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ISSUE #4 • 2018 University of Saskatchewan Livestock & Forage Centre of Excellence | 3 ENMAX Combined Heat and Power System | 9 This year marked a milestone for Associated Engineering as we surpassed 1000 employees in our 23 offices across Canada. We’ve come a long way since we were founded by two engineers in Edmonton in 1946. More than 70 years later, Associated Engineering remains a Canadian, employee-owned company. To us, employee-ownership means that we retain the flexibility to determine our own course, and to respond appropriately to client needs to ensure your satisfaction on every project we undertake. In December 2017, Nor·Ex Engineering joined the Associated Engineering group of companies, bringing expertise in ice engineering and disaster planning and recovery. Nor·Ex’s expertise complements our work in the North, our climate change initiative, and our disaster response efforts on behalf of clients. We welcome Dana Woodsworth, Al Fitzgerald, and the Nor·Ex team to the Associated family. My first year as President of the Associated Engineering group of companies has been busy, as I have travelled across the company to get to know our staff and our clients. To staff, thank you for welcoming me to your offices, and for your commitment, energy, and entrepreneurship. You have created an enduring culture that makes Associated Engineering a great place to work. To our clients, I appreciate the time that you’ve spent with me to understand your vision, goals, and local issues. This understanding will help us serve you better. Thank you for your continued trust in Associated Engineering as your consultant of choice. To you and your families, Merry Christmas and best wishes for peace, health and happiness in the new year. Martin Jobke, P.Eng., President Season’s Greetings FEATURED ARTICLES:

Transcript of Season’s Greetings...2 IN THIS ISSUE 1Visit our Season’s Greetings 2 Associated receives 2018...

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ISSUE #4 • 2018

University of Saskatchewan Livestock & Forage Centre of Excellence | 3 ENMAX Combined Heat and Power System | 9

This year marked a milestone for Associated Engineering as we surpassed 1000 employees in our 23 offices across Canada. We’ve come a long way since we were founded by two engineers in Edmonton in 1946. More than 70 years later, Associated Engineering remains a Canadian, employee-owned company. To us, employee-ownership means that we retain the flexibility to determine our own course, and to respond appropriately to client needs to ensure your satisfaction on every project we undertake.

In December 2017, Nor·Ex Engineering joined the Associated Engineering group of companies, bringing expertise in ice engineering and disaster planning and recovery. Nor·Ex’s expertise complements our work in the North, our climate change initiative, and our disaster response efforts on behalf of clients. We welcome Dana Woodsworth, Al Fitzgerald, and the Nor·Ex team to the Associated family.

My first year as President of the Associated Engineering group of companies has been busy, as I have travelled across the

company to get to know our staff and our clients. To staff, thank you for welcoming me to your offices, and for your commitment, energy, and entrepreneurship. You have created an enduring culture that makes Associated Engineering a great place to work.

To our clients, I appreciate the time that you’ve spent with me to understand your vision, goals, and local issues. This understanding will help us serve you better. Thank you for your continued trust in Associated Engineering as your consultant of choice.

To you and your families, Merry Christmas and best wishes for peace, health and happiness in the new year.

Martin Jobke, P.Eng., President

Season’s Greetings

FEATURED ARTICLES:

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IN THIS ISSUE1 Season’s Greetings

2 Associated receives 2018 ASTTBC Employer Award

Ribbon cutting ceremony at Widewater Pump Station

New Kamloops office serves local and regional clients

3 University of Saskatchewan’s world-class Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence wins ACEC-SK Award of Excellence

4 Inventory of secondary infrastructure helps City of St. Albert to improve forecast of maintenance and replacement costs

5 Fast-tracked, design-build of Virginia Falls Dock Replacement meets Parks Canada requirements

6 Congratulations to our 2018 Service Award recipients

7 Blueberry River First Nation water system upgrades improve community drinking water quality, capacity, and reliability

8 Climate Change Conversations

9 ENMAX Downtown District Energy Centre’s Combined Heat and Power system reduces Calgary’s GHG emissions

10 Building Communities

11 Employee News

12 Technical expertise and creative solutions help deliver bridge and culvert inspections in remote regions of Ontario

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New Kamloops office serves local and regional clients

Ribbon cutting ceremony at Widewater Pump Station

Jeff Fetter, Division Manager, Water, in our Edmonton office (pictured third from right), attended the ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the completion of the new Widewater Pump Station and Water Line. The new facility will deliver water to the Slave Lake Treatment Centre in this northern Alberta community.

