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In Fort McMurray things are booming. No way around it. Especially if you are on Highway 63!
The City's population has more than doubled in the last five years, trying to keep pace with the growth of the Alberta Oil Sands and other mining projects. With a visible presence in and around the City and over 3,000 m2 of Precast Panel Walls in a huge interchange project, both AIL and Vist-A-Walls are becoming part of the local landscape in making 'Fort Mac' a better place to live and work.
Our We support the Fort. campaign in the area's hockey rinks, magazines and billboards reinforces that we are part of the local landscape. And, our gracefully-curving Vist-A-Walls in the new Thickwood Boulevard / Confederation Way Interchange Project reinforce that we are part of the urban infrastructure landscape.
Together with the new Athabasca River Bridge, the Thickwood Boulevard / Confederation Way Interchange Project is ranked fifth on Alberta Construction Magazine's Top Ten Infrastructure Projects for 2009. Our Vist-A-Walls also figured heavily in the sixth-ranked project - Edmonton's 23rd Avenue Interchange.
Highway 63 runs north-south through the center of Fort McMurray and is heavily congested, particularly during shift changes at the local mines. On an average day the roadway sees about 50,000 vehicles - including many heavy construction vehicles.
The scope of project involved a large, two-tiered set of curving MSE retaining walls on the West side of the Athabasca River. The lower wall (2070 m2) had to be designed to handle ice loading from the frozen river during the winter months. At 1.12 m thick, the ice would create an 1100 kPa force on the wall face. To handle the ice loading, the precast concrete panels had to be 20 cm thick. This wall was also designed for a CL 800 & OVER LOAD TRUCK live load.
A 'bench' was used to separate the upper and lower walls. The second function of this 'bench' was to allow for an 'Overload Bypass' route to allow the heavy hauling trucks access to the mines sites further north of the interchange. The upper wall (1914 m2) was designed to handle a CL 800 live load, but was not required to withstand any ice loading.
A graffiti-resistant Fractured Fin finish was selected for the panels. This contract had very tight delivery timelines requiring AIL to keep up with 24-hour construction crews.
Owner: Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation
http://www.transportation.alberta.ca/projects/northeast_flash.html
Consultant: Earth Tech Canada (AECOM)
http://aecom.com/
Contractor: Flatiron
www.flatironcorp.com
More on Vist-A-Wall MSE Structural Wall Systems
Related Project: Athabasca Bridge
http://www.flatironcorp.com/index.asp?w=pages&r=5&pid=26&project=87
Alberta Construction Magazine's Top 10 Projects
http://www.albertaconstructionmagazine.com/articles.asp?ID=651
Vist-A-Walls in Edmonton's 23rd Avenue Interchange
http://www.ail.ca/EN/news/5-newsItem.cfm
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