One in 13 Canadian workers make their living in construction
The construction industry is recognizing the contributions of 1.3 million Canadians
A Passion for Piling
When it comes to complicated projects, Doublestar Drilling rises to the challenge By Judy Penz Sheluk When Ian Hunt, president of Doublestar Drilling, purchased the company eight years ago, he believed there was a solid opportunity to grow the business. His vision was bang on. Since that time, Hunt has tripled revenues, gone from four drill rigs to more than 20 drill rigs, and in October 2014, expanded the Edmonton headquarters to a 16,000-square foot state-of-the-art facility. But the growth doesn't stop there. In 2011, Doublestar Drilling established a location in Regina to cover the Saskatchewan market, in a move Hunt calls, “very successful.” On May 1, 2015, they opened a third location in Calgary, complete with ten acres of property, after “aggressively pursuing the Calgary market.” That sort of growth isn't fostered by being satisfied with the status quo. To Hunt, this translated to significantly adding to the company's scope of services, which now include large diameter bored piles, every type of shoring, secant and tangent piling, in-house engineering, static load testing, segmental casing, mini-piling to get into tight spaces, vibratory hammer work, crane work and CFA drilling. In 2012, Doublestar expended its fleet into micropiling and anchor installation. The company currently has a fleet of nine micro-piling machines and a fleet of 10 mobile grouting operations.
Construction Project Failures Weigh on Industry Despite Advances in Planning and Controls
Over half of construction project owners experienced one or more underperforming projects in the previous year, despite confidence in project planning and controls, according to KPMG International's 2015 Global Construction Project Owner's Survey: Climbing the Curve. Further, project owners said only 31 per cent of their projects came within 10 per cent of budget, and just 25 per cent within 10 per cent of original deadlines in the past three years. “As engineering and construction projects get bigger, the complexity grows exponentially,” said Geno Armstrong, global chair, Engineering & Construction and a principal with KPMG in the U.S. “The improvements by owners in planning and risk management have been significant, yet there is further work to be done to reduce the number of project failures, and bring more projects in on time and on budget.”
Equipment Corporation of America Hires Gordian Ulrich as Engineering Sales Manager
Equipment Corporation of America (ECA) has hired Gordian Ulrich as engineering sales manager. He will be responsible for BAUER technical applications and advancement of its available technology in the Eastern United States and Canada.
Aki Sand Appointed Junttan’s New Manager of Customer Services
Aki Sand, M.Sc., BBA has been appointed Junttan's new manager of customer services. Sand will begin his post April 20, 2015. He previously served as the director of customer service process management at Konecranes Plc. Sand has in-depth and extensive experience regarding the service and spare parts operations of a mechanical engineering company operating in the global market. He takes up his post as Junttan with an open mind and ready for the new challenges of further developing Junttan's customer services.
Hercules Machinery Revolutionizing Worksites Since 1998
Hercules Machinery introduced the first side-grip in the industry 17 years ago and since then has perfected the Movax® Sonic SideGrip®, placing more than 500 units at worksites throughout the U.S. and Canada. An excavator-mounted attachment, this vibratory pile driver features an articulating side-grip with two unique side-gripping jaws and one bottom jaw that deliver unmatched dexterity when handling, driving or extracting nearly any style of piling.
Cold Front
Ground freezing technology builds in unshakeable stability By Heather Hudson Question: What ingenious construction technique has been around since the 1800s but is reserved for only the deepest, darkest jobs? Answer: Ground freezing. Primarily used to provide ground support, groundwater control or structural underpinning during construction, the technology is mainly used for mine shafts. But its simple, virtually fail-proof design has made it a more popular option for civil projects in recent years. “Ground freezing is still used a lot in mining, but we're seeing it used for civil work like water tunnels,” said Joe Sopko, director of ground freezing at Moretrench, a nationally renowned geotechnical contractor based in Rockaway, N.J.
Tougher Than Bedrock
GeoRocFor celebrates 30 years of drilling and new success in its XS overburden systems By Sarah B. Hood If you ask the folks at GeoRocFor Inc. how business is doing, they like to say they're “getting through the toughest conditions.” That's not because business is bad - quite the contrary: the Sherbrooke, Que.-based company is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2015 as a leading manufacturer of drilling tools and an industry leader in overburden casing systems. In the early 1980s, company founder and current president Roger Charland was working as a sales representative for an equipment distributor in Montreal, handling heavy drilling machinery, but not
Augering Upward
When you have to get below ground, Jeffrey Machine is tops in tools By Kelly Gray When Tervita's Calgary office needed to ramp up their capability on a recent deep foundation job, they turned to Jeffrey Machine for expertise that made a difference. Based in Birmingham, Ala., Jeffrey Machine has become a world leader in drilling tools by working closely with customers such as Tervita, a major North American environmental, energy and construction service company. In this case, they were able to create a 6.1-meter belling tool that was double the diameter of anything the contractor had used in the past. It enabled Tervita to successfully execute the construction of the abnormally large bell pile efficiently and safely.
On the Waterfront
As part of the Halifax Shipyard modernization program, Irving Equipment is rebuilding the Pier 6 Wharf, where Canada's next generation of warships and arctic patrol vessels are slated to be built
Problem-Solving People
Crux Subsurface, Inc. takes an active role in innovation
Towering Above
Liebherr's various divisions breaking ground all over the world
Rock Solid
Crews handle variety of tough conditions on remote power line project
In Canada for 15 Years
A light year's worth of advancements
The TIP is Tops
Faster results, complete coverage, ease of testing and information on cage alignment are just some of the advantages of the new Thermal Integrity Profiler
It’s Time to Act! Preventing Exposure to Carcinogens in the Workplace
The Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) published a quick and easy guide to cancer prevention in the workplace in October. The brochure, Are there carcinogens in your workplace? It's time to act!, is intended for OHS officers, employers and workers. The Canadian Cancer Society, which is dedicated to prevention, has welcomed its publication. Developing occupational cancer is a real risk that is often trivialized, as was too long the case with tobacco, partly due to the fact that it may take 10 to 40 years between exposure to a carcinogen and diagnosis of an illness. The brochure, based on the most up-to-date scientific knowledge available, helps identify carcinogens in the workplace, provides examples of preventive measures and best practices for controlling exposure, and proposes a model action plan for eliminating or reducing exposure.
Canada’s Jobs Minister: Canada Job Grant is the First Step in Addressing Canada’s Skills Mismatch
Jason Kenney spoke at 2013 Skills and Post-Secondary Education Summit hosted by Conference Board of Canada.
CenturyVallen Now Offering North America’s First “Green” Hard Hat
V-Gard® GREEN hard hat made from sugarcane reduces environmental impact CenturyVallen, a national supplier of safety and industrial MRO products and services, is excited to announce that it is now selling the world's first “green” protective hard hat manufactured from sugarcane.
Inventors from Pile Dynamics and the University of South Florida Receive International NOVA Award for Thermal integrity Profiler (TIP)
Industry News