June 3, 2009

BLACKWELL BOWICK PARTNERSHIP LTD

Student workers install part of the roof structure of the Madoc Performing Arts Centre, which won an award of excellence from the Consulting Engineers of Ontario.

Industry Recognition

Awards salute consulting engineering excellence

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Golder Associates Ltd. has won this year’s prestigious Willis Chipman Award for its role on the Red Hill Valley Parkway in Hamilton.

The project involved Ontario’s first municipal use of perpetual pavement.

The firm, which conducted the feasibility study on the 7.5-kilometre long expressway, provided the detailed pavement design including project specifications, asphalt quality assurance testing and materials consulting.

Golder also looked after the design and installation of pavement instrumentation for monitoring traffic and long-term pavement performance on the parkway, located along the Red Hill Valley Creek.

The parkway officially opened in early November, 2007 after four years of construction.

The Willis Chipman Award is the highest distinction in Ontario’s consulting engineering community.

Presented by Consulting Engineers of Ontario, the annual award recognizes the project that best demonstrates the valuable contribution that consulting engineers make to the social, economic and environmental quality of life in Ontario.

It was one of ten awards handed out last night at a banquet in Ottawa by CEO, which represents more than 240 engineering firms from across Ontario and is the recognized voice of consulting engineering in the province.

Both awards of excellence and of merit were presented.

Award of Excellence winners were:
Firm with 1 to 25 Employees: Tenova Goodfellow Inc. Achieving “dynamic” electric arc furnace control at TenarisDalmine, Italy using Goodfellow EFSOP® technology.

Harmonization of the operation of furnace equipment resulted in more than $1.5 million in energy savings per annum. Client/Owner: TenarisDalmine.

MTE CONSULTANTS INC.

A reconstruction and environmental remediation project for the City of Kitchener, including dealing with coal tar contamination, won an award for MTE Consultants Inc.

• Firm with 26 to 100 Employees: Blackwell Bowick Partnership Ltd. The Madoc Performing Arts Centre. Structural solutions include many Canadian firsts such as cement-lime plastered straw bale walls and columns, compressed earth bag foundations, lime hemp foundations; shallow frost-protected rubble trench foundations and locally sourced timber framing with wood-peg joinery. Supported by testing programs at Queen’s University and on-site load tests, this project represents a significant advance in structural natural building technologies in Canada and serves as a best practice example for southern Ontario. The building was built by the Sir Sanford Fleming College sustainable building class, who will also introduce these technologies into Canadian construction. Client/Owner: Sir Sanford Fleming College.
•Firm with 101+ Employees: MTE Consultants Inc. Reconstruction and environmental remediation at Joseph and Gaukel streets. MTE was retained by the city of Kitchener to provide consulting services for replacement of municipal services, road reconstruction, environmental remediation of extensive coal tar contamination and development of a new park grand entrance feature. All this was completed within the heart of the downtown core. Client/Owner: city of Kitchener.
Award of Merit winners were:
•Building Science and Engineering Award: Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. 20 Gothic Avenue condominiums. An eight-storey, 175-unit condominium spanning the Toronto Transit Commission tunnel at High Park station provided significant structural challenges. Read Jones Christoffersen designed the superstructure with a deep beam transfer structure to span the subway tunnel and support the building structure. The parking structure and superstructure are isolated from the vibration of the subway trains by heavy rubber bearing pads. Client/Owner: Monarch Construction.
•Environment Award: Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd. Gaining real-time control of surface water and treatment. The firm was retained to lead the engineering design of a water management system to improve environmental performance at a large, 100-year-old integrated mining complex in greater Sudbury. This “unprecedented” Canadian mining collect-and-treat project resulted in enhancing public safety and protecting the environment while lowering life-cycle costs. Client/Owner: Vale Inco Ltd. (formerly Inco Ltd.)
•Industry, Energy and Resources Award: TWD Technologies Ltd. Green energy getting greener. TWD was retained by Sanimax to optimize its existing biodiesel facility in De Forest, Wis. The project required development of complex biodiesel reaction chemistry simulation in order to optimize process operating parameters. Specific equipment was then designed to achieve the optimized parameters. As a result of increased biodiesel production and new efficiencies in the process, the facility now provides a cost-effective and profitable source of “renewable” fuel. Client/Owner: Sanimax.
•Project Management Award: WorleyParsons Canada Ltd.-M&M Toronto Division. Mufulira smelter upgrade Phase II-Fire refining & casting. Engineering, procurement and construction management services were provided for a new plant at Mopani Copper Mines’ Mufulira copper smelter in Zambia. The project includes two anode furnaces, twin casting wheels, anode handling facility, off-gas handling systems, electrical substation, compressor building, utilities/piping and all facilities/structures required for a complete and operational plant. Client/Owner: Mopani Copper Mines Plc.
•Studies & Research Award: Hatch with MOBEC Engineering. Development of a national dam safety standard for Parks Canada. The two firms carried out a comprehensive review of the current practice of dam safety in Canada and around the world. From this review, a new national dam safety standard was established. The standard features an innovative approach that allows for simple, but effective, implementation of a state-of-the-art dam safety management system. Client/Owner: Parks Canada Agency.
•Transportation Award: Delcan Corporation. iMove®, Metro Vancouver’s new integrated, multi-modal web portal for travellers’ information. A first of its kind in Canada, the portal enables people to quickly access such data as transit and cycling routes, construction and event information, airline arrivals and departures, border crossing wait times, ferry sailing time and loadings, all from a single source. Client/Owner: South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority (TransLink).

Project submissions were judged by a panel of professional engineers representing client groups, professional associations and universities who are not currently engaged in consulting practice.

GOLDER ASSOCIATES LTD.

Golder Associates Ltd. won the Willis Chapman award for its work on Hamilton’s Red Hill Valley Parkway, which made use of perpetual pavement.

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