Alberta Construction Magazine March 2010

Spring 2010 | $8.00

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PLUS: Getting on the BIM bandwagon PAGE 80

PCL’s Paul Douglas on sustainability, the year ahead, and his new role

Why be green?

“ It’s just the right thing to do”

ALBERTA’S SHINING STARALBERTA ART GALLERY SETS A NEW BAR FOR CONSTRUCTIONP A G E 4 1GREEN

I S S U E

Engineered to keep things running smooth all day. The new D-Series provides class-leading features like a 50%

quieter, pressurized cab, a more comfortable air ride seat, improved 360o visibility, as well as a new engine and

increased hydraulic cooling system. With superior comfort and increased productivity, the new

D-Series is changing how it’s done. That’s powerful value delivered.

For a location near you, call 1-888-2BRANDT or visit www.brandttractor.com.

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Listening, Lending, Doing.

Business Banking

Jim Burke and his team can help your business with financing of up to $50 million. Call him at 403.726.8242 or visit TheWorkingBank.ca.

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Delivering sustainable construction excellence.

Ross Grieve Centennial Learning Centre

Watch us build green at PCL.com

At PCL, we aspire to be the most respected green builder by delivering superior service and unsurpassed value to our customers. We have

more than 320 LEED® Accredited professionals serving our customers across North America with sustainable construction expertise.

Our own Ross Grieve Centennial Learning Centre in Edmonton was the first private building in Alberta to achieve LEED® Gold status.

Our LEED® Accredited professionals in Alberta work daily to help our customers pursue green building initiatives.

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Products for Construction throughout Alberta

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ometimes the secrets to success are so simple we often miss them.I was reminded of this during a recent sit-down with Paul Douglas.

Douglas, the subject of our cover piece that begins on page 50, became president and CEO of the PCL family of companies last October. We were nearing the end of the interview and I asked how coming up through the ranks—one of the things I discovered while doing research beforehand—had prepared him for his new role.

Douglas, his hands folded, was silent for a moment. And then he said, rather resolutely I might add, that one of the big lessons he learned early in his career was that you don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

“In the field you see that it enhances your productivity, it reduces cost, it accel-erates schedule,” he explained. “All those things can apply to everything we do as a business.”

That advice couldn’t be more relevant today, whether you work on a remote site or run a multi-billion-dollar company like Douglas.

It reminded me of another piece of advice I took away from a different business leader early in my own career: plan your problems away. Yes, as the saying goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, but the point is that you aren’t going to go anywhere without first having a plan. Things will invariably come up. When that happens, adjust the plan.

The recession has forced many adjustments for the construction industry. Many of you have had to make some sort of course change, either in your business mod-els or strategic plans, in the past 18 months.

But there are benefits to adjustments. Without adjustments, practices like green building fail to make it into the mainstream. Remember how rare it was just a few years ago to see a LEED certified building in Alberta? No more.

Throughout this issue of Alberta Construction Magazine, you’ll find various examples of how green building practices have become more mainstream—and why. You’ll also learn how companies are using BIM and how groups like the Edmonton Construction Association can prepare you for this new reality.

It’s tempting to dismiss trends, especially during an age when it seems every-thing is changing so quickly. It’s also tempting to take your eye off the puck in such uncertain times to chase something that may eventually prove a bad fit. And let’s face it, sometimes it’s tempting to let that important decision or project or phone call you know you have to deal with wait another day. Or week. Or month.

But realize, there are benefits to not delaying. Just ask Mr. Douglas.

Chaz Osburn editor’s note [email protected]

S

Coming in the summer: The Energy Issue

Alberta Construction Magazine | 7

mailto:[email protected]

features

COMMERCIAL

24 In with the old Renovating what you’ve got can be a good alternative

to starting from scratch by Tricia Radison

INSTITUTIONAL

32 A lesson in being green Emphasis of new Alberta schools is on sustainability

and energy efficiency by Diane L.M. Cook

INFRASTRUCTURE

36 No longer in a rut Communities have long favoured asphalt for repairs.

Now, cities like Lloydminster find that concrete puts an end to rutting woes at intersections

by Godfrey Budd

SPECIAL FEATURE

41 Shining star From its aurora borealis inspired design to complex geometry,

$86-million Art Gallery of Alberta offers a new frame of reference for construction and design

by Nordahl Flakstad

TRADE TALK

77 Three surprising ways to cut costs and boost the bottom line

by Tricia Radison

BUSINESS OF BUILDING

79 There’s help for family-owned businesses

by Kelley Stark

80 Getting on the BIM bandwagon Afraid you’ll miss out on the world of virtual construction?

Fortunately, there are resources to help by Candice G. Ball

PresiDent & CeOBill Whitelaw • [email protected]

PubLisherAgnes Zalewski • [email protected]

assOCiate PubLisher & eDitOrChaz Osburn • [email protected]

eDitOriaL DireCtOrStephen Marsters • [email protected]

eDitOriaL Editorial Assistance Laura Blackwood, Samantha Kapler,

Marisa Kurlovich, Kelley Stark • [email protected]

Contributors Candice G. Ball, Godfrey Budd, Diane L.M. Cook, Nordahl Flakstad, Tricia Radison, Kelley Stark

Creative Print, Prepress & Production Manager Michael Gaffney • [email protected] Publications Manager Audrey Sprinkle • [email protected] Publications Supervisor Rianne Stewart • [email protected] Creative Services Supervisor Tamara Polloway-Webb • [email protected] Graphic Designer Cathlene Ozubko • cozubko @junewarren-nickles.com Creative Services Rachel Dash-Williams, Birdeen Jacobson, Alanna Staver, Dale Zeniuk • [email protected] Contributing Photographers Jeffery Borchert, Aaron Parker, Joey Podlubny, 3TEN Photography

saLes Director of Sales Rob Pentney • [email protected] Sales Manager – Magazines Maurya Sokolon • [email protected] Senior Account Executive Diana Signoile • [email protected] Senior Account Representative Della Gray • [email protected] Account Manager Michael Goodwin • [email protected] Ad Traffic Coordinator – Magazines Elizabeth McLean • [email protected] Advertising Inquiries [email protected]

marketing anD CirCuLatiOn Senior Marketing Coordinator Alaina Dodge-Foulger • [email protected] Marketing/Trade Show Coordinator Ryan Mischiek • [email protected] Marketing Designer Andrew Brien • [email protected]

OFFiCesCalgary:

2nd floor, 816-55 Avenue N.E., Calgary, Alberta T2E 6Y4Tel: 403.209.3500 Fax: 403.245.8666 Toll Free: 1.800.387.2446

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Email: [email protected] Construction Magazine is owned by

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©2010 1072011 Glacier Media Inc. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by

any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of the publisher. The opinions expressed by contributors to Alberta Construction Magazine may not represent the official views of the magazine. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publisher does not assume any responsibility or liability for errors or omissions. Printed by PrintWest

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GREEN

GREEN

As the economy strengthens, look for stories with the Recession to Recovery logo to help you through uncertain times. And be sure to check out junewarren-nickles.com/r2r for Recession to Recovery stories from all JuneWarren-Nickle’s publications.

8 | Spring 2010










mailto:@junewarren-nickles.com













Volume 30, Number 1Published Spring 2010contents

13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nuts & Bolts

21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Around Canada

57 . . . . People, Products & Projects

65 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ACA Report

69 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CCA Report

73 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Business Briefing

83 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Legal Edge

84 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Time Capsule

24

50 An interview with PCL’s Paul DouglasWhy be green?“It’s just the right thing to do”by Chaz Osburn

COVER STORY

Departments

GREEN

The background artwork for this issue’s cover is an

oil painting called Two Cabins, by Brenda

Kim Christiansen.


18120 - 107 Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5S 1K5 • Fax: (780) 484-2029 • (780) 484-6681

• HVAC control specialists• Energy management• Reliable Controls MACH-System

• Commercial heating and air conditioning service• Building HVAC equipment upgrades• 24 hour service

CanDICe G. BaLL, formerly of Calgary but now a resident of Winnipeg, covered everything from literature and theatre to construction and oilsands. Her articles have appeared in Alberta-based publications such as Avenue Magazine and Impact Magazine, and national publications such as Canadian School Counsellor. She is a former editor of Alberta Construction Magazine.

Calgary-based freelancer GODfreY BuDD is a veteran writer, contributing many articles on western Canada’s energy industry and Alberta’s construction sector. He’s a frequent contributor to this magazine.

BrenDa KIm CHrIstIansen’s artworks respond to Alberta’s changing landscape, portraying both our relation to the land and our impact upon the environment. She maintains a studio in Edmonton and is also a sessional painting instructor at the University of Alberta.

nOrDaHL fLaKstaD has worked as a writer and editor at daily newspapers, a wire service, and with APEGGA, the organization representing Alberta professional engineers and geoscientists. Based in Edmonton, he runs his own communications firm. Much of his writing is focused on construction, resources, and engineering.

aarOn parKer is involved in graphic design, music, and photography. He spends his time trying to balance those three elements, plus living normal life, and considers himself lucky to be able to do two of them professionally.

trICIa raDIsOn is a freelance writer from Calgary who has been writing about Alberta construction industry’s innovative ideas and interesting projects and people for several years. Her work has been published in such magazines as Oilsands Review, Canadian Mining Journal, Food for Thought, and Alberta Venture.

KeLLeY starK works in JuneWarren-Nickle’s Energy Group’s Edmonton Editorial Assistance department. She is a graduate of Grant MacEwan’s Bachelor of Applied Communications in Professional Writing program. She hopes the business of construction continues to find green ways to build and is fascinated with recent innovations like recycling buildings.

10 | Spring 2010

contributors

1817 10th Avenue SW Calgary, AB T3C 0K2 Telephone (403) 266-4094 Fax (403) 269-1140

Docket: 32040 Date: June.05.09 Client: ATB Description: Corporate Financial Services Ad: PCLSize: full page bleed (8" x 10.75" trim) Insertion Date: July/August.09 Publication: Alberta Construction Colour: cmykAccount Ex: N.Moe Designer: Outside supplier Production: B.Pfleger

®ATB Corporate Financial Services is a registered trademark of Alberta Treasury Branches.

COMPANIES THAT RESPOND NEED COMPANIES THAT RESPONDLike the PCL family of companies, more and more of Alberta’s top companies want ATB as their financial partner. ATBresponds.com

Response. Results.

nuts & boltsNEWS BRIEfS fOR ThE BUSy CONSTRUCTION PROfESSIONAL

TABLE Of COntents

HEAVE HO: BRIDGE LAUNCH OCCURS WITHOUT TEMPORARY SUPPORTSBY TRICIA RADISON

Work continues on the Athabasca River Bridge in Fort McMurray.

Did you know the widest bridge launch in North America—and, with over six mil-lion kilograms of structural steel, one of the heaviest—took place in fort McMurray between July and November 2009?

All 10 steel girders of the 472m long, 30m wide Athabasca River Bridge were simultaneously launched across the water, without temporary supports.

“Several things can go wrong, from issues leading to minor construction delays to major stoppages in projects, including a fatal collapse,” says Prabhjeet Raj Singh, VP of Infinity Engineering Group Ltd. in North Vancouver.

Infinity was the erection engineer for the project, conducting a three-dimensional construction staging analysis for the incremental launch. To ensure success,

PHO

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procedures, calculated deflections, and touchdown points presented in draw-ings were strictly followed throughout the launch while deflections were monitored and compared to calculated values.

“Of the total bridge span, 394m of length was launched while the remaining 70m long, flared end section was crane-erected,” Singh says.

An innovative jacking procedure allowed Infinity to eliminate the need for a temporary support proposed by the designer, reducing time and cost as well as environmental disturbance.

Surespan Construction Ltd. was the erection subcontractor. flatiron Constructors Inc. is general contractor on the US$113-million project, scheduled to be finished in 2011.

$35M Lacombe biorefinery in the works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15huge wind farm south of the border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15Staying on course . . . . . . . . . . .15New digs for Grant Metal Products . . . . . . .16Sprinkler systems mandated in California . . . . . .17The flu and you . . . . . . . . . . . . .17New rec dome goes green . . .18A concrete solution to the CO2 challenge . . . . . . . .19for the record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19


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It’s not a done deal, but plans are pro-gressing for a $35-million biorefinery in Lacombe, Alta.

In the most-simple terms, the facility would process inedible animal byprod-ucts and carcasses from meat processors and the “farm mortalities” that service the cattle, horse, pork, elk, bison, and poultry industries and turn it into fuel. This would include the safe disposal of animals with bovine spongiform enceph-alopathy, commonly referred to as BSE or mad cow disease.

The company behind the effort is Biosphere Technologies Inc. It expects the

$35M LACOMBE BIOREFINERY IN THE WORKS

HUGE WIND FARM SOUTH OF THE BORDER STAYING ON COURSE

project will require two years for public consultations and permit approvals, finan-cing, engineering, and construction.

four companies —Bearden Engineering Consultants Ltd. of Red Deer, Gemini Corp. of Calgary, Norrie Engineering Inc. of Toronto, and All-Weld Co. Ltd. of Toronto—have begun plan-ning and engineering design.

Biosphere Technologies says it chose Lacombe because it is in the cen-tre of the Edmonton-Calgary corridor, a major region for diversified live-stock production. As well, it is near the Lacombe Research Centre, which has

an outstanding reputation for meat and crop studies.

A section of the plant will be designed for continuing research pro-jects in collaboration with Agriculture & Agri-food Canada, Alberta Research Council, Olds College, and the Brooks Crop Diversification Centre, according to Biosphere Technologies.

“These research activities will develop new value-added nutrient products from inedible animal byproducts, with applications for organic food production, soil remediation, and renewable energy from bio-methane,” the company said in a news release.

The world’s largest wind farm is scheduled for construction this year.

When it’s finished in 2012, the $2-billion Shepherds flat project will occupy 30 square miles in north-central Oregon.

Caithness Energy estimates the project will employ 400 work-ers during construction and 35 during operation. The company says 85 miles of road and 90 miles of power connection to the grid will be built.

Caithness Energy in December 2009 awarded GE a $1.4-billion contract to supply 338 wind turbines for the project. Installation will occur in 2011 and 2012.

The turbines will be able to crank out 845 MW of power. To put the project into perspective, that’s one-quarter of the wind energy capacity of all of Canada’s wind farms combined.

Not everything has gone south for Tiger Woods.Media reports say the Tiger Woods Dubai—a private residen-

tial community and resort that will include the world’s first golf course designed by the golf great—is going ahead as planned.

According to the website promoting the project, the centerpiece of the development is Al Ruwaya. The 7,800 yard, par 72, 18-hole championship course will feature “dramatic elevation changes, lush landscaping, stunning water features, and an overall design that will challenge and entertain golfers of all playing abilities.”

To be sure, this is not your typical golf community. Assuming everything gets built as planned, it will include 22 palaces, 75 mansions, and 100 luxury villas. Plus there will be a spa, restau-rant, professionally staffed golf academy, and clubhouse.

ILLUSTRATIO

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An artist rendering of the proposed Biosphere Technologies biorefinery in Lacombe, Alta.

GREEN

GREEN

nuts & bolts


We’ll keep them down.

LEADING WITH ENERGYTM

Turnaround Costs Going Up?

www.bantrelconstructors.com [email protected](403) 290-5000

Bantrel Constructors self-performs and provides all critical elements for planning, management and execution of your turnaround. We possess all of the necessary resources to enable our team of turnaround specialists to exert outstanding control of your turnaround’s critical path, delivering safely and on time. Since our inception in 2003, BCC has executed 35,000,000 job hours, including 615,000 job hours of turnaround work over the past four years on schedule and with no recordable incidents.

Grant Metal Products is entering its 30th year with new head office and manufactur-ing plant. The complex is located just north of Calgary in a new business park develop-ment in Rocky View County.

Grant Metal manufactures metal prod-ucts for the commercial glass, roofing, and other industries in western Canada. The com-pany also operates a custom sign division.

The 55,000 sq. ft plant incorporates

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Grant Metal Products’ new headquarters is located in Rocky View County, Alta.

state of the art manufacturing and operat-ing systems, the company says.

“The increased space and fully auto-mated systems enable Grant to do preci-sion bending and forming, high-volume mass production, and quick-turnaround of large orders,” said company president and general manager John Reitmeier.

Another benefit of the increased space is the capacity to warehouse large volumes

of raw product. The shipping bay is big enough to accommodate semi-trailer units. finished products are protected from the elements during loading for transport.

Grant Metal Products was founded by Bill and Jean Grant in 1980. The company has provided products for The Bow in downtown Calgary, CrossIron Mills, the City of Calgary’s Water Centre, and many other commercial buildings in western Canada.

NEW DIGS FOR GRANT METAL PRODUCTS

nuts & bolts

16 | Spring 2010

http://www.bantrelconstructors.com


Because a lot of trends originate in California, here’s one that could even-tually find its way here.

The state recently adopted building code changes that require all one- and two-family homes and townhouses built starting next Jan. 1 to have fire sprinkler systems.

About 85 per cent of all fires occur in the home and many are fuelled by new “lightweight” construction and more flammable home contents, according to the National fire Sprinkler Association, which—surprise—backed the change.

The group argues that smoke detec-tors may no longer be enough in home fire protection, as the time to escape a house fire has dwindled from 17 min-utes 20 years ago to 3 minutes today.

SPRINKLER SYSTEMS MANDATED IN CALIFORNIA

Now that the hullabaloo over h1N1 has sub-sided, don’t expect efforts to keep germs at bay in the workplace to wane. At least not anytime soon.

