FEATURE
the U.S. or Canada, if you take the top 10 contractors, they
probably have about 70 per cent of that market. And through
ADSC-IAFD, DFI and PDCA, all of them are represented. If
you can get the bigger companies on board to start off, it
starts to filter down.”
He acknowledges that seeing legal enforcement in the
U.S. is not the goal at this time, as it would take years of
dedicated lobbying.
“Initially, we’re just looking for acknowledgement from the
major piling contractors of the issue,” he said. “That’s our
starting point: enlargement of the issue, and getting people to
start implementing best practices, in a general sense.”
Finbow agrees.
“Once the main group starts doing it, then it becomes the
accepted norm,” he said.
It’s obviously in the best interest of the piling contractor
to have a safe platform, says Gildea, but specialty contractors
are only a small part of the construction process. In addition
to capturing the attention of North America’s largest piling
companies, the Working Group is hoping to convey the importance
of the working platform conversation to other parties.
“The purpose of the Working Group has developed further
into more outreach outside of the deep foundation construction
industry, like to owners,” said Taube. “We realize now that we
have to go beyond the specialty trade organizations and talk
to general contractors, owners, possibly insurance companies,
engineers, etc.”
It’s complicated
Without governing guidance on working platforms for the
North American marketplace, determining the party responsible
for the design, maintenance and ongoing repair of the
working platform is complicated at best, but is of the utmost
importance when it comes to resolving platform issues.
Taube outlines a prospective bidding process that demonstrates
the complexity of the working platform conversation.
“Imagine a scenario where a general contractor has
ground improvement within his scope, and let’s say the
ground improvement is either design-build or the ground
improvement allows for several alternates,” he said. “The
GC is getting multiple bids and different contractors
might be approaching the job using different techniques,
and each specialty subcontractor would have different
equipment that they’re proposing to use on the job for these
different techniques.”
So now, says Taube, the general contractor is in a position
where they have the contractual responsibility to provide a
safe working platform. However, there will not be enough
time prior to the bid to figure out what the working platform
is, and so the GC will typically make some allowances. A
specialty contractor may decide to make basic recommendations
about the working platform, but they may not always have
the time or ability to design the platform by bid time, either.
“At Bauer, we have our own engineers in Calgary who
can calculate bearing pressures and we have the facilities
through the FPS to use their tools to calculate bearing pressures,”
said Finbow. “But some companies guess and can be fairly
accurate through experience, but they don’t truly know what
their bearing pressure is.”
Further complicating matters, says Taube, is that the site
will change. Even if a specialty contractor has bid documents
and borings, conditions change between the time those borings
are taken to the time the work is performed, which can affect
the design of the working platform.
“Let’s say the borings are collected in summer when the
groundwater is lower, but the work is done in the springtime
when the groundwater is higher and closer to the surface,”
said Taube. “Also, what if the work is being done in the winter
and we know there’s going to be a lot of snow? If you are
working in wet weather or dry weather, there could be significantly
different working platform design and maintenance
requirements. Significant grading or cut and fill could take
place between the time the project is put out to bid and the
time the work is performed, making it even more difficult
to properly design an adequate working platform. It’s not a
simple issue at all.”
“In Canada, we have the additional burden of inspections
during and after rain and, in more northern climates, due
to freeze thaw,” said Michael Baxter with Bauer Equipment
America. “Daily inspections or even ongoing inspections in
these conditions would be required to ensure the integrity
and safety of the working platform.”
Outlining the responsible party
“One of the problems we’re grappling with at the moment is
who takes responsibility for not just designing the platform,
but also for the long-term maintenance of the platform,”
said Gildea.
“Identification of the responsible entity is the crux of this
issue and it must be part of the solution,” said Siegel.
He says that as the party with the overall site control, the
owner should bear the responsibility for a proper working
platform, but notes that in practice, it doesn’t often work
that way.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 44
42 Q3 2019 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