(l to r): Dana Woodworth, Leslie Mihalik, Martin Jobke, and AlFitzgerald

Associated Engineering is pleased to announce the opening of our new office in the City of Kamloops in southcentral BC. Dana Woodworth, Vice President & General Manager of our subsidiary company, Nor·Ex Engineering, leads the office. For more information, contact Dana at [email protected].

Associated receives 2018 ASTTBC Employer AwardOn November 10th, the Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of British Columbia (ASTTBC) hosted their annual Technology Awards & Recognition Celebration in Vancouver. Associated Engineering was presented with the Employer Award for Career Enhancement and Success of Technology Professionals. Martin Jobke, President, tells us, “We’re proud of creating a work environment that supports the success of the more than 300 technology professionals in British Columbia and across the company.”

(l to r): TheresaMcCurry (CEO

of ASTTBC),Martin Jobke

(AE President),& Trent Reid,

(ASTTBC President)

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University of Saskatchewan’s Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence

Internationally renowned for agricultural research, the University of Saskatchewan’s new Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence sets a standard as one of the world’s most advanced livestock research facilities. The facility is located on 15 quarter-sections of land southeast of Saskatoon and includes two research buildings, a 1600-head-capacity feedlot, a 350-unit cow-calf facility, dedicated forage crop research plots, and over 1,200 acres of paddocks for forage grazing studies. The facility supports all aspects of cattle’s life-cycle, including silage production, feed delivery, storage and handling; cattle housing, handling and health; and water supply, manure management, runoff collection and containment, as well as, equipment storage, utility servicing, teaching, research, and industry outreach.

Associated was the engineering lead for essentially every component of the facility, requiring a multi-disciplined team with an expertise in agricultural facilities. Work began in 2013 with the development of the conceptual design of the feedlot and research barn for the Colleges of Agriculture and Engineering. In 2015, the project was approved for senior government funding with a new requirement to also include facilities for the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and the Western Beef Development Centre. The project proceeded with a tight timeline for detailed design completion. During the design phase, the team participated in approximately 50 working committee and related workshops, with Associated facilitating most of the workshops.

As project managers for design and construction of the facility, the Associated Engineering team addressed the requirements of a large and diverse group of government, industry and

academic stakeholders to deliver this technically advanced facility. Project Manager, Doug Thomson, tells us, “Working with the Colleges and the Western Beef Development Centre, we amalgamated industry standards, provincial regulations, and observations from similar facilities, and we listened to the visions of the various researchers to create an integrated and holistic facility that is relevant to the modern beef industry.”

The Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence enhances the University’s and province’s reputation as leaders in agricultural research

In November, the Association of Consulting Engineers – Saskatchewan recognized the project with an Award of Excellence for Project Management. The facility was honoured for being a successful showcase of technological advancement and innovation, both in its design to accommodate large, live animals throughout their entire lifecycle, and in its ability to satisfy the requirements of a wide range of researchers.

University of Saskatchewan’s world-class Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence wins ACEC-SK Award of Excellence

(l to r): Bob Tyler (UofS), Dorothy Murell (UofS), Kathy Larson (UofS), Doug Thomson (AE), Ernie Barber (UofS), Crystal Rinas (UofS), Blaine Ganong (ACEC-SK), Josh Yohnke (AE), and Mark Guidinger (AE) receive award at ACEC-SK Awards gala

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Orphaned bollards were added to St. Albert’s GIS inventory

Municipalities manage a large number of physical assets. Without a comprehensive inventory and condition assessment of secondary (orphaned) infrastructure, the City of St. Albert, located northwest of Edmonton, was experiencing unforeseen maintenance and replacement costs. The City asked Associated Engineering to locate and create an inventory of secondary infrastructure, determine the in-situ condition of the asset, and provide a summary of recommendations and estimated costs for improvements to restore an acceptable level of service.

