November 5, 2009

2009 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards

Buckland and Taylor Ltd. won an award in the transportation category for the R. Bennett Bridge in Kelowna, B.C., which is the only floating bridge in Canada.

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‘Ingenious’ earth science application puts Tower Engineering on top

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

The South Interlake Recreation Centre in Warren, Man. has netted Winnipeg’s Tower Engineering Group Ltd. Partnership top marks for technical innovation in the 2009 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards.

The centre’s “ingenious” engineering combines innovative technologies in the earth sciences (heating and freezing of the ground), building structure, HVAC and refrigeration fields to achieve outstanding energy savings.

“The building has already proved that it uses less than half the energy of a conventional ice arena,” the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies and Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine said in a release.

The Schreyer Award was one of a dozen handed out at a gala dinner Tuesday night in Ottawa.

A second special award, the Tree for Life Award, was given for outstanding environmental stewardship to AMEC Earth & Environmental of Winnipeg for in-situ bio-remedial technologies.

To treat ground contamination on a Federated Co-operatives Ltd. agricultural and petroleum site in Gladstone, Manitoba, AMEC developed “breakthrough” methods that are also cost-effective.

“They used one of the contaminants, nitrates, to treat the second, hydrocarbons, and in doing so reduced both by up to 98 per cent.”

In addition, 10 Awards of Excellence were presented in five categories.

In the buildings category, winners were:

• Ècole de technologie supérieure, phase III university residence building, Montreal, Bouthillette Parizeau and Teknika HBA. The firms combined under one roof two distinct types of facilities, university residences built atop a grocery store. Geothermal energy, a wealth of other energy-efficient measures and European “BubbleDeck” technology were incorporated in the project.

• ROM, Centre de recherche sur les grains, Saint-Mathieu-de-Beloeil, Quebec, DESSAU. Geothermal and solar energy as well as heat recovery were combined to create a highly energy-efficient building for the Grain Research Centre.

• Wal-Mart, Burlington by Stantec Consulting. The project features the first application of geothermal technology in a large-scale Canadian retail space. A closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling system uses 15 kilometres of subsurface piping. The Burlington store will consume 57 per cent less energy than a typical Wal-Mart store.

• Vancouver Convention Centre expansion with Glotman Simpson Consulting Engineers. The building incorporates a 180-foot clear roof span over the upper floor ballroom space that also includes a green roof system. Mammoth multi-storey steel trusses create “inspiring” building volumes.

In the transportation category, the winner was William R. Bennett Bridge, Kelowna, B.C. by Buckland & Taylor Ltd. The only floating bridge in Canada, the bridge has floating and fixed sections with a complex structural interaction. It was connected to an existing bridge during construction.

In the water resources category, winners were:

• Eagle Lake membrane filtration facility, West Vancouver, Dayton & Knight Ltd. The newly constructed water treatment system provides potable water exceeding Canadian guidelines, while minimizing chemical additions. Environmental sustainability and energy efficiency were incorporated into the design, construction and operation of the facility.

• E.L. Smith water treatment plant upgrade, Edmonton, Associated Engineering. The project incorporates innovative and sustainable adaptations of existing technologies to expand the plant’s capacity while advancing state-of-the-art water treatment plant design.

In the natural resources, energy category, winners were:

• Irving renewable energy project for Cavendish Farms, New Annan, Prince Edward Island, Stantec Consulting. The biogas generation facility uses potato waste as its fuel source.

• Locks 1 and 2, small hydro on Welland Canal, Niagara Falls, Ontario, by Hatch. The project involved the design of two water power facilities within the locks of the historic canal, converting previously spilled water into green, renewable energy.

In the studies and special projects category, the winner was low-temperature district energy-sharing system, Whistler, B.C. by Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd. & DEC Design Mechanical Consultants Ltd. The system extracts heat from treated sewage effluent and circulates it via water in a two-pipe, closed-loop system.

The extraction of low-temperature ambient heat enables the system to provide both heating and cooling for the athletes’ village. The winning projects were selected from 60 submissions from across Canada by a jury of professional engineers from business, government and academia.

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