The North Courtenay Connecter project will create a better and safer east-west route joining Highway 19 and the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. However, the new roadway runs across the Tsolum River floodplain, so a series of culverts was required to help protect the roadbed during floods.
Pipe Arches selected for low-rise hydraulic flow capacity
The team working on this BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (BC MoTI) project opted for seven Bolt-A-Plate Pipe Arch culverts from AIL to do the job. The Pipe Arch geometry offered an excellent wide-mouthed flow capacity that was perfect for this low-rise application with shallow cover. The seven units were all the same size (span 6.25 m, rise 3.92 m) but their lengths varied from 31 m to 42 m.
With seven different structures, this was a large order of materials to be delivered by a certain date on a tight timeframe. The contractor’s crew had not assembled Bolt-A-Plate before, so keeping all of the similar components well-organized on the job site would be key — but we had some ideas on that.
Colour coding keeps components organized
As soon as we received the order, our Technical Sales Team worked closely with our Engineering and Manufacturing departments to ensure that materials were moving through the supply chain and manufactured product would arrive on time. We developed a colour-coding system and made sure that each structure was clearly painted so the contractor’s crew could easily distinguish them once on site.
An AIL Technical Sales Representative and our Regional Engineer were on site to do a step-by-step installation walk-through with the contractor’s crew and we made ourselves readily available throughout the project cycle to answer any questions after that. The crew was very quick to pick up the installation sequence, with each structure going together faster than the previous.
Bolt-A-Plate is the product of choice for small- or medium-sized applications due to its light weight, strength and versatility. It is available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
