a one-stop specialist shop for bc`s biggest marine

VANCOUVER PILE DRIVING LTD.
Digging
Deep
A ONE-STOP
SPECIALIST SHOP FOR
B.C.’S BIGGEST
MARINE PROJECTS
T
HE NEW W.R. BENNETT BRIDGE IN KELOWNA AND A NEW
berth at the Port of Vancouver’s largest container terminal
are more than just showcase projects for Vancouver Pile Driving Ltd. (VPDL). They represent its evolution from a respected pile driver to a comprehensive marine service provider.
VPDL works with joint venture partners on major infrastructure
projects and oversees complex marine jobs. For example, Deltaport’s
$195-million third berth consists of 465 additional metres of berth and
20 hectares of dock space to accommodate an anticipated threefold
increase in container traffic. >
P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E
VANCOUVER PILE DRIVING LTD.
Here and page 67:
VPDL’s Deltaport
Berth 3 project.
Right: VPDL derrick
cranes at work.
“We’re not just pile drivers,” says Wayne Saunders, the company’s vice-president and general manager. “Today’s market seeks
companies with a wide range of engineering and construction
skills, and as marine specialists we can participate in public-private
partnerships that are the government’s preferred vehicle for creating critical infrastructure.”
Saunders is quick to add VPDL’s evolution doesn’t mean his
company is unrecognizable – or inaccessible – to its many long-term
clients. “Far from it,” he says. “We expect our relationships with our
valued clients will strengthen as new jobs and maintenance work
come down the turnpike.”
VPDL, which first opened for business on Vancouver’s Coal Harbour in 1913, has an impressive pedigree. Its resume includes the
SeaBus Terminal, Fairview Terminal in Prince Rupert and, more
recently, Bayshore Land Reclamation and Convention Centre, which
kicked off the massive Coal Harbour redevelopment. But arguably,
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all types of transportation projects from roads and bridges, to airports and
terminal facilities.
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the new W.R. Bennett Bridge best exemplifies the efficiency and ingenuity VPDL brings
to any project. Launching work in 2005 with
joint-venture partner SNC-Lavalin, VPDL
was charged with decommissioning the
Okanagan Lake Bridge and replacing it with
a new one-kilometre-long floating bridge
consisting of nine concrete pontoons.
VPDL’s contract required its crews to
first build a dry dock on the shores of
Okanagan Lake for the construction of the
pontoons. “Originally there were to be 12
60-metre pontoons, but it proved to be more
advantageous to the schedule to make some
of the pontoons 90 metres long and restrict
the total number to nine,” says G.W. (Gordon) Carlson, VPDL’s estimating and engineering manager. VPDL also had to supply
and install 89 piles in five piers. Due to the
sandy bottom of Okanagan Lake, some of
these piles were 63 metres long and driven
48 metres into the lakebed.
Since the new bridge uses the existing
bridge’s anchors, the new structure had to
be built alongside and connected to the old
bridge with only a 6.5-metre gap between
the two. When each pontoon was completed it was towed to its designated location,
and then the anchor cables severed from
the corresponding section of old bridge
and attached to the new pontoon. The new
pontoons were secured together via an elaborate bolt and post-tensioning system.
The old bridge will be removed in a
similar fashion after the new bridge is open
to traffic. “It’s a complicated way of bridge
building, but using the existing anchors
has resulted in an enormous cost saving,”
says Carlson. VPDL also constructed and
installed four new 70-ton anchors at the
east end of the structure. Altogether three
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Fax: (604) 882-5660
Dispatch: (604) 580-0417
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Proud of our association
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VANCOUVER PILE DRIVING LTD.
derricks with crawler cranes, one material
barge and three tugboats were used to
provide Kelowna motorists with a unique
new crossing.
The new structure, one of only eight
floating bridges in the world, opened to traffic in May 2008, 108 days ahead of schedule.
VPDL has until June 2009 to fully decommission the old Okanagan Lake Bridge.
VPDL and Graham Construction won
the contract for the Berth 3 project at
Deltaport, a 430-metre lineal extension to
Deltaport’s two other berths, in December
2006. VPDL’s main task was to create a new
berth face using 10 concrete caissons slipformed in its North Vancouver dry dock
and towed to the site.
But like the W.R. Bennett Bridge,
there’s much more to the project than meets
the eye. First, VPDL constructed a containment dike for 20 hectares of reclaimed land.