Working with the City of St Albert’s core project team, we held a series of meetings and review sessions to determine the scope of secondary infrastructure to be incorporated into the City’s existing inventory -- a GIS database. Project Manager, Ryan Krausher, says, “These meetings helped to identify and prioritize the assets. Sixteen asset types were identified and divided into five main categories. Assets were then aligned for delegation of operation and maintenance to the appropriate City sub-department.”

Armed with Surface Pro tablets, field inspectors spent seven weeks to complete the inventory of secondary infrastructure. The largest challenge was finding the 16 asset types with unknown locations. GIS Technologist, Kent Richardson, tells us, “We traversed the city with a keen eye to locate, identify, and capture all of the required infrastructure.”

Each Surface Pro tablet was incorporated with an external Trimble PG-200 GPS antenna to increase the location accuracy of the geodetic coordinate that was assigned to each inventoried asset. Inspectors captured locations, pictures, and entered attributes for each feature.

Inspectors covered over 400 kilometres of roadways, trails,

and the Sturgeon River valley, including 554 hectares of designated city park space, in search of secondary infrastructure. Additional challenges for the inspectors included encroachments, covered features, or an inability to access the underside or rooftop of structures, such as gazebos or bridges. Other issues included heavy tree or building canopy which impacted GPS location. In these cases, inspectors noted issues in the database, and manually-entered assets and photos.

Once collected, asset information was viewable on a map, with pictures and attributes linked. The data is digital and instantly synchronized, with no post-survey data entry required. Kent says, “Mobile data collection can be customized to suit project needs, is high quality, and requires little-to-no additional processing. The software is intuitive and easy to use.”

Over 130 linear assets and almost 1,100 point assets were collected

Each asset was scored and prioritized based on its operating or residing condition, and the consequence of failure based on an objective judgment of the criteria, as agreed by the City. Condition assessment and prioritization involved a review of rehabilitation strategies, which included a variety of recommendations based on asset lifetime extension or adapting the feature design to allow for a longer service life and reduction in maintenance costs. To provide costs and recommendations for improvements, we individually assessed each inventoried asset. The final report detailed the project lifecycle, results, and recommendations.

Our key personnel on this project included Ryan Krausher, Kent Richardson, Stephanie Tilk, and Chris Schmelzle.

Inventory of secondary infrastructure helps City of St. Albert to improve forecast of maintenance and replacement costs

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Fast-tracked, design-build of Virginia Falls Dock Replacement meets Parks Canada requirements

View from above Virginia Falls

Virginia Falls is located along the South Nahanni River in the remote and pristine Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories. Nahanni National Park is a popular tourist destination accessible only by river or air. A float plane docking facility is located approximately 800 metres upstream of Virginia Falls and connects to a boardwalk system that provides access to a campground and a hiking trail. The floating dock and ramps are seasonally removed before freeze-up in the fall and re-installed in the spring after ice break-up.

Over the years, the ramp and boardwalk experienced foundation stability issues, as well as damage from seasonal installation and beaching activities, requiring annual maintenance and repair to the floating dock system. The costs of maintenance and short-term fixes were significant for Parks Canada, considering the required frequency for repairs and the remoteness of the site. Parks Canada needed a long-term replacement solution to these issues to continue facilitating access to Virginia Falls and the campground.

Parks Canada retained RTL Construction with Associated Engineering for a design-build project to replace the float plane dock facility, with Associated providing structural engineering and construction inspection services for the float plane dock replacements.

This fast-track project was awarded in July 2018, with detailed design performed within weeks. Shop fabrication was completed in August, and the dock was installed in September 2018. We worked closely with RTL and its subcontractors to meet the quick turnaround of deliverables during the three-week detailed design period.

