Allnorth is pleased to have been nominated for an award as part of the 2020 Association of Consulting Engineering Companies Awards. These awards recognize and celebrate technical excellence in consulting engineer services, provided to improve B.C.'s transportation infrastructure.
The BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) recently announced that Allnorth has been selected as a finalist in the Excellence in Design and Contract Preparation – Structures category, for their work on the Commotion Creek Bridge Project.
Commotion Creek is located on Highway 97, approximately 20 km southwest of Chetwynd, BC. The Commotion Creek crossing previously consisted of a 3,150 mm diameter culvert and two smaller flanking culverts that were partially blocked with debris since an extreme rain event in the spring of 2016, and was therefore unable to convey flow. Because of the blockage, flow was redirected, and caused the highway and railway to washout, approximately 1.3 km east of Commotion Creek.
The MOTI recommended replacing the existing culverts with a bridge. Allnorth was appointed as Lead Designer, and was responsible for structural engineering, preparation of tender documents, preparation of cost estimates, and Coordinating Professional Engineer (CPE) duties for the project, in addition to construction support services.
Using our experience on large-scale and complex bridges, our team was able to evaluate several options for the crossing, including the costs associated with each option to determine the best design that met the project requirements.
The new Commotion Creek Bridge consists of a 38.4 m long clear-span bridge founded on driven steel piles. A shallow depth superstructure was utilized to ensure that roadworks on the approaches were minimized. Additional work included the reconstruction of 520 m of approaches.
Allnorth worked as part of a multi-disciplinary design team, whose scope included project management, highway design, hydrotechnical design, geotechnical design, archaeology, and environmental services.
The design development stage required coordination and management of the external design team -which included geotechnical, environmental, hydrotechnical, highway and MOTI team members. Allnorth also provided standard specifications and tender documents to tender the project, and completed a pre-tender opinion of probable cost to ±10% accuracy.
The MOTI requested a superstructure design, which did not include deck joints due to issues with maintenance. Allnorth achieved this requirement by incorporating a semi-integral abutment in the design, therefore eliminating all deck joints.
Allnorth was subsequently contracted to fulfill the role of Ministry Representative for the MOTI during construction, providing on-site quality assurance, survey layout QA, and material testing QA. As the Ministry Representative, Allnorth monitored the contractor to confirm construction progress, coordinated with all the Engineers of Record for each portion of the work, bridge structure, channel improvement and highway design.
The awards will be presented at the ACEC BC Conference that is being held on January 28, 2020 at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver.
Visit the project page to learn more.