If Acklands-Grainger Inc.’s trade and safety show in January in Edmonton is any indication, products like respirators and hand sanitizers will continue to be sought after, company reps say.

THE FLU AND YOUThey should know. Acklands-Grainger

bills itself as Canada’s largest safety prod-ucts company, and the company’s annual trade show—the largest of its kind—is so big that it’s known as “The Big One.” The Edmonton show drew 200 suppliers.

Since last fall, hand sanitizer dispensers and signs warning about the dangers of h1N1 have become commonplace around Alberta.

While the second wave of h1N1 in Alberta subsided before the Christmas holiday, Alberta health Services says the pandemic virus continues to circulate here. It urges people “to practice good hand hygiene prac-tices to reduce the spread of the virus.”

nuts & bolts


When Whitefish Lake first Nation Number 128 completes construction of its new rec-reational centre near Lac La Biche, not only will it be amo ng the greenest in Canada. It will be easy to spot.

No wonder. The focal point of the cen-tre (officially the Goodfish Lake Recreation Centre) will be a monolithic dome called the Goodfish Lake ECOdome.

There are three reasons why Whitefish Lake first Nation chose a dome:

It’s sustainable. The reinforced con-crete, double-curve surface of the dome is extremely aerodynamic and the egg-shaped surface will be able to resist extreme winds.

NEW REC DOME GOES GREEN It is expected to cut the cost of heating

and cooling costs in half versus a conven-tional building. Less material will be needed to construct the dome because of its design.

Construction is set to begin this spring. The arena will replace one that burned down in 2005.“Since 2005 our commun-ity members have been without a social gathering place, and our children have been without the opportunity to compete in organized recreation activities,” says Melvin Steinhauer, president of the Goodfish Lake Community Development foundation.

The new centre will be the hub of eco-nomic, social, health, education, and leisure pursuits of the Whitefish Lake first Nation, Goodfish Lake community, and the sur-rounding region.

It will contain an NhL-size ice surface with more than 2,000 fixed seats that can play host to a variety of large-scale events. It will also have an educational space; an area to accommodate the daycare needs of community members using the facil-ity; a large common area and commun-ity kitchen as well as a café that can be used for social gatherings, meetings, and cultural events; and a suspended walking track and fitness centre.

Efforts to raise money for the new centre got a boost recently when Calgary flames forward Rene Bourque was named honourary chair of the Goodfish Lake Recreational Centre Capital Campaign. Bourque grew up in Lac La Biche.

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nuts & bolts

18 | Spring 2010

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Inland Concrete is making concrete more environmentally friendly by using materials that produce less CO2.

Cement is used to make concrete by heating and grinding limestone, iron, silica, and alumina. But CO2 gets released into the atmosphere during this pro-cess (approximately one tonne of CO2 for each tonne of cement produced). Randy Gifford, manager, marketing and technical services for Inland Concrete, points out, “Due to the fact that cement is used in concrete, concrete gets painted with the brush of a non-environmentally friendly material.”

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green build-ing rating system has identified that reducing the amount of cement in con-crete also reduces the amount of CO2 made in the manufacturing process.

A CONCRETE SOLUTION TO THE CO2 CHALLENGEby Kelley Stark

“To reduce cement contents, we will optimize the use of supplement-ary cementing materials,” Gifford says. Supplementary cementing materials are often recycled materials from other indus-tries. One such material is metakaolin. It is not a recycled product but has a lower CO2 footprint when compared to cement.

Says Gifford, “We evaluate and optimize all available materials and technologies to provide our client with the best option based on their specific criteria.”

The result? A greener world.

FOR THE RECORDThe November-December 2009 issue of Alberta Construction Magazine failed to list the key contractor in an item about the magazine’s selection of the Pine Creek Water Management Centre as a 2009 Top Project runner-up. for the record, the contractor was Calgary-based Graham Group.

GREEN

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HeIGHt DIfferenCe (in metres) between Canada’s tallest struCture, the 553 m Cn tower in toronto, and the world’s tallest struCture, dubai’s burj Khalifa (828 m).

1,036

amOunt NOVA SCOTIA ALLOCATED

IN ITS 2009–10 CAPITAL BUDGET

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anD BrIDGes, sOCIaL HOusInG,

sCHOOLs, AND HeaLtH-Care

faCILItIes.

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december 2009.

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6total 2009 gross auctioN proceeds geNerated by ritchie bros. edmoNtoN auctioN site iN 2009.

$796 million

SNC-Lavalin and PCL Industrial Management Inc. are teaming up again—this time to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for a project in Saskatchewan.

The work involves the expansion of Agrium’s Vanscoy, Sask., potash mine, production hoist, concentrator, and infrastructure. It’s all being done to increase the production capacity. The infrastructure includes a 132 kV substation, a tailings management area, and rail spur.

Potash—the common name for potassium carbonate—is a key ingredient in fertilizer.MILLION

$27.2M FOR HIGHWAY PROJECTThe Kicking horse Canyon portion of the Trans-Canada highway in british Columbia comes with its own set of perils. Those include rockslides and avalanches.Now it’s gettiNg aN upgrade.The 3.8-km golden hill to West Portal project will provide four lanes on the Trans-Canada through to the signals at highway 95, a grade separation at golden Donald Upper road, consolidated accesses, improved facilities for cyclists and pedestrians, and greater protection for wildlife with fencing and a crossing structure. Work is scheduled to finish by March 31, 2012.the coNtract, valued at $27.2 millioN, was awarded to emil aNdersoN coNstructioN co. ltd. of hope, B.c.

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SASKATChEWAN pIpeLIneToronto-based Bird Construction Income fund has landed two contracts totalling $70 million.One is a fixed price construction contract with Defence Construction Canada for the construction of an electrical and mechanical engineering and transportation garage at CfB Trenton in Ontario. Construction should be finished within two years.

The second is a design-build fixed price contract for the construction of the Mississauga Campus Phase 1 for Sheridan College in Mississauga, Ont. Construction should be completed by mid-2011.

Number of member companies in the edmonton Construction Association at the end of 2009. That’s 136 more member companies than the previous year.

$

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around canada


AROUND CANADA

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AMC Ad 10.75x8_Layout 3 26/01/2010 22:45 Page 1

It’s a problem that’s existed since the advent of the contracting business—how to easily capture job-related data in the field and in real time and then route that information to the back office in order to facilitate billing and payroll. For too long, critical information has been recorded with pen and paper or using antiquated spreadsheets. For too long, estimates of the anticipated cost of a job and reports on percentage complete have included guesswork because it’s simply been too difficult to capture, calculate, and communicate accurate figures. Pertinent information might be recorded and re-recorded up to five times, inviting human error, causing delays and frustration, and impacting productivity and revenue. Cash flow is critical with contracting businesses and timely and accurate billing is essential for effective cash flow management.

Achieving operational efficiency has been needlessly challenging for contractors. Until now.

Singletouch offers contractors a comprehensive data-capture software platform. Using mobile handhelds to capture data in the field, information is instantly routed—easily and accurately—to the back office, where it is input into accounting, billing, and payroll systems, expediting the financial processes that are the lifeblood of contracting businesses.

Accurate details are entered in the system only once, at the time and point where the transaction occurs,

and delivered instantaneously to all stakeholders. Once data has been entered, project managers and office administrators can use the data for invoicing and reporting, even before the team has returned from the site. This back-office integration optimizes business operations so that the contractors can focus on the job at hand.

Singletouch customers like NorCan Electric Inc. of Fort McMurray have quickly seen the benefits of the platform. Because NorCan was at the forefront of the oil sands boom, it experienced tremendous growth that, in turn, caused significant project-management challenges for the company’s founders. Like so many contracting companies, it had pushed its use of spreadsheets to the limit and was finding that the information technology it was using was hindering rather than helping operations. Data like that on worker timesheets was input multiple times, causing transcription errors, delaying payroll, and slowing the vital process of job costing.

Now, using Singletouch, foremen use a handheld device to scan employees in and out of the worksite. The data is downloaded at the end of the day to the company server, where the information flows seamlessly into NorCan’s existing back-office accounting and reporting software. Singletouch has reduced the workload on office staff, tracks labour costs accurately and in real time, and made NorCan more

accountable to its customers, not to mention allowed NorCan to do more with less at a time when qualified labour was in short supply. Using Singletouch, users can also track and generate custom reports on materials, subsistence, and all other aspects of a large remote worksite.

The industry’s systematic dysfunction impacts not only operational efficiency at contracting companies themselves, but also the accountability and transparency they can offer their customers, which impacts contractors’ ability to compete in a tough marketplace. Companies that recognize the potential that technology solutions have to revolutionize their businesses are the ones most likely to survive in difficult market conditions. More efficient management of materials and resources in the field, and the collection and interpretation of that data to better manage a project, can improve a firm’s reputation as a reliable and trusted partner, which will draw new business and skilled labour.

Marty Hilsenteger is the founder of an industrial electrical contracting firm and knows first hand the challenges contractors face in estimating, forecasting, and reporting. As CEO of Singletouch Corporation, he has overseen the development of a technology platform that overcomes these challenges. He can be reached at [email protected].

For more information, visit www.singletouch.com.

By Marty Hilsenteger, CEO and founder of Singletouch

Visionary CompaniesAdopt Operational Software to Optimize Their Businesses and Gain a Competitive Edge

A D V E R T I S E M E N T A D V E R T I S E M E N T


http://www.singletouch.com

Enter Data Once

The single most effective project management tool available for the construction, industrial and mechanical industries.Enter this data once ‘www.singletouch.com’ and you could start reducing your costs by up to 73%.

Singletouch software has been developed toprovide one-time data entry to contracting andconstruction companies. This “field to office” datainput system recognizes the natural flow ofinformation and seeks to eliminate much of the costand inefficiency often incurred in recording thesame information many times.

Significant Cost Savings, as Singletouch will:• Eliminate multiple data entry• Reduce data entry errors• Reduce or eliminate paper based data entry• Easily retrieve information from Central Databases

See the benefits to everyone in your business:• Executive• Controller• Project Manager• Purchaser• Foreman• Fleet and Equipment Manager

See our online demowww.singletouch.com

www.singletouch.comemail: [email protected]

AMC Ad 10.75x8_Layout 3 26/01/2010 22:45 Page 1

It’s a problem that’s existed since the advent of the contracting business—how to easily capture job-related data in the field and in real time and then route that information to the back office in order to facilitate billing and payroll. For too long, critical information has been recorded with pen and paper or using antiquated spreadsheets. For too long, estimates of the anticipated cost of a job and reports on percentage complete have included guesswork because it’s simply been too difficult to capture, calculate, and communicate accurate figures. Pertinent information might be recorded and re-recorded up to five times, inviting human error, causing delays and frustration, and impacting productivity and revenue. Cash flow is critical with contracting businesses and timely and accurate billing is essential for effective cash flow management.

Achieving operational efficiency has been needlessly challenging for contractors. Until now.

Singletouch offers contractors a comprehensive data-capture software platform. Using mobile handhelds to capture data in the field, information is instantly routed—easily and accurately—to the back office, where it is input into accounting, billing, and payroll systems, expediting the financial processes that are the lifeblood of contracting businesses.

Accurate details are entered in the system only once, at the time and point where the transaction occurs,

and delivered instantaneously to all stakeholders. Once data has been entered, project managers and office administrators can use the data for invoicing and reporting, even before the team has returned from the site. This back-office integration optimizes business operations so that the contractors can focus on the job at hand.

Singletouch customers like NorCan Electric Inc. of Fort McMurray have quickly seen the benefits of the platform. Because NorCan was at the forefront of the oil sands boom, it experienced tremendous growth that, in turn, caused significant project-management challenges for the company’s founders. Like so many contracting companies, it had pushed its use of spreadsheets to the limit and was finding that the information technology it was using was hindering rather than helping operations. Data like that on worker timesheets was input multiple times, causing transcription errors, delaying payroll, and slowing the vital process of job costing.

Now, using Singletouch, foremen use a handheld device to scan employees in and out of the worksite. The data is downloaded at the end of the day to the company server, where the information flows seamlessly into NorCan’s existing back-office accounting and reporting software. Singletouch has reduced the workload on office staff, tracks labour costs accurately and in real time, and made NorCan more

accountable to its customers, not to mention allowed NorCan to do more with less at a time when qualified labour was in short supply. Using Singletouch, users can also track and generate custom reports on materials, subsistence, and all other aspects of a large remote worksite.

The industry’s systematic dysfunction impacts not only operational efficiency at contracting companies themselves, but also the accountability and transparency they can offer their customers, which impacts contractors’ ability to compete in a tough marketplace. Companies that recognize the potential that technology solutions have to revolutionize their businesses are the ones most likely to survive in difficult market conditions. More efficient management of materials and resources in the field, and the collection and interpretation of that data to better manage a project, can improve a firm’s reputation as a reliable and trusted partner, which will draw new business and skilled labour.

Marty Hilsenteger is the founder of an industrial electrical contracting firm and knows first hand the challenges contractors face in estimating, forecasting, and reporting. As CEO of Singletouch Corporation, he has overseen the development of a technology platform that overcomes these challenges. He can be reached at [email protected].

For more information, visit www.singletouch.com.

By Marty Hilsenteger, CEO and founder of Singletouch

Visionary CompaniesAdopt Operational Software to Optimize Their Businesses and Gain a Competitive Edge

A D V E R T I S E M E N T A D V E R T I S E M E N T

http://www.singletouch.com%E2%80%99




GREEN

The appearance of Edmonton’s Garneau Theatre has not changed much over the decades.

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24 | Spring 2010

IN with theOLD

Renovating what you’ve got can be a good alternative to starting from scratchby Tricia Radison

Sometimes building new is the best option. Let’s face it, The Bow in Calgary wouldn’t have the same panache if EnCana Corp. had decided

to makeover an old building. But due to a range of factors, owners often turn to renovation to create the space they need.

The maintenance and sometimes restoration of historical architecture is one reason for renovating.

commercial


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The Garneau Theatre building in Edmonton was built in 1940 and houses a movie theatre and retail space. It has been designated a historical resource by the City of Edmonton because it exemplifies the Art Deco style of architecture.

Owner John Day hadn’t initially planned to restore the building. “I thought the real estate definitely warranted a higher density,” he says. “Commercially and resi-dentially, the site could have taken more.”

The historical designation, a result of the larger community’s interest in the building, convinced Day to restore rather than rebuild.

here are some projects that either have been proposed or are underway:

• ARC Resources, office alterations, Calgary $12.7 million, proposed

• Baytex Energy Trust, office renovation, Calgary, $7 million, proposed

• Borden Ladner Gervais, office renovation, Calgary, $10 million, proposed

• Cadillac Fairview, Chinook Centre addition, Calgary, $284 million, scheduled for completion in 2010, PCL

• Compton Petroleum, office alterations, Calgary, $6 million, Cougar Contractors, proposed

• First Capital Realty, Towerlane Mall, renovation, Airdrie, $20 million, completion in 2010

• Imperial Oil, office alterations, Calgary, $5 million, proposed

• Penn West Energy, office alterations, Calgary, $7 million, proposed, Cougar Contractors

SOURCE: IMAP/NOVEMBER 2009

COmmerCIaL renOs IN CALGARy AND ThE IMMEDIATE AREA

commercial

26 | Spring 2010

“Without historical designation, we probably would have built more on the site,” he says.

Municipal funding will provide about $500,000 of the $3.2-million project—50 per cent of the restoration portion of the renovation.

The majority of the restoration is to the exterior of the building and involves improving the roof and cladding, repairing the marquee, and cleaning and repointing the brickwork. Four new retail tenants will have control over the inter-ior space but are expected to retain some of the architectural elements, such as the terrazzo flooring.

Restoration provides the opportunity to preserve the past while taking advantage of today’s products, materials, and techniques.

“You’re looking for a balance of new, updated technology while retaining the visual heritage aspects of the buildings,” says Brian Lacey, project director at Clark Builders, which is working on the Garneau. “Ideally, you provide new technology with energy efficiencies for building perform-ance, but you retain the look and the feel.”

Clark found an exterior stone in east-ern Canada that visually matches the original construction and is replacing the entrances with new technology that matches the fit and finish used in 1940.

The discovery of seriously comprom-ised structural roof components caused a delay, but that, Lacey says, is to be expected on renovation projects.

“You really don’t know your scope of work until you start opening things up,”

he points out. “Then you find all sorts of secrets in there.” Some discoveries can be worked into the schedule. Others, like the roof, compromise critical path and can extend the project.

MAINTAINING HISTORYIn Calgary, the city has come up with an interesting way of maintaining his-tory without sacrificing the comforts and efficiencies offered by 21st century technology.

The Calgary Public Building, built in 1929, is a commercial building of office and performing arts space located in the heart of the city. A $25-million renovation is bringing the building up to modern-day standards, particularly in energy and operational efficiency.

A $25-million renovation is bringing the Calgary Public Building, constructed in 1929, up to modern standards.

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FIx THE BASICSJames furlong, a principal in the Calgary office of Stantec Sustainable Solutions, says three small changes can increase efficiency in facilities built in the 1980s or early ’90s.

If your fluorescent tube system is labelled T12, replace it with a T8 lighting system. The payback period is less than five years. Incandescent bulbs in exit signs should be replaced with LED technology, cutting energy use from 30W to 1W per sign. you can also save water and money by installing a simple and extremely inexpensive aerator on each washroom faucet to decrease water flow.