As part of a fast-track design-build, Associated Engineering helped develop a replacement dock system including three light-weight removable docks and ramps connected to partially

buried anchor foundations. The facility includes floating dock modules with galvanized steel frames, lightweight aluminum gangway ramps, galvanized steel grillage foundations, and float chain anchorages. All dock and ramp units were designed to weigh less than 450 kilograms to allow for seasonal removal by helicopter.

Project Manager, Karine Poliquin, tells us, “Due to the remoteness of the site, during construction, all equipment and construction material were flown in by helicopter from Nahanni Butte, approximately 90 minute round trip. This posed limitations on the type and size of equipment and construction materials brought to site.” The largest piece of equipment flown in was a mini excavator weighing 1,000 kilograms.

Parts of the steel grillage frame were transported in small bundles, and then assembled on-site. During design, the team revised the original bid concept, from a welded grillage to a bolted assembly, to make transportation to site by helicopter feasible, and for ease of assembly with minimal equipment.

A further challenge arose when the site reconnaissance survey revealed insufficient suitable backfill material at one foundation in a low-lying area near the river. This foundation grillage required a redesign just weeks before mobilization, and suitable granular material was flown in by helicopter from a location seven kilometres away.

Karine says, “Despite the unseasonably cold conditions, construction was successfully completed ahead of schedule. Our design helped to optimize the helicopter transportation, which was a crucial, weather-dependent aspect of construction.”

Helicopter transports a bundle of grillage foundation pieces

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Congratulations to our 2018 Service Award recipients

5 YearsRahim AhmadLana AkishynaDebra ArscottCy BalitbitJames BetkeSuzie BizarroTeresa BornAaron BrotherstonIndira BudimlicPeter BurdyTonderai ChakanyukaSue De JesusDarryl DormuthJared FaberIan FarthingBruno FerreiraAl FitzgeraldDon GeorgeJoel GervaisBrandon GorrJacques GroenewaldKatrin HabelJessica HansenBevan HarltonBev HehrAshley HodgsonRob HoogendoornBlake HranacJoshua HubertRahul JairathJason KindrachukKeenan KitasakaChris LamontGlyn LaybournPeter LejcarNancy LiuStella MadsenAlex MatherWendy MaylorAmy McClintockKarin MellonDave MonaghanLindsay Mooradian-Sulkowski

Erica MthembuStephanie MurphyDuane NeufeldSteph NeyMike PawluskiAlyson PickettJanelle PoveyKaren PrezeljNicole PriestleyPamela Procyk (Lapesky)Karisa PurvisKent RichardsonRey RimandoSteve RobertsKeenan RudichukNicole SchererMichal SimhonRichard SimpsonTyrell StangReid StyrankoMichelle TarrantJosh TrimAbu WaraichRobin Wilkinson10 YearsPerihan CengizAndrew ChristopherChristian ConcolinoSimon CookJessica CoonsDaniel du ToitMichael GabosMark GuidingerThomas HummelLouie IbalioAmanda JaebKelvin KundertMelvin LacebalAndrea LaPlantePansy LauJenna LeeBen LeusinkPaul LopezMatthew Lozie

Caitlin LuoSiu Fung MaDiego MejiaStuart MillerMichael OwenMartin RowlandPaul ShiDaniel SnellAnn StephensonJames StobbsMichael TolboomStan TorgunrudKen TurnbullAna VarhaugMatthew WaltersDavid WooVictor YinKevin Yu15 YearsClaire ArnaultSang Hyun ChungScott FrielRonald GratzJasna HeinrichsAustin KanagasuriamColin MaddenArash MasboughPatrick MynettDarin SchindelBrenda Simon

Gene SobolewskiPaula SteelChad StreckerHans WolfRaymond Xu20 YearsGerrit AlderliestenMark BelangerDeny DesmaraisCandice GottsteinDuane StrayerEsther Vennard25 YearsDavid AndersonKai Ch’ngLance KubrakJames Nikolai30 YearsGarry DrachenbergChris Skowronski

James Nikolai

Esther Vennard Paula Steel

Associated congratulates these individuals who reached service milestones in 2018. Our service recognition program honours our staff’s contributions to our continued growth and company success.

