ISSUE #2 • 2018

FEATURED ARTICLES:Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road | 5 Lethbridge Bike Boulevard | 7 Climate Change Adaptation | 8

City of St. Albert’s Riel Recreation Park redevelopment transforms a local jewel into a regional recreation hub

Aerial view of Riel Park

Riel Park in the City of St. Albert, north of Edmonton, is a multi-purpose regional recreation facility. Its large Rodeo Grounds hosts the Annual Rainmaker Rodeo, along with midway rides, dog shows, parade and concert performances. New fields are home to the St. Albert Rugby Football Association and St. Albert Soccer Association. Riel Park also features a modern BMX Track and full service RV Park.

The development of Riel Park is a shining example of municipal reclamation and revitalization. In the 1950s, the area occupied by Riel Park was a landfill for dry wastes. In the 1960s and 1970s, several lagoons were built to provide wastewater treatment. From the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, the area was used again as a landfill for dry waste. Finally, in the 1980’s, the landfill was decommissioned. The city decided to redevelop the site as a park in the 1980s and 1990s.

In response to public concerns regarding the recreational use of a former landfill site, environmental monitoring of the site commenced in the 1990s. As part of the investigation process, the city developed a Landfill Environmental Management Plan. One of the recommendations in the Plan was to provide an appropriate (clay) cap over the entire landfill area to eliminate surface water from migrating into the landfill and reduce the potential for any leachate to be generated by the site.

The city realized that placing a clay cap over the entire park surface would have severe impacts on all park amenities. To minimize impacts on the community groups and to address the potential park redevelopment opportunities, the city produced the “The Riel Recreation Park Master Redevelopment Plan”. This document provided the vision for the park, defining the programming and uses.

Staged construction balanced cash-flow and provided amenities at the end of each stage

Associated has provided planning and engineering services for the Riel Park Redevelopment for the past ten years. Project Manager, Owen Mierke, tells us, “We worked with the city to develop a staged construction approach, which helped the city to manage budget and cash-flow for this large recreational development project, while providing the community with recreational amenities at the end of each stage.”

In addition to the rodeo grounds, sports fields, BMX Track, and RV Park, the 30 hectare park features a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose artificial turf field, grandstands, picnic and BBQ areas, walking trails, connection to the Lois Hole Provincial Park, and a restored wetland.

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IN THIS ISSUE1 City of St. Albert’s Riel Recreation Park

redevelopment transforms a local jewel into a regional recreation hub

2 ACSA honours Allison Lougheed Mumo with Health & Safety Administrator Award

City of Calgary’s Asset Management Plan receives CNAM Tereo Award

3 Three new Vice Presidents appointed in BC, SK, and ON

Vancouver hosts open house at Renfrew Centre

Little Learners Academy receives Passive House certification

4 ViewPoints - Health and Safety are COR to our business

5 Providing a safe journey along the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road though an effective ice monitoring program

6 Staff Profile: Jermyn Wong

7 Southern Alberta’s first bike boulevard provides a viable and safe travel route through the City of Lethbridge

8 Climate change adaptation in urban drainage engineering

9 Hauled Wastewater Receiving Station meets business goals

10 Building Communities

11 Employee News

12 Future 40th Avenue interchange over Highway 2 will improve traffic flow and reduce congestion in the City of Airdrie

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ACSA honours Allison Lougheed Mumo with Health & Safety Administrator Award

Allison (r) with ACSA Executive Director, Dan MacLennan

The Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) hosted its annual awards honouring outstanding achievements of individuals and companies from Alberta’s construction industry. Allison Lougheed Mumo of our Edmonton office received the Health and Safety Administrator of the Year Award, which recognizes safety professionals who have worked to build their safety career in industry through practical experience, management of safety projects and initiatives, and extracurricular activities. Congratulations, Allison!

