It’s Not a Hammer

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.

Ground Control

[ VIEW PHOTO GALLERY ] Keller Foundations' role in Toronto's new underground transformer station By Jim Chliboyko When the construction of Toronto's new downtown transformer station was announced, what was arguably the most amazing thing was the news that it was to be the city's first downtown transformer station built since 1955. The power being routed through the new transformer station will not only supply Toronto's financial district, but will give the existing infrastructure a bit of a break and an opportunity to get some maintenance done on the rapidly aging Windsor Transformer Station, a half-kilometre to the north. Toronto Hydro's estimated $195-million new station - located by the John Street CPR Roundhouse, a block or so away from both the CN Tower and Rogers Centre (the SkyDome) - is seen as the next step in strengthening the city's electrical infrastructure. The company points out on its website that the population of the downtown area increased by 50 per cent in one five-year period alone (2006 to 2011), adding to increased electrical demand, and adding to the pressure on the Windsor station. The new station will add 144 MVA of capacity. Occasionally, the transformer station is still referred to as the Bremner Transformer Station, though it's recently been renamed the Clare R. Copeland Transformer Station (after a former chair of the Toronto Hydro board, who only just left the position in 2013 after 14 years as chairman). The area in question is at the southwestern corner of Rees and Lakeshore. It's actually part of Toronto's municipal parks system, known as Roundhouse Park, and the Roundhouse itself is considered a National Historic Site of Canada.

Up in the Clouds

[ VIEW PHOTO GALLERY ] Constructing the Glacier Skywalk By Heather Hudson The best things in life are rarely exactly the way we imagine them. And the breathtaking Glacier Skywalk in Jasper National Park is no exception. Back in 2010, Brewster Travel Canada put out an Expression of Interest to three construction firms to create a tourist attraction featuring a “cliff-edge pedestrian walkway” snaking its way along the Canadian Rockies. Though the initial concepts included cable- supported structures, when Dr. Simon Brown of Read Jones Christoffersen (RJC), a consulting engineering firm, and construction manager Scott Updegrave of PCL Construction Management took a trip up the side of the mountain, they were inspired to create a new design. “After seeing what the site had to offer, we changed our minds based on the spectacular scenery,” said Brown. “We didn't want anything above the viewing place to obstruct the view and we wanted to maximize the excitement of the glass floor element.”

Women in Heavy Construction

The tide is turning for women seeking employment in the construction industry

Helping Build Bridges to Prosperity

Footbridges over otherwise impassable rivers give isolated communities access to health care, education and markets By Barb Feldman In 2001, Ken Frantz happened to see a photo in National Geographic of men dangling precariously from ropes that they were using to pull each other across a wide, high gap in a bridge across the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia. Frantz, who owned a construction company, knew how to build and believed he could help. He persuaded family, friends and his Rotary club to donate time, money and materials, and within three months the two sides of the centuries-old stone span, which had been deliberately destroyed in World War II to stop the advance of Italian troops, had been reconnected. The success of this first project inspired Frantz to found Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), a non-profit dedicated to building footbridges over otherwise impassable rivers to give isolated communities safer access to health care, education and markets. Both B2P's basic cable-suspended bridge design and its community-participation and teaching model were inspired by and adapted from programs begun by the Swiss development agency Helvetas (now HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation), which began its own community footbridge-building programs in the 1980s. Since 2008, B2P has also been developing its own safe, replicable and locally viable suspension bridge design alternatives.

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

Meet a Piling Professional

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.

Pay-when-Paid Clauses

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.

One for Me; One for You

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.

Small and Mighty

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.”

Solid Foundation

Pinnacle Drilling Products excels as an industry “total solutions” provider By Lisa Gordon When Allan Zdunich founded Pinnacle Drilling Products back in 2007, the Vancouver, B.C.-based company supplied drilling tools and products to the oil and gas, mining, construction, geothermal and waterwell industries. Its first shop was a mere 2,000 square feet, and it was home to just four employees. But Zdunich - a drilling industry veteran who is marking 50 years in the field this year - was clearly onto a good thing. It took only eight years for Pinnacle to grow into a new facility in Burnaby, one that is five times bigger than its original shop. In 2011, a company restructuring initiative brought in more capital to fund targeted growth.

