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DECEMBER 2018 | 11 Concrete PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY SURESPAN STRUCTURES LTD. Concrete's benefits make it an obvious choice to meet today's demands by ROBIN BRUNET O n September 21, 2018 in the Ottawa region, Brian Hall, managing director of the Canadian Precast Prestressed Concrete Institute (CPCI), turned in for the night as the rain pounded down outside, "only realizing the next morning that a major storm hit Ottawa, where many houses and busi- nesses were totally destroyed due to six tornadoes touching down," Hall recalls. The devastation in this part of Canada brought to light two things: first, the benefits and ongoing promotion of more wood in construction notwith- standing, concrete remains a far stronger building material. Second, if scientists are correct, weather patterns will become more extreme and common in coming years, meaning the push to build lighter will no longer be feasible in certain locales. "Building heavier seems to be the required direction to go," says Hall. The CPCI is as involved as ever in promoting sus- tainable construction. In fact, it is currently working with the National Research Council (NRC) on a new initiative to integrate the lifecycle carbon emissions of infrastructure into the decision-making process at various jurisdictional levels across Canada. "This means going beyond justifying projects based pri- marily on operational energy efficiency and heavily weighted on low capital costs," says Hall. "It is our vision to see infrastructure projects selected based also on their carbon footprint [CF] and total cost of ownership [TCO]." The plan is to develop and host a first-of-its- kind National Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database; to develop step-by-step whole-infrastructure LCA guidelines and LCA tools for calculating CFs and TCOs; and to incorporate these results seamlessly into the bidding process at various jurisdictional levels. Also, the CPCI recently introduced a new program, Accelerated Building Construction (ABC), which according to Hall "uses innovative planning, design materials such as manufactured precast concrete and construction methods, especially in the realm of universal and specific modularization. ABC seeks to gain the benefits of minimizing the mobility impacts for on-site construction by setting pre-construction processes and systems to a higher priority. It delivers projects in a safe, time-saving, cost-effective man- ner that optimizes resources in labour and material while nearly eliminating waste." Heavy Hitters As always, the CPCI is involved in promoting con- crete and facilitating its use, one example being its introduction of new web-enabled software that cal- culates thermal values for precast concrete wall assemblies. "Understanding and meeting energy and thermal performance requirements has become increasingly complex for building designers, and at the same time it has become clear that important decisions regarding basic enclosure assembly design and window area need to be made early in the design process to achieve the most cost-effective, energy- efficient, and comfortable building," says Hall. "CPCI's new web-enabled software provides designers, builders, and owners with a program to ensure com- pliance options for modern building energy codes, and suitable methods for quickly estimating, at an early design stage, the thermal performance of pre- cast concrete enclosure wall systems." Given the flurry of activity at the CPCI, one might assume that the rest of the industry – from precast to cast-in-place and everything in between, including the finishing and admixtures sectors – is going great guns in 2018. "And they would be right," says Matt Delange, general manager of Surespan Structures Ltd. Surespan is a vertically integrated company whose subsidiary and related companies have the ability to provide services from conceptual design to con- struction services in the form of pre-engineering and construction management, construction engineer- ing services, precast and post-tensioned concrete, ready mix concrete, equipment and temporary bridge rentals, metal fabrication, wind turbine erection, and piling, bridge, and general construction services. Delange notes, "We've been operating almost at capac- ity for some time now and are involved in quite a few interesting projects that showcase precast as a sys- tem that aids tight timelines." For example, Surespan recently worked with cli- ent Simon Fraser University and Bird Construction to supply and install precast architectural cladding and canopy panels for the SFU SE3P building facade, in white precast concrete with curved pieces and form liners evoking a circuit board. The white concrete included cement powder from Mexico and white sand from Ontario with local grey aggregate to create a slight texture in the panels, in conjunction with the fluting of the form liners. "About 335 cladding panels and 399 canopy panels were supplied and installed," says Delange. Surespan also supplied and installed a parkade and showrooms in Victoria for the GAIN auto group, for an Audi Maserati dealership. The project included 323 pieces of precast and prestressed elements, includ- ing double tees, spandrels, and wall panels. Surespan Construction Ltd., another member of the Surespan Group of Companies, erected the parkade in just two months. "The clients were very strict about what the dealership should look like, and we look forward to the grand opening in December," says Delange. Vancouver of course is a mecca for interesting concrete-