City of Calgary’s Asset Management Plan receives CNAM Tereo Award

Owen James (l) and Henry Fang (City of Calgary) accept award

On May 17, the Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) recognized The City of Calgary and Associated Engineering for developing Calgary’s new Corporate Asset Management Plan and instituting business improvements in asset planning. Since 2015, our Calgary-based asset management team, led by Owen James and including Judy Yu and Graham Lang, has worked closely with The City of Calgary to facilitate development of its Corporate Asset Management Plan. Individual asset management plans were developed for 12 asset-owning business units, including transit, roads, transportation planning, water, waste and recycling, parks, and facilities. Upon completing the individual plans, the project team consolidated them into a Corporate Asset Management Plan. This Corporate Asset Management Plan describes investment needs across the organization, and considers climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Corporate Asset Management Plan will help drive The City’s new business plan, OneCalgary.

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Vancouver hosts open house at Renfrew Centre

Three new Vice Presidents appointed in BC, SK, and ON

(L to R): Matthew Eades, Brent Phillips, and Paul Pinder

Martin Jobke, President, is pleased to announce the appointments of current General Managers, Matthew Eades (Ontario), Brent Phillips (Associated Environmental Consultants), and Paul Pinder (Saskatchewan and Manitoba) to Vice Presidents. Their new titles will be Vice President & General Manager.

Congratulations, Matt, Brent, and Paul!

Little Learners Academy receives Passive House certification

The Little Learners Academy, located on Okanagan College’s Penticton campus, is one of Canada’s most energy efficient daycares. The facility is the first institutional Passive House certified building, an honour that was bestowed at the NetPositive Symposium hosted by Passive House Canada.

Associated Engineering served as the electrical subconsultant on the 410 square metre, single story, child care centre. Electrical Engineer, Lauren Vale, tells us, “The building features all LED fixtures with occupancy sensors and daylight harvesting. In order to monitor and determine the impact of

Passive House on the power consumption, the loads were broken up into three panels, each with their own power meter; mechanical, lighting and small power (receptacles).”

Associated Engineering also participated in the design of Okanagan College’s Jim Pattison Centre of Excellence at the Penticton campus, completing the design of its geothermal system. This project received Canadian Consulting Engineering’s Tree for Life Award for its commitment to the environment.

(L to R): Kerry Rudd (CEO), Martin Jobke (President), and Leslie Mihalik (General Manager, BC operation) welcomed clients, partners, and friends to our new LEED Gold, Vancouver office, and presided over the cake cutting

Rear exterior featuring the outdoor playground (photo credit: Jon Adrian)

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ViewPoints - Health and Safety are COR to our businessby Matthew Eades, C.Eng., M.I.C.E., Vice President & General Manager, Ontario

(l to r) Cian McDermott, Matthew Eades & Dave Monaghan

People often say that we are products of our environment, upbringing and experiences; they shape who we are and how we view life. I have had the misfortune of being affected personally and professionally by tragic events that have influenced my perspective on health and safety. These include the death of my father in an industrial accident when I was 18, the death of a concrete worker at a pumping station project in the UK on which I was the Project Manager, and the death of a pipe layer at a large transmission watermain project in Canada. These experiences have made me sensitive to how quickly accidents can happen and how tragic the consequences can be. They have also reinforced the importance of safety planning and documentation on every project.

The Poem, I Chose to Look the Other Way by Don Merrell, is a poignant reminder on the importance of speaking up for safety.

I could have saved a life that day, But I chose to look the other way. It wasn’t that I didn’t care, I had the time, and I was there. But I didn’t want to seem a fool, or argue over a safety rule. I knew he’d done the job before, If I spoke up, he might get sore. The chances didn’t seem that bad, I’d done the same, He knew I had. So, I shook my head and walked on by, He knew the risks as well as I. He took the chance, I closed an eye, and with that act, I let him die. I could have saved a life that day, But I chose to look the other way. Now every time I see his wife, I’ll know, I should have saved his life. That guilt is something I must bear, but it isn’t something you need share. If you see a risk that others take, that puts their health or life at stake. The question asked, or thing you say, could help them live another day. If you see a risk and walk away, then hope you never have to say, I could have saved a life that day, But I chose, to look the other way.