Kai Ch’ng

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Blueberry River First Nation water system upgrades improve community drinking water quality, capacity, and reliabilty

Filtration system at Blueberry River FN Water Treatment Plant

The Blueberry River First Nation is a community of about 500, located approximately 90 kilometres north of Fort St. John in northeastern BC. The community has struggled with its water system for a number of years. Constructed in 1984, drinking water from the existing treatment plant does not meet current Health Canada’s Guidelines for drinking water quality. In addition, the community regularly faced water shortages, and had to expend significant time and money hauling water into the community.

The Blueberry River First Nation retained Associated Engineering to help determine measures to increase the quality and quantity of drinking water produced by the water treatment plant until a new water treatment plant could be designed and constructed. Our team worked closely with the community and Indigenous Services Canada to develop solutions, identifying measures to increase treatment plant capacity, improve the quality of the treated drinking water, and help the community to conserve drinking water.

To increase the capacity of the treatment plant, Associated Engineering and our wholly owned subsidiary company, ATAP Infrastructure Management, provided a short-term treatment solution, modifying the existing treatment process to reduce the amount of treated water used for backwashing (cleaning the treatment filters). ATAP staff also provided on-site support to the community’s operator, which has helped to optimize treatment operations.

The treatment process encompasses media fitration followed by ion exchange softeners, cartridge filters, and reverse osmosis filters to remove solids and chemicals from the raw water supply. Initially, both the existing media filters and ion exchange softeners were bypassed, eliminating the need for backwashing these systems, and thus saving water.

Project Manager, Freda Leong, tells us, “Taking the media

filters and softeners offline resulted in significant fouling of the cartridge filters ahead of the reverse osmosis filters, so we retrofitted the media filters with manganese greensand filters to decrease the solids loading on the cartridge filters.” A bypass was also installed to allow a portion of the water from the aeration tank to be blended with water from the reverse osmosis filters. A previously drilled groundwater well was completed and connected to the water system. These changes increased treatment plant output by approximately 30%.

At the same time, the team worked with the community to implement a water service and water metering program. Water Engineer, Robyn Sherstobitoff, says, “It had been noted that some straps on water service connections had corroded. This issue indicated the corrosive nature of soils in the area, and suggested that there could be significant leakage at water service connections.”

As part of the project, all of the water service connections in the community were replaced, and corrosion protection and water meters were added at each service connection. The water meters will be used to monitor water usage. Water usage metrics will be utilized to help inform the community about water conservation.

The team is now working on upgrading the reverse osmosis filters, which are old and no longer adequately remove constituents such as sodium, chloride, ammonia, total dissolved solids, and hardness. Freda explains, “Work is underway to provide water quality and control upgrades. The next step will be the design and construction of a new water treatment plant and dedicated transmission main to the reservoir.”

Our key personnel involved on the project include Freda Leong, Robyn Sherstobitoff, Grant Dixon, Nicholai Kristel, Mike Owen, and Kyle Shaw.

Booster pump and controls at water treatment plant

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In the previous issue of AE Today, we discussed what “climate”, “climate change”, and “climate variability” mean. In this edition, we will explore what is causing current climate change, and how this change could accelerate in the future.

What is causing current climate change?

Climate change (long-term change that underlies periodic climate variability such as El Nino) is caused by ‘climate forcings’ – processes that are largely independent of the climate system, but can nonetheless influence it in important ways. Today, we know from climate models and century-old physical understanding that the most important climate forcing today is human emissions of greenhouse gases. Conversely, we know that dominant present-day climate change trends are not caused by potential climate forcings such as:

• volcanoes, which tend to cool, not warm, the planet

• solar cycle variations or changes to earth’s orbit, which are too weak to cause current changes or

• cosmic ray impacts on clouds. There have been no trends in incoming cosmic ray changes, which have been too weak to impact climate.

How will climate change in the future?