Doing It All

Ruskin Construction Ltd. reaches its 25th anniversary with more plans for growth in the coming years By Lisa Kopochinski Anyone who has worked in construction will tell you it's a tough industry with many ups and downs - so for a company to reach its 25th anniversary is especially noteworthy. Ruskin Construction Ltd. is one such company that has beaten the odds and showing no signs of slowing down. Founded in 1989 by Andrew Purdey of Ruskin, B.C., this privately held company (with its head office in Prince George, B.C.) specializes in six primary markets - bridges, foundations, marine, railway, aerial pipeline and heavy civil construction. “We're proud of our history as a company and appreciate our loyal clients who have made our passage from a small one-crew company to the professional construction team of 300 qualified personnel we are today,” said Ruskin president, Jim Basha. Since 1989, Ruskin Construction Ltd. has developed into a professional construction team providing $100 million in annual construction services to a diverse client base located across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Approximately half of Ruskin's yearly volume is derived through repeat client investments.

Winning Formula

Formula Contractors Ltd. gains ground in a broad range of projects thanks to diverse capabilities By Kelly Gray Western and Arctic construction projects have been turning to Prince George-based Formula Contractors Ltd. for the right equation for job success since 1977. In the early days, the company was known as Formula Pile and Bridge. Growth in its capabilities and skill sets saw it refresh the business moniker to reflect the fact that the company was growing to be more than spanning rivers and pounding foundations. The breadth of their expanding operations, from Manitoba west to the Pacific Ocean and U.S. border at the 49th parallel north to the Beaufort Sea including Yukon and N.W.T., includes the full range of construction services from project management to structures such as massive steel drainage culverts, to mine site development and reclamation to renewable energy (Formula Contractors built B.C.'s first wind farm foundations at Dawson Creek) as well as some of North America's most demanding highway and bridge work, not to mention a wide range of foundation projects. “We wanted to diversify so we changed the name to reflect that we do so much more than just piling and bridge work,” said partner and project manager, Phil Toma, pointing to a long list of services that include road and earth works, equipment and portable bridge rentals, material handling and structural steel erection to name just part of the menu. “When I started with Formula Contractors 10 years ago, we had just 10 to 15 guys on crews. Now we have a crew cohort that number 30 to 40 and have had up to 120 workers on some jobs. We also have a professional engineer on staff that joined us from B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation.”

Shoring Up High-Rise Construction

[ VIEW PHOTO GALLERY ] Matcon Canada and Soilmec NA work on the Rogers Arena high-rise By Dan Hunt, Matcon Canada MESL Group of Companies and Craig Berninger, Champion Equipment Sales, LLC and Soilmec NA Vancouver Canucks fans and downtown locals will soon be able to enjoy expanded amenities when they visit the Rogers Arena, including the indispensable addition of new restaurants, bathrooms and parking. However, Vancouver residents and workers may be even more excited by the upcoming increase in rental housing and office space that will be provided by the three new, mixed-use high-rise towers under construction surrounding the hockey arena. Canucks fans and residents may not realize how difficult it was to build the Rogers Arena, which was squeezed between the existing Georgia Street and Dunsmuir Street Viaducts. Now building contractors face the greater feat of constructing three high-rise towers within even tighter jobsites - requiring a construction “hat trick” that hockey fans will appreciate. Construction of the 31-story South Tower has been particularly demanding since this triangular-shaped tower is being wedged between the southern wall of Rogers Arena and the elevated Georgia Street Viaduct on one side, and the at-grade Pacific Boulevard and Griffiths Way on the two other sides. When complete, this high-rise will include five levels of underground parking, more than 200 rental units and multipurpose facilities.