In the UK, health and safety in construction have been a major topic of discussion since the late 1990s. In 1994, the Construction Design and Management regulations came into force, and introduced new positions such as the Planning

Supervisor. The Planning Supervisor is responsible for coordinating health and safety during the design, construction, commissioning, and demolition of projects. I was trained to undertake this role, and, later in my career, I managed a group of Planning Supervisors advising and fulfilling this role for clients.

In my roles overseeing health and safety I have learned that, in the aftermath of any accident, the burden of proof is opposite to what we believe to be a principle in the legal context. In an accident, you are perceived to be guilty until you prove your innocence. The response from Safety Inspectors is, if it is not documented it is hard to believe it is true. This is an important factor to consider.

Our perspective should also be influenced by our obligations. As professionals we have an obligation to the public, and as supervisors and workers we have obligations under the Health and Safety Acts in our province.

The question that should be asked is, “Have we done everything reasonable to prevent an accident from occurring?” This means applying the same time, effort, money, and resources to health and safety as we do to planning, designing, and managing our services.

Health and safety is about risk management which, as engineers, we assess as part of our work on a daily basis. We should look at it through the same lens, and it should be part of our normal way of work and life.

Implementing COR (Certificate of Recognition) as a company and formalising our processes (Internal Responsibility System), so that they are auditable by a third party, are forms of quality assurance. We should all look to raise awareness, put in appropriate controls where applicable, be disciplined, and review our plans and learn lessons. It is too easy to become complacent, but accidents can happen and they do happen; and it has, for me, had devastating consequences.

We all need to CARE – Be Considerate, Accountable, Responsible, and Expect. AND NOT LOOK THE OTHER WAY.

About the Author:

Matthew Eades has 25 years of consulting, engineering, and project management experience encompassing municipal infrastructure, water and wastewater plants, institutional facilities, buildings and transit. He has participated on projects in Canada and the UK. As Vice President & General Manager of our Ontario operation, Matt is currently leading our COR certification in Ontario.

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Providing a safe journey along the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road though an effective ice monitoring program

The Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road in the Northwest Territories is the world’s longest heavy-haul winter road, and serves three northern diamond mines, including Diavik Diamond Mine, the Domionion Diamond Ekati Mine, and the DeBeers Gahcho Kue Diamond Mine.

For the past six years, Associated’s subsidiary, NOR•EX Engineering, has provided consulting services for design of the winter road, as well as quality assurance and environmental and safety program management. Our ice engineering specialists conduct independent assessment of ice integrity and ice thickness throughout the hauling season. NOR•EX also monitors and reports seasonal weather fluctuations and compares results to previous winters. This knowledge of current and historical weather conditions assists in developing contingency plans for construction and maintenance.

Project Manager, Tim Tattrie, tells us, “Over 85% of the entire winter road’s total length is across lakes. A significant risk to the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road Joint Venture hauling operation is the degradation of ice thickness and integrity of the ice cover along the road.”

During the annual winter road season, NOR•EX and contracted road maintenance crews monitor the ice sheet for growth and deterioration. With approximately 9000 truckloads transporting 300,000 tonnes of supplies over the winter road in a hauling season, the ice sheet endures both man-made and natural stresses. Heavy trucks cause the ice sheet to deflect and bend. Regional climatic conditions and temperature fluctuations can cause pressure ridges, cracking, and other hazards throughout the ice sheet. In areas of shallow water and rocky bottoms, threat of ice deterioration by ‘washing’ is a concern. Washing is a natural effect caused by water being displaced under the ice sheet, caused by the vertical deflection of the ice cover. This continual movement of water has a

deteriorating effect on the overall ice thickness.

Road builders try to avoid shallow areas during the construction process; however, this is not always possible. The deterioration of the ice sheet at shallow areas can affect both operator safety and the annual hauling operations. The NOR•EX project team has been conducting field tests to better understand the magnitude and impacts of ice deflection, and has also evaluated options for reducing or eliminating the effects of washing. Tim says, “We have developed a solution to stabilize the ice sheet deflection in known, high-risk areas. Our team designed and installed ‘ice piers’ in areas of concern. The piers sit on the lake bottom, and provide a matrix, throughout which ice forms. The piers have been shown to eliminate washing and vertical ice deflection.”