“Once you know what to look for, you can do a couple of quick checks like that and get a pretty good indication of the opportunity for energy savings,” furlong suggests. “you might be able to apply those energy savings to other things that require an engineer, typically, to build an assessment for.”

TAKE A THREE-PRONGED APPROACHNatural Resources Canada recommends making changes in the technology you use but it also suggests investing in behav-ioural and organizational change at the same time.

Changing the behaviour of employees involves taking the time to educate staff and building occupants about how they currently use energy and how to use less. Changing the organ-ization requires developing policies and procedures related to energy efficiency. Energy committees and establishing ways to monitor the cost of utilities are two examples of organizational changes given on National Resources Canada’s website.

The agency has information for building owners on improving energy efficiency at oee.nrcan.gc.ca/commercial/existing.cfm.

UNDERSTAND THE AUDIT PROCESSAn energy audit will tell you where savings can be found. But, depending on the level of the audit, you could be paying tens of thousands of dollars to discover your building is already pretty efficient and there aren’t enough savings to pay for the audit.

furlong explains that there are three audit levels. The first is a high-level walk-through of the building that tells you whether there is potential for energy savings. The second is a detailed audit in which information from the building is collected and used in calculations to determine the energy savings and the cost of achieving those savings.

“That actually provides a very good road map to a client,” furlong says. “It allows them to make decisions for actual projects.”

Level three audits—sometimes called investment-grade audits—involve the use of computer simulation software to give a very clear picture of the potential energy savings. At Stantec, a three-dimensional virtual representation of the building is created and populated to determine the impact of different actions.

“That’s what it will take for groups like Natural Resources Canada, Power Smart in Manitoba and British Columbia, and other regulatory bodies, or banks if you’re going for a loan, to feel comfortable that the energy savings you’re projecting are real and worth their investment,” furlong says.

WaYs tO ImprOve ENERGy EffICIENCy by Tricia Radison

“We’re building almost a building within a building,” says John Preston, project manager, Chandos Construction. Walls are being built and windows installed, but they’re being put inside of the original limestone exterior. The new windows are wider than the old ones so that anyone looking out sees the interior of the outer window, complete with the original trim.

Chandos is renovating six floors, two floors at a time. All are being modern-ized except for f loor six, which will be restored to a 1929 appearance. About half of the work will be complete when the first two floors, f loors seven and eight, are completed because those floors can’t

be occupied until the HVAC, electrical, and control systems are installed for the whole building.

The project is aiming for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold status and includes other energy-saving features such as lighting with occupancy sensors and a solar water heater on the roof. Provisions have been made for the inclusion of a greywater sys-tem if the budget allows.

Money is already being saved. The city originally planned to use $50 million on the building. Thanks to the recession, costs have stopped escalating and now approximately 75 per cent of the total pro-ject is being done for $25 million.

The changing budget resulted in a redesign, adding to the scope of work and delaying the start of construction. However, to receive $4 million in grant money, f loors seven and eight must be done by the end of March 2010, putting Chandos on a tight schedule.

“There’s only about 15,000 sq. ft per floor, which means you can’t flood the floor with bodies or it becomes totally inefficient,” Preston says. Chandos and some trades are running two shifts of 10 hours. And most trades are working an extended day.

Renovating rather than building from scratch was virtually the only option for the Calgary Farmers’ Market. With hourly traffic turnover of up to 1,000

Interested in increasing the energy efficiency of your building but unsure where to start?

These tips can help you increase efficiency and see savings without paying for stuff you don’t need.

commercial

28 | Spring 2010

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vehicles, access, egress, and parking were paramount concerns for the non-profit organization, which spent about two years searching for a piece of land where it could build.

“It just became unbelievably prohibi-tive,” says Ken Aylesworth, spokesman for the Calgary Farmers’ Market. “That kind of space is almost impossible to come by.”

RAISING THE ROOFInstead, the market’s new home will be in a leased space that will undergo a $5-million renovation before the vendors move in. The building will be stripped down to bare walls and a portion of the roof will be removed and raised for the installation of a glass atrium. That will open up the space as well as letting in more daylight.

The renovation will meet the practical needs of the more than 100 vendors that sell their goods at the market, including individual mechanical needs that range from basic hookups to the inclusion of gourmet kitchens in the stalls. It will also bring the appearance of the facility in line with the market’s brand.

“Our brand is very physical in what you see, as far as when you walk through the door or when you come up to the mar-ket,” Aylesworth says. Touches like west-ern-style cupolas and post-and-beam entrances enhance the brand.

“It’s going to look very farmish, very marketish, very much like a barn,” he promises.

The market is expected to be ready by December.

Restoration provides the opportunity to preserve the past while taking advantage of today’s products, materials, and techniques.

commercial


Outstanding products, a wide selection of equipment, and a western Canada-wide network of parts and service—these are just some of the reasons that customers across western Canada are choosing Rocky

Mountain Dealerships for all of their construction and agri-cultural equipment needs.

The largest independent dealer of Case construction equipment and Case IH agricultural equipment in Canada, and a major distributor of agricultural and construction equipment in western Canada, Calgary-based Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc. was formed from the 2007 merger of two longstanding, privately owned equipment dealers in Alberta, each of them the largest Case dealers

in Canada for their respective product line. Hi-Way Service was the Case IH agricultural and Case Construction equip-ment dealer in southern Alberta; and Hammer Equipment Sales was the Case construction equipment dealer for northern Alberta. Since the merger and initial public offer-ing, the two companies have operated under the name Rocky Mountain Dealerships (“Rocky”), trading under the symbol RME on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Rocky management comes from both companies. The owners of both Hi-Way Service and Hammer Equipment Sales, as well as the companies that Rocky has acquired since the 2007 merger, have remained with the business

in order to continue providing the same support levels that customers have come to expect.

Matt Campbell, who was the CEO of Hammer Equipment, has carried on as CEO of Rocky, and now handles responsibilities that are primarily related to long-term strategy, board matters and investor relations. Derek Stimson, who was President of Hi-Way Service, is now President of Rocky, with a focus on agricultural busi-ness and acquisitions. Brian Taschuk, who was previously president of Hammer, is now Chief Operating Officer for the new combined entity; Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc. is now the parent company of three wholly owned subsidiaries:• Hi-Way Service, the Case agricultural and construction

dealer, operates a dozen locations across Alberta.• Hammer Equipment covers Rocky branches in Alberta that

carry construction equipment brands other than Case.• Miller Equipment, with seven locations in Manitoba and

one location in Saskatchewan, is a Case IH dealer carry-ing primarily agricultural equipment.In addition to the Case Construction product lines,

approximately 60 percent of Rocky’s construction equip-ment business comes from other construction equipment manufacturers, including Terex, Dynapac, Kawasaki, LeeBoy and Takeuchi. “What this does, is allow us to cover all sectors of the market, because Case is not involved in all aspects of the construction equipment business,” Taschuk explains. “Case is not involved in crushing, screening, or paving. By having those alternative products, the Rocky group can cover all of a construction customer’s needs, regardless of the type of job they are doing.”

In addition to new and used agricultural and con-struction equipment sales, rentals, and leasing, Rocky provides comprehensive product support, including spare parts, mechanical service, finance, and insurance ser-vices. Rocky’s larger volume branches have dedicated finance and insurance associates who are available to help customers structure their financing and insurance requirements. “We do it as assistance for our custom-ers,” Taschuk says, noting this is a service that many of Rocky’s competitors don’t offer. “Because of our scale, we have the extra resources to help our customers.” Another

additional resource provided to customers is Rocky’s crushing, screening, GPS, and agricultural applications product specialists.

Customers can move to job sites throughout west-ern Canada and still receive strong support from Rocky’s consolidated dealer network. A customer that signs up for Rocky’s Summit Account can frequent any of the 24 locations and have one charge account to manage their purchases. At the same time, each of Rocky’s 24 stores operates as an autonomous location, each headed by its own manager. “We believe in a decentralized structure,” Taschuk explains. “If a customer needs something, the branch can quickly address his concerns. We rely on strong branch management to manage the everyday business.”

In some Hi-Way Service locations, the agricultural and construction businesses operate out of the same facility.

“In smaller centres, that allows us to have a larger facil-ity and more staff, and subsequently offer better support to customers. That also gives customers more confidence that we’ve got the people to take care of them when they need support,” says Taschuk.

Currently, in northern Alberta, Hammer and Hi-Way share the same facilities. Over time, Hammer will be moved to standalone facilities throughout Alberta in order to provide additional focus on those products. Rocky has already separated Calgary into two separate facilities for

Hammer and Hi-Way. In Edmonton, Rocky has purchased additional property in order to be able to separate the two subsidiaries in that city as well.

From day one, Rocky Mountain Dealerships has enjoyed tremendous growth. When the company first went pub-lic, it owned 12 Alberta stores with total annual sales of approximately $300 million. With the additional purchase of stores throughout Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in the past two years, Rocky now owns a total of 24 stores across western Canada, and has approximately doubled its annual revenues.

And the company sees tremendous opportunities ahead. In western Canada, the business for both Case and Case IH has been fragmented, with multiple dealers in each province. Rocky’s goal is to consolidate as many Case and Case IH dealers as possible and integrate them into the Rocky Mountain Dealerships group in order to build on the existing synergies.

Thanks to its diverse product offering, Rocky has emerged from the global recession with flying colours. Construction equipment spending has been down. “But in our market area, the agricultural business has offset any reduction in construction equipment spending, and allowed us to show great results in 2009,” says Taschuk, who expects to see construction equipment sales start to increase after bottoming out last fall. “As we pull out of this recession and consumer confidence improves, so too will the construction side of our business.”

On the agricultural side, Rocky is poised to make the most of a strengthening agricultural sector. Worldwide demand for small grain and oilseed products is expected to improve, especially from rapidly growing nations such as China and India. In addition, biofuels are a growing trend that will benefit western Canada’s agricultural industry.

With a solid business and strong balance sheet, Rocky Mountain Dealerships sees a bright future ahead, with plenty of growth opportunities. Rocky is on target with its expansion plans—allowing it to serve its customers even more effectively. m

Rocky Mountain DealeRships can coveR all the neeDs of constRuction custoMeRs

Please contact for more information:Rick ParkerGeneral Manager of MarketingRocky Mountain DealershipsT: (403) 513.7000F: (403) [email protected]

advertisement advertisement advertisement

Outstanding products, a wide selection of equipment, and a western Canada-wide network of parts and service—these are just some of the reasons that customers across western Canada are choosing Rocky

Mountain Dealerships for all of their construction and agri-cultural equipment needs.

The largest independent dealer of Case construction equipment and Case IH agricultural equipment in Canada, and a major distributor of agricultural and construction equipment in western Canada, Calgary-based Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc. was formed from the 2007 merger of two longstanding, privately owned equipment dealers in Alberta, each of them the largest Case dealers

in Canada for their respective product line. Hi-Way Service was the Case IH agricultural and Case Construction equip-ment dealer in southern Alberta; and Hammer Equipment Sales was the Case construction equipment dealer for northern Alberta. Since the merger and initial public offer-ing, the two companies have operated under the name Rocky Mountain Dealerships (“Rocky”), trading under the symbol RME on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Rocky management comes from both companies. The owners of both Hi-Way Service and Hammer Equipment Sales, as well as the companies that Rocky has acquired since the 2007 merger, have remained with the business

in order to continue providing the same support levels that customers have come to expect.

Matt Campbell, who was the CEO of Hammer Equipment, has carried on as CEO of Rocky, and now handles responsibilities that are primarily related to long-term strategy, board matters and investor relations. Derek Stimson, who was President of Hi-Way Service, is now President of Rocky, with a focus on agricultural busi-ness and acquisitions. Brian Taschuk, who was previously president of Hammer, is now Chief Operating Officer for the new combined entity; Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc. is now the parent company of three wholly owned subsidiaries:• Hi-Way Service, the Case agricultural and construction

dealer, operates a dozen locations across Alberta.• Hammer Equipment covers Rocky branches in Alberta that

carry construction equipment brands other than Case.• Miller Equipment, with seven locations in Manitoba and

one location in Saskatchewan, is a Case IH dealer carry-ing primarily agricultural equipment.In addition to the Case Construction product lines,

approximately 60 percent of Rocky’s construction equip-ment business comes from other construction equipment manufacturers, including Terex, Dynapac, Kawasaki, LeeBoy and Takeuchi. “What this does, is allow us to cover all sectors of the market, because Case is not involved in all aspects of the construction equipment business,” Taschuk explains. “Case is not involved in crushing, screening, or paving. By having those alternative products, the Rocky group can cover all of a construction customer’s needs, regardless of the type of job they are doing.”

In addition to new and used agricultural and con-struction equipment sales, rentals, and leasing, Rocky provides comprehensive product support, including spare parts, mechanical service, finance, and insurance ser-vices. Rocky’s larger volume branches have dedicated finance and insurance associates who are available to help customers structure their financing and insurance requirements. “We do it as assistance for our custom-ers,” Taschuk says, noting this is a service that many of Rocky’s competitors don’t offer. “Because of our scale, we have the extra resources to help our customers.” Another

additional resource provided to customers is Rocky’s crushing, screening, GPS, and agricultural applications product specialists.

Customers can move to job sites throughout west-ern Canada and still receive strong support from Rocky’s consolidated dealer network. A customer that signs up for Rocky’s Summit Account can frequent any of the 24 locations and have one charge account to manage their purchases. At the same time, each of Rocky’s 24 stores operates as an autonomous location, each headed by its own manager. “We believe in a decentralized structure,” Taschuk explains. “If a customer needs something, the branch can quickly address his concerns. We rely on strong branch management to manage the everyday business.”

In some Hi-Way Service locations, the agricultural and construction businesses operate out of the same facility.

“In smaller centres, that allows us to have a larger facil-ity and more staff, and subsequently offer better support to customers. That also gives customers more confidence that we’ve got the people to take care of them when they need support,” says Taschuk.

Currently, in northern Alberta, Hammer and Hi-Way share the same facilities. Over time, Hammer will be moved to standalone facilities throughout Alberta in order to provide additional focus on those products. Rocky has already separated Calgary into two separate facilities for

Hammer and Hi-Way. In Edmonton, Rocky has purchased additional property in order to be able to separate the two subsidiaries in that city as well.

From day one, Rocky Mountain Dealerships has enjoyed tremendous growth. When the company first went pub-lic, it owned 12 Alberta stores with total annual sales of approximately $300 million. With the additional purchase of stores throughout Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in the past two years, Rocky now owns a total of 24 stores across western Canada, and has approximately doubled its annual revenues.

And the company sees tremendous opportunities ahead. In western Canada, the business for both Case and Case IH has been fragmented, with multiple dealers in each province. Rocky’s goal is to consolidate as many Case and Case IH dealers as possible and integrate them into the Rocky Mountain Dealerships group in order to build on the existing synergies.

Thanks to its diverse product offering, Rocky has emerged from the global recession with flying colours. Construction equipment spending has been down. “But in our market area, the agricultural business has offset any reduction in construction equipment spending, and allowed us to show great results in 2009,” says Taschuk, who expects to see construction equipment sales start to increase after bottoming out last fall. “As we pull out of this recession and consumer confidence improves, so too will the construction side of our business.”

On the agricultural side, Rocky is poised to make the most of a strengthening agricultural sector. Worldwide demand for small grain and oilseed products is expected to improve, especially from rapidly growing nations such as China and India. In addition, biofuels are a growing trend that will benefit western Canada’s agricultural industry.

With a solid business and strong balance sheet, Rocky Mountain Dealerships sees a bright future ahead, with plenty of growth opportunities. Rocky is on target with its expansion plans—allowing it to serve its customers even more effectively. m

Rocky Mountain DealeRships can coveR all the neeDs of constRuction custoMeRs

Please contact for more information:Rick ParkerGeneral Manager of MarketingRocky Mountain DealershipsT: (403) 513.7000F: (403) [email protected]

advertisement advertisement advertisement


http://www.rockymtn.com

A lesson in being green

Emphasis of new Alberta schools is on sustainability and energy efficiencyby Diane L.M. Cook

32 | Spring 2010

Long before talk about climate change, reducing emissions, and being

environmentally responsible became hot-button topics, the government of Alberta was already on the leading edge of the green movement in this province.

Four years ago, the government adopted the Building Owners and Managers Associat ion’s Bui lding Environmental Standards program, or BOMA BESt. Its purpose is to improve workplace environments by making them safer and healthier while reducing energy consumption, cutting operating costs, and improving waste management.

As of last December, 70 government buildings have been BOMA BESt certified with a plan to certify a total of 80 buildings by this April. These figures represent all of the government’s major-owned pub-lic buildings. The McDougall Centre in Calgary was the first building to be cer-tified in March 2006 and the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton received cer-tification in December 2007. The Royal Tyrrell Museum, located in Drumheller, is the only museum in Canada to be BOMA BESt certified. It received certification in October 2008.

“The Alberta government continues to lead by example,” says Tracy Larsen, an Alberta Infrastructure spokeswoman who adds that government is committed to “reducing the environmental impact of existing government buildings and ensur-ing new infrastructure is constructed in an environmentally responsible and sus-tainable manner.”

LEED LEADS THE WAYAlso in 2006, the government adopted the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver standard as its min-imum design standard for all new gov-ernment-funded buildings. LEED Silver buildings are more energy-efficient, cost less to operate, and provide a healthier work environment through improved air quality and use of natural light.

