65 Lillian Street Condominium Building

65 Lillian Street Condominium Building

65 Lillian Street Condominium Building

Work on this jobsite included the excavation support system for a new condominium building located on 65 Lillian Street in Toronto, Ontario. HC Matcon used soldier piles and shotcrete lagging shoring (SPLS) with soil nails to support the excavation of an approximately 30-foot deep underground parking garage.

One challenge of this project was the close proximity of the excavation to the property line of the adjacent residential buildings. The consultant’s design included a caisson wall for this part of the system. HC Matcon proposed an alternative to save the owner and general contractor money, schedule time, and square footage of finished building by applying an equivalent system of shotcrete shoring and soil nails. This system will also act as a one-sided form for foundation walls.

During this project, there were some unforeseen obstacles for the shoring installation that required avoidance.

Utilities were found between the shoring system and the adjacent existing building footings to be demolished. HC Matcon was able to modify the pile design to support these utilities during demolition.


Other concrete obstructions were avoided by using an alternative pipe pile design to satisfy property line constraints, a perched walkway for the access of neighboring houses, and to facilitate the demolition of the existing parking garage.

HC Matcon will take on many challenges related to shoring and foundation design while keeping the interests of the general contractor and owner in mind.

Client: Lewis Build Corporation
Location: Toronto, Ontario

TTC Patten Building

TTC Patten Building

HC Matcon was retained to install micropile foundation for TTC Patten Building on 835 Davenport Road, Toronto. The building was originally designed for storage of paper tickets and when TTC transitioned to using tokens the increased loading caused settlement and structural issues which required strengthening of its foundations. 

The project consisted of drilling and installing 90 micropiles to a depth of 15M.  Working conditions presented an issue as drilling was restricted in a basement of an existing building where headroom was 3.5 meters high. HCM mobilized the Klemm low headroom drill rig in order to complete the project with productions to meet the strict deadlines required from TTC. 

The project was completed in a timely fashion and on budget. HC Matcon is well equipped to deal with difficult conditions presented on any project and are experts in micropile installations.

Client: Toronto Transit Commission & Buttcon LTD.

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Twinning of the West Trunk Sanitary Sewer

HC Matcon - Twinning of the West Trunk Sanitary Sewer

Twinning Of The West Trunk Sanitary Sewer

This project includes the installation of a deep trunk sanitary sewer within bedrock under Erin Mills Parkway in Mississauga. HCM together with RWH Engineering proposed an innovative and economical design and construction process for shoring the manholes and access shafts using caisson compression rings. Challenges that had to be dealt with included designing the compression ring to withstand large uneven surcharges caused by a close embankment in addition to large surface loading by a crane. To ensure the safety of the shoring system RWH Engineering is providing precession monitoring utilizing inclinometers.

Client: McNally Construction

Location: Mississauga, Ontario

 

Twinning of the West Trunk Sanitary Sewer - Caissons

Dufferin Mall

Dufferin Mall

Dufferin Mall Pedestrian Tunnel

This renovation project includes the challenge of constructing a 10ft wide by 12ft deep pedestrian tunnel inside an active mall. HCM together with RWH Engineering proposed an innovative design and construction process to accomplish this endeavor with very limited working space and tricky access issues. The construction involves:

• Shotcrete shoring to allow for vertical excavation of the tunnel area

• Bob Cat mounted TEI drill for the installation of tie backs

• Removal of excavated material via narrow stairwells and utility corridors

• Supply of materials and tools via narrow stairwells and utility corridors

In addition, HCM’s scope of work includes increasing the depth of an existing elevator pit, building underpinning, exterior stair concrete footings and retaining walls.

Client: EllisDon Corporation
Location: Toronto, Ontario

Alloa Feedermain

Alloa Feedermain

This project involved installation of 3 watertight caisson wall shafts. Two rectangular secant pile wall shaft approx 12m deep and one 6m diameter compression ring shaft approx 7m deep. In order to achieve the tight tolerance needed to ensure the shafts were in fact watertight the use of a guide wall was implemented. The guide wall was installed using Styrofoam form and concrete to allow drill casing to be perfectly centered over the drilled holes.

Client: McNally Construction
Location: Brampton, Ontario

Mount Royal University Conservatory

Mount Royal University Conservatory

Mount Royal University Conservatory

Design considerations for the foundations were similar to previous projects in the area, with installation of approx. 220 cast-in-place belled piles. The project design team for structural & geotechnical engineering consisted of local firms of Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. & Thurber Engineering Ltd. The need for the new addition to a campus was a result of fast growing student population at the Mount Royal University and demands for specialty studies.

The soil conditions at mentioned site consisted predominantly of clay till which is ideal for large capacity belled piles. The shafts for the piles were in the range of:

  • 900mm
  • 1000mm
  • 1200mm
  • 1370mm in diameter.

The bells were sized at:

  • 2000mm
  • 2400mm
  • 2800mm
  • 3400mm
  • 3600mm in diameter

 

Mount Royal University Conservatory - Soldier Piles & Lagging

The average basing depth on this project was approx. 12.0m – 15.0m with an occasional need to protect the upper portion of the pile shafts by using temporary steel caising in order to prevent ingress of water into the pile shafts. The average concrete volumes for single piles were approx. 20 – 24 cu. metres. Among the challenges for HCM was installation of piles in close proximity to concrete and steel underground utilities which were present on site as a result of previously demolished structure. In many cases this required coring and managing voids in the shafts after removal of these obstructions. Also, numerous piles were belled in soils with occurrence of large boulders which required special considerations for handling of equipment, customized tooling requirements and operating skills.

HCM finished foundation piling scope of work ahead of planned schedule.

Client: Cana Management
Location: Calgary, Alberta

Medicine Hat Regional Hospital – New Tower Expansion

Medicine Hat Regional Hospital – New Tower Expansion

Medicine Hat Regional Hospital – New Tower Expansion

The Government of Alberta and Alberta Health Services (AHS) have broken ground on this project, which will renovate and expand the hospital to improve patient services and reduce wait times. When complete, the $200-million redevelopment will expand available ambulatory care space and will allow more space for the emergency department, surgical suite, maternal/child care, and include a rooftop helipad.

HCM Contractors Inc. was successful with its’ proposal that included 100 Belled Caissons at depths up to 100 feet, 7000 ft2 of caisson wall, and the underpinning of 7 major columns to support the additional load imposed by the new structure. The underpinning is particularly challenging because much of the work is to be completed inside of an operational hospital with limited access and noise and vibration concerns. HCM employed a unique method of transferring the load from the column footings to the micro piles that ensured a good bond and efficient design.

This project comes on the heels of the newly constructed MHRH Energy Centre, another successfully completed project by HCM in the fall of 2012.

Client: Stuart Olson Dominion Ltd.
Location: Medicine Hat, Alberta