Ice piers stabilize winter roads in shallow areas

The first set of ice piers were installed in the Fall of 2016, prior to the season freeze-up. Al Fitzgerald, National Practice Leader for Ice Engineering, says, “Due to the overwhelming success of the pilot ice piers, in 2017 we installed additional piers in two other problem areas. During the 2018 winter road season, all sites performed very well in eliminating the detrimental effects of washing. This success increases the mission assurance of the project, and eliminates the requirement for extensive repairs, as well as the cost of additional construction for bypass routes.”

The Winter Road Joint Venture is continuing to implement this solution at additional sites along the road, and will be installing piers in two supplementary locations in August 2018. Al advises, “The ice piers are expected to mitigate the negative impacts of severe weather fluctuations, by providing improved resilience to a major cause of winter road ice degradation.”

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Jermyn (centre) at the Clayton Reservoir in Surrey, BC

Building Structures Specialist, Jermyn Wong is passionate about sustainable and innovative building design, an enthusiasm inspired by his older brother. Jermyn tells us, “My brother is an architect. When I was younger, he would show me images of architecturally distinctive buildings, and take me on tours of buildings designed by renowned architects. This influenced my fascination with structures and the decision to become an engineer.” Jermyn’s love of structures and aptitude for applied math led to a civil engineering degree at UBC, followed by a Masters degree in structural engineering.

Jermyn acknowledges his supervisors who were key technical mentors during his junior years. During this time, he completed numerous complex projects as structural project engineer, taking on greater responsibility with each project. Some of his project highlights include the award-winning Trout Lake Arena and Community Centre in Vancouver, the VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitors Centre, and the SAIT Atrium Skylight Structure in Calgary. He tells us, “The Trout Lake projects were particularly notable because I was, essentially, the Lead Project Engineer from start to finish. I learned how to handle pressure and gained a stronger understanding of constructability considerations during design.”

Since joining Associated Engineering in 2011, Jermyn has enjoyed working on multi-discipline projects, which provide a variety of challenges and the opportunity to work collaboratively with colleagues from other disciplines. Jermyn says, “The most important things are to communicate frequently, be open and collaborative, and respect and help each other. Collaboration creates powerful synergies, resulting in a practical, cost-effective, and well-integrated solution that meets the needs of all parties.”

Jermyn is based in our Vancouver office’s Buildings &

Facilities Group. The team is involved in projects ranging from municipal infrastructure, such as pump stations and reservoirs, to industrial facilities, residential/commercial/institutional buildings, and iconic architectural projects. He says, “I’m excited about the opportunity to work on interesting and challenging projects. We embrace the use of innovative and unique materials, and consider climate change mitigation and adaptation on every project. We also develop solutions in emerging areas, such as high-performance and net zero buildings.”

With Associated, Jermyn has served on the Owner’s Engineering team on the award-winning Wood Innovation Design Centre in Prince George, the tallest wood building in North America when it was completed. He was the Project Engineer on the award-winning Barnston Pump Station, which involved design of an intricate structural system. As Structural Lead on the award-winning Kinsmen Park Train Station in Saskatoon, Jermyn led the design of this architecturally exposed, cross-laminated timber structure. Recently, Jermyn led the structural design of Heron Hall, a custom residence built to Living Building standards. The project featured innovative materials such as engineered rammed earth and prefabricated wood structural insulated panels to reduce its carbon footprint and enhance the envelope performance.

A Designated Structural Engineer with EGBC, Jermyn is currently the Lead on the SFU Passivhaus, a project comprising 90 affordable rental apartment units. It will be one of the largest Passive House residential projects in Canada. He presented a paper at the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) in 2017 on some of the innovative solutions for addressing wood shrinkage/differential movements, and minimizing thermal bridging.

Outside of work, Jermyn enjoys travelling and spending time with his young family. He recently picked up playing volleyball, and is active at his church as a pianist and choir conductor. He sings and performs on a chamber choir with the Vancouver Oratorio Society. Jermyn also makes time to volunteer with Engineers and Geoscientists BC as a Registration Interviewer for structural engineering applicants.

