methods of project procurement being adopted by Canadian owners, including progressive design, build, finance contracts with the construction proponents bringing up to 20-25% of the funding requirement to the project. Bowinn Ma, political representative for North VancouverLonsdale, gave an impressive overview of the damage caused by recent major flood events in the Vancouver region and the scale of investment needed to repair and rebuild destroyed highway infrastructure.

Technical papers of particular interest included the management of high groundwater inflows on the Ashbridges Bay treatment plant outfall project that damaged and deformed the segmental lining of the TBM drive out under Lake Ontario ; excavation of the rail tunnels under the 21 lanes of the 401 and 409 highways in the Toronto area ; and demolition and rebuild of the 100 year old Mont Royal tunnel for the REM LRT project in Montreal. A set of international project papers reported on the rock engineering challenges of the Snowy 2.0 hydro project in Australia ; the configuration of the BART to San Jose metro extension in Northern California ; and the application of double shell linings on rail tunnels in Switzerland with a segmental primary lining of TBM

drives finished with an in-situ cast in place lining and a waterproofing sheet membrane between.

High on the agenda for discussion was a full session dedicated to the current focus on sustainability within the industry and across its many definitions and facets, and a presentation on equality and equity of opportunity for young engineers and for women and minorities within the industry. Not a reserve for Canada alone, equality of opportunity and respect and promotion of women, minorities and young recruits in the industry is an issue globally. While the Young Members groups are addressing the different aspects of the issue, more is recognised as being needed particularly to keep young engineers and new recruits in the industry and to assist them with mentoring and exposure to opportunities to foster rewarding careers.

For sustainability, there remains confusion to exactly what is meant when the term is used, but strides were made through the dedicated session presentations. The titles of the papers speak to the topic: A holistic approach to carbon footprint evaluation in the single versus double bore tunnel dispute ; Are decisions on tunnelling projects truly sustainable – reality versus theory ; Underground space, an opportunity to support sustainable infrastructure development ; and Sustainability in regard to metro developments. Convened

by Giuseppe Gaspari and

Conference Technical Chair Connor Langford of Mott MacDonald Canada (left) and Conference Chair Jason Mann of KGS Group (right) join a photo call with keynote speakers Cheryl Nelms (centre left), Amanda Farrell (centre) and Bowinn Ma (centre right)

through his animateur lead of the ITA Working Group 20, the effort is also supported by Past ITA Vice President, Lars Babendererde who said that “unless we take a proactive role in this issue we will lose our industry. Project owners and industry representatives need to explain early on the benefits and importance of planned projects to reach the regional sustainability goals. The secondary positive effects of projects need to be explained and openly discussed with opposing groups. We must become more engaged if we are to sustain our industry for the future.”

As always with conference gatherings, it was the networking in the exhibition hall and during the breaks that keeps the buzz and enthusiasm of being in the industry alive. In Vancouver, congratulations were being extended to all those involved in the projects and individuals honoured with 2022 TAC Awards (p5) and stories in the coffee-table book depicting the history of tunnelling in Canada across the decades were recounted. Published in time for last year’s 2021 TAC Conference, copies of the hard-cover Canadian Tunnelling Memories & Achievements book are available for purchase from TAC via its website. For its part in celebrating the industry in Canada, TunnelTalk published its Canada Focus and Case Studies Special Edition which is available for free PDF download.

Hot news among the delegates was confirmation that Canadian construction company McNally has been purchased by Kiewit of the USA through its announced acquisition of Weeks Marine. Weeks of Canada acquired McNally in 2011 and in October 2022, Rick Lanoha, President and CEO of Kiewit Corp, confirmed Kiewit’s intention to buy Weeks Marine and its three subsidiaries, one of which is McNally International. Kiewit and McNally have worked together on tunnelling projects in the past and are currently working as the McNally/Kiewit joint venture on the $201 million Shoreline storage tunnel contract in Cleveland as part of $3 billion Project Clean Lake investment by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to avoid combined sewer overflows into Lake Eire. The 4.3km long x 7m i.d. TBM storage tunnel is designed by McMillen Jacobs and is to be completed and in operation by 2025.