Challenge Accepted

Bermingham takes on a dynamic project to show what they can do By Kelly Gray One of Canada's oldest foundation specialists is helping Parks Canada turn the page on troubles with its historic Trent Severn Waterway. When the Canadian federal government needed to repair Dam #37 at Bolsover near Lake Simcoe, they turned to Bermingham Foundation Solutions for the initial stages that would allow for the demolition of the dam and reconstruction. Working with general contractor Metric Contracting, shoring designer Isherwood Geostructural Engineers, contract administrator EXP and Public Works Canada, Bermingham crews would have to dewater the area immediately adjacent to the existing lock and dam and pro- vide a temporary diversion. This is all in a day's work for a company that has been putting Canada on solid ground since 1897. The Trent Severn Waterway is a hard-won piece of Canadian history with politicians and business interests fighting it out section by section. Joining Lake Huron with Lake Ontario, the 386-kilometre canal system was started in the early part of the 19th century and slowly completed over 100 years, at which time it was quickly made redundant by the completion of the larger Welland Canal. Today, the system is operated by Parks Canada as a tourist destination that brings boat traffic to cottage country through the locks between May and October. Last year, there was close to 100,000 lock operations. [VIEW PHOTO GALLERY]

Introducing the PDA-8G

Pile Dynamics completely revamps its Pile Driving Analyzer® system By Judy Penz Sheluk Pile Dynamics recently announced the release of the PDA-8G, a complete redesign of its Pile Driving Analyzer® (PDA) system, the most widely employed system for dynamic load tests of any type of deep foundation. Like previous PDAs, of which some 2,000 have been sold around the world over 40 years, this eighth generation model performs the test normalized by the American Society of Testing and Materials standard ASTM D4945. “The dynamic load test has been accepted for many decades as an alternative for static load tests in more than 100 countries around the world,” said Gina Beim, senior consulting engineer and marketing director for Pile Dynamics. “It takes place either during pile driving or when a substantial mass impacts a non-driven pile. At each impact, the PDA takes data obtained by sensors (accelerometers and strain transducers) attached to the pile and calculates bearing capacity and other quantities.”

MENCK Provides World’s Largest Hydraulic Hammer for Sandbank Wind Farm Construction

Subsea pile driving specialist MENCK, an Acteon company, is providing the largest and most powerful hydraulic hammer in the world to assist Bilfinger Marine & Offshore Systems with the installation of subsea foundations for Project Sandbank, a new 72-turbine-strong wind farm in the North Sea. Known as the “Gentle Giant,” the MENCK MHU 3500S hydraulic hammer exerts a massive 6.2kJ per tonne of weight, with a pile sleeve that is 6.5m in diameter. “The MHU 3500S has a proven higher output than any other hammer in the world, yet it is up to two to three db quieter than some of MENCK's smaller hammers, meeting extensive environmental protection requirements,” said MENCK's international marketing manager, Claas Denkmann.

Myanmar’s First Liebherr Rotary Drilling Rig Begins Work on Luxury Yangon Condominium

First Liebherr drilling rig operating in Myanmar Geo-engineering specialist Golden Tri Star Co is using the first Liebherr rotary drilling rig in Myanmar to bore piles for a condominium in Yangon's embassy district. The rig is now working on its second project after successfully completing foundation drilling for one of Yangon's largest commercial projects. The rig has started bored piling work on The Illustra At Pho Sein, a 31-storey condominium project, being built on Pho Sein Road in Yangon's premier Kandawgyi Lake district, which includes the city's embassy quarter. Developer of the project is PSWN Development Company Ltd., who have subcontracted geo-engineering specialist Golden Tri Star Co Ltd (GTS) to carry out the foundations work. GTS is the owner of the LB 28, and is a division of Shwe Taung Group, the company that is developing the Junction City project in downtown Yangon, which is where the rig made its debut on the foundations before being moved to The Illustra.