Jermyn Wong pursues his passion for turning ideas into reality through innovation and sustainable building design

Jermyn presenting at IABSE

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Southern Alberta’s first bike boulevard provides a viable and safe travel route through the City of Lethbridge

As people become more conscious of the need to create vibrant, sustainable and healthy communities, many large Canadian cities have designed and built cycling facilities. The City of Lethbridge has embraced active transportation, and retained Associated Engineering to provide detailed design, community engagement, and construction services for the City’s first bike boulevard on the beautiful and historic 7 Avenue S, from 4 Street S east to Mayor Magrath Drive, through the neighbourhoods of London Road and Victoria Park.

A bike boulevard is a roadway that still permits vehicular traffic, but has been modified to make cycling more comfortable and safer for cyclists. The modifications selected for the 7 Avenue S bike boulevard included the following:

• Removing all east-west stop signs so that cyclists could travel unimpeded. Stop or yield signs were placed on side street approaches.

• Implementing speed and volume management strategies on the east-west roadway. These strategies included eight compact roundabouts and a posted speed limit of 30 km/h to manage speed. Two diagonal diverters and a right-in / right-out at a major intersection at the boulevard’s mid-point manage the volumes.

• The diverters and the right-in / right-out effectively divided the 2.35 kilometre long roadway into four separate links of approximately 590 metres. At a diverter, eastbound and westbound vehicular traffic are required to turn south and north respectively. Similarly, northbound and southbound traffic are required to turn westbound and eastbound

respectively – except bikes. Bikes can continue through these intersections

• Installing the right-in / right-out and traffic signals at the mid-point to cross 13 Street S, a busy four-lane north-south arterial roadway where there was previously only stop control on 7 Avenue S

• Installing supporting paint markings and bike boulevard signage.

As this was the first project of its type for the City, to foster success, we worked closely with the client to address their concerns. Emergency vehicles had to be able to get over the directional diverter central medians, but regular-sized cars and trucks could not. In discussions with the Fire Department, several options were evaluated on site. This requirement was ultimately achieved using strategically spaced, flexible rubber bollards, a 100 millimetre curb face, and street signs.

Several community engagement activities were held; most residents were excited and supported the bike boulevard.

The new bike boulevard provides cyclists with a viable and safe route for east-west travel through the city. The west end of the corridor connects to the city’s regional pathway system, and the east end connects to a 4.8 kilometre north-south separated multi-use pathway along Mayor Magrath Drive, as well as Henderson Lake, the new swimming pool, Spitz Stadium, and the SLP Skatepark.

Project Manager, Chris Poirier, and Ahmed Ali, the City Transportation Planning Engineer, will make a presentation on the project at the TAC conference in Saskatoon in September.

City Mayor and hundreds of cyclists enjoy the new bike boulevard on opening day in May

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Flooding simulation in urban environment

Climate change is a reality and a risk that must be addressed to improve the resilience of our infrastructure. Changes to our climate will significantly affect the water cycle. They will have a substantial effect on the way we manage water resources and plan our future cities around both water shortages and hazards such as flooding and sea level rise. The predicted hydrological changes provide us with a unique opportunity to rethink the current state of our water management practices, otherwise known as, climate change adaptation.

Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study

A few years ago, the City of Surrey undertook a study to develop future Intensity Duration Frequency (IDF) rainfall curves based on local climate change projections. What they found was startling. Based on the detailed local assessment, Surrey can expect an increase of 68% to the peak rainfall intensity by the year 2080. In simpler terms, today’s 100-year storm could become the 2080 5-year design rainfall event.

As the design of their current urban drainage infrastructure network did not consider the impacts of climate change, the city realized there was an immediate need to reassess their systems. In 2016, Surrey engaged Associated Engineering to participate in a unique study to assess the impacts of these increased rainfall events on the existing drainage system and evaluate possible adaptation options. The City of Surrey selected three case study areas to represent the broader drainage and land-use conditions in the urban parts of the community. We then built a detailed hydraulic model, as well as a flood damage model for estimating economic losses, for each of the three study areas.