The new Calgary Courts Centre was designed to meet LEED Silver standards. As well, the Alberta Schools Alternative Procurement (ASAP) phase I and II pro-jects, which consist of a total of 32 new schools in the Calgary and Edmonton regions opening between 2010 and 2013, are designed to meet minimum LEED Silver standards.

The phase I project was awarded to BBPP Alberta Schools. Construction of all 18 schools is well underway. Nine schools are being built in both Calgary and Edmonton. All 18 are scheduled to open in September.

Based on the five key areas of human and environmental health in LEED; sus-tainable site development; water efficiency; energy efficiency; materials selection; and indoor environmental quality, the govern-ment requires that these schools gain six mandatory LEED energy points.

To make these schools energy efficient, many state-of-the-art systems and build-ing materials will be used. This includes using high-efficiency lighting, lighting controls, heat recovery, displacement ventilation, optimized insulation values, and high-efficiency boilers.

“It is up to the contractor to decide what he needs to do to meet LEED Silver requirements and the energy points,” says John Gibson, director, ASAP, Alberta Infrastructure.

Although LEED Silver buildings cost about five per cent more to build than build-ings built to the National Energy Code for Buildings, LEED Silver buildings are up

GREEN

New schools, such as this K-9 building in southwest Edmonton, are under construction to meet Alberta’s growing population.

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to 45 per cent more energy efficient than those built to the National Energy Code for Buildings. Gibson says a LEED Silver school with six energy points should be between 40 and 45 per cent more energy cost efficient than a school built to the national standard.

PAYBACK TIME“A study conducted to look at the cost sav-ings from buildings built to LEED Silver standards indicates a seven-year payback,” he says. “In other words, the premium paid to achieve the LEED points is recovered in seven years and the savings accrue to the school boards.”

It is anticipated these schools will be some of the most energy efficient schools in Alberta. On conventionally procured projects, some school boards have built their schools to LEED Gold standards. Gibson says LEED Gold schools can be 53 per cent more efficient than schools built to National Energy Code for Buildings standards.

Gibson says it is difficult to assess what the reduction in environmental footprint will be per ASAP school. However, he says how much waste is diverted from landfills, recycled materials used, local content, low volatile organic materials and paints, and energy and water efficiencies, all affect the footprint in a positive manner.

“Whatever the reduction in environ-mental footprint is,” he says, “it will be similar to that reduced in emissions, between 40 and 45 per cent.”

The phase II project will see 14 schools built in the Edmonton and Calgary areas—10 K-9 and middle schools and 4 high schools. The K-9 and middle schools will be in the Request for Proposal stage until March. The government expects to award the contract by the end of April. The four high schools are being procured in a design-build contract that was awarded to Clark Builders last October. All 14 of these schools will also be built to min-imum LEED Silver standards.

Not only has the Government of Alberta adopted a minimum of LEED Silver standard for all of its newly

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constructed buildings and the BOMA BESt certification program for its existing build-ings, it continues to implement other pro-grams that further its green commitment.

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, 100 per cent of the electricity used by Alberta government buildings, where there is grid access, comes from “EcoLogo certified” green power sources (wind and biomass). This reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 200,000 tonnes annually.

The government also uses alterna-tive energy sources such as solar energy to supplement electricity at the Pincher Creek Provincial Building and thermo-solar systems to heat water within the Pincher Creek Provincial Building and the Lethbridge Correctional Centre.

Other green initiatives include a province-wide battery-recycling program, available for government facilities, that removes and properly re-uses or processes all hazardous components within batter-ies. The province also has a lamp-recycling program that has diverted over 160,000 mercury-containing items from landfills.

Larsen says the Government of Alberta remains committed to reducing its environmental footprint.

Says Larsen: “Alberta’s infrastructure priorities include continuing to incorpor-ate and maintain sustainable building practices with an aim to enhance energy efficiency, reduce use of hazardous materi-als, build healthy and safe environments, promote the wise use of natural resources, and support the local economy.”

Esther Starkman School in southwest Edmonton will

open this fall.

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NO LONGER IN A RUT

W hen it comes to the maintenance and repair of high-volume traffic corridors, the transportation departments

of a growing number of Alberta towns and cities are opting to replace asphalt with the kind of concrete paving used for airports.

Leduc, Medicine Hat, Edmonton, and Grande Prairie have all used concrete paving on some of their highest volume sec-tions of roadways—typically at or near traffic light–controlled intersections—for some time, says Gerard Kennedy, a senior project manager with EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd. He estimates that Edmonton started to use concrete paving on some

Communities have long favoured asphalt for repairs. Now, cities like Lloydminster find that concrete puts an end to rutting woes at intersectionsby Godfrey Budd

infrastructure

36 | Spring 2010

NO LONGER IN A RUT

stretches of road perhaps as much as 20 or more years ago to deal with severe asphalt rutting.

The City of Lloydminster, which has a population of about 27,000, has now started to use concrete paving.

It was perhaps to be expected. The growth of the Lloydminster-area conventional heavy oil industry and the ser-ies of vast oilsands construction projects in the Fort McMurray region over the last decade have pushed up traffic volumes on sections of Highway 16, part of the Trans-Canada Highway sys-tem. This has produced a sharp rise in the number of big trucks

moving along the section of the highway that runs through down-town Lloydminster.

With the higher volumes of those heavy trucks, the result has been increasingly severe rutting in high-volume traffic areas. It’s especially noticeable around intersections, where traffic is often either speeding up or hitting the brakes.

“The damage is typical of high-volume, slow-moving cor-ridors,” Kennedy says.

“There is significant rutting along parts of highway 16, but it’s extreme at some intersections. Until now, the typical way

infrastructure


of dealing with it has been to mill and inlay or just do a rut fill with standard asphalt mix. In Lloydminster, this would last only two to four years, especially in recent years with a busy oilpatch.”

Besides the worsening problem of asphalt rutting itself and the resulting poor road surface, Lloydminster’s type of intense road maintenance cycle with asphalt produces other problems and inconveniences.

The rutting problem begins, of course, in the summer. That is when the asphalt is at its softest. In winter, it is somewhere between difficult and impossible to properly snowplough the road’s uneven, rutted surface. This can be a safety issue, says Kirk Morrison, a transportation/works engineer with the City of Lloydminster.

On the other hand, with concrete paving, which has a ser-vice life of at least 30 years, intersections are easier to maintain.

DRIVERS NOTICEThe biggest benefit, no doubt, from the standpoint of the road users and drivers, is that road repairs, with their attendant bar-riers, delays, and detours, go from an all-too-frequent annoy-ance to a once-in-a-generation event.

Before moving ahead with the concrete paving it did last sum-mer, the City of Lloydminster commissioned EBA to do a study.

“It looked at various treatments, looked at up-front construc-tion costs and life-cycle costs,” Kennedy says. “Some [asphalt] treatments had a 5-, 10-, or 12-year service life, and some [like concrete] had a 30-year service life. We even looked at the feas-ibility of the status quo. In the end, we recommended a com-bination of treatments.”

This made sense. Typically, a section of 100 or more metres either way from a traffic intersection would be the worst rutted and require the most frequent maintenance. These sections were targeted for a concrete rebuild. Nearby high-use sections, which being less rutted and requiring less maintenance, were prescribed a less drastic—and costly—treatment. This involved conven-tional milling out down to two or three inches but filling with a high-performance, not standard, asphalt.

“By using a high-performance asphalt, you extend from around four to six years to eight or nine years the service life of the asphalt,” Kennedy says. “You about double the lifespan without doubling the cost.”

For the sections of road selected for concrete paving, work began with milling out all of the asphalt, which was typically down to a depth of about 12 inches (30 cm). Next, the top few inches of the subgrade was removed. In some areas, says Kennedy, there was little to no aggregate, just clay.

Then, about 20 cm of fresh aggregate was laid prior to slip-form concrete paving to a depth of 24 cm.

FINDING FAVOURBesides being used for freeways and other major routes in many U.S. cities, slip-form concrete paving is being used more fre-quently in Canada, and was applied to recently completed sec-tions of Edmonton’s ring road, Anthony Henday Drive. It is also de rigueur at airports for runways, taxiways, and aprons.

“The slip-form paving equipment we used in Lloydminster is suitable for paving airport runways,” says Curtis Bouteiller, CEO of Proform Concrete Services Inc. of Red Deer. Indeed, as he notes, the company, which is the only Alberta-based firm providing slip-form concrete paving services, has done paving jobs at nine airports in the province, from High Level in the north, to Pincher creek, in the south.

A series of vibrators in the machine consolidate the concrete before it is placed. Sensors and a computerized line-grade system all assist the machine in staying on track.

Like asphalt pavers, the slip-form concrete machine paves one traffic lane at a time. It can pave between 250m and 500m per day.

“At five cubic metres per truck load, and paving at a rate of 250 metres per day, you would need around 50 truck loads of concrete a day,” Bouteiller says.

Although the cost of slip-form concrete paving is higher than asphalt paving, comparing the cost over the 30-year service life of the concrete with that of asphalt and its frequent maintenance requirements and you wind up with a wash, Morrison says.

Rutting problems caused by heavy trucks were common in Lloydminster.

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starShiningFrom its aurora borealis inspired design to complex geometry, $86-million Art Gallery of Alberta offers a new frame of reference for construction and designby Nordahl Flakstad photos by Flynn Canada

sPeCiaL Feature


The Art Gallery of Alberta is not only different. It will make a difference to Edmonton and Alberta construction for

years to come.“The gallery will present palettes that in the past may have

scared off clients,” says Bob Walker, VP of the building division (Northern Alberta) for Ledcor Construction Ltd., who was also the project’s construction manager. “It has opened the eyes of other clients to the idea that a unique structure can be built here.”

It’s hard to miss the iconic structure on the northeastern corner of Edmonton’s downtown Sir Winston Churchill Square, which opened to the public Jan. 31. The structure is variously described as resembling a giant gift-wrapped present or some huge, fancy hat designed for the Royal Ascot horse races. The immediate attention grabber is the aurora borealis, a 190m long sinuous stainless steel ribbon that wanders and rises in the entrance atrium before bursting outdoors through the glaz-ing to a height of 31m, then wraps itself around the building’s irregularly shaped southwestern exterior. From inside or out-side, it all creates a cascade of kaleidoscopic views that change with shifting sunlight and seasons. In what may seem like the set for a futuristic sci-fi movie, visitors garner an artistic impression well before entering the gallery’s six climate-controlled galleries.

Walker’s initial link with the project came when the then Edmonton Art Gallery hired Ledcor for constructability evalua-tions on four entries in an international design competition, won in 2005 by Randall Stout Architects, Inc. of Los Angeles. The firm’s principal, Randall Stout, has made his mark through a series of high-profile commissions that include other forward- looking designs, such as the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Va., and in Chattanooga’s Hunter Museum of American Art. These designs don’t entirely insulate Stout having worked for seven years with Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, designer of Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Bilbao’s (Spain) Guggenheim Museum, and other acclaimed buildings noted for flowing designs with metal-ribbon cladding.

WANTED: A NATIONAL ICONWalker and his team knew they faced a challenge but thought the Stout design would work even in Edmonton’s variable climate with temperature swings of up to 70ºC between summer and winter. It was immediately recognized that it would be difficult to implement the design within the initial $46-million budget.

Some cost-saving modifications were suggested but, to their credit, the clients turned them down, saying: “We want a national icon and we want to maintain the quality we wanted from the start.”

Three levels of government provided further funding, and individuals and corporations donated more than $20 million to allow proponents to agree upon an $86-million, firm-price con-tract with Ledcor. Walker admits that committing to that cost and project completion by early 2010 entailed a “huge leap of faith.”

The first order of business was developing environmentally controlled, off-site storage within a modified warehouse near the

downtown Grant MacEwan University campus. It allowed transfer of an 8,500-piece collection in storage at the Edmonton Art Gallery’s existing 102A Avenue and 99 Street site. Plans called for rebuilding the new gallery on the same site, using part of the existing structure. But the original brutalist-style structure had to be stripped entirely of its 1960s-era “scourge”—asbestos. While the eastern portion remained standing, the entire western third of the old building was razed.

Gallery management remained concerned about being with-out a home for two or more years. So, a second Ledcor mission was working with the University of Alberta to convert parts of the university’s Enterprise Square building on Jasper Avenue into a temporary gallery display space with up-to-date environmental controls. Besides providing the gallery a home away from home, it assures the university’s current and future donors and lenders safe storage and display of their art.

sPeCiaL Feature

42 | Spring 2010

All this meant actual construction did not begin until March 2007. But that delay, Walker observes, provided a window to select many specialized suppliers, to line up trades and consult-ants for an unusually complex undertaking, and, significantly, for detailed design. That meant familiarizing the architects with Edmonton’s thaw-freeze cycles.

“We made sure the materials they were providing will with-stand the test of time and perform in this climate,” Walker says.

For example, that required interconnecting and anchoring patinae zinc and ZEPPS (Zahner Engineered Profiled Panel Systems) manufactured by A. Zahner Co. in Kansas City, Mo.; high-performance glazing, roofing, and railings from Flynn Canada, Ltd. of Mississauga, Ont., and Edmonton; and structural steel from the Edmonton operations of Empire Iron Works Ltd. Given the varied sourcing and the building’s complex geometry,

the gallery would have been impossible without 3-D Building Information Modelling (BIM). Specifically, using the Rhinoceros NURBS software modelling allowed real-time input and shar-ing in the design process by all players, who were immediately alerted online to any design conflicts. BIM modelling also meant building without paper blueprints.

“We had to make sure that the trades would be able to use BIM or able to learn it,” stresses Walker, adding that the no-blueprint approach furrowed some older brows but “the younger guys thought it was the coolest thing ever.”

Says John Mplias, Flynn Canada’s senior project manager: “The BIM model governed the project. It was a real representation we could zoom in, rotate, and even slice-and-dice to get a complete understanding of how all of the components had to fit together. This inevitably saved a great deal of time and resources.”

The Art Gallery of Alberta challenged construction crews because of its detailed and complex design.

DID YOU KNOW?

Five facts about the new Art Gallery of Alberta building:

1 Building includes 220 tons of reinforcing steel

2 450,000 man-hours of work was needed to complete

3 880 metric tons structural steel was used

4 3,500 cu. m of concrete was poured

5 80 per cent of steel was recycled


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Bob Walker, VP of the Building Division (Northern Alberta) for Ledcor Construction Ltd., served as the project manager on the Alberta Gallery of Art project. he discussed the challenges of con-struction with contributor Nordahl flakstad.

besides the uniqueness of the building itself, what made this project different?Building an art galley at a prominent place, you’re there in people’s faces all the time. you must be aware of your public and your neigh-bours. It’s a lot different than building, say, a warehouse in Nisku.

how would you measure the success of such a building project?To many clients, the most important aspects of their project are the budget and the schedule. But unless the project performs for our client, then we’ve failed. If the project does not perform to their specific needs, they soon forget that you were on time and on budget.

What do you see as your biggest challenge(s) as project manager on this or other projects?It’s finding the procedures and ways of dealing with people. you have to get everyone going in the same direction and have a

PROJECT MANAGER: “yOU CAN’T AffORD NOT TO hAVE PEOPLE WORKING TOGETHER”

Bob WalkerPHO

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sPeCiaL Feature

44 | Spring 2010

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“BIM IS THE FUTURE”NAIT trade’s trainees and U of A construction-engineering stu-dents toured to explore the new face of construction. For Walker, “BIM is the future. Everyone has to get in on it, including the trades. Those not getting in will fall behind.”

Computerized systems assisted scheduling and logistics but could not entirely eliminate challenges of working within a small footprint with a restricted downtown laydown area next to a major east-west thoroughfare. It required just-in-time delivery of many components. Scheduling also had to take into account that the adjacent Churchill Square and City Hall Plaza are frequent venues for concerts and other public events—none receptive to jackhammer bursts or swinging crane loads. While there was access to an off-site laydown, overusing that option would add to lifting and transport costs.

Notwithstanding such drawbacks, the project came together within budget to meet the completion deadline. Walker, whose earlier project management credits included Edmonton’s City Hall, the Rexall Place makeover, and Telus Field construction, is no stranger to readying projects for the drop of a puck or a first pitch.

Timing was also critical at the 85,000 sq. ft gallery. Before releas-ing their precious artwork, owners of national and international touring exhibits had to be certain that the space, security, and

combined agenda. you have to build a plan and a team that has the experience, and you’ve got to set a goal to have them work together. Planning is important so that you don’t get stutter steps and [have] people getting in each other’s way. you have to make sure that you don’t have unreasonable people. If they’re not reasonable and can’t see the big picture, you have to get rid of them. you can’t afford not to have people working together.

What’s given you the great satisfaction in working on this project?It’s going to be one of the most unique and satisfying build-ings I’ve been involved with but I really don’t know what the most satisfying aspect is. Not yet. I may only discover that one day when I walk through the building after it’s finished.

Did you run into any particular surprises?Well, there had to be a few surprises because the technol-ogy was so new. But we minimized such surprises with the superior Ledcor management team I had, and the way that I got to negotiate the contract. We were able to create a shortlist of major trades that were needed to build the quality and prescribed safe work environment we wanted. We got a lot of requests from many companies wanting to work on the project but they were rejected because they just couldn’t prove they could do the job.

