INNOVATION May-June 2016

2015 ACEC-BC Awards for Engineering Excellence

BUILDINGS Award of Excellence GrandviewHeights Aquatic Centre Consultant: Fast + Epp; AME Consulting Group (Mechanical); AES Engineering (Electrical) • Owner/Client: City of Surrey • Location: Surrey, BC The City of Surrey required a cost- effective, efficient and welcoming

Award of Merit UBC Student Union Building Consultant: Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. • Owner/Client: UBC Alma Mater Society • Location: Vancouver, BC  The consultant worked with project stakeholders and students through an integrated design process. The vision for The Nest came from the students,

aquatic/fitness centre. Structural challenges included creating a roof structure to span 105 metres and withstand wind forces and unbalanced snow loading. Pairs of glue-laminated timber “cables” suspended between concrete end buttresses and a centre V-column support made use of the large, vertical concrete elements required for the pools’ dive towers and water-slide support. The façade structure was built with steel tube columns, which resist wind loads and double as ventilator ducts to control in-building humidity.

and the consultant was responsible for making it reality, while optimising sustainability, durability, and future flexibility and adaptation. The Nest contains many complex architectural features with structural challenges, including a five-storey atrium, floating steel staircases, cantilevered heavy- wood and steel sky-bridges, irregularly shaped floors, and extensive clear spans with isolated columns.

MUNICIPAL & CIVIL INFRASTRUCTURE Award of Excellence Sechelt Water Resource Centre

Consultant: Urban Systems Ltd. • Owner/Client: District of Sechelt • Location: Sechelt, BC  The Sechelt Water Resource Centre integrates wastewater treatment into an urban environment. The facility combines an Organica Fed Batch Reactor system, a heat-recovery system that extracts heat from

incoming sewage to heat the facility, a rooftop solar system, and use of reclaimed water to cool the emergency generator. Solids discharged to the ocean are reduced by 90%, power use is halved, water is conserved by reusing treated effluent, and bio-solids create Class A compost for sale and reuse. As well, the plant’s effluent is one of the five cleanest municipal effluents in Canada, and noise and smell complaints have decreased.. Awards of Merit Barnston / Maple Ridge Pump Station: Heart of the Community Consultant: Associated Engineering (BC) Ltd. • Owner/Client: Metro Vancouver • Location: Pitt Meadows, BC  Metro Vancouver’s new pump station is one of the largest municipal water distribution pump stations in BC. Associated Engineering provided engineering services for all phases. Challenges included proximity to residential communities, a very constrained site on the Fraser River floodplain, pump-control automation, and energy efficiency during peak-demand periods through the year. Green-building features and sustainability have increased the pump station's efficiency and minimise its impact on the community and the greater environment. Seymour–Capilano Twin Tunnels Project

Consultant: Hatch • Owner/Client: Metro Vancouver • Location: North Vancouver, BC  The twin tunnels connect the Capilano drinking-water source to Metro Vancouver’s new Seymour–Capilano Filtration Plant. Hatch investigated alignment, geotechnical conditions, project delivery alternatives, future operations and maintenance, and tunnel hydraulic design. Tunnelling by a tunnel boring machine was identified as the preferred method to effectively create hydraulically efficient pipes in sound rock. Tunnel depth, alignment, and shaft locations were chosen to avoid fractured rock areas and avoid potential glacial soil-filled valleys. Depth and grade were designed to be at least 50 metres below interpreted top-of-rock, and alignments provide 100-metre separation to prevent cross-tunnel flow.

AltaGas Ltd., through its subsidiary Coast Mountain Hydro LP, proceeded with developing a 66-megaWatt hydroelectric run-of-river project on McLymont Creek, a tributary of the Iskut River north of Terrace. The consultants successfully met the challenges of a difficult site, highly variable hydrology, significant sediment flows, delayed access, and accelerated project implementation schedule by designing and implementing numerous innovative technical solutions to the cofferdam, spillway, weir, powerhouse and other elements. Environmental, economic, and social sustainability aspects and aesthetics were also addressed.

ENERGY & INDUSTRY Award of Excellence The McLymont Creek Hydropower Project: Diverting

Water for Hydropower in BC’s Coastal Mountains

Consultant: Gygax Engineering Associates Ltd. and Northwest Hydraulic Consultants

• Owner/Client: AltaGas Ltd. • Location: About 500 km north of Terrace, BC 

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