Modelling Challenges

Traditionally, stormwater models consist solely of the

underground drainage infrastructure, or minor system. However, during precipitation events which exceed the design capacity of the pipe network, the uncollected runoff, as well as surcharged stormwater result in overland flooding and the possibility of flood damage. Traditional minor system models provide no insight regarding the surface flooding for events which exceed the system capacity. Given that the current drainage infrastructure was designed for much smaller rainfall events, mapping the flooding events due to a surcharged system was absolutely

critical in light of the significant impacts of climate change to local rainfall.

To address this deficiency in traditional stormwater modelling, we developed a detailed dual drainage model. This dual drainage model connects the outflow points of the underground system to a detailed 2-dimensional hydraulic model based on LiDAR topographic data. This configuration allows for dynamic flow exchange throughout the simulation. This model configuration allowed the City to view the maximum flooding extents due to these future precipitation events. This hydraulic modelling approach provides a defensible and transparent basis for estimating economic losses due to surface flooding.

Model results were produced using this type of hydraulic modelling in the various study areas. Continuous overland drainage paths exist which results in flow through private property. This indicates that extensive flood damage could be caused by altered climatic normals. However, these urban flooding maps only serve to identify the magnitude and extents of their problem. The lingering question remained of how to deal with these newly identified flooding problems.

Adaptation Considerations

Once the system deficiencies are known, climate change adaptation planning provides a framework to begin asking some of the following questions:

• Should we rebuild our minor system infrastructure?• Can we fortify our houses and properties against floods?• Can we reroute flooding extents?• Are some areas in the City more vulnerable than others?• Can some of our planned infrastructure upgrades provide

an opportunity to fix our drainage issues?

Climate change adaptation in urban drainage engineering

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Hauled Wastewater Receiving Station meets business goals

The City of Regina has historically received hauled wastewater at a temporary receiving station in the corner of a lagoon at its wastewater treatment plant. Over time, the city encountered many limitations with this approach, including difficulty removing solids from the lagoon, risk of inadequate treatment prior to discharge, lack of source control, lack of hauler tracking, and no automated billing capabilities. With plans to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant, the city saw the need to develop a new hauled wastewater receiving station to protect the new treatment plant. The facility would also accept and process heavy grit loads generated by sewer cleaning activities.

In 2014, the city engaged Associated Engineering to complete the preliminary and detailed design and provide construction services for the new facility. Project Manager, Cory Wihlidal tells us, “As part of the preliminary design, we toured eight septage receiving stations in Alberta and British Columbia with city staff. Some of the takeaways from the tours included a preference for manhole-style dump stations, automated receipt and tracking systems, and automated sampling systems.”

Characterization of the incoming material presented a challenge to designers, due to limited data. Wastewater Treatment Specialist, Mike Whalley advises, “We characterized the quantity and quality of waste based on a combination of laboratory analysis of incoming material, truck counts, and interviews of septage haulers at the previous receiving station. This helped us establish design criteria and treatment processes.”

The new facility features separate entry and exit gates for

domestic septage with low (less than 3% by weight) solids content (Stream A) and materials with high (greater than 3% by weight) solids content (Stream B). Three dumping stations were constructed for Stream A and one for Stream B.

Each dumping station for Stream A includes a billing kiosk and receiving manhole. Haulers are required to enter information into the kiosk before dumping. A glycol hydronic system provides heat to a concrete pad at the Stream A receiving stations. Stream A material flows to the process building via buried heat-traced, 200 mm diameter stainless steel conveyance pipes. Conductivity probes, pH sensors and acoustic sensors are fitted to each conveyance pipe. Magnetic flowmeters measure the volume of material dumped. Refrigerated automatic samplers extract random samples, and identify abnormal conductivity, pH or sound readings. Stream A materials are processed through combined 6 mm screens and grit removal units.

Stream B materials are deposited in a receiving tank accessed through an overhead door. Processing includes 10 mm screening and grit removal.

Waste liquid from processing is stored in equalization tanks and then pumped into the city’s wastewater forcemain to the wastewater treatment plant. The equalization tanks are aerated and mixed.

