Hammer & Steel, Inc. Provides Steel Sheet Piling for Construction of New SMART System
Keeping in line with California's penchant for exceptional public transportation systems, the counties of Sonoma and Marin have begun joint construction of an area transit system, and Hammer & Steel, Inc. has been commissioned for providing steel sheet piling for the job. Labeled SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit), phase I of the project calls for the replacement of sixty 100-year-old rail lines from Santa Rosa to San Rafael, to be completed by 2016.
Part of the project requires the construction of a new bridge across the Petaluma River. For the bridge portion of the project, C.C. Myers and Ghilotti Brothers formed a joint venture and were awarded the work.
Over 325 tons of steel sheet piling were used for the con- struction of two temporary cofferdams, combining PZC 18, PZC 26 and PZ 35 to finish the job. The first cofferdam will be in place for approximately one year, with the second cofferdam staying in place for two years.
Over the course of the past several years, GRL Engineers, Inc. (GRL) has introduced a series of six “APPLE” drop hammers. The devices are used in dynamic load testing of any type of deep foundation (ASTM D4945 Standard Test Method for High- Strain Dynamic Testing of Piles), in cases when a pile driving hammer or another suitable drop weight is not readily available at a jobsite.
GRL has now added two more APPLES to the lineup. The APPLE VII is designed specifically to test helical piles. The APPLE VIII is a modular system with a maximum ram weight of 80 tons - double the maximum weight of the APPLE IV, previously the largest of GRL's drop hammers. With this addition, the APPLE devices now cover a large range of test loads, up to 8,000 tons under ideal conditions.
Dynamic load tests are an economical alternative to static load tests, and may also meet the requirements of the Rapid Load Test standard ASTM D7383, particularly with the availability of the heavier APPLES. Prior to the test, GRL performs an analysis and recommends an adequate APPLE for each situation, from micropiles to large, high capacity drilled shafts. After the test, it furnishes a detailed test report that includes a simulated static load test in the form of a calculated load-set curve.
How vacating liens just doubled in price
By Sven T. Hombach, Fillmore Riley LLP
Construction liens are an unfortunate reality of virtually every large construction project, and many smaller ones as well. Designed to ensure that building trades are protected from non-payment, they have a history in Canada that dates back more than 100 years. Site owners who have ever had to deal with an insolvent contractor are well familiar with paying twice - once to the contractor, and once more to the unpaid trades who filed liens. However, in light of a recent Manitoba Court of Appeal decision, contractors are now facing that issue as well, at least on a temporary basis.
While the rules of construction liens are complex, the concept is very simple - unpaid contractors or trades can claim a lien against the underlying land. Since the land has value, the party who claims the lien will ultimately get paid, either because the owner has to remove the lien and pay out the party who filed it, or because the land is sold and the party who filed the lien is paid out of the proceeds of sale.
In-house Training Mitigates Boomer Retirement Risk
Smart organizations can begin planning now
By Barbara J. Bowes, Legacy Bowes Group
We all know it's been happening - the baby boomer exit, that is. To date, it's been fairly innocuous. Yet, businesses are being impacted by baby boomer retirements. For instance, many small business owners have had to look to the potential of mergers and acquisitions as a means to exit their business.
That's because the challenge for small businesses is that not many organizations can afford to have an up-and-coming leader working as an “understudy,” especially for a lengthy period; it's just too expensive. The result is a loss of corporate knowledge within many organizations, big and small, and the creation of a growing leadership gap.
Couple this challenge with the fact that the leadership skills needed to take organizations successfully into the future are quite different than today's technical skills and management style. In fact, current leaders perceive that the one key skill missing from the up-and-coming group of leaders is collaboration. In their view, collaboration is important especially because of the demand to do more with less accompanied by a continually changing global marketplace. In turn, these demands will see an increased use not only of cross-functional teams and interdepartmental reliance but also project teams that span across different agencies and/or corporations.
Design-build and remote PDA testing
By John C. Ryan, Ph.D., P.Eng., Ryan Structural Engineers, LLC
Sharpening the proverbial pencilIt's a familiar saying, and in an engineering office it may sound like this: “Four per cent overstress ... maybe I can sharpen the pencil and make it work.”
