Once complete in 2021, High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes
with electronic tolling will be installed on Highway 427
in both directions, from south of Highway 409 to north of
Rutherford Road. No existing general-purpose lanes will be
removed to accommodate these HOT lanes.
The scope
LINK427 was selected to undertake this Public-Private-
Partnership Design-Build-Finance-Maintain project by
the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure
Ontario. The LINK427 team includes developers ACS
Infrastructure Canada Inc. and Brennan Infrastructures Inc.,
with construction being carried out by Dragados Canada
Inc., Brennan Infrastructures Inc. and Bot Infrastructure Ltd.
The project design was handled by WSP, headquartered in
Montreal, Que.
Roughly 1,000 jobs will be created throughout the course
of this massive project, with the majority of work being completed
by companies with main offices within the Greater
Toronto Area. One of those companies is Aurora-based,
Powell Foundations.
Powell was established in 2017, and has quickly carved out
a reputation for offering its clients total expertise in the design
and installation of shoring, foundation and noisewall systems.
“Our service is what sets us apart,” said Carmine Gizzo,
senior project manager at Powell Foundations. “We are a
one-stop-shop that can handle every aspect of a shoring and
foundation project. And we take great pride in the way that
we work with our partners in helping them figure out the
most cost-effective and advantageous ways of doing things.”
For the Highway 427 expansion, Powell installed 804 piles
and completed 18 structures, which included two cofferdams
and six roadway protections, as well as shoring and scour
protection for the structures. The company began work on
the project in September 2018, and is looking to complete the
job ahead of schedule.
“The thing that we are most proud of in regard to this project
was in being able to do all of those structures with only
a few machines and a small – but skilled – workforce, and
never once falling behind or delaying the general contractor
in the building of their structures,” said Gizzo.
Powell used a Terex HC 110 crane equipped with a
Berminghammer B32 hammer to drive the piles and, for several
of the structures, the company also made use of an RTG
RM 20 pile driver. Powell also had a Kobelco 80-Ton crane
on hand that installed the protection systems in the culverts
at the cofferdams, as well as the scour protection. The roadway
protections were completed with the help of a Bayshore
Hitachi 470.
The project primarily used 12-inch by 74-foot-pound
(310-millimetre by 110-kilogram per metre) H-piles and, on
certain bridges where the design called for it, Powell utilized
14-inch by 117-foot-pound (360-millimetre by 174-kilogram
per metre) H-piles. When installing the shoring protection,
the company used ZZ sheet piles, relying mainly on Samuel
Roll Form and steel from North America for the H-piles and
sheet piles.
For any project of this scope and scale there are bound to
be a number of obstacles to overcome, yet none were seen as
being insurmountable for Powell Foundations.
As they were working within the Hydro Corridor, one
of the more significant challenges the company faced was
determining how to lower the leads on the machine and
GREAT CANADIAN PROJECTS
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