INNOVATION July-August 2013

Snoqualmie Falls Redevelopment

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) owns and operates the Sno- qualmie Falls Hydroelectric Facility on the Snoqualmie River in Washington. The existing run-of-river facilities consist of a diversion dam and two powerhouses. Plant 1 is a five-unit powerhouse constructed in 1898 and was the first underground powerhouse in North America. Plant 2 is a two-unit surface powerhouse originally constructed in 1910 and redeveloped in 1956. PSE are making several modifications and improvements to the existing project’s facilities in order to add 10 MW of ca- pacity so that when the facility is returned to service, the facility will generate 54.4 MW. Klohn Crippen Berger was retained to carry out conceptual, preliminary, and final design; and construction and commissioning support. Project owner: Puget Sound Energy. Prime consultant: Klohn Crippen Berger. Professionals involved: Ryan Douglas, P.Eng; Ernest Portfors, P.Eng., FEC; Bruno Bagneres, P.Eng.; Ron Braam P.Eng.; Dirk Duives- tein, P.Eng; Rob Jones, P.Eng. LiDAR Acquisition for

Archaeological Research In 2012, McElhanney proposed the use of LiDAR to archaeologists working in Angkor, Cambodia. This led to a LiDAR acquisition and digital aerial photography project covering approximately 270 km 2 The results far exceeded expectations, yielding billions of data points at an average density of 12-14 points per square metre, complemented by approximately 5,000 aerial photographs. This incredible volume of data is contributing greatly to archeologists’ un- derstanding of Angkor’s history. The findings have provided substantial insight into Angkor’s former civilization, with implications for research of temple complexes worldwide. Angkor is one of the most important archaeological sites

in Southeast Asia, yet it is estimated that only a fraction of its ancient infrastructure has been unearthed thus far. The area is obscured by forest cover, and the presence of land mines has made ground survey both difficult and dangerous.

Client: Khmer Archaeology LiDAR Consortium. Consultant: McElhanney Consulting Services.

SortOre TM Mineral Sorting System MineSense Technologies’ recently developed SortOre product is a first: a Canadian- made mineral sorting system that combines high frequency electromagnetic miner- al sensing and electromechanical sorting systems to recover base metals from rocky waste material. The SortOre development was a multidisciplinary effort combining signal electronics, digital signal processing and advanced control engineering in an electromechanical sorting platform designed and built locally in Vancouver. SortOre is deployed to either sort value from mine waste piles, or alternately reject waste from low grade ores. The technology has positive economic and environmental impacts on mine operations increasing margins, reducing costs (especially energy) and increasing mine life wherever it is applied. Owner: MineSense Technologies (Dr. Andrew Bamber, P.Eng.). Other professionals involved: Greg Desaulniers, P. Eng.; Pak Hui, P. Eng.; Kamyar Jafari-Esfahani, EIT.

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