Knowing that human carbon emissions are the dominant forcings of present-day climate change allows climate modelling groups to make projections of future climate trends, by ‘forcing’ global climate models (GCMs) with future emission scenarios. The range of climate conditions that GCMs produce in response to these scenarios indicates that, even given rapid global shifts to non-carbon energy sources, the climate will still warm significantly relative to the present day and stay at these elevated temperatures for hundreds of years. Conversely, if all available reserves of oil, gas and coal are mined and burned,

climate change will take the planet to levels of warming, extreme precipitation, sea level rise, and other changes that are unprecedented for at least tens of millions of years. This unprecedented change will persist for many tens of thousands of years, simply because once the system is ‘filled up’ with carbon it is very difficult to remove, by natural processes.

Do irreversible and dangerous climate thresholds exist?

Of great concern is the potential for dangerous climate thresholds that, once passed, cause highly damaging impacts. For example, coastal populations and infrastructure may have already been committed by past carbon emissions, to multiple metres of sea level rise over coming centuries. Dangerous thresholds are also likely to be surpassed within a generation under business as usual emissions, beyond which low-latitude populations are regularly exposed to lethal and persistent heatwaves. Thresholds may also exist, beyond which unprecedented drought risks to water supply in already-dry regions emerge. Ultimately, identifying these impactful thresholds and determining their likelihood is an urgent task that requires a combination of climate science, engineering, environmental and risk management expertise.

Next, we will discuss how to assess climate change at the local scale for practical climate risk assessment.

For more information, contact Dr. Jeremy Fyke at [email protected].

Climate Change Conversationsby Jeremy Fyke, Ph.D., Climate Science & Modelling Specialist

Jeff O’Driscoll, Chair of Associated Engineering’s Climate Change Discipline Interest Group, facilitates workshop held as part of the City of Surrey’s Coastal Flood Adaptation Strategy. The workshop’s 58 attendees included infrastruture asset owners, operators, and emergency responders representing 23 organizations. The workshop assessed vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure under current and future coastal flood scenarios, given climate change projections, and potential climate change adaptation measures.

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Inside the Combined Heat and Power engine room

ENMAX’s Downtown District Energy Centre in Calgary is a district heating plant which as been in operation since 2010. The Centre contains a series of large natural-gas-fired boilers generating hot water that provide heat to many buildings in Calgary’s downtown core and East Village. The hot water is pumped through a buried, welded steel, insulated piped distribution system. Heat exchangers transfer energy from the hot water to the building heating systems, thus replacing the need for boilers or heat generating equipment in each building.

In 2014, ENMAX approved a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system to expand their diversified electricity generation capacity and increase revenue from the Centre, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The CHP system burns natural gas in a large reciprocating engine to generate electricity. Heat from the engine cooling jacket and exhaust gases is recovered to reduce boiler operation at the Centre. The system generates 3.3 megawatts of electricity and 3.0 megawatts of thermal energy with an overall efficiency of 85%.

ENMAX engaged Associated Engineering to complete a design basis memorandum and detailed design, and provide construction and commissioning services for the CHP system. Project Manager, Aled Jones, tells us, “There were several challenges to integrating the CHP system with the existing facility. The physical space available was very tight to fit in the engine. Engineering many system components into an operating facility without any plant downtime, beyond one regularly scheduled outage, was also very challenging.”

The logistics and timing of lifting the engine into the building over the CP Rail train tracks had to be closely engineered and planned. Bringing the 25 kilovolt transformer into the second

floor, high voltage room, through a wall, also required an engineered lift.

For the Centre, a package CHP solution was impossible due to space and integration restrictions. Mechanical and Project Engineer, Aaron McCartie, says, “As a result, we designed a custom CHP system based on loose shipped components from the supplier.”

Another major design hurdle was ensuring the CHP heat recovery system worked seamlessly with the boilers, boiler economizers, and District Energy distribution temperatures and flow rates. Custom, upgraded heat exchangers were specified for the CHP package to best match the heat recovery temperatures to the Centre’s existing operations.

The CHP engine carries the entire District Energy System summer load (baseload) from approximately May through September. Following commissioning in May 2018, the Centre plant boilers were able to shut-down completely, while the CHP system was running.