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surroundings would meet international standards. (Art dis-played at the opening was actually worth more than the build-ing.) This is assured through the building’s climate controls, which keep temperature and humidity within barrow toler-ances. To offset Edmonton’s dry climate, humidity can be set at a rainforest-like 50 per cent or higher. During final detail-ing as the gallery was prepped for opening, a visitor sensed the absence of new construction smells. That’s a deliberate result of off-gassing that removed fumes from construction, caulking, chemicals, plywood, and other sources possibly detrimental to artwork.

Collections are on display on three levels in galleries with a total floor area of some 30,000 sq. ft. That’s about four times the show-space of the former gallery, whose overall area was similar to that of the new building. The difference arises from smarter use of space, which, besides the galleries, encompasses curator-ial areas, a cafeteria, education wing, gift shop, 150-seat theatre, and a gallery members’ lounge, which “floats” over the lobby, as well as administrative offices, located on the fourth floor.

Behind the scenes, the galleries are designed for constant change and to accommodate ongoing flows of exhibits, which could include installations hanging from heavy-duty ceiling studs, or tonnes of sculpture pressing down on floors.

Workers had to make sure that each part fit as the art gallery underwent construction.

sPeCiaL Feature

46 | Spring 2010

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The gallery did not seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Still, many built-in features, particularly environmental controls, exceed LEED standards. Of the structural steel used on the project, 80 per cent is recycled and most demolition concrete was recycled.

For Empire Iron Works project manager Thor Gaul, the gal-lery was a fitting pre-retirement curtain-closer after 28 years with the company. Forming and assembling the many curved and vertical elements of the atrium proved particularly challen-ging for steel fabricators more accustomed to shaping rectangu-lar grids on shop floors. It meant stretching beyond traditional X–Y thinking to accommodate the gallery’s prominent Z axis. Gaul also credits success to BIM and access to the architect’s electronic drawings. WebEx conferencing let architects, engin-eers, and contractors continent-wide—while not actually read-ing from the same paper page—to simultaneously focus on the same whiteboard.

The project also required a tremendous amount of coordina-tion. According to Flynn Canada, the project was like a big jigsaw puzzle. Each material was like a piece of a puzzle. Every bullnose, every panel, etc. had a different identification; no two were alike.

The logistics of moving and getting pieces into place was also challenging. In various instances, panels had to be lifted over

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to any design conflicts.

sPeCiaL Feature


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glazing and vice versa—“an extremely delicate dance,” according to the Flynn Canada. All anchor points on the structural steel were surveyed and had a maximum tolerance of plus/minus one-half inch.

“There was a tremendous amount of teamwork between our Edmonton and Toronto offices,” says Art Bundschuh, VP

Mid-West Region, Flynn Canada. “It’s unique projects such as the [gallery] where the collective talents of our employees are showcased,” to which Bundschuh adds with a measure of civic pride: “As a born and raised Edmontonian, I’m excited to see the grandeur and vibrancy the [gallery] brings to our downtown core.”

One of the participants in construction of the Art Gallery of Alberta described the coordination required to complete the building as “an extremely delicate dance.”

sPeCiaL Feature

48 | Spring 2010


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When Paul Douglas was formally introduced last November as the new president and CEO of the PCL family of companies, Ross Grieve, the man he was succeeding, described Douglas as having “all the tools and experi-ence to lead this company.”

He had large shoes to fill. Grieve helped grow PCL into one of North America’s largest construction firms with 3,300 full-time employees and annual construction volume in the neighbourhood of $6 billion.

In an interview with Alberta Construction Magazine editor Chaz Osburn, Douglas discusses a range of topics, from the Edmonton-based company’s commitment to green building to the year ahead and growth areas.

Trends come and go. The green building trend seems to be here to stay. What is PCL doing on the environmental front?This one continues to gain momentum—and rightfully so. Everybody sees that it’s just the right thing to do. So it’s certainly not hard to get your employ-ees engaged in doing what’s right. And once you get certain owners’ heads around the fact that it’s not only the right thing to do but that there are some long-term economic advantages doing it, well…. When financial rationaliza-tion and social rationalization come together, there’s tremendous momen-tum. That’s what we’re seeing.

PCL’s Paul Douglas on sustainability, the year ahead, and his new role

WhY BE GREEN?“It’s just the right thing to do”

GREEN

PCL president and CEO Paul Douglas at the new LRT station at Southgate Mall, which his

company built and will open this spring.

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50 | Spring 2010

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PCL recognizes that. Our people recognize it. Like many things we do, we brought people from all over our organiza-tion throughout North America together—particularly those with a strong passion in [the environment]. We have sustain-ability champions in each branch. They were very motivated to research, understand, recommend, and promote sustain-ability within their branches. That task force came up with a number of recommendations that we’ve had for a number of years, including a logo to promote sustainability from within and externally.

We have some 324 [Leadership in Energ y and Environmental Design, or LEED] accredited professionals in the organization. On all our projects we like to have at least one LEED accredited professional to work with owners, designers, and our own team.

How does the process work? It’s never one way. There will be certain clients—particularly pri-vate clients—who say, “Gee, what it is going to cost me to have a sustainable building?” That opens discussions over things like: will this be a 30-year facility for you? For those owners that intend to be around a long time you can explain the various benefits of sustainable construction and can tell them certain upfront capital costs and potential life [of the building] savings. There’s such a menu of different options you can explore.

PCL was the first private entity to build a LEED-Gold facility in Alberta—our Centennial Learning Centre in 2006. We are since building all of our facilities throughout North America to

LEED Gold standards. We are just going to be opening one in Bakersfield, Calif., and we’re looking at another expansion here on the [Edmonton] campus that we’ll make a decision on in April.

How is the year shaping up for the company?This fiscal year is mostly influenced by what happened last year. With 2009 being one of the toughest in our industry’s history, in 2010 we’re building the work we picked up in 2009. It will be one of the tougher years that PCL has had in the last decade plus, but it’s still going to be very healthy. Our teams did an amazing job of acquiring a substantial amount of new work—$5.2 billion worth of new work in 2009. That was down from $5.9 [billion] in the year previous. It still leaves us with a substantial backlog of $6 billion and when we’re billing $6 billion you know you’re going to keep busy.

That’s real money.Yes, it sure is. But what we all recognize is that it was acquired in tougher times. The work mix was different. Competition [was] intense. Therefore there’s some pressure on the margins and the return to shareholders won’t be quite as good in 2010 as in 2009 or those earlier years. That’s a realization of the cycle of the business. The important thing is to stay in the box. Stay positive. Continue to look for opportunities to set the stage for the next turnaround.

What have you identified as growth areas?Being sectorially diverse is something the great leaders of our past started, having lived through some ups and downs. Passing

feature

52 | Spring 2010

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on that knowledge, they set up the company to be sectorial and geographically diversified. The commercial and institutional buildings world, as we call it, has really dominated the company for many, many years—malls, shopping centres. Institutional would be universities, hospitals, courthouses, and social infra-structure. That has really dominated and still makes up a sub-stantial part of our overall portfolio.

To diversify more fully we want to be able to grow both the heavy civil side and the heavy industrial side of the business so

that during different cycles not all markets will go down at the same time and not all sectors will.

If you’re geographically and sectorially diversified with a good, balanced portfolio you’ ll be able to withstand the hits.

Believing in cycles, we made the plan at our March 2008 stra-tegic planning session to continue to expand our heavy civil and heavy industrial to build a more balanced portfolio—our mutual fund of work.

If you’re geographically and sectorially diversified with a good, balanced portfolio you’ll be able to withstand the hits.



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We were already strong in Alberta but we know we can expand in Canada so we’re focused on western Canada. We’re expanding into industrial opportunities in Saskatchewan and B.C. In the U.S., one particular target area [where] we want to grow our industrial group is Texas.

You’ve been CEO for just a few months now. Are you comfortable in the new position?Yes. There haven’t been many surprises. We’ve had a long transi-tion. I’ve been working alongside Ross [Grieve, now PCL’s execu-tive chairman] for 20 years, 12 years in his role as CEO, then an 18-month succession. There was a flurry of activity as our year ended [last] October, but things settled down in December and I started to see what normal in this role might be. So far it’s what I anticipated.

Has the problem of not having enough qualified workers taken a back seat to the recession?You would think that there would be more qualified trades people available due to the recession. The reality is that we are still strug-gling to find enough workers for certain skilled trades. Most of the unemployment that has happened is in the manufacturing business and a lot of those trades can’t just move into jobs as electricians, welders, pipefitters…without extensive retraining.

Therefore, for some trades, we’re still fighting for temporary foreign workers, which sounds crazy when unemployment has climbed as high in this country and down in the U.S.

You’re a CEO who came up through the ranks. How has your background prepared you for your current role?The core of our business is definitely [centred on what happens] in the field—the guys who build the jobs that the office bids and estimates. Understanding that core is key. If you don’t know what your core business is, it’s pretty easy to get distracted. I think being a labourer and a field engineer and a superintendent and understanding what it takes to build a job and what I need to build that job allows me to make sure that we are not only a ser-vice organization to our clients, but also a service organization to [those in the] field. I can help make it a better place to work and hopefully attract the best people to come and work for us.

One thing I learned in the field was you do not put off today what you could do tomorrow. You get it done. It was ingrained in me. That’s not a bad [philosophy] to bring in to the office and into the chair of the CEO. In the field you see that it enhances your productivity, it reduces cost, it accelerates schedule. All those things can apply to everything we do as a business. And it’s amazing what happens tomorrow that could’ve really messed you up had you decided to put it off.

feature

54 | Spring 2010

http://www.nait.ca/cit


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people, products& projects

hOW TO suBmIt ItemsDoes your company have news about personnel changes or new products? Or did it just land a new project in Alberta? We want to know about it. here’s how to get your news to us.

emaiL items tO: [email protected]

or senD it tO:Editor, Alberta Construction Magazine,6111-91 St. NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 6V6

or Fax tO: (780) 944-9500

Please include the full name and location of the company.

DESIGN FIRMS MERGECohos Evamy integratedesign, which has offices in Edmonton, Calgary, and Toronto, and Vancouver-based archi-tecture and urban design firm hotson Bakker Boniface haden (hBBh) architects have merged.

hBBh is best known for innovative, mixed-use, urban designs such as the internationally recognized redevelop-ment of Vancouver’s Granville Island. Cohos Evamy has worked on numer-ous high-profile projects such as the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, the Calgary International Airport expansion, and Toronto’s upcoming Bay Adelaide East office tower.

BANTREL’S NEW PRESIDENT IS INDUSTRY VETCalgary-based Bantrel Co. has a new president, John McVey. he replaces Joe Thompson, who returned to Bechtel Corp., Bantrel’s parent company.

McVey joined Bantrel in 2001 and has served as VP, general manager of Toronto operations, and most recently as VP of energy and upstream. he has more than 28 years of experience.

Bantrel provides industrial engineering, procurement, and construction services. HATCH PROMOTED TO PRESIDENT

Craig hatch has been appointed president and general manager of CfMS Alberta Ltd.

hatch, who graduated from humber College with a diploma in civil engineering, joined CfMS Consulting Inc. in 2001. In April 2009, he was promoted to general manager of the CfMS Alberta Division.

CfMS Consulting offers independent commissioning consulting in the building industry.

HOUSING PROJECT WINS GREEN RECOGNITION

Edmonton’s second Stage 2 LEED-ND, Strathearn heights, has received Silver certification. Enermodal Engineering coordinated the sustainable aspects of the project.

LEED-ND is short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-Neighbourhood Development. It is a new type of certification that inte-grates the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building for neighbourhood design.

This type of project is so new to Canada that the United States Green Building Council had to certify Strathearn heights because there is no LEED-ND certification process through the Canada Green Building Council.

Strathearn heights is a 9.2-hectare sustainable community with 1,750 housing units designed to be a walk-able, mixed-use development with lots of green space.

NEW VP AT HEATLINK GROUPWade Peterson is the new VP, sales and marketing for North America, at heatLink Group Inc. A key member of the senior management group, he will contribute to busi-ness strategy, corporate vision, product development, company expansion, and the company’s growth. he’s based in Calgary.

Peterson has a wealth of experience in the radiant heating and plumbing industry. his prior experience includes a VP, sales and marketing position with Uponor, North America; president of Uponor, Canada; and wholesale management experience. he has an engineering degree from the University of Saskatchewan. Peterson also is a past board member of the Canadian Institute of Plumbing & heating.

heatLink Group is a supplier of radiant heating, cooling systems, and control panels for the residential and commercial building markets.

TABLE Of COntentsAppointments at Churchill ................................... 58have a stake in your message .............................. 58Big changes for small machine ............................ 59Sticky solution for sharp edges ............................ 59Threading is now a breeze ..................................... 60hats off to this new safety device ........................ 61Making sure there’s a smooth road ahead ................................................................... 61

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APPOINTMENTS AT CHURCHILLThe Churchill Corp. recently made several key appointments:

Greg Phaneuf is the new VP of Corporate Development, a new position. his responsibilities include setting and leading the Churchill’s growth strategies and evaluating business develop-ment and acquisition opportunities. According to a company news release, Phaneuf was the VP of finance and CfO of a $300-million energy resource and development company.

Daryl Sands, who had been Churchill’s senior VP and CfO for the past three years, is the new executive VP. he’ll work closely with Churchill president and CEO Jim houck and Stuart Olson president Don Pearson in the newly created Office of the CEO within the Corporate Centre.

Joette Decore is the new VP, strategic planning and human resources. She’s in charge of planning and executing the cor-poration’s strategic plan as well as for setting hR strategies, policies, and associated programs. This is a new position.

In addition, the corporation appointed Wendy L. Hanrahan to its board of directors. hanrahan, a chartered accountant with more than 25 years of experience, is VP of human resources, com-munications, and facilities management at TransCanada Corp.

Churchill’s subsidiaries include fuller Austin, Laird Electric, Northern Industrial Insulation, and Stuart Olson. Its corporate office is in Calgary.

HAVE A STAKE IN YOUR MESSAGEA California company has developed an easy-to-use barrier system.

The product is called Banner Stakes. Banner Stakes fea-ture a portable base with a stake on each end, and over 12 ft of retractable tape with 20 assorted sayings, including Construction Zone, Wet Paint, and No Trespassing. you just pop the stakes into the base, pull out the tape, and your sign is up and ready to go.

find out more at bannerstakes.com/comhome.html.

Banner Stakes can be used virtually anywhere.

PHO

TO: BAN

NER STAKES

people, products & projects

58 | Spring 2010

F a l l P r o t e c t i o nS a v e s L i v e s

E x c u s e s a r eN o t a C h o i c e

G e t T r a i n e d a n dw e a r t h e g e a r

Alberta Construction Safety Association

STICKY SOLUTION FOR SHARP EDGESDock Bumper Solutions of Vaughn, Ont., has a new product called the Knuffi Soft-Edge Bumper Guard to address safety issues in the workplace.

Manufactured in Germany, Knuffis can be used to cover indoor and outdoor wall edges, doorways, and stair edges, protecting them from vehicles such as lift trucks, mobile equipment, and trailers, thus preventing costly equipment damage.

Knuffis are made from recyclable polyurethane foam. Installation is easy. you just make sure the surface is clean before removing the inner protective film and apply-ing it to the desired surface.

for more information, check out doksolutions.com.

BIG CHANGES FOR SMALL MACHINEThe first of Kubota’s Dash 4 Super Series—the KX057-4 and the U55—have been significantly re-engineered with more strength, stability, comfort, and standard features.

The cab features a wider entrance, improved climate control, more foot space, and a repositioned and advanced instrument panel. Boom lift capacity and breakout force has increased by 15 per cent and bucket breakout force by more than 25 per cent. Travel speed and traction force are also greater than the previous model. An additional lower track roller smooths out the ride.

Other standard features include a dozer blade with float function, two auxiliary hydraulic ports with adjustable flow, air conditioning, anti-theft system, refuelling signal, and performance matched load-sensing hydraulics.

The KX057-4 and U55 are both available with an angle blade option.Visit kubota.ca for more information.

PHO

TO: KU

BOTA

PHO

TO: D

OCK

BU

MPE

RS

Kubota has made changes to its KX057-4 and U55 machines.

The Soft Edge Bumper Guard.


DATE:17 Mar 2009

Produced by

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If you’re not recycling your used oil, what ARE you doing with it?Just one litre of used oil can contaminate one million litres of Alberta’s fresh water. Improper disposal of used oil materials devalues all land. Recycle your used oil, used oil filters and used plastic oil containers.

For your nearest recycling location or local collector, call toll-free in Alberta 1-888-922-2298

Alberta Used Oil Management Association usedoilrecycling.com

THREADING IS NOW A BREEZEIrwin hanson says its new Performance Threading System is a simple-to-use system of self-aligning taps and dies, drive tools, and adjustable tap sockets.

The self-aligning taps make threading a breeze. In the past, just pla-cing a tap in a hole to be threaded could be frustrating. It was difficult to

get the tap aligned properly before getting started. But with this sys-tem, the user simply places the tap in the hole and it aligns itself

perfectly.Every tap features Irwin’s Chip Breaking Technology,

ensuring improved durability, and cleaner cuts when threading.

There are also self-aligning dies. Previous dies were dif-ficult to align on the first try. The addition of an alignment plate on the self-aligning dies takes all of the frustration

and guesswork out of threading a rod or stud. Just place the die on the stud, and it easily aligns itself. The result is better quality

threads, faster.To thread with taps and dies, drive tools are needed. Irwin’s new Performance

Threading System Drive Tools include a simple-to-use diestock and two adjustable tap sockets. Again, previous drive tools required a lot of steps, time, and frustration, which often resulted in less-than-perfect alignment and poor thread quality. But with this latest diestock, there’s no longer a need for setscrews, mini screwdrivers, or multiple steps. The user simply drops the die onto the diestock, twists the patented Die Lock Ring, and starts threading.

To learn more, visit irwin.com.

Irwin Hanson has a new Performance Threading System.

PHO

TO: I

RWIN


60 | Spring 2010

RAISING THE BARAlberta Wilbert Sales has raised the bar with our pre-engineered lift station systems. All our systems are built and safety-tested prior to installation. They feature a 20-year warranty and are CSA approved.

Your lift station is ready to be delivered and installed. Call 1-800-232-7385 today.

Alberta Wilbert Sales has been providing the highest quality lift stations, tanks and oil & grit separators for over four decades.

Edmonton - Red Deer - Calgary - Winnipegwww.wilbert.ca

HATS OFF TO THIS NEW SAFETY DEVICEAny time one of your employees is working high up, there’s a risk that something might fall—including the employee’s hardhat. Now a California company has come up with a solution, the Gear Keeper hard hat Lanyard.

Developed by hammerhead Industries, the lanyard features a 2.5 oz. retraction force that takes up any unused slack, keeping the lanyard close to the body to minimize frustrating and unsafe entanglement issues. And, when it’s time to break, the Gear Keeper allows workers to relax, take off their hardhat, and dangle it over their shoulder for safekeeping. It can tether any hard hat weighing up to 18 oz.

Check out gearkeeper.com for more information.

MAKING SURE THERE’S A SMOOTH ROAD AHEADVancouver-based LMI Technologies has intro-duced the Selcom high Speed RoLine1130 sensor to the North American market. The device measures road profiles, road roughness, and pavement smoothness.

The sensor features laser line sensing for accurate profiling. The laser line measuring principle of this and other RoLine sensors was developed to improve the accuracy of pave-ment profiling for coarse textured surfaces, particularly longitudinal tined and diamond ground surfaces.

for more information, check out lmitechnologies.com.

The Selcomn RoLine 1130.

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afarge is Canada’s leading developer and sup-plier of innovative construction materials, which have been specifically designed for high quality, sustainability and improved performance. The

construction, asphalt, aggregates, ready mix and concrete products business unit’s work together to develop sustain-able construction solutions for their clients.

For Lafarge, one of the world’s most sustainable companies, economic performance is inextricably linked to respect for the environment and for local communities. Committed to building a greener world, Lafarge invests heavily in research and development in order to find more energy efficient ways of conducting their business.

“We are developing products to help us construct in a sustainable way. Asphalt is good for that, because 100% of the material can be recycled,” says James Wilson, C.Eng, Divisional Marketing Director,” Many recycled materials are reused in low grade engineering applications, but with asphalt, recycling can take place at the top of the value chain; meaning back into new asphalt production. We have a wide variety of products that offer customers a solution for any project they undertake“

One such product is Lafarge’s DuraCycleTM Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). With more than 15 years of research and develop-ment, DuraCycleTM is an environmentally friendly HMA that is able to incorporate a wide range of recyclables, including Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), concrete, ceramics and glass. Bob Forfylow, P.Eng, Director of Quality, explains “The product has been engineered to give equivalent or supe-rior performance, compared to conventional hot mix; on top of that, it’s green. We are trying to minimize our

environmental footprint, and maximize our use of recycled materials.”

With the successful implementation of DuraCycleTM, into the Western Canadian mar-ketplace the natural next step for Lafarge was to create a product that not only offers all of the environmental benefits of recycling, but also reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions through the use of warm mix tech-nology; resulting in an overall reduction of the carbon footprint.

Lafarge’s newest product DuraClimeTM reduces the mixture viscosity, allowing for the production, placement and compaction of a high-quality mix at lower temperatures. “It enables our crews to more easily place and compact the material than conventional HMA,” Forfylow says. “DuraClime™ also improves comfort, safety and the overall working environment for paving crews; there is no

smoke, no smell and no fumes. It’s also better for neighbours located adjacent to paving sites and asphalt plants”.

Introduced in 2007, DuraClimeTM has been used in projects throughout North America. In addi-tion to improved workability; its exceptional performance characteristics include less ther-mal temperature segregation, which results in a more uniform densification of the mix, which ultimately results in a longer lasting pavement.

DuaclimeTM is ideal for colder weather climates as the material cools at a slower rate than con-ventional HMA, which results in an increased window for compaction.

DuraClimeTM offers comparable performance characteristics to conventional HMA, as mea-sured by the Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA) wheel rut test and the Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) moisture susceptibility test. The TSR results prove DuraClimeTM has a high resis-tance to moisture-induced damage and the APA

test results indicate that warm mix asphalts do not increase the level of wheel rut damage.

After more than two years of service, roads that have been paved using DuraClime™ are performing as well as or better than HMA.

A Green FutureCommitted to a sustainable future, Lafarge’s value-added products, technical

services, quality control teams and project engineers provide high-quality solutions for customers’ unique con-struction challenges. Lafarge products are better for customers, workers, the public - and the planet. n

For more information, please contact:Andrew SearsLafarge Canada Inc.T: (403) 292.1555 Mobile: (403) 880.5568www.lafargenorthamerica.com

“ Many recycled materials are reused in low grade engineering applications, but with asphalt, recycling can take place at the top of the value chain”

James Wilson, Lafarge

Under North American LEED® criteria (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), an international green building standard - both DuraCycle™ and DuraClime™ qualify for as much as 5 LEED points.

A Comprehensive eCo-Friendly ApproAChSince 2007, Lafarge has driven sustainable construction initiatives across Western Canada, including industrial and commercial parking lots, residential streets, arterial roads and highways projects.

• At Garrison Green, a southwest Calgary subdivision development, Lafarge worked in conjunction with the developer Canada Lands Company. In keeping with this overall environmentally focused initiative DuraclimeTM and DuracycleTM were proposed and used throughout the project. In addition, Garrison Green will be used to assess long term pavement performance of these products in a residential application.

• Saddleback Road, a key collector road in southwest Edmonton, was reconstructed using full depth reclamation of the existing roadway. The overlay incorporated DuraclimeTM which provided the ability to open the road to traffic immediately after placing and compacting. The net environmental benefit was reduced construction traffic into the residential area, saving over 12,500 tonnes of aggregates and 425 truck trips.

Lack of emissions with DuraClime™ mix.

Infrared thermograph indicating uniform temperature of the mix of DuraClime™ mix.

Emissions with hot mix asphalt.

Conventional mix - thermograph indicating non-uniform temperature of the mix.

Committed to Building a Greener World

advertisementadvertisement

afarge is Canada’s leading developer and sup-plier of innovative construction materials, which have been specifically designed for high quality, sustainability and improved performance. The

construction, asphalt, aggregates, ready mix and concrete products business unit’s work together to develop sustain-able construction solutions for their clients.

For Lafarge, one of the world’s most sustainable companies, economic performance is inextricably linked to respect for the environment and for local communities. Committed to building a greener world, Lafarge invests heavily in research and development in order to find more energy efficient ways of conducting their business.

“We are developing products to help us construct in a sustainable way. Asphalt is good for that, because 100% of the material can be recycled,” says James Wilson, C.Eng, Divisional Marketing Director,” Many recycled materials are reused in low grade engineering applications, but with asphalt, recycling can take place at the top of the value chain; meaning back into new asphalt production. We have a wide variety of products that offer customers a solution for any project they undertake“

One such product is Lafarge’s DuraCycleTM Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). With more than 15 years of research and develop-ment, DuraCycleTM is an environmentally friendly HMA that is able to incorporate a wide range of recyclables, including Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP), concrete, ceramics and glass. Bob Forfylow, P.Eng, Director of Quality, explains “The product has been engineered to give equivalent or supe-rior performance, compared to conventional hot mix; on top of that, it’s green. We are trying to minimize our

environmental footprint, and maximize our use of recycled materials.”

With the successful implementation of DuraCycleTM, into the Western Canadian mar-ketplace the natural next step for Lafarge was to create a product that not only offers all of the environmental benefits of recycling, but also reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions through the use of warm mix tech-nology; resulting in an overall reduction of the carbon footprint.

Lafarge’s newest product DuraClimeTM reduces the mixture viscosity, allowing for the production, placement and compaction of a high-quality mix at lower temperatures. “It enables our crews to more easily place and compact the material than conventional HMA,” Forfylow says. “DuraClime™ also improves comfort, safety and the overall working environment for paving crews; there is no

smoke, no smell and no fumes. It’s also better for neighbours located adjacent to paving sites and asphalt plants”.

Introduced in 2007, DuraClimeTM has been used in projects throughout North America. In addi-tion to improved workability; its exceptional performance characteristics include less ther-mal temperature segregation, which results in a more uniform densification of the mix, which ultimately results in a longer lasting pavement.

DuaclimeTM is ideal for colder weather climates as the material cools at a slower rate than con-ventional HMA, which results in an increased window for compaction.

DuraClimeTM offers comparable performance characteristics to conventional HMA, as mea-sured by the Asphalt Pavement Analyzer (APA) wheel rut test and the Tensile Strength Ratio (TSR) moisture susceptibility test. The TSR results prove DuraClimeTM has a high resis-tance to moisture-induced damage and the APA

test results indicate that warm mix asphalts do not increase the level of wheel rut damage.

After more than two years of service, roads that have been paved using DuraClime™ are performing as well as or better than HMA.

A Green FutureCommitted to a sustainable future, Lafarge’s value-added products, technical

services, quality control teams and project engineers provide high-quality solutions for customers’ unique con-struction challenges. Lafarge products are better for customers, workers, the public - and the planet. n

For more information, please contact:Andrew SearsLafarge Canada Inc.T: (403) 292.1555 Mobile: (403) 880.5568www.lafargenorthamerica.com

“ Many recycled materials are reused in low grade engineering applications, but with asphalt, recycling can take place at the top of the value chain”

James Wilson, Lafarge

Under North American LEED® criteria (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), an international green building standard - both DuraCycle™ and DuraClime™ qualify for as much as 5 LEED points.

A Comprehensive eCo-Friendly ApproAChSince 2007, Lafarge has driven sustainable construction initiatives across Western Canada, including industrial and commercial parking lots, residential streets, arterial roads and highways projects.

• At Garrison Green, a southwest Calgary subdivision development, Lafarge worked in conjunction with the developer Canada Lands Company. In keeping with this overall environmentally focused initiative DuraclimeTM and DuracycleTM were proposed and used throughout the project. In addition, Garrison Green will be used to assess long term pavement performance of these products in a residential application.

• Saddleback Road, a key collector road in southwest Edmonton, was reconstructed using full depth reclamation of the existing roadway. The overlay incorporated DuraclimeTM which provided the ability to open the road to traffic immediately after placing and compacting. The net environmental benefit was reduced construction traffic into the residential area, saving over 12,500 tonnes of aggregates and 425 truck trips.

Lack of emissions with DuraClime™ mix.

Infrared thermograph indicating uniform temperature of the mix of DuraClime™ mix.

Emissions with hot mix asphalt.

Conventional mix - thermograph indicating non-uniform temperature of the mix.

Committed to Building a Greener World

advertisementadvertisement

http://www.lafargenorthamerica.com

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Making a difference in turbulent times

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by Ken GibsonACA Executive Director

18012 - 107 Avenue, Edmonton, AB T5S 2J5 • Phone: 780.455.1122 • Fax: 780.451.2152E-mail: [email protected] • Web Site: www.abconst.org

BUSy yEAR fOR ThE ASSOCIATION

Highlights for 2009:

GOVERNMENT ADVOCACYPriority areas of focus carried forward from 2008 include:• Managinggrowthandprovidingvalueformoneyforinfra-

structure investment.• Growingthesupplyofqualified,highlyskilledconstruction

workers on a safe work environment.• Leadinginenvironmentalmanagement,includingreducing

the amount of construction waste to landfills.A major initiative to engage government and other partners

in these priorities was the ACA Construction Industry Summit held in April. ACA’s Board of Directors engaged senior decision makers in a retreat to discuss Alberta’s economic and labour market outlooks and other emerging trends and issues related to construction procurement and practices. In addition to the outlook, the agenda topics were chosen to align with the ACA Government Advocacy priorities as well as those priorities for the promotion of standard practices. The retreat dialogue iden-tified a number of areas for further discussion and development elaborated in the following paragraphs.

Managing growth:With the advent of the recession in the fall of 2008, the focus around managing growth changed.

ACA and Merit Contractors successfully collaborated to host in January an industry seminar and subsequent recommenda-tions report to the Government of Alberta on the use of public-private partnerships (P3s). Governments see P3s as one response to limited government funds, by introducing private investment into public infrastructure. ACA and Merit met the ministers of Infrastructure and Transportation in mid-May to formally convey the recommendations. Associations conveyed that P3s should supplement, not replace, traditional levels of funding. Indeed, there was consensus from industry and government that the majority of projects will continue to be delivered in traditional means, rather than P3s.

Beyond P3s, the associations expressed that with current market conditions, now is the time to purchase construction. Industry further advocated the need for predictable, sustainable, and adequate investment in infrastructure to meet the needs of Alberta’s economy and population and our concern with losing the Capital Account as a funding source for multi-year capital

aca report



http://www.abconst.org

2009-2010

INDEX

1 OIL & GAS PRODUCERS,EXPLORERS & DEVELOPERS

63 SERVICE & SUPPLY COMPANIES

179 CONSULTANTS –ENGINEERING, GEOLOGICAL & GEOPHYSICAL

233 ENGINEERS, PIPELINE CONTRACTORS,DESIGNERS, CONSTRUCTION & FABRICATORS

267 GEOPHYSICAL DATA BROKERS & CONTRACTORS

335 PETROCHEMICAL PRODUCERS – REFINERS,PROCESSORS, MARKETERS & PLANT OPERATORS

339 TRANSPORTATION ANDOILFIELD CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES

355 • GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS & AGENCIES• ASSOCIATIONS & FOUNDATIONS

225 DATA PROCESSORS/SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS

247 ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

201 CONSULTING SERVICES

259 FINANCIAL & INVESTMENT

271 LEASE BROKERS & LAND AGENTS

277 MANUFACTURERS

299 OILWELL DRILLING CONTRACTORS

311 OILWELL SERVICING

329 PIPELINE COMPANIES & POWER DISTRIBUTORS

WW-1 WHO’S WHO

COMPLETE TABLE OF CONTENTS IDX-1

GENERAL INDEX IDX-3

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC INDEX IDX-25

INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC INDEX IDX-65

INTERNET INDEX IDX-71

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budgets, separate from a single savings account open to pres-sures of funding demands for program operations.

ACA continued the theme that “now is the time to purchase construction” throughout the year. In June and September meet-ings and correspondence with ministers regarding planning for the 2010 budget, and finally in a campaign coordinated with local construction associations, letters to all MLAs in December. This message will continue to be conveyed in 2010.

ACA also conveyed these messages and recommenda-tions to the design community, municipalities, and Alberta Infrastructure through meetings in May and September of the Infrastructure Partners Committee, and to the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association in a meeting in October. The meetings and follow-up correspondence to federal min-ister Rona Ambrose provided an opportunity to reinforce the need for timely project approvals for municipal, provincial, and federal projects.

ACA has launched an online public sector building project database to provide owners, the design community, and con-tractors a three-year outlook to assist planning and scheduling. The database is intended to capture all building projects val-ued at $2 million or more. Contributors so far include Alberta Infrastructure, and the cities of Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge, and Grande Prairie. Phase 2 of the initiative is to translate capital costs for broad categories of public infrastruc-ture (e.g. education, health care) into the demand for specific trades and occupations, to improve the industry’s ability to fore-cast labour demand.

Labour supply:ACA continued in 2009 to update and refine the ACA Workforce Strategy. Timeframes for action spelled out in the strategy were chosen to coincide with the Construction Sector Council/Construction Owners Workforce Forecast, which provides a long-term 10-year horizon of labour market information for key construction trades and managerial occupations.

Issues and actions in the ACA strategy are categorized follow-ing the “Inform—Attract—Retain—Develop” framework of the provincial government’s “Building and Educating Tomorrow’s Workforce” strategy. Adopting this framework facilitates ACA benching this strategy against the provincial strategy, which is for the entire workforce, as well as benching against the Construction Sector Strategy of which ACA is one participant along with resi-dential, non-residential, roadbuilding, manufactured housing, and labour organizations.

The strategy is based on an environmental scan and litera-ture review of issues, responses, and initiatives within the con-text of ACA’s mandate, business plan, and policies. The strategy emphasizes ACA’s role in policy advocacy rather than imple-menting programs.

(ACA’s participation in the Construction Careers Promotion Committee, which focuses on attracting youth to careers in con-struction, is covered later in this report.)

Environmental management:ACA participated with Alberta Environment in a round of industry focus groups in March and April and regional

aca report

66 | Spring 2010


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consultations in May and June concerning the proposed prov-incial construction and demolition waste stewardship program. Over 300 stakeholders participated with strong support regis-tered for the concepts contained in the proposal. Industry urged that the program benefit from regional advisory committees, a concept endorsed by ACA.

ACA established the Alberta Construction Materials Management Association as a vehicle for industry management. A founding ACMMA Board was recruited with meetings held to review a draft business plan, communications strategy, and key policy issues.

Other:ACA provided a comprehensive response to Municipal Affairs and the Safety Codes Council regarding the review of the Safety Codes Act.

SAFETY/WORKERS’ COMPENSATION BOARDACA’s position for the new Alberta WorkSafe Strategy for 2009–2012 included:• Accuracyanddefinitionofthemeasuresusedtocalculate

disabling injury rates and identify poor performers, includ-ing no distinction by severity.

• ExemptindustriesandpotentialconflictwithBillC-45.• Theneedtoclarifysharedresponsibilitiesofowner,prime,

and subs.• Administrativefinesforallpersonnelonsite.

It appears these will remain issues for ACA advocacy in 2010 based on information ACA received in late 2009 of proposed decisions of Workplace Health and Safety.

Through both the WorkSafe Strategy and the proposed Employer Review policy of Workplace Health and Safety, ACA opposed the removal of Certification of Recognition (COR) from COR holders where there is a breach of compliance, as ACA opposes COR being tied to regulatory compliance. Rather, ACA believes that there are sufficient tools (such as directives and stop- work orders) to address poor performance and non-compliance.

STANDARD PRACTICESThe primary area of focus in 2009 was on the Alberta Builders’ Lien Act. Issues include: mandatory progressive release of holdback provisions of the Alberta Builders Lien Act, as applied to large pro-jects; the lack of trust accounts to protect contractors when owners are unwilling to release holdback or to protect contractors when the owner no longer is financially viable; and claimant’s access to

ACA continued the theme that “now is the time to purchase construction” throughout the year.

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security paid into Court and the lien fund. The liens legislation has not been examined by ACA in some 15 years. Given the complexity of the various issues, and to balance the needs of the various stake-holders, ACA agreed to establish an ad hoc committee to begin in 2010 with a comprehensive review of the Act.

Through the Institutional Infrastructure Partners Committee, ACA has assigned representatives to an Alberta Infrastructure committee to develop a best practices guide and supporting docu-ments for the procurement and management of Construction Manager (CM) projects.

ACA advocacy for Alberta Infrastructure to formally adopt the Canadian Construction Documents Committee (CCDC) standard document is bearing fruit. Alberta Infrastructure agreed to undertake this work, beginning with CCDC2 in 2009 with anticipated finalization in 2010. The board has urged members to adopt the Canadian Construction Association Model Code of Ethics and adapt it to their own use. The Model Code covers a broad number of areas, including: standards of practice, safety, environment, and employment standards. ACA has consequently rescinded the ACA Code of Practice, which was narrowly focused on tendering practices.

PROMOTION OF A SKILLED WORKFORCEPromotion of a skilled workforce is a central service of the asso-ciation. In addition to development of the workforce strategy ACA also undertook the following:• ACAinvestedcloseto$50,000insecuringandequippinga

booth for WorldSkills in Calgary. WorldSkills was a great

success with over 150,000 visitors. ACA thanks the Calgary Construction Association volunteers for manning the booth.

• TheTradeUpwebsitecareersconstruction.comreceived3.2million hits in 2009, from 38,985 individual visitors. This com-pares to 3.5 million hits from 35,692 unique visitors for 2008.

• TheConstructionCareersPromotionCommitteetoupdateTrade Up includes representatives from other associations, gov-ernment, and labour. The Committee approved key messages, a design concept, and contracted through a successful RFP pro-cess a communications firm to execute the work in 2010.

• ACAinvested$30,000in2009inthreenewACA/Thygesenapprentice scholarships with matched funding from Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training Board bringing the total number of scholarships to 30 for 2010.

• Eachyear,ACAsponsorstheAlbertaApprenticeshipandIndustry Training Board Awards. In addition to sponsoring the event, ACA sponsors the Top Carpenter and Top Apprentice.

MEMBERSHIP Last year represented the 50-year anniversary of the association, recognized through various communications and commemora-tive items produced for the Construction Summit. Membership exceeded 2050, including 295 individual members. With the decision of ACA to end its involvement in COOLNet Alberta, the online plansroom, direct membership for 2010 is expected to significantly decrease. This decision, however, facilitated the decision of the Fort McMurray Construction Association to seek membership starting this year.

aca report

68 | Spring 2010

A VISIT TO VIETNAMby Dave SmithCCA Executive VP

After 14 ½ hours in the air, and flying nearly halfway around the world, members of the Calgary Construction Association and the Southern Interior Construction Association landed in Ho Chi Minh City, in the south of Vietnam. This long narrow strip of a country with a landmass less than half that of the province of Alberta—was under Chinese domination for more than a thousand years. It became part of French Indochina in 1887 and, from 1940 to 1945, Japan ruled the country. A com-munist-led resistance movement under Ho Chi Minh fought the Japanese, and later fought the returning French, defeating them decisively in 1954. At that time under the Geneva Agreement, Vietnam was then divided into two mutually hostile regimes, with a communist government in the North and a French, later U.S.-backed government in the South.

One of the reasons for heading to Vietnam was to experience what it was like during the Vietnam War. In 1964, the National Liberation Front (NLF-Vietcong) attacked the USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin. Then-U.S. President Lyndon Johnson used this as his reason for bombing the North and for sending U.S. troops to Vietnam in support of the South.

When I attended the Saskatchewan Technical Institute in 1967, the Vietnam War was in full swing with over half of a million American soldiers fighting. I was in awe of the courage that it would take for the 19- and 20-year-old American soldiers who had to wade through rice paddies and swamps in search of their elusive enemies.

A large photo of Ho Chi Minh presides over the cavernous interior of the General Post Office building in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Alberta group toured the Cu Chi tunnels where the Vietcong guerillas would hide—with the tunnels being equipped with beds, stoves, and caches of ammunition—just waiting for the enemy, in a dense jungle where visibility at best was 20m. Many in the group crawled through the dark and narrow claustrophobic chambers and a few individuals, such as Chuck Robertson of Sierra Landscaping, Dave Kinley of Concept Electric, and Lyle Wunderlich of Alpine Drywall, took the opportunity to fire off the old Russian AK-47 machine guns. The noise was deafen-ing and one could truly sense the fear from the power of such a weapon as it fires off 10 rounds per second.

Both the NLF and the allied North Vietnamese Army (NVA) were adept at simple but deadly booby traps using everything from bamboo and iron staves to explosives. One cannot imagine the pain that would lead to a slow death when falling into one of these camouflaged traps. It is no wonder the Vietnam War is considered to have been one of the most inhumane civil wars in modern history. During the war, a wide range of chemical warfare took place with napalm bombs, a vicious compound of jellied petroleum killing thousands. Finally after years of conflict, in 1973, Henry Kissinger signed the Paris Peace Accord, a treaty that once signed left the Americans to withdraw from Vietnam and the North. However, with such hostilities between the North and South, the war continued until 1975 when the NVA over-took the ill-prepared South, and the last remaining American personnel in Saigon were evacuated by helicopters to U.S. naval

vessels in the South China Sea, even as the city was falling to the victorious commun-ist forces. By the time the war was fin-ished the Americans had dropped more bombs during the Vietnam War than all bombs utilized in WWII. Over one million North Vietnamese soldiers,

PHO

TO: C

CA

cca report


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During the recent economic renewal program, called doi moi, (“renovation”) policy, which was introduced by the com-munist government in 1986, people’s atti-tudes toward capitalism changed. The youth are working to avoid poverty and most have the motto “The better standard

of living, the better life quality.” To this day many families of three generations still live in small one-bedroom flats with 60 channels of cable television at a cost of US$4 a month, which for many, is their sole source of entertainment.

Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is constantly buzzing with activity. Tens of thousands of scooters zigzag throughout the maze of streets, the drivers all respecting one another with few horns ever being sounded. It was most interesting to see small scooters being ridden by Vietnamese women wearing masks to fight pollution, young entrepreneurs transporting everything from live birds and

Sailing the islets and dramatic caves of Ha Long Bay can be a magical experience.

200,000 South Vietnamese soldiers, and 500,000 civilians were killed with approximately 56,500 U.S. soldiers losing their life over the course of 10 years.

Around half of Vietnam’s population of over 86 million is under age 35. It is hoped that the social and political problems of the historic divide between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, which still exists to this day, will diminish in the future. Once amongst the poorest nations in the world, Vietnam is experi-encing unprecedented growth. But the gross domestic income is still only US$620 annually.

PHO

TO: C

CA

cca report

70 | Spring 2010




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Leaving Ho Chi Minh City for Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, we landed in a city of 8 million people. However, we immedi-ately boarded a coach and headed to Ha Long Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin. For the next two days we sailed around this UNESCO World Heritage Site in a wooden junk with rough cotton and hand-sewn fan shaped sails that are dipped in vegetable dye for protection, giving the sails a dark ochre colour. The junk was fitted out for royalty and we all felt spoiled as we would watch the setting sun amongst the pinnacle-shaped limestone outcrops. Views of the ships sailing in beautiful Hang Bo Nau set the

pigs to market, to that of families of four on one scooter, heading in every which direc-tion. The streets of Ho Chi Minh City are lined with vendors selling everything from rice bowls to hot noodles to footware and it was quite the experience we had walking through the Binh Tay Market at night pro-tecting our wallets from those who want to make an easy living by pickpocketing the Canadians who stood out like a sore thumb.

Once open stalls, the cholon (literal translation “big market”), has evolved into a huge emporium with a roof that covers the bustle of commerce. The market is jam-packed with people, a hundred times that of the aisles of any Walmart. A wide variety of items and services are available, ranging from medical herbs and imported Chinese toys to tailors and mechanics, and even caged birds. Somehow, we all found something to purchase to bring back memories of Vietnam’s commercial capital.

Touring the Old Quarters in a cyclo was a unique experience as we took in the sites and sounds of Hanoi’s largest

commercial district.

PHO

TO: CC

Acca report


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digital cameras clicking to capture the famous views—a remark-able site for a prairie boy born and raised in Saskatchewan. While sailing around the karst outcrops, which according to legend, the bay was formed when a gigantic dragon—ha long means des-cending dragon—plunged into the Gulf of Tonkin and created a myriad of islets by lashing its tail. Amongst these breathtaking outcrops that rose to the surface in prehistoric times, we came across floating villages. Here we met young children with friendly smiles floating around on whatever material was available. We docked and toured a small floating school with desks that out-dated my public school days of the 1950s in Moose Jaw, along with a small outhouse attached to the back of the school with nothing more than a hole that was open to the waters of the bay.

Many of us did not want to leave the peacefulness of Ha Long Bay, but we boarded the coach and headed back to Hanoi, a city that in 2010 is celebrating its 1,000th birthday. There we took up residence at Hanoi’s most prestigious and oldest hotel, the Sofitel Metropole. While in Hanoi we walked and walked, taking in the sites of a city rich in cultural heritage. We saw old men playing board games on the sidewalks under the midnight sky and a woman vendor squatting in bare feet on an old countertop hacking at meat to sell in the mar-ket. Mechanics next door replaced worn out, treadless scooter tires that provide transportation in a run down city that is still structur-ally sound despite all the years of warfare. Many Vietnamese stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake in the centre of Hanoi, while others walk back to their flat with the day’s catch of elephant fish from a lake so polluted, that most Canadians would dare not fish in it.

While in the capital we toured the homes that Ho Chi Minh resided in along with the mausoleum where he lay in a cold, massive, blue granite structure surrounded by military guards. We toured the Military History Museum, viewing the massive Russian tank that knocked down the gates of the Reunification Hall in Saigon when the Vietnam War ended in 1975. Next we took in the Temple of Literature, the oldest and possibly the finest architectural complex in Hanoi, which was established in 1070 and founded in honour of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It served as a centre for higher learning—educating future man-darins for more than seven centuries. The scholars who attended the temple have their names etched on the stone tortoise steles dating back to the 15th century.

To liven up the day we hailed a cyclo and dodged traffic in the Old Quarters, a lively commercial district buzzing with activ-ity—it was like being in the Amazing Race. The Old Quarters is packed with merchandise, from shoes and silk, to bamboo products of which we purchased a few bowls. Surrounding the Old Quarters are “tube” or “rocket” houses where merchants have lived over the centuries. With our bodies feeling our age, most of us headed to the famous water puppet show, where the majority of us drifted off into a deep sleep.

Bags packed, it was time to leave Hanoi, and commence an adventure in Cambodia, the ancient capital of the great Khmer Empire. Angkor is beyond doubt, one of the most magnificent wonders of the world of which I will highlight in the next edi-tion of the Alberta Construction Magazine.

cca report

72 | Spring 2010

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A few years ago, when an average home-owner tried to find a trade to help with a renovation, he faced long waits and big quotes. Projects were plentiful and there were lots of contracts to be signed. It seemed every trade had it made.

Well, that was then and this is now. The market has slowed and there is less work to go around. But, it gets worse: there was a dramatic shift in the competitive environ-ment before and during the recession that hurt the industry. If we’re not careful, the industry will continue to do damage to itself, and continue to suffer longer than you might expect.

PAyING ThE PIPERUnderstanding the damage reckless undercutting can have on the construction industryby Tim Sweet

There have recently been two major influxes of competitors. First, during the boom many employees were inspired to become entrepreneurs; they saw this big pie and figured they might as well take a piece. This group of “Boom Entrepreneurs” took the leap into ownership, putting their name, the well-being of their family, and their personal assets on the line. They were hungry to succeed and have something to prove. Now they’re even hungrier.

Second, the recession meant layoffs. Many trades were motivated to opt for self employment rather than unemployment. With a glut of people looking for work,

they were quickly able to hire some help-ers and hang out a shingle. This second group, the “Do-Or-Die Trades,” choose to leverage their talents that no one else would hire. This group is fighting for its life, mad as hell, and out for blood.

Both of these upstart types will put everything on the line to land a contract. For them, it’s not just business, it’s personal

They are small, and while this may be seen as a weakness by larger players, in this case small means a low (or no) over-head; no shop or offices, no sales force, no office staff, no fleet or inventory to man-age. They are often working owners,


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close to the action. They have the author-ity to make decisions quickly, and make promises with a handshake. They are agile, able to react quickly to changes in the contract, and take advantage of repeat business. They are aggressive networkers by necessity. They find solutions for their customers by promoting other fledgling companies in the same boat. Aligned, sev-eral upstarts can offer customers a total package more efficiently than large one-stop-shop companies.

So, can groups with vastly different agendas work together to avoid ruining the industry through rate cutting and over competition? Yes, but it requires rational, long-term thinking on everyone’s part.

If your company is established and you find yourself competing against these small trades, you know what kind of chaos it can cause. Sometimes you find you are competing against a former employee and they know your customers, your rates, and margins. Worse yet, they may know your weaknesses. If you are besieged by upstart companies, make sure you are leveraging all of your assets to do the best job possible.

Do your best to remind your customer how quality saves money in the long term. Get rid of useless process hassles your size may impose on the customer and work to become more agile. Do your best to know who is out there and what they are sell-ing; educate your customer if you smell something fishy.

As contractors, your biggest threat is the quote that turns out to be too good to be true. You can find your-self stuck with a trade that can’t com-plete the project to spec, on time, on budget, or all of the above. You’ll often have to hire another company to finish or correct work that couldn’t be com-pleted due to lack of time, knowledge, or resources. When weeding through proposals or signing trades you need to make a choice, bolster your known, established supplier—even though the supplier may not be the lowest option. Or bring the smaller supplier up to speed not letting them miscalculate what’s involved. This will be the only way to avoid that too-good-to-be-true option, which is sure to disappoint you,

damage customer goodwill, and con-tinue the chaos.

On the other side, if you are an upstart company and you’ve made it through the last few months, congratulations. But remember, think long term—and don’t ruin it for everyone. Take advantage of your small size by being agile and com-petitive, but submit tenders remembering that your have to complete the work and make a living. You’re not doing yourself, the customer or the industry any favours by ratcheting down rates to a level that can’t support proper execution of your work or reasonable quality. This will only set an unreal precedent for the industry, lowering rates for a long time to come.

Customers, suppliers, companies large and small, old and new, are all going to have to deal with the problems created by this latest recession. What is important is that the industry remains able to sus-tain itself with rational, realistic revenue expectations.

Tim Sweet is the owner of Revolve Business Consulting Ltd. of Calgary. He can be reached through revolveconsulting.com.

74 | Spring 2010

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THREE SURPRISING WAYS TO CUT COSTS AND BOOST THE BOTTOM LINEby Tricia Radison

PLAY THE FIELD

If your employees have cell-phones, you may well be pay-ing more than you have to for them. That’s according

to Heather Pauls, president of HPCI in the Calgary area. Pauls should know. She worked in the mobile phone biz for over a decade, doing whatever she could to keep clients from switching carriers.

“It’s a very competitive market,” she says. “Unless you’re armed with industry knowledge of what’s really available to you from a customer retention perspective, the reality is you’re just not getting the best deal available.”

HPCI does a three-month assessment of clients’ mobility usage to identify how units are used. Every penny you spend is accounted for. Knowing what competing carriers will offer, HPCI is able either to negotiate a reduction with your carrier or show you exactly what you can save by changing providers.

Pauls says that on average, clients’ cell phone expenses are reduced by 42 per cent.

GET A CHECKUP

Blindly cutting costs doesn’t lead to long-term success.

“It’s easy to cut costs,” says Mark Brown, director

of business consulting services, Meyers Norris Penny. “You can dump a bunch of people, sell some assets that are sitting in your yard, or whatever, and then next week get the project of a lifetime. But now you’re hooped.”

Instead, he says, spending should be aligned to what you want to have happen in the future.

A “business diagnostic” is a holistic look at every aspect of your operation—your customers, employees, operational processes and procedures, and finan-cials—to ensure everything being done is going to get you where you want to go.