Corey says, “The facility has to provide sufficient treatment to meet criteria for incoming wastes into the new wastewater treatment plant.” EPCOR Water Prairies Inc. operates the Hauled Wastewater Receiving Station, and will operate the new wastewater treatment plant.”

Screenings from Streams A and B are conveyed to a trailer for regular disposal to landfill. Grit is discharged to a disposal bay outside of the building. Cleaned grit has potential for reuse.

The site has strict requirements for odour and noise control. Ionizer modules on the building’s make-up air units treat odour inside the facility. Exhaust fans blow air through activated carbon scrubbers located outside the building to meet odour discharge criteria.

Commissioned in January 2018, Regina’s new modern Hauled Wastewater Receiving Station includes automated entry and exit gates for haulers, activated by card readers, to meet the city’s goals for hauler tracking. The facility also meets requirements for full cost recovery, source control, treatment, and protection of the new wastewater treatment plant.

Key project staff include Cory Wihlidal, Mike Whalley, Stan Torgunrud, Richard Zepick, Chris Reese, David Shymko, Geoff Sarazin, and Micheal Claassen.

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Building Communities

Bioengineering workshop to restore Grande Prairie’s Bear CreekKristen Andersen from our Edmonton office held a successful bioengineering workshop in Grande Prairie, AB. Participants from the City of Grande Prairie, County of Grande Prairie, Saddle Hills County, Alberta Environment and Parks, and the Mighty Peace Watershed Alliance helped restore an area of Bear Creek that was collapsing due to a lack of riparian vegetation. Together, they built dense, live staking along the shore and two rows of wattle fencing to address the scarp.

(l to r): Brett Wynnyk, Bruna Price, Elaine Mukarakate, Laurel Richards, Tamara Soltykevych

Associated’s staff did an “incredible” job at Edmonton’s 11th annual CANstruction event in early-May! At the conclusion of the event all food items are donated to local food banks.Thanks to the generous donations from staff, our team raised just over $1,000! Over 700 cans were used to put together our Incredibles Logo, which won Best Use of Labels.

Lethbridge CANstruction team raises $5,000

CANstruction Lethbridge is an annual event that collects canned food and cash for two local food banks. Our team came up with a design featuring a bowling ball and pins to STRIKE out Hunger! The team raised a total of $5,000 to purchase the 3,700 soup and tuna cans in the structure. Congratulations to Emilee Kaupp, James Walshe, Breanna Jackson, Ben Leusink, Colton Gingras, Mark Seleski, Melissa Chodyka, and Nancy Green, for their efforts!

Marking International Women’s Day To commemorate this day, staff in our Vancouver office once again organized a donation/clothing drive for the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre to help women in need in our community. We also collected items for donation to the Crabtree Corner Community Resource Centre/YWCA Metro Vancouver. Thank you to all staff who donated and helped us load and deliver our truck full of goods.

A group of staff (and a few spouses) from our Niagara-On-The-Lake office volunteered to take part in a Habitat for Humanity Build Day. The group spent the day framing the main floor of a duplex (the second of five units being built this year). A great time was had by all, despite the cold and rainy weather. We also managed to raise over $3,000 which will go towards building materials for the houses.

Edmonton CANstruction team raises over $1,000

Habitat for Humanity Build Day in Niagara Region

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Employee News

Helen Zhang, P.Eng. has joined our Vancouver office as a Transportation Engineer. She has over 25 years of experience, including highways, roads, intersections, and interchanges. Helen has collaborated on many award-winning projects, including the Port Mann/Highway 1 and the South Fraser Perimeter Road projects.

Gregory Williams, P.E. has joined our Niagara-on-the-Lake office as a Civil Designer. He has 7 years of experience in residential and large mixed-use development projects. His expertise includes design of roadways, parking lots, drainage systems, potable water distribution systems, and sanitary sewer collection systems.

Dörte Köster, Ph.D. has joined our Edmonton office as a Senior Aquatic Scientist. She has over 20 years of experience, focusing on surface water quality. Dörte has assessed wastewater and stormwater impacts on surface waters, developed effluent limits, led scientific information syntheses, and advised water policy makers.

