Municon Consultants
Vibration Monitoring, Construction Instrumentation, Photo Surveys
Vibration Monitoring: Ground, Water & Air.
Inclinometer, Piezometer & Tiltmeter Systems.
Remote Reading for Economical Long Term Monitoring
2200 Jerrold Ave, Suite K, San Francisco CA 94124
Phone: 415-641-2570 Fax: 415-282-4097
with caisson diameters ranging from 1.5 metres to 2.4 metres
and ranging from about 16 metres to 25 metres in depth,
with rock sockets from between three and six metres in the
Queenston shale bedrock.
An urgency to complete the job on time
There was a fair variation to deal with in drilling conditions
but there were no surprises, says Speakman.
“The geotechnical report provided a bore hole at each
location, so we had advanced warning of any issue we might
experience,” he said.
Because of the variation in depths and some saturated
conditions, different machinery and set-ups were used at
each location, and the actual area of the work site was also a
factor at some locations.
“However, it was a fairly conventional job once the right
machinery was strategically chosen, a combination of conventional
liner drilling techniques and the more current
drilling techniques using segmental casing. We used Bauer
BG40s closest to the airport where the work areas were quite
tight and the depths of the caissons were the deepest. They
also had the deepest rock sockets,” he said.
The Bauer BG40 can install casings in sections in advance
of drilling without the need for a vibratory hammer. In the
other areas, a Link Belt 218 crane with a Haines drilling
attachment was used.
“If we were lucky there’d be two or three in a row,” he said.
“There were 70 piers, but some had four caissons for each, so
we had 79 caissons to do, about two or three a week.”
The biggest challenge by far was the scheduling.
“There was an urgency throughout the job to complete it
on time,” said Speakman.
There had been a promise that the UP Express would
be ready for the start of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan
Am Games in the summer of 2015. Although Anchor’s own
work was scheduled to be completed in 2012, a long period
of testing also had to take place on the line before it could be
opened for passengers.
“We would complete a caisson in the ground and right
behind us would be the AirLINX JV pouring the column and
eventually erecting the elevated guideway, which was basically
a series of bridges from caisson to caisson to caisson
– they were right behind our tail,” said Speakman.
A winning team
“The airport stands as a real landmark in Toronto, and everybody
saw this thing rising out of the ground,” said Speakman,
who notes that challenges that came up in the course of the
job were accommodated and dealt with expeditiously by
both the design and construction teams, and that the project
did go according to schedule.
“I think that’s one of the advantages of a P3 and a designbuild
project. There’s no one party blaming the other party. The
project’s success is a shared responsibility with all contracted
parties and rests collectively with one winning team,” he said.
Anchor’s work commenced in June of 2012 and finished on
Dec. 14, 2012, and at its peak the company had 30 workers on
site. Despite the project’s demanding schedule and technical
complexities, Speakman says that safety was of the utmost
importance.
“Safety was a priority for both our firm and the JV partnership,”
he said, and the Anchor crew did not have one lost-time
injury on the project. “Completing such a complex job with
zero injuries is a major accomplishment. It needs every single
one of those 30 guys to work efficiently, effectively and safely,
every minute of every day on the job.”
COVER STORY
Columns for
the elevated
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