Innovation Summer 2026

LAKE BUNTZEN 1 STRUCTURAL STRENGTHENING

The Gitxsan West Secondary School is a new 33,000-sq.ft. secondary school serving 170 to 190 students in the communities of Gitanyow, Gitwangak, and Gitsegukla, BC. The building uses a hybrid light frame and mass-timber structural system, combining light wood frame shear walls with long spanning glulam rafters and a plywood roof to reduce embodied carbon while maintaining structural efficiency and constructability. A sawtooth roof with exposed glulam and plywood creates a warm, welcoming learning environment and is structurally optimized with variable rafter spacing to address differing snow loads at roof peaks and troughs, enhancing public safety and climate resilience. Hybrid steel timber elements in the gymnasium and feature hall provide long spans and open spaces. The project is LEED equivalent, uses heat pump based mechanical systems with energy recovery ventilation, retains much of the existing forest, and incorporates native, culturally significant landscaping. BC Hydro has recently completed rehabilitation of its steel penstock at Lake Buntzen 1 (LB1) generating station near Anmore, BC. The project has combined automated robotic recoating systems with a novel CFRP structural repair. Working inside the penstock, confined space was identified as a major concern for worker safety. To eliminate activities by workers, the project utilized a fully automated unmanned robotic system to perform coating works inside the penstock – without requiring workers to enter the hazardous confined space. Inspection at LB1 identified significant corrosion and localized steel loss, prompting the need for structural strengthening. Conventional options including steel section replacement were not feasible within the outage window available. Instead, the project team selected CFRP, a lightweight, high strength composite that could be installed internally. Together, robotic recoating and CFRP strengthening at LB1 penstock provided worker safety as well as an effective rehabilitation strategy. GITXSAN WEST SECONDARY SCHOOL

Company: BC Hydro Participants: Davinder Khangura, P.Eng.; Muhammad Salman Arshad, P.Eng.; Christine Peters, P.Eng.; Lucas Marco; Ken Gulbranson. P hoto : BC H ydro

Company: EQUILIBRIUM Participants: Jack Lloyd, P.Eng.; Sam Shulman, P.Eng.; Eric Karsh, P.Eng. P hoto : A ndrew L owes (A lso featured on cover )

Innovation Summer 2026

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