K3 Expansion’s South Shaft Headframe wins Schreyer at 55th annual Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards
October 19, 2023
By Peter Saunders
Photo courtesy Hatch.
Canadian Consulting Engineer and the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Canada (ACEC-Canada) handed out the 55th annual Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards at a celebration in Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 19. The top prize, the Schreyer, went to Hatch for the K3 Expansion Project’s South Shaft Headframe at Mosaic’s potash mine in Esterhazy, Sask.
The awards program is jointly produced by Canadian Consulting Engineer and ACEC-Canada. Each year, the Schreyer recognizes the project that best demonstrates technical excellence and innovation.
The jury praised Hatch for focusing heavily on health and safety and being innovative with techniques that are now being adopted elsewhere in the industry. They called the project “an impressive operation that reduced risks to workers by eliminating working at heights or in confined spaces.”
Four other special awards were also announced at the celebration.
Photo by Roy Grogan, courtesy Stantec and LAC.
The Engineering a Better Canada Award, which each year honours a project that best showcases how engineering enhances the social, economic or cultural quality of life of Canadians, was presented to Stantec for the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Preservation Storage Facility, which stood out to the jury as the largest automated archival system in the world, built to last for “a time frame of 500 years.”
Photo courtesy gbi.
The Breton Environmental Award (formerly known as the Tree for Life Award), presented to the project that best demonstrates outstanding environmental stewardship, went to gbi for demonstrating the viability of a geothermal heat exchanger with Standing Column Wells for Clé-des-Champs School, to reduce energy consumption and emissions.
Photo courtesy WSP.
The Ambassador Award, which honours projects constructed or executed outside Canada that best showcase Canadian engineering expertise, went to WSP for developing the REFAM Argan Predictive Model for tree production in Morocco and integrating it into a new geoportal, which aims to help promote the economic empowerment of women working in this traditional agricultural sector.
Photo courtesy Dillon Consulting.
Finally, the Outreach Award, which goes to the project that best demonstrates donation of a firm’s time and/or services for the benefit of a community or group, was presented to Dillon Consulting for its Million Meals Campaign to combat food insecurity across Canada. The jury praised the effort as “substantial” and for “identifying the best projects to support with a long-term commitment.”
These entries were singled out for the highest honours from among the Top 20 Award of Excellence winners, the rest of which are listed below.
Transportation
- Nancy Pauw Bridge – StructureCraft.
- Centerm Expansion – Hatch.
- Vendôme Station Entry and Pedestrian Link – AtkinsRéalis.
- Waaban Crossing – Hatch and Systra IBT.
- Tank Hill Emergency Restoration – AECOM.
- Port Saint John Westside Modernization – Hatch and Dillon Consulting.
Water resources
- Woodworth Dam Optimization – BBA.
- La Baie Landslide and Embankment Restoration – Englobe.
- Comox Valley Water Treatment Plant – Stantec.
- Caribou Falls Block Dam 2 Reconstruction – KGS Group.
Natural resources, mining, industry and energy
- Pellet Plant Biofuel – BBA.
Special projects
- Espace Montmorency Energy Loop – gbi.
Project management
Community outreach and in-house initiatives
- Digital Acceleration Initiative – WSP.
Also at the celebration, ACEC-Canada presented the 2023 Beaubien Award to Leon Botham, president and principal engineer for NewFields, for his lifetime contributions to consulting engineering; and the 2024 Allen D. Williams Scholarship to Rahim Ahmad of Associated Engineering.
For more details about all of the winners, check out the digital edition (DE) of the special September/October 2023 issue of Canadian Consulting Engineer magazine and the print edition coming soon to subscribers. Throughout the rest of October and much of November, ACEC-Canada’s #20DaysofExcellence campaign on social media platforms will feature videos about the winning projects.