Also a topic of excitement is the bid being put together by TAC of Canada to host the World Tunnel Congress and ITA General Assembly in 2026 in Montreal. The one other declared bidder for the WTC and Assembly is SANCOT, the South African National Committee on Tunnelling, for an event in Capetown. Both countries have hosted the annual event in the past in Vancouver in 2010 and in Durban in 2000 and the selection between the two bids for 2026 will be voted on at the ITA General Assembly at WTC 2023 in Athens next year. Canada will build its bid on its experience of holding annual tunnelling conferences and on its long portfolio of current and planned projects in its burgeoning underground construction industry. Ahead of that we will all meet again at the TAC Conference in Toronto next year in November 2023. n

TunnelTalk references

• McNally under new ownership - July 2011

• Cleveland progressing its CSO network - September 2020

• WTC and ITA success at Vancouver - June 2010

Carbon emissions were key to sustainability discussions

Work On Progress. Rethinking construction.

STRABAG Inc., the Canadian subsidiary of the STRABAG SE Group, has been successfully operating in the North American market mainly in infrastructure and tunnelling projects from 2005, specifically in Canada. STRABAG Inc. has executed/is executing the projects as the Niagara tunnel, Highway 401 tunnel, Mid Halton Outfall tunnel or the current Scarborough subway extension near Toronto. Our highly experienced team is the strongest motor for building a better future. Through the hard work and dedication of our approximately 74,000 emp loyees, we generate an annual output volume of around CAD 21.6 billion within the STRABAG Group.

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CANADIAN ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Recognising significant achievements in the TAC 2022 Awards

A highlight of the proceedings of the TAC Conference each year is the presentation of the Association’s Awards. This year the accolades were presented in recognition of a set of nominations that were outstanding in each of the categories.

• The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to Patrick McNally, the second generation head of the Canadian family-owned construction company that has been involved in so many of the main underground and surfaces infrastructure projects in building the social fabric of Canada. A worthy awardee as the company McNally begins another new phase of its journey with purchase by Weeks in 2011 making it a now part of the Kiewit takeover of Weeks. The goodwill and established relationships with owners, consultants, subcontractors and suppliers will be a valuable asset to Kiewit Corp.

• The Young Canadian Tunneller of the Year, Dani Delaloye, has made a mark already in establishing the value of women engineers in the industry and gave a leading presentation in the Conference proceedings to promote equality and equal opportunity in industry recruiting practices.

• The Tunneller of the Year Award to Paul Cole recognises the value of experienced superintendents for establishing the solid foundations on which successful projects progress.

• The two Projects of the Year – one of more than $100 million and the other of up to $100 million honour all of those involved in the success of two outstanding achievements:

• the first, to create a shallow-cover rail underpass of the 21 lanes of the operating 401 and 409 Highways in Toronto and the other

• in breaking out and rebuilding of a 100-year-old tunnel in Montreal to repurpose as a 21st Century LRT metro line.

• The Innovation Initiative Award of 2022 goes to a team of engineers who have developed a mechanical process for ‘surgical’ mining of ore seams that extracts the ore precisely and economically and protects the environment by backfilling the excavation to reinstate the surface.

Congratulations to all the recipients of the 2022 series of TAC Awards. Click on each of the images to play the Award video and visit the TAC website to view the videos of the TAC Award Winners for all the years from 2015

CONNECTING

With 5 EPB Shields, Herrenknecht supports the extension of the Canadian metro systems by more than 25 km. The

lines in the Greater Toronto Area will be expanded by over 20 km. In Vancouver 7 km of additional tunnels will lead to 6 new subway stops. Herrenknecht guarantees the local support with their offices in Sumner, WA and Toronto, ON. herrenknecht.com