Thus, this time around, Hurst and
Cyntech, together with Read Jones
Christofferson, had to be very careful
with pile placement from the
environmental impact perspective,
along with also keeping a close eye on
capacities of each pile for structural
considerations. Additionally, attempts
were made to remove piles that were
soaked in creosete, which is considered
a toxic tar, and the contaminated surrounding
soil, which were then taken
to Brooks, Alta. for disposal, at a considerable
cost. The more contaminated
soils removed, the more expensive the
project became, which was an indirect
saving helical piles provided through
their sensitive and spoil-free installation
technique.
In the end, the piling project went
off without a hitch, as all challenges
were met with professionalism and
with a concerted effort from all parties,
including Cyntech.
Still, working in the area did provide
Roper with a closing thought as to just
how far the piling industry had come.
“We were provided with technical
reports dating back to the 1960s and
1980s,” he said. “It was quite interesting
to see the evolution of our science.”
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CYNTECH CANADA
Equipment
Installation – John Deere
333 Skid Steer
Piles – 25 piles, 5.5” OD
shafts, 25 ft. total length
Material – Hot-dip
galvanized (to combat
sulphate content)
engineers, Read Jones Christoffersen
Consulting Engineers. Once this was
determined, there were procedural
issues.
“We couldn’t just lay them out like
we typically would want to,” said Roper.
“There were certain areas of the ground
that had moving groundwater table,
where we couldn’t impede the flow.”
Historically, Roper says, there had
been issues in this respect. He notes
that piles installed previously had rerouted
hot spring water area into a bog
area, leading to cross-contamination.
helical pile is that it’s a displacement
pile, which is rotated into the ground
with a controlled amount of torque,
which correlates to verify soil conditions
and installed capacity, so there’s
no wasted energy that goes into the
soils to disrupt anything, be it the
snails or sensitive instrumentation
from refineries.”
Herein, however, lay a second challenge.
The equipment being used had
to be pristine – as new as possible,
clean and well maintained – just part
of a large number of environmental
specifications that were dictated for
the project overall. Failure to adhere
by the specifications, Roper was told,
could have resulted in penalties as high
as jail time (per the National Parks
Act). Base Pile & Anchor had supplied
the crew and equipment that installed
the piles, and they showed up ready to
work and in immaculate condition.
The project also had issues that
needed to be handled at the job site.
First came locating the previously
existing piles, which was accomplished
by working with the assigned structural
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