Page 13 - Tomlinson Times - Summer 2016

CUSTOMER SHOWCASE

CuStomer ShoWCaSe:

gilmour street trunk sewer

The Gilmour Street Trunk Sewer project is bringing health and safety to the forefront, as Greenbelt

tackles some unique construction challenges. The City of Ottawa selected Greenbelt Construction

and Tomlinson to install new underground sewers along Gilmour Street, from Elgin Street all the way

to the Rideau Canal. Work began in February 2016 and the bulk of the work is due to be completed

this year, with the final layer of asphalt being laid in 2017.

A key feature of the project is a deep shat located on So, in order to meet the OHSA requirements for safe

the edge of the Queen Elizabeth driveway and a few meters access to the site, Greenbelt designed and built a ladder
away from the Rideau Canal. Compleing the shat required speciically for the project and is using cranes to lit employees

temporary shoring of the shat to protect the workers inside. in and out of the shat. Secondly, since this is a long term work

Once the shat was excavated, Greenbelt then had to excavate environment at a depth of 15 meters, Greenbelt is constantly
a deep, horizontal tunnel which connected the shat to the monitoring air quality. Fresh air is pumped in and circulated

exising trunk sewer. “The shat was narrow as well as deep properly at all imes.

– only 7 meters in diameter and 15 meters deep,” explains As if the health and safety concerns weren’t enough,
Lyall Steele, Dispatcher and Health and Safety Coordinator, the City of Otawa also requested a compleion date of June

Greenbelt Construcion.
for the shat. Despite the aggressive schedule, Greenbelt
and Tomlinson have managed to remain on schedule while
“normally WE Would haVE morE Width
addressing the health and safety concerns. “This has been
to ExcaVatE to such a dEpth, but WE
a great team efort and we hope to be celebraing this irst
milestone soon,” commented Darrin Alberty, Project Manager,
didn’t haVE that option. this is thE
Greenbelt Construcion.
dEEpEst ExcaVation WE’VE pErformEd
And the lessons learned from this project will stand
to datE and it prEsEnts sEVEral the team in good stead for the $150 million tender they

potEntial dangErs. furthErmorE,
and Tomlinson have just won, in partnership with Dragados

Canada. The City of Otawa Combined Sewage Storage Tunnel
thE sEWErs along gilmour arE almost (CSST) will require the excavaion of even deeper shats

tWicE as dEEp as typical sEWErs, and in areas where gas lines, uiliies, and low overhead wires

arE closE to housing and buildings.”
present obstrucions. As Darrin comments, “This has been a
great learning curve for the upcoming CSST project and the

Access, egress, and air quality are some of the potenial challenges we will face with even deeper shats.”

risks to the health and safety of those working on the project.
“Needless to say safety is of paramount concern to Greenbelt

for our own employees as well as our subcontractors,”

says Lyall.

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