Then it dredged a million cubic metres of
earth from the seabed for the foundation
below the caissons and for the land reclamation. “Then, the sandy seabed was densified
by dumping a million tons of crushed rock
into the trench and pushing it into the
VPDL cranes move a concrete pontoon into
position for the W.R. Bennett Bridge on
Lake Okanagan in Kelowna, B.C.
ground,” says Carlson. “This provided the
appropriate earthquake-proof base for the
caissons, which were manoeuvred into place
and sunk.” The caissons, the design of which
is similar to caissons made by VPDL for the
past 50 years and evident in dock facilities up
and down the B.C. coast, were filled with
aggregate ballast for topside dock construction. Berth 3 will open for business next fall.
Saunders, who’s been with VPDL for over
30 years, pursued the Deltaport and W.R.
Bennett Bridge contracts to enhance his company’s status as a marine general contractor.
While some analysts are beginning to question how long B.C.’s construction boom will
last, Saunders notes there are more largescale provincial projects in the offing, due to
aging transportation infrastructure that
needs to be expanded and upgraded in the
near future. “Some of the projects in the
works are of the magnitude that we haven’t
seen since the 1970s,” he says.
So rapid is the rate of growth that the
W.R. Bennett Bridge, as vital as it may be to
Kelowna’s current traffic network, will have
reached its maximum capacity in five years.
“Rumour has it that a new crossing site has
already been chosen,” says Carlson.
VPDL’s versatility is such that it has
prevailed through bad times and good, and
outlived several incarnations, the most historically significant being its ownership by
Who did BC Ferries call
when they needed a new Marine Berth
at Horseshoe Bay for the Super C Ferry?
MEGATECH ENGINEERING AND
VANCOUVER PILE DRIVING
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VANCOUVER PILE DRIVING LTD.
PROUD TO WORK WITH VANCOUVER PILE DRIVING
ON THE WRB BRIDGE PROJECT AND MANY OTHERS
Over 60 years experience in value engineering and
collaborative construction of highways, bridges,
railways and site development.
Dillingham Construction Canada in the
1960s. Carlson, a relative newcomer to VPDL
(he joined the firm four years ago), revels in
the history and expertise he’s exposed to
daily. “It’s inspiring to work with colleagues
who can pull off the most difficult challenge
and make it look easy,” he says. “For the
kind of work we do we’re the best game in
town, and whether it was before the Dillingham era, during or after, we’ve always been
involved in interesting projects.”
A long list of docks and terminal facilities
testify to VPDL’s capabilities, which range
from repairs and remediation to renovation
and complete construction services. The
capacity of its fleet of marine derricks is the
largest in Western Canada, with cranes
rated to 350 tons. And because maintenance
of a structure or facility is just as important
as the initial build, VPDL has an extremely
active small contracts division, which specializes in long-term maintenance and
repair services around Vancouver Harbour,
along the Fraser River and up and down
B.C.’s south coast.
VPDL performs substantial land-based
work as well, two notable examples being the
construction of 74 caissons to support pier
columns for an extension to the SkyTrain
rapid transit system along the Fraser River,
and the installation of approximately 1,000
steel pipe piles for the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre expansion.
When Dillingham’s ownership ended
in the lean years of the late 1980s, VPDL’s
maintenance work proved an invaluable
source of income. And by the time B.C.’s
economy revitalized toward the end of the
decade, Saunders and his colleagues had all
the necessary skills to participate in publicprivate partnerships, which were changing
the way large construction was organized
in the province. “We really started taking
off in 2002-2003,” he says.
VPDL’s success is also due to its knack
for keeping abreast of technological advances that improve efficiency. Take, for
CHAIN & CABLE LTD.
Congratulations and continued success to
Vancouver Pile Driving
#1-9520 -192nd Street, Surrey, BC V4N 3R9
T. 604.882.1415 F. 604.882.1418
CRF Chain & Cable 1
12/3/08 9:46:10 AM
VPDL constructs a pontoon for
Kelowna’s W.R. Bennett Bridge in a
special-purpose graving dock.
