Honours for Alberta consulting engineers

The Consulting Engineers of Alberta gave out its 1998 Showcase Awards in January. Among the top winners was Stantec Consulting with the Stoney Trail Bow River Bridge in Calgary. The project won awards of excellence in two categories: infrastructure and technology innovation. Subconsultants were Reid Crowther & Partners and UMA Engineering. The 476-metre long concrete box structure was launched from above ground, limiting its impact on the terrain.

EBA Engineering Consultants won an award of excellence in the resource development category and an award of merit in the technology innovation category for the Frozen Core Dam in the Ekati Diamond Mine at Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories. The dam core was created of sand and gravel placed and frozen in layers. Earth below a creek in the dam is kept cold using thermosyphons which use no energy.

The third award of excellence went to Associated Engineering Alberta for the City of Edmonton Fulton Creek Regional Wetlands. The project won in the environmental category for a scheme that capitalized on the city’s excavations for earth fill for a highway extension. The engineers turned the excavated pit into a regional storm water management pond that also doubles as a naturalized wetland for waterfowl. Subconsultant was Spencer Environmental Management Services.

Eight projects won merit awards. Two (environmental and international categories) went to UMA Engineering for the Aral Sea Irrigation Controls Automation in Uzbekistan, and two (resource development and technology innovation) went to A.D. Williams Engineering for the BHP Ekati Diamond Mine Permanent Camp Facility (H.A. Simons was project manager).

Merit awards also went to UMA Engineering (resource development category) for the Mine Haul Bridge Road Load Testing and Rehabilitation, to AGRA Earth & Environmental (environmental) for the Chase Creek Steam Restoration in B.C., to A.D. Williams Engineering for the Edmonton International Airport Parkade, to Associated Engineering Alberta for the Town of Taber enhanced Water Quality Implementation, to Read Jones Christoffersen for the Centennial Parkade in Calgary, and to UMA Engineering for the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant Waste Activated Sludge Thickening Facility in Edmonton. The last four were all in the infrastructure category.

Fifteen judges did the honours, among whom were four Alberta deputy ministers: Dan Bader, P.Eng., Roger Jackson, Peter Kruselnicki, P.Eng. and Ed McLellan, P.Eng.