Tom Greaves, P.Eng., PMP has joined our Calgary office as an Infrastructure Engineer/Project Manager. He has 27 years of experience in pipeline engineering, on industrial and municipal projects. Tom’s experience also includes managing design projects and operations for municipal water treatment plants.

Gates Bilodeau, CTech has joined our Red Deer office as a Facilities Implementation Specialist. He has almost 30 years of public and private sector experience, specializing in water treatment. His experience includes water treatment plant management, design, construction, commissioning, and operation.

Jeremy Fyke, Ph.D. has joined our Vernon office as a Climate Scientist and Modelling Specialist. He has 15 years of experience, specializing in climate model development and evaluation, and interpretation of climate data. Before joining Associated, Jeremy worked at the Centre for Ocean, Sea Ice, and Land Ice Modelling in the US.

Adapting to our changing climateUltimately, this all boils down to one fundamental question: Can we rethink our urban drainage planning to safeguard our communities from climate change impacts? We think so.

Working with the city, we brainstormed 17 possible adaptation solutions, and of those, modelled and assessed four in detail:

• Installing sewer backflow valves to prevent basement flooding via storm sewer backup.

• Implementing a Minimum-Building-Elevation strategy to raise buildings above potential flood levels.

• Upgrading the pipe system to capture larger design storms.• Creating new overland drainage paths and storage

systems to safely route flood waters away from vulnerable infrastructure.

To assess the relative effectiveness of potential solutions, we considered environmental, societal, and economic implications of each. In addition, we created a “business case” for implementing some of these improvements.

Using an in-house GIS method, we calculated damages to buildings in each study area based on flooding extents for various scenarios. We then calculated benefit-cost ratios when implementing the various strategies discussed above to identify which of the adaptation strategies were most defensible. We found that each of the four options would be useful given different flooding conditions, and likely a combination of multiple options would form the most effective overall adaptation strategy.

We hope that this study will serve as a launch point for discussions for adaptation planning within the City and also in other municipalities experiencing climate change impacts and urban drainage problems. We can start envisioning solutions, such as considering how urban rivers and lakes may double as storage protection and recreational opportunities. Adaptation can influence long-term drainage engineering and urban planning decisions for the creation of resilient future communities.

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Constructed 40th Avenue overpass over CP Rail

Traffic congestion and access to and from the City of Airdrie has been a major problem for years, and a significant issue raised by residents in the recent civic elections. Highway 2 serves as the primary corridor for commuters to and from Calgary, located 35 kilometres south of Airdrie. During the morning and evening rush hour commutes between Airdie and Calgary, the two existing interchanges connecting to Highway 2 experience high traffic volumes. With increasing population, the city decided to move forward with the design of a new interchange with Highway 2 to ease the congestion, with the added benefit of fostering greater economic development.

The city retained Associated Engineering as the prime consultant to complete preliminary engineering, detailed design, and tendering for the interchange. The work includes bridges over CP Rail, Main Street, and Highway 2, roadworks, realignment of Nose Creek, and stormwater management. The project also includes coordinating with Alberta Transportation, adjacent landowners, and stakeholders, and preparing all permit applications for the City of Airdrie.

The two greatest challenges for the project were the environmental approvals and stormwater management. Project Manager, Jim Zagas, tells us, “For the environmental approvals, our project team adopted a proactive approach, involving the regulators during the initial stages of the design process. Their informal comments were incorporated into the design, and assisted in completing the permit application.”

The guidelines on stormwater release into Nose Creek required design of a large stormwater management pond. Acquiring land in an urban environment is a challenge, therefore the project team took advantage of the local topography to design interim/temporary stormwater storage areas upstream.

In addition, the team is working closely with the city and developers to share existing stormwater ponds. These solutions contributed to reducing the size of the stormwater management facility required for the interchange.

The design is expected to be completed in December 2018. Our key personnel involved on this project include Jim Zagas, David Nagy, Jonathan Wiens, Larry Mouland, Helen Du, Pierre Burton, Lisbeth Escobar, and Matt Freeman.

Future 40th Avenue interchange over Highway 2 will improve traffic flow and reduce congestion in the City of Airdrie

Environmental assessments were completed on Nose Creek