2015 Minister s Awards for Transportation Innovation: Summary of Winning Projects

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1 2015 Minister s Awards for Transportation Innovation: of Winning Projects Innovation Category Award of Excellence for Design Innovation Modified Surface Aggregate Stabilization with Calcium Chloride. A Test Project for Lethbridge County. Lethbridge County has the highest concentration of livestock in the country, with approximately one million head of different animals and is also home to a high percentage of irrigated cropland such as grain, canola, sugar beets, potatoes, corn, and legumes. This agricultural activity creates a significant amount of heavy truck traffic on the County s road network. In order to provide a sustainable level of service on the haul routes, the County was contemplating for a low-cost option to upgrade the network to a ban-free, all weather standard network. In 2014, the County retained WSP to review, analyze and recommend different conventional and innovative pavement design alternatives. The recommendation was that calcium chloride be utilized in stabilizing pavement surface aggregates. The County carried out a pilot project with calcium chloride stabilization to confirm if this was a viable alternative. In addition, a modified surfacing gravel specification was utilized that contains clay particles to optimize the retention of the calcium molecules and improve the plastic properties of the aggregate. This project represented a first in Alberta it can provide intangible benefits at substantially less than upgrading to a conventional ban-free network. The benefits of calcium chloride stabilization also include improved ride quality, reduced sedimentation from runoff, reduced dust, reduced aggregate resource depletion, reduced maintenance costs and improved safety. This innovation can improve the condition and sustainability of Alberta s rural road network and save rural municipalities significant costs. Page: 1 of 5

2 Award of Excellence for Construction Innovation Centripipe As Alberta s infrastructure ages, the risk of culvert failures under major roads throughout the province increases, which can result in sinkholes, road damage and flooding. These result in excessive costs to government agencies that have to fix/replace pipes at emergency rates; private land owners who are often affected by flooding damage; and road users in terms of travel disruptions and delays. The conventional solution is to treat such damaged culverts by installing liners or replacing the culvert, both of which are costly and disruptive to traffic. Alberta Transportation contracted Carillion Canada to treat twin culverts, installed over 40 years ago, 25 km west of Athabasca on Highway 2. Martech Inc. proposed to utilize a new technology by A/PM Permaform called Centripipe. This technology creates a spray-on cementicious liner that would form within the current culverts, cure and form a new, structurally sound culvert with a longer lifespan. Carried out over three days, technicians from Permaform and Martech oversaw the installation by Osco with observers from Carillion and Alberta Transportation. This was the first time for this technique to be used in Alberta and only the second time in Western Canada. Centripipe has already been used in five other places in Alberta and is applicable to most large diameter culverts. This innovative process is extremely fast with minimal digging required, which saves money, reduces environmental impacts and creates less disruption to traffic. In the ideal case, the cost savings can be 60 per cent or more compared to conventional steel pipe lining option. Page: 2 of 5

3 Award of Excellence for Environmental Innovation Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Ambulance Station Project Alberta Transportation provides a safe, efficient, sustainable and world-class transportation system that supports Alberta s economy and quality of life. In order to provide these services, highway maintenance facilities are located all across the province in strategic locations. These facilities generate environmental impacts that remain the responsibility of the Government of Alberta to manage after decommissioning. To minimize the cost of the management of these long term legacy sites, innovative techniques have been sought that can reduce the impact on taxpayers while maximizing the land use opportunities for these strategically located properties. In this Alberta-first project, Alberta Transportation (AT) worked collaboratively with Alberta Infrastructure to provide remediation for a former highway maintenance yard (FHMY) within the Town of Stony Plain. In participation with Alberta Health Services and Parkland County, an Emergency Management Services (EMS) station was developed. The strategically-located FHMY not only provided an optimal location for the critical ambulance station but, through the construction, provided an alternative remediation strategy for the site which saved AT millions of dollars. The completion of the EMS station building protects surrounding lands and ecosystems while bringing the facility to a higher land use. In addition, this innovative project allowed the organizations involved to better support Alberta's prosperity, safety and environment through effective, fiscally responsible and sustainable cooperation. Page: 3 of 5

4 Award of Excellence for Safety Innovation Springbank Road Off-stream Storage Project The flooding in Southern Alberta in June 2013 was the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history and caused billions of dollars in property damage, enormous personal and economic disruption and loss of life with severe damage in the City of Calgary. Following that flood, the Government of Alberta set up the Southern Alberta Flood Recovery Task Force which had the dual responsibility of flood reparation and mitigation to prevent future flood events. In October 2013, AMEC Environment and Infrastructure (now known as Amec Foster Wheeler plc) was contracted to provide a flood mitigation feasibility study for the Elbow River basin. AMEC's review recommended that Alberta Transportation build off-stream dry dam storage at the SR1 site. This site is located in the Springbank area west of Calgary, approximately 18.5 km upstream of Glenmore Reservoir in a relatively undeveloped valley. The dry dam off-stream storage concept consists of diverting major flood flows from the Elbow River to an off-stream reservoir that would normally be dry and releasing this stored water gradually back into the Elbow River downstream of the off-stream storage dam once rivers levels have decreased. This Alberta-first approach avoids some of the major technical challenges associated with a large onstream storage reservoir and dam, such as the need for a large spillway. This innovative project will significantly enhance the safety of residents, workers and emergency services personnel who live and work in downtown City of Calgary, provide flood protection to the Elbow River valley upstream and downstream of Glenmore Reservoir, and contribute to flood damage mitigation in the highly developed and densely populated Elbow River valley and the Bow River Basin. Page: 4 of 5

5 Award of Excellence for Operational Innovation Automated Pavement Distress Data Collection Using 3D-Laser and LiDAR Technology Alberta Transportation and its industry partners have worked together in the past decade to find a solution to automate pavement surface distress data collection. Following a recent development with the state-of-the-art Laser Crack Measurement System (LCMS), the Department implemented a project in 2013 that combined the 3D-Laser scanning and LiDAR technologies to enable automated high-speed data collection over the entire provincial highway network. Industry partner Tetra Tech (formerly known as EBA Engineering) assembled the LCMS and LiDAR sensors on the same vehicle platform with the IRI sensors for the project, and completed the network data collection of more than 36,500 km. This project is an Alberta-first which would replace the current Surface Condition Rating (SCR) method, that is carried out manually by the Department staff and contractors. This innovation provides pavement data with improved quality and repeatability which can lead to improved performance prediction models and better decision making in pavement rehabilitation programing. As the equipment is vehicle-based, the data can be collected at highway speeds and cover the entire length of the highway, as opposed to the manual method that is slower and partially based on sampling. In addition, this technology improves safety by removing staff and contractors from pavement surface with live traffic. Page: 5 of 5