Despite the fact that a given balance between load and resistance cannot be “made to work,” there is some insight that this euphemism provides. In reality, deeper understanding of a problem is being sought with the intent of removing uncertainty. As engineers, we are inherently and appropriately risk averse. If we have not personally proven or maintained control of an idea from inception to completion, we become skeptical of it. In practice, this tends result in unnecessary conservatism, particularly where often-disconnected design professionals have tangential or overlapping responsibility. Such is the case with driven piles.
Much of the excessive conservatism that persists in the driven pile industry can be reduced significantly through a design method that treats the pile foundation as a performance specified component. Utilizing bid solicitations, which include pile design criteria and subsurface reports, foundation contractors, along with a driven-pile specialty engineer, can provide design-build solutions with pricing and schedule to be evaluated for best value. Further, by incorporating remote dynamic pile testing within the scope of the design-build team, the most optimized foundation and installation schedule can be achieved. If the pile specialty engineer and contractor team are engaged from concept through design and certification, the pencil is always sharp with respect to foundation design.
SPL Consultants Limited offers a wealth of engineering expertise under one roof
By Kelly Gray
Strength in numbers is behind the growth of Toronto-based SPL Consultants Limited (SPL), a full-service, multidisciplinary ground engineering firm with offices in seven locations (Toronto, Vaughan, Cambridge, Ottawa, Markham, Barrie and Collingwood) across Ontario. The company's wide-ranging specialties have allowed it to grow in five years from a group of five employees to a cohort that offers more than 250 highly experienced engineers, environmental scientists, hydrogeologists, technologists, biologists and support personnel. Since opening in 2009, SPL's capabilities have had them working on ten of the top 100 jobs in the country as cited by Renew, and had industry watchdog Ernst & Young nominate them for Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year.
Behind their success is a willingness to be market sensitive.
“We have grown thanks to our quality of service, our ability to bring value into the engineering model and establish fair pricing,” said SPL Consultants principal, Fanyu Zhu, Ph.D., P.Eng., who adds that they are competitive without sacrificing quality. “We saw from the outset that there was a business opportunity that could be maximized if we could attract the people with the right skill sets and talent. I believe we have done just this.”
Giken America Corporation wants to standardize pile driving with its press-in piling methodology
By Ian Vaz, Giken America Corporation
The Giken America Corporation is a subsidiary of its parent company, Giken Ltd., with its headquarters located in Kochi, Japan. Giken was founded in 1978 from technology developed three years prior by the current president, Mr. Akio Kitamura, who collaborated with a local inventor known as the
“Thomas Edison” of the area.
Giken's press-in piling technology may have never been invented without the shutting down of a project in Kochi due to noise complaints led by a local sushi chef, which subsequently influenced Kitamura to develop this “outside the box” concept. With the contribution of over 300 employees globally, Giken's minimal noise and vibration-free pile driving technology has developed into other various technologies over the company's nearly 40-year history. The press-in piling market has also expanded recently throughout Asia, Europe and especially in North America and South America.
Top Growing Occupations and Provinces for the Construction Industry
Growth in construction sector is a good indicator of a strengthening economy
Supplied by CareerBuilder Canada and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl.
Canada's construction industry has seen steady growth over the last several years, and new data suggests the expansion will continue throughout 2014. According to CareerBuilder Canada and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI), employment in the construction industry has grown by 12 per cent from 2011 to 2014, adding over 102,000 jobs, outpacing four per cent growth for all jobs.
“The construction industry is often a reliable indicator of an economy's strength, and right now we're seeing very encouraging growth,” said Mark Bania, director at CareerBuilder Canada. “Not only has the construction industry added a wide variety of occupations over the past few years, but this growth has stretched across the entire country.”
In order to help workers determine where the opportunities lie within this growing industry, CareerBuilder and EMSI put together a list of the fastest-growing construction occupations. Among occupations that are expected to see the greatest percentage increases in 2014 are:
1) Administrative officers - Oversee and implement administrative procedures, establish work priorities and co-ordinate the acquisition of administrative services such as office space, supplies and security services.· Change in construction employment (2013-2014) - 5.1 per cent · Median hourly earnings - $21.63
2) Contractors and supervisors, heavy construction equipment crews - Includes excavating, grading, paving, drilling and blasting contractors who own and operate their own business and contractors who supervise crane operators, drillers and blasters, heavy equipment operators, longshore workers, material handlers, public works maintenance equipment operators, railway track maintenance workers and water well drillers.· Change in construction employment (2013-2014) - 4.4 per cent · Median hourly earnings - $29.85
Tony Evangelista, Northstar
Describe your current job.
Tony Evangelista: My primary role is the senior manager - business development at Northstar; however, I'm also heavily involved with estimating projects and working with our project managers and construction teams in the execution of awarded jobs.
What are your areas of responsibility?
TE: Primarily and from a global perspective it would be client relations, and helping to develop Northstar as a business. On a day-to-day basis, I'm involved with bidding, estimating, submissions and project execution.
How did you get to where you are now?
TE: Eight years ago, a friend that I was working with as a consultant asked if I'd be interested in working with a company that installed piles. My response was, “Piles of what?” I had no background or understanding of what I may be getting into. A lunch was set up with the president of the company and we hit it off. At the end of lunch, I asked him to drive me home, which elicited a strange look, but he agreed. When we arrived he realized why I'd made this request; a piling company was working across the street driving H-piles for a retaining wall. We got out and spent a good amount of time watching them and I got my first lesson in what we do. I've never looked back.
Be sure you know what you're getting, and when
By James C. Wishart, Fillmore Riley LLP
For better or worse, the readers of Piling Canada are likely familiar with pay-when-paid clauses. Usually found in subcontracts between general contractors and subcontractors or suppliers, pay-when-paid clauses are intended to postpone the general contractor's obligation to pay its subcontractors or suppliers until the general contractor has been paid by the owner for the relevant work. Even some industry standard contract documents, such as the CCA 1 - 2008 (Stipulated Price Subcontract), include pay-when-paid clauses.
The question that we most frequently get about pay-when-paid clauses is: what happens if the owner doesn't pay the general contractor - does the subcontractor or supplier still have a right to be paid for its work or has it waived that right by accepting the pay-when-paid clause? In A&B Mechanical Ltd. v. Canotech Consultants Ltd. et al, 2013 MBQB 287, the Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench considered a pay-when-paid clause and answered that question.
Learning to delegate is necessary for good management
By Barbara J. Bowes, Legacy Bowes Group
Think about it: are you becoming concerned there isn't enough time to recover as you jump from one crisis to the next? Is your email inbox always full? Are you struggling to meet deadlines? Is your staff morale beginning to slip? Is your stress level inching upward and causing you to become edgy and anxious?
If these issues and sleepless nights are wearing you down, then I can safely say that you are probably taking on too many tasks yourself. You are probably not as skilled as you need to be at delegating to your team members. Maybe the issue is that you don't know how to delegate or are afraid to delegate.
Delegation is a skill that is absolutely necessary for good management. It means getting things done through other people. It is all about planning, time management, professional development and the empowerment of your employees.
Tricky situations can call for smaller rigs - Meet the Junttan PM16
By Jim Chliboyko
It's not necessarily the largest piece of equipment available for the job that is always the best or most appropriate. Occasionally, smaller solutions can be equally or better suited. There are factors other than size and power involved with choosing appropriate equipment, such as portability, maneuverability, ease of use and even weight allowances on roads. In the case of pile drivers, sometimes the trickier the situation the job presents, the smaller the rig may be necessary.
Many have turned to the Finnish pile driver manufacturer Junttan and their PM16 model, a 37,000-kilogram machine, to get their jobs done. (The next machine in the Junttan lineup, the PMx20, is significantly larger, listed on the Junttan website as 55,000 kilograms.)
“[The PM16] has been a really good seller for us,” said Bruce Patterson of Canadian Pile Driving Equipment. “It's a little machine with a big heart. It's capable of driving upwards of 16 meters of pile length. Basically, the PM16 is the smallest, lightest purpose-built piling rig that Junttan makes. It's big in Alberta at places like oil sands sites and pipeline facilities.”
About Us
Piling Canada is the premier national voice for the Canadian deep foundation construction industry. Each issue is dedicated to providing readers with current and informative editorial, including project updates, company profiles, technological advancements, safety news, environmental information, HR advice, pertinent legal issues and more.
