Petitcodiac Causeway restoration wins award in New Brunswick

In this season of awards celebrations, it was New Brunswick’s turn on April 23.

The Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – New Brunswick (ACEC-NB) gave five awards of excellence at a gala dinner held at the Casino New Brunswick in Moncton.

The winning projects and consulting engineers, selected from approximately 30 entries, are:

Petitcodiac Causeway Restoration Project

AMEC Environment & Infrastructure/New Brunswick Department of Supplies and Services

(environmental category)

AMEC was retained to conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) to study possible modifications to the Petitcodiac Causeway, addressing fish passage and other ecosystem issues. To address the fish passage issue, the selected option was to permanently open the gates and construct a bridge along the alignment of the existing causeway.

The project included design and construction of 22 kilometres of dykes and aboiteaux, a new municipal watermain crossing the river, shoreline protection and drainage improvements for a traffic circle.

The project also involved opening the existing Causeway gates to allow tidal exchange upstream, and the monitoring of changes to the river and environment after the gate was opened.

Extensive public and stakeholder consultations were involved, as well as the design and implementation of an environmental and socio-economic follow-up program.

Combined Energy Recovery and Particulate Removal System for McCain Foods, Harbin, China

QES and McCain Foods

(natural resources, energy and industry category)

QES was selected to design a turnkey system to adhere to new particulate government standards for fryer exhaust systems. They designed a condensing and coalescing system with an approximate particulate removal efficiency of 95% at 1 micron or higher. An energy recovery system was designed and integrated into the system to condense the exhaust stream. The condensing process extracts 6 GJ/hr of energy, which is dispersed around the facility for process water and ventilation heating, resulting in approximately $220,000 in savings per year.

Eastern Wastewater Treatment Facility, Saint John

CBCL and the City of Saint John

(municipal/civil category)

The Eastern Wastewater Treatment Facility serves as the cornerstone for the Saint John Harbour Cleanup. This is a major initiative to intercept and treat raw sewage outfalls that discharge directly to the Bay of Fundy. The EWWTF is located adjacent to Red Head Marsh in Saint John and is a conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment facility. It is the largest secondary wastewater treatment facility in Atlantic Canada and is designed to treat an average daily flow of 35,000 m3/day. The project was designed completely in-house, was completed under budget and on schedule.

CN Intermodal Pavement Rehabilitation, Gordon Yard, Moncton

Hatch Mott MacDonald & CN

(transportation category)

Experiencing continuous pavement and drainage issues over its 25-year service life, the CN Intermodal facility required a major pavement and drainage rehabilitation. The existing pavement, base and sub-base materials over the 1,200-m long pad were removed and reconstructed to support the heavy wheel loads of forklifts used to load the containers from the rail cars onto road trailers. The project also included the installation of a new storm water drainage system and sub-drainage system.

New Brunswick Community College – Fredericton Campus

exp Services and the Province of New Brunswick

(buildings category)

The New Brunswick Community College in Fredericton is a new 52,000 sq.ft., $12.7- million college that is integrated with the University of New Brunswick. Designed to meet LEED Silver certification, it has high quality natural day lighting and exterior views, accomplished through strategic building orientation, maximizing the window area in occupied spaces, and using specialty glazing and clerestory windows. The building uses an energy efficient system of heat pump units and is constructed with a high performance wall, roof, and glazing assemblies. Other sustainable initiatives include the use of local and recycled construction materials, a construction waste management program, efficient water fixtures, and a green procurement and cleaning program.