Emil Anderson Construction | Kelowna BC | (250) 762-9999
Emil Anderson Const 1
Since 1958
11/27/08 2:45:02 PM
Pipe & Piling Supplies
(BC) LTD
T (604) 942-6311 / F (604) 941-9364 / Toll Free: (888) 942-6311
Toll Free Fax: (877) 941-9364 / [email protected] / www.pipe-piling.com
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BUILDING A STRONGER FOUNDATION TOGETHER
Norcan Fluid Power is a proud supplier to
Vancouver Pile Driving
Congratulations on your
Awards for Excellence 2008
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VANCOUVER PILE DRIVING LTD.
THANKS TO
VANCOUVER PILE DRIVING
FOR BEING A GREAT
CUSTOMER AND SUPPLIER
FOR OVER 40 YEARS
OPSAL STEEL LTD.
Manufactures
CONSTRUCTION & LOGGING
EQUIPMENT
Proud supplier to
Vancouver Pile Driving
ALLIED
SHIPBUILDERS LTD.
19388 Enterprise Way,
Surrey, BC V3S 6J9
Phone: 604-533-5555
Fax: 604-533-8680
1-800-296-7725
SHIP BUILDERS – SHIP REPAIRERS
1870 Harbour Road - North Vancouver, BC V7H 1A1
Phone: 604-929-2365 Fax: 604-929-5329
It’s inspiring to work with
colleagues who can pull off
the most difficult challenge
and make it look easy... For
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example, its Manitowoc 4600 crane, built
in 1963 and originally powered by thirsty
twin two-cycle diesel engines. To improve
performance and fuel economy and cut
down exhaust emissions, VPDL refitted
the crane with Detroit Diesel Series 60
engines from B.C.-based Cullen Diesel
Power Ltd. in April 2007. The fully electronic engines boast the highest fuel economy in their class – reducing energy consumption by up to 50 per cent depending
on the type of work being performed.
– G.W. Carlson
Allied Shipbuilders 1
11/27/08
2:51:39
Opsal Steel
1 PM
11/27/08 2:45:35 PM
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
KARL L. JOHANNESSON, C.A.
#229-5589 Byrne Road
Burnaby, BC V5J 3J1
Tel: (604) 720-1351
Fax: 1-888-394-3052
Email: [email protected]
Proud supplier to
Vancouver Pile Driving
We manufacture
•
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Korolite EPS products
Korofloat EPS floatation
Korolite rigid insulation
Korovoid Geofoam void fill
K-Lock insulated panels
Mansonville Plastics (BC) Limited
19402-56th Avenue
Surrey, BC V3S 6K4
T. 604.534.8626
www.mansonvilleplastics.com
Johannesson Macwilliams 1
Mansonville
Plastics
11/27/08
2:46:19
PM 1
Over 75 Years of Experience
in Specialized Barge
Construction
12/1/08
Congratulations and
continuedTrend
success to
Vancouver Pile
1/9 Driving
REPAIRS • CONVERSIONS
• BARGE RENTALS
1 Irwin St.,
Nanaimo, BC V9R 4W9
3919 Dollarton Highway,
North Vancouver, BC V7G 1A1
Phone: 604-929-3434
Fax: 604-929-3331
Shop Line
T. 250.754.1776
F. 250.754.1790
Cell. 250.714.6314
Promotional Feature
VPDL’s success hasn’t gone unnoticed.
At the 2007 Vancouver Regional Construction Association’s Awards of Excellence, it
won the General Contractor Gold Award
in the $10-million to $40-million project
category for the Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal Berth 2 reconstruction. “That was a
design-build project in which we used
pontoons to create the berth,” says Carlson.
“Initially it was a tough sell but the pontoons worked very well and allowed us to
apply many of the same construction techniques to the W.R. Bennett Bridge.” This
year VPDL won another award of excellence for the W.R. Bennett Bridge.
Aside from completing its work on the
bridge and at Deltaport, VPDL is monitoring the development of other publicprivate partnerships, recruiting and training new talent and integrating them into
the company’s culture of maintaining safe
3:39:41 PM
and healthy work environments – and
anticipating the future. “Our longtime
customers have played an enormous role in
getting us to where we are today, and we
will continue to enjoy serving them to the
best of our capabilities,” Saunders says.
“This is a particularly good time to be in
business and the potential for further
growth is enormous.” ■
This promotional feature was prepared for
Vancouver Pile Driving Marine General
Contractors by BCBusiness magazine’s
Special Advertising Features Dept. Writer:
Robin Brunet. For information contact
BCBusiness VP of corporate features
John Cochrane at 604-299-7311.
E-mail: [email protected]