Currently, approximately 45% of Alberta electricity is generated from coal. By shifting from coal to natural gas, the CHP system reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The facility also increases the efficiency of energy generation from approximately 35%-40% to 85% by recovering the majority of generated heat.

Facility will displace approximately 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year

Key personnel on this project included Aled Jones, Aaron McCartie, Joe Lisella, Elizabeth Wollbaum, Scott Witzke, and Sean Bolongaro.

ENMAX Downtown District Energy Centre’s Combined Heat and Power system reduces Calgary’s GHG emissions

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Building Communities

Mitch Lejeune reaches century mark for blood donationsCongratulations to Mitch Lejeune in our Edmonton office who donated blood for the 100th time this year! Mitch has donated blood for the past 30 years. He also volunteers with Canadian Blood Services Partners for Life to organize a bus to take staff to donate blood.

(l to r) Morris Liu (City of Calgary); Shane Thompson (AE, Regional Water Group Manager); James Stone (City of Calgary); Daniel du Toit (AE Senior Project Manager)

$10,000 raised in Calgary for Water for PeopleAssociated Engineering sponsored the dinner at the second annual Water for People Golf Tournament in Calgary. Several staff volunteered at the event, including Anne Bridgman, a Process Engineer in our Calgary office, who served on the organizing committee.

Markham staff raise money for sick kidsStaff from our Markham office competed in a co-ed competitive 6’s Beach Volleyball Tournament in support of the SickKids Foundation.

United Way campaign raises $60,851Associated staff from across our offices helped to plan and deliver a variety of fundraising activities to raise money for the United Way, a non-profit organization that helps to improve people’s lives in our local communities. In 2018, our staff generously gave $60,851, including corporate contributions from each of our operations. Thank you to

everyone who helped support this important cause aiding to build strong and healthy communities across Canada!

Fundraising for BC Cancer Pancreatic Cancer CentreFour riders from our Vancouver office teamed up to join the 11th Annual Cypress Challenge in support of pancreatic cancer research. This year, 700 cyclists raised $441,068 for the BC Cancer Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Centre. Since 2008, the Cypress Challenge has raised over $2.5 million.

Associated supports local charities during the holidays

Associated Engineering is proud to support local charities this holiday season to build better communities. This year, we contributed to the Edmonton Food Bank, Santa’s Anonymous in Edmonton, Zebra Child Protection Centre in Edmonton, Salvation Army - Christmas Hampers in Calgary, CFAX Santa’s Anonymous Society in Victoria, Vernon Family Resource Centre, Covenant House in Vancouver, the Kelowna Food Bank, Hospitals of Regina - Mother/Baby Unit, Saskatoon Habitat for Humanity, the Prince Albert SPCA, Winnipeg Harvest, Emily’s House in Toronto, and Wise Guys Charities in the Niagara Region.

(l to r) Robert Martinez, Arash Masbough, Alex Jancker, and Leslie Mihalik at the starting line of the Cypress Challenge

Staff from Vernon office support United Way Festival of Trees fundraising event

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Employee News

Steven Schwartz, P.Tech.(Eng.), P.L. (Eng.) has returned to Associated as Manager of our Medicine Hat office. He has over 20 years of multi-discipline infrastructure experience including civil structures and facilities, water and wastewater treatment, and bridge construction and rehabilitation.

Congratulations to Katrin Habel, Manager, Bridge Rehabilitation in our Vancouver office, who was an invited speaker on ultra-high performance fibre-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) applications at the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) 2018 Symposium in Nantes, France.

Stefan Johansson, BLA, MLA, AALA, CSLA has joined our Edmonton office as a Senior Landscape Architect. He has almost 30 years of experience in the design of small public realms and plazas and master planning of neighbourhoods, active transportation, and transit corridor improvements.

Congratulations to Jeff O’Driscoll, Division Manager, Infrastructure in our Winnipeg office, on receiving American Water Works Association (AWWA)’s 2019 George Warren Fuller Award for his distinguished service to the water industry. Jeff has been an active volunteer with Western Canada Water, serving as President in 2015.