Through the diagnostic, you can see where you may be wasting money, such as on an unnecessary process. You can also identify areas of spending that may look as if they could be cut today, but are actually investments in the future.

Says Brown: “You want to, if you can, hold the position that, over the next three to five years, we’re aiming for a spot and so everything we do is lined up to that goal.”

MANAGE FUEL

Taking equipment off site for fuelling eats up time and money. According to 4Refuel, a British Columbia–based

fuel management company with an office in Calgary, companies lose about 20 minutes each day per vehicle.

Having fuel brought to the site reduces the time your employees spend fuel-ling so that those hours can be used to make money and get projects done faster. 4Refuel also institutes what’s called a total fuel management system so you can see how much fuel you’re using and find ways to reduce your actual fuel costs.

Billing is done online and you can gen-erate a variety of reports with information that can be used to make critical decisions about equipment, operator labour, and maintenance.

The company claims it can reduce refuelling costs up to 20 per cent. 4Refuel.com includes a calculator that gives you an immediate idea of the sav-ings you could see.

1 2 3

So you’ve managed to weather the Great Recession, although you also realize the business environment remains shaky. hopefully you’ve seen the import-ance of managing costs without compromising the company’s core values or the ability to properly service customers.

Not every cost control decision has to be painful. here are three examples that might help you boost the bottom line.


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The fourth-generation head of Vet’s Sheet Metal Ltd. of Edmonton, Sean Rayner is no stranger to the challenges that family businesses can face, especially in these try-ing times. But he also is familiar with the challenges because of a different role—as board chair of the Edmonton chapter of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise (CAFE).

CAFE is a national organization offer-ing peer support, education, and network-ing opportunities for families in business. In an interview with contributor Kelley Stark, Rayner discusses how CAFE can help family-owned construction companies.

What kind of help does CAFE give?Peer support: Families in business and family businesses share many simi-lar issues regardless of size or indus-try and bringing them together to discuss their tribulations helps both the

business and family to succeed. Our peer support groups are called PAGs [short for Personal Advisory Groups] and are made up of family business members from different families and different industries [non-competi-tive] and usually meet once a month. Education: CAFE Edmonton and CAFE Calgary put on monthly or quarterly events in which we bring in speakers or leverage our associate members [non-family business members] to discuss topics relevant to family businesses that range from tax and estate planning or prenuptial agreements to pandemic preparedness. Networking opportunities: In the past, CAFE has had a strict non-solicitation policy. We are here to support one another and not spend our time selling our servi-ces. But the fact is that you share a com-mon bond with many people at CAFE and as you develop relationships with those

in a PAG and around the tables at CAFE you are bound to do business with them.

We wil l be having our Family Enterprise of the Year award presentation at the River Cree [Resort and Casino just west of Edmonton] on March 18. This is a national award. Each of the chapters takes nominations of worthy family businesses and chooses a winner for each market. This year, the local winners will be pro-filed at our National Symposium in Regina [late May] and a national winner will be selected. Our speaker for the event will be Cameron Herold, founder of 1–800-GOT-JUNK and the BackPocket COO. He is an extremely dynamic speaker with a great story and a great message.

Succession planning is an important issue for family-owned firms. What does an owner need to consider?There are several parties involved in the succession of a business: The ownership, the rest of the family [involved in the business or not], and the business. Each has unique needs that need to be met in order to achieve a successful succes-sion, which doesn’t always mean passing the business on to another family mem-ber. It is important to identify the needs and wants of all of those stakeholders.

What’s the most important piece of advice you could give a family who owns a family business?Create a safe environment to communi-cate. One of the lessons our family took from CAFE was to create a family coun-cil to speak to and a board of advisors. The family council meets regularly to discuss issues that aren’t easily brought up. We bring in a facilitator to ensure everyone has their say and that we stick to the agenda.

How does someone become a member of CAFE?Contact the local administrator by tele-phone or visit www.cafecanada.ca.

ThERE’S hELP fOR FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESSES

PHO

TO: A

ARO

N P

ARKE

R

Sean Rayner is board chair of the Edmonton chapter of the CAFE who also has a family-owned business.


business of building

http://www.cafecanada.ca

Alberta Infrastructure will take signifi-cant strides towards making building information modelling—simply BIM in industry parlance—mandatory for major government projects later this year, but it will ensure the construction industry can keep pace.

“Alberta Infrastructure is currently developing its BIM implementation strat-egy, with completion scheduled for the spring of 2010,” says Brian Soutar, execu-tive director of the program management branch of Alberta Infrastructure. “We are working closely with the architectural, engineering, and construction associations to ensure that our strategy supports their ability to provide the required services.”

Early adopters of BIM, such as the Edmonton Construction Association (ECA), have been educating peers and mem-bers about how to get into the BIM mindset.

“We don’t want to revisit what hap-pened when [the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, green building standards] came into effect,” says Darlene La Trace, executive director of ECA.

GETTING ON ThE BIM BANDWAGONAfraid you’ll miss out on the world of virtual construction? Fortunately, there are resources to helpby Candice G. Ball

“Industry wasn’t ready. So we’re try-ing to stay ahead of the curve and give our members some time with BIM before there are any big announcements from Alberta Infrastructure.”

To ensure all its members are ready for BIM, La Trace’s group built a room that houses 10 terminals and has offered BIM 101 courses to its members this year. (The ECA also received funding under an Alberta Employment and Immigration program to offer free BIM 101 training to qualified skilled immigrants.) The courses cover what BIM is and its benefits, BIM for construction, where does BIM fit for work-ers, and basic navigation in BIM software.

Other early adopters, such as HIP Architects’ Allan Partridge, view BIM as an opportunity for different parties on a project to work more closely together.

“BIM is not CAD [computer-aided design] on steroids,” he says. “It’s a dif-ferent way of working. It’s an opportun-ity to create the building virtually before

it is created physically.” He adds it’s also an opportunity for the architects, engin-eers, and contractors to work together as an integrated team.

By creating a virtual building in three dimensions, the team can simulate per-formance, allowing the team to digitally troubleshoot problems and manage risks.

Although most major construction companies have been working towards the adoption of BIM for years, some of the smaller players lag behind because of the steep costs associated with BIM software.

According to Soutar, there won’t be any surprises. Alberta Infrastructure plans to ease industry into BIM with pilot projects:

Using BIM software, digitally designed structures—whether they involve

complex shapes such as Edmonton’s Shaw Discovery Auditorium (to the right

and on the next page) or basic ones—can pinpoint problems before actual

construction begins.

IMAG

ES: HIP ARCH

ITECTS


80 | Spring 2010

447053Davidson Enman Lumber Ltd

1/2h • hp

0301_delumber_hphacm.ai 1 21/01/10 8:51 AM

“Careful selection of the initial projects is critical. Presently we are considering small- to intermediate-sized projects, with a mix of one-off and standardized designs.”

As a new member of The Canada BIM Council, Alberta Infrastructure will learn

about best practices from early adopters such as Partridge, EllisDon, and PCL Constructors Canada Inc.

PCL’s Warren Tutton, a construction engineering manager, reports that PCL has been researching and evaluating

BIM for a number of years and has noted a measured change in its adoption over the last seven to eight years.

After implementing BIM, PCL learned the software had the potential to help teams work more efficiently and effectively.

“Building a project in virtual space before it is physically built means you can find problems before they become an issue in the field. It’s also a good com-munication tool for all project stakehold-ers,” explains Tutton. “Both these points equate to potential cost savings for our clients, our partners, and the company.”

Like any other new thing, there will be challenges. New technology can be disruptive, notes Tutton, and BIM is no exception, especially as each member of the multidisciplinary team tries to under-stand how it fits into and affects their scope of work.



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by Tim MavkoReynolds, Mirth, Richards, & Farmer LLP

SUBCONTRACTORS AND ThE PUBLIC WORKS ACT

A contract is, by definition, a private affair. It is a private agreement between private parties. Only those who make a contract can enforce the rights, and suffer the duties, imposed by that contract. A stranger has no rights—he can’t demand performance under a contract to which he is not a party. Similarly, a stranger can’t be called on to perform obli-gations under a contract he did not accept. This is what we mean when we say there is “privity of contract.”

A construction project will often have many distinct contracts. The owner will have a contract with the general con-tractor. The general contractor will have separate and distinct contracts with its subcontractors and suppliers. And the sub-contractors and suppliers, in turn, might have their own contracts with their own sub-subcontractors and sub-suppliers. (Indeed, the chain can go on and on, and for brevity we often use the term “subcon-tractor” to refer to everyone on that chain below the general contractor.)

The principle of privity, then, explains why an owner pays the general contractor (who he hired) and not the subcontractors (who he did not). And it also explains why subcontractors must look for payment to those who hired them, and (in the normal course) can’t claim payment directly from the owner.

And this poses a problem for subcon-tractors when those who owe them money either won’t or can’t pay. The owner may

be holding money from the general con-tractor, but he can’t use it to pay those down the chain.

An Alberta law called the Public Works Act creates one solution to this problem. It applies to construction projects under-taken by the Alberta government, where the government is one of the contracting parties. This law allows unpaid sub-contractors on government projects to notify the government that they haven’t been paid, and it allows the government to pay them directly. In other words, this law allows the government to ignore the privity of the various contracts.

But, as with all laws, we have to read the fine print. Carefully. (The Public Works Act can be found at www.qp.alberta.ca.)

First, this law only applies to projects where the Government of Alberta is one of the contracting parties. That means it does not govern the contracts of cities, towns, counties, or other municipalities where the Government of Alberta is not a party. It also means that this law might not apply to projects funded by the government (say, through a grant) but contracted by some other entity or organization (say, a soci-ety or charity).

Second, there are strict time limits. On most types of projects, a subcon-tractor must send notice of its claim in the required form to the responsible gov-ernment department no later than 45 days after the last day on which labour,

equipment, material, or services were pro-vided. In the case of highway or road work, the notice must be sent no sooner than 30 days, and not later than 90 days after the labour, etc. were provided. Missing these deadlines kills the claim.

Third, this law is discretionary. It permits the government to pay subcon-tractors directly, but it does not require it. The government can, for various rea-sons, choose not to use this law to step around the general contractor to help the subcontractors. And where there are competing claims among multiple sub-contractors, or the claims are overlapping and unclear, the government can instead choose to pay the available money into court, and let the various parties sort out the mess themselves.

Finally, the amount the government can pay to subcontractors under this law is limited to the amount the govern-ment owes to the general contractor. And this is where it can get messy. If there are unresolved change orders, back charges, deficiencies, or even warranty claims, the balance owing might not be known. Moreover, even if the balance is known, there may be a number of unpaid subcon-tractors, and if their claims taken together exceed the balance, there will have to be some allocation between them.

Admittedly, the scheme created by the Public Works Act is not perfect. But it does offer subcontractors something.

the legal edge


http://www.qp.alberta.ca

TIME CAPSULE

Government houseOnce home to Alberta’s lieutenant gov-ernors, Government house is now used for high-level government conferences, recep-tions, and dinners.

Construction began in 1912 and the building opened the following year, according to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Architect R.P. Blakey designed the three-storey sandstone edifice in the Jacobean Revival style. his design included large bay windows, groups of rectangular windows, and high gabled roofs.

Located near the entrance to the Royal Alberta Museum grounds in Edmonton, it’s difficult to imagine that the stately struc-ture once sat vacant and neglected.

following its construction, six lieu-tenant governors occupied Government

house. But as early as 1925 a motion came before the Legislature to sell the building, according to the Legislative Assembly.

Thirteen years later, the Legislative Assembly’s Committee of Supply passed a motion that had the final effect of clos-ing Government house. According to the Legislative Assembly: “Some members felt that since the Canadian federal gov-ernment appointed Alberta’s lieutenant governors, they should pay the related expenses.

It was also noted that Ontario had closed its Government house in 1937. however, other members felt that this action was taken by the Alberta gov-ernment to ‘get even’ with Lieutenant Governor John C. Bowen. In 1937, he had

refused to give Royal Assent to three gov-ernment bills.”

Government house was vacant from 1938 to 1942. In 1942, it was leased to Northwest Airlines, and from 1944 to 1950, it was used as a convalescent home for wounded veterans, according to the Legislative Assembly. The federal govern-ment’s Department of Veterans’ Affairs purchased the building in 1951 and used it to house disabled veterans.

In 1964, Government house was returned to the province. In the 1970s, $1.7 million was spent on renovations. finally, in 1985, the building was designated a Provincial historic Resource. As such, it can-not be altered without the Culture minis-ter’s permission.

time capsule

84 | Spring 2010

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KEy fACTSBUILT: 1912

COST: $345,882

ARCHITECT: R.P. Blakey

OFFICIALLY OPENED: Oct. 7, 1913

DESIGNATED PROVINCIAL HISTORIC RESOURCE: June 12, 1985

Source: Legislative Assembly

The Government house in Edmonton, circa 1912.

PHOTO: GLENBOW MUSEUM

time capsule

Alberta Construction Magazine | 85Alberta Construction Magazine | 85

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(Edmonton) Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Arpi’s Industries Canada Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Arpi’s North Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46ATB financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12ATCO Structures & Logistics Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Bantrel Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Beaver Plastics Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Bibby-Ste-Croix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Bobcat Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . inside back coverBrandt Tractor Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . inside front coverBrock White Construction Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71BURNCO Rock Products Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Calgary Construction Association . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 & 49Canadian Welding Bureau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Canadian Western Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Canessco Services Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Chase Operator Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Christian Labour Association of Canada. . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Cover-All Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Davidson Enman Lumber Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Donalco Western Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Electrical Contractors Association

of Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18EllisDon Construction Services Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Emco Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6faculty of Extension, University of Alberta . . . . . . . . . . 764Refuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Grant Metal Products Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72hertz Equipment Rental Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3ITT Water & Wastewater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75IVIS Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Karrich Industries Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Kubota Canada Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Lafarge Construction Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 & 63Ledcor Construction Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Lloyd Sadd Insurance Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Man-Shield (Alta) Construction Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Manulift EMI Ltee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82MAPEI Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55MCL Power Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Merchandise Mart Properties Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20NAIT Corporate and

International Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Northland Construction Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Pagnotta Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44PCL Constructors Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Phoenix fence Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Proform Concrete Services Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 & 86Prostate Cancer Canada Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Renfrew Insurance Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Reynolds Mirth Richards & farmer LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Rocky Mountain Dealerships Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 & 31Scona Cycle honda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Serv-All Mechanical Services Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Singletouch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 & 23Skyjack Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . outside back coverSpatial Technologies Partnership Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Steels Industrial Products Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Stuart Olson Constructors Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Target Products Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67The GWP Wallworks Group Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48Toole Peet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Vertigo Theatre Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Vet’s Sheet Metal Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Waste Management of Canada Corporation . . . . . . . . 58Williams Scotsman of Canada Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78WR Meadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

advertisers’ index

86 | Spring 2010

It’s surprising how an 8-12 hour workday

takes your mind off of things, especially

when you’re working in a new M-Series

loader from Bobcat. They’re quieter, more

comfortable and more enjoyable to work in.

With a best-in-class pressurized interior,

more cab space, larger door, increased

seat suspension, cab-forward design and

optional seat-mounted joysticks – even a

power accessory and input jack for your

MP3 player on the optional radio – every

job is more comfortable and productive.

Go to www.bobcat.com/escape1 or see

your dealer to learn how these new compact

track loaders can M-Power you to do more.

Bobcat of Red DeerRed Deer County • 403-346-9011

Ag-Plus Mechanical, Ltd.Medicine Hat • 403-504-1111

Agland CorporationLloydminster • 780-875-4471

Bobcat of Fort McMurrayFort McMurray • 780-714-9200

Bobcat of CalgaryCalgary • 403-243-2011

Bobcat of EdmontonEdmonton • 780-447-4441

Drumheller Equipment SalesDrumheller • 403-823-8383

Evcon Farm Equipment, Ltd.Lethbridge • 403-329-6011

Bobcat of the PeaceGrande Prairie • 780-538-0791

Bobcat of the PeacePeace River • 780-624-4646

Authorized Bobcat Dealers

Over 90 Job-Matched Attachments for Construction

Limited time offer. Available at participating and eligible dealers only. Offer may vary by product type, series, model and select units in dealer inventory. Some restrictions apply. Length of contract may vary. See dealer for details. Financing provided on approval of credit by authorized Bobcat fi nance providers to well qualifi ed buyers. The rates listed herein do not take into consideration any administrative fees and are subject to change based on the amount of such fees (which may vary). Offer not available to government accounts, national accounts and municipal/utility bid customers and non-commercial customers. Bobcat Company reserves the right to extend or discontinue any of these programs at any time without prior notice. “Bobcat” is a registered trademark of Bobcat Company. | 0110552

FINANCINGon all new Bobcat equipment.*

AS LOW AS APR

Authorized Bobcat Dealers

ARE YOU

M-POWERED?

http://www.bobcat.com/escape1

For information call 1-800-265-2738 or visit us online at www.skyjack.com

Articulating Booms

Skyjack’s A-SERIES boom lifts boast an industry leading, standard equipped, 360 degree continuous turret rotation, zero tail swing, axle based 4WD, direction sensing drive and steer controls, and a true vertical rise with riser function which prevents drifting forward or backwards. The A-SERIES models are available in two confi gurations featuring the SJ 46AJ with jib or the SJ 46A with no jib.

A-SERIES

http://www.skyjack.com

Alberta Construction Magazine March 2010

Documents

Transcript of Alberta Construction Magazine March 2010