Sean Nicoll, P.Eng. has been appointed Regional Client Service Manager in our new Grande Prairie office. He is an Infrastructure Engineer with 17 years of experience in snow storage sites, waste management, landfill operation planning and design, and marina concept development.

Andrew Moreton, C.Eng., MICE has joined our Toronto office as Manager, Infrastructure. Andrew has 27 years of experience in the water industry on linear and vertical projects in both design and project management roles.

Suzanne Boyd, P.Eng., LEED AP has joined our Toronto office as Manager, Water Resource Recovery. She has 15 years of experience in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of water and wastewater facilities, focussing on sustainable design.

Monique Beaudry (Kealey), P.Eng., RPP, MCIP has transferred from Regina to our Vancouver office. She is a Senior Transportation Planning Engineer with 30 years of experience in transportation planning, traffic engineering, urban planning, and public consultation.

Ward Van Proosdij, M.Sc., Ing. has joined our Vernon office as a Senior Hydrogeologist. He has more than 20 years of experience in water engineering, contaminated sites assessment and remediation, environmental project management, and stakeholder engagement.

Gerrit Velema, M.Sc., R.P.Bio. has joined our Vancouver office as a Fisheries Biologist. He has 13 years of experience specializing in environmental assessment and management, effects monitoring, fisheries and aquatic biology, and marine science.

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Technical expertise and creative solutions help deliver bridge and culvert inspections in remote regions of Ontario

Inspection conducted with hovercraft equipped with a camera

The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario is mandated to inspect their structures once every two years. As part of their inspection program, the Ministry retained Associated Engineering to conduct bridge and culvert inspections on their inventory in the northwest region of the province.

Associated Engineering will carry out 150 inspections per year as part of a four-year bridge inspection program. The project is unique as most of the locations in northern Ontario are remote and no lodging or restaurants are located near the inspection sites.

Our team devised a strategy that involved a towable camper to serve as accommodations. Our GIS specialist, Caner Akin, overlaid the bridge locations and Provincial Parks and Campgrounds onto a mapping tool to minimize travel time and optimize our project schedule for the field inspections.

Project Manager, Christian Concolino, tells us, “Each day of inspection was mapped out and the information was accessible on smart phones to show our daily plan. The Ministry was also able to log onto the mapping system to check progress and keep their road operations managers up-to-date on our location each day.”

The inspection team travelled to each site, inspected the bridge and reported in the format established in the Ontario Structure Inspection Manual (OSIM), which is used to develop work programs. Overall condition indices are calculated based on element conditions of each component.

Fifteen bridges were selected in 2018 to be inspected by a

Bridge Master team and provide a close proximity, enhanced inspection report. These bridges had a separate layer on the GIS system and allowed all parties involved to schedule their work around the inspections. CN Rail, CP Rail, Almon Brothers Bridge Master, the Ministry, and Associated Engineering were all involved in these enhanced OSIM inspections.

The Ministry had identified that several of their cuvlerts were not seen in previous inspections due to access limitations, primarily, high water levels. Christian tells us, “With Pierre Burton’s ingenuity, we developed an innovative strategy for inspecting culverts.” Structural Engineer, Pierre Burton built an inspection hovercraft capable of safely entering culverts with high water levels. The hovercraft was equipped with a Go-Pro camera mounted on a remote-controlled swivel head capable of rotating 360 degrees. This gave our inspection team a full view of all bridges and culverts and, therefore, an accurate assessment of each of the structures.

Remote-controlled hovercraft with Go-Pro camera facilitated safe inspection of culverts

The Ministry has also developed a new Bridge Management Software (BMS). We were amongst the first consultants to use this system on a project. The data can be entered in the field with a connection to the internet via a laptop or any mobile device. Our key staff involved on this project and site inspections included Christian Concolino, Mark Torrie, Pierre Burton, Caelin Markarian, Stuart Ainslie, Dan MacDonald-Lockhart, Max Wallen, Caner Akin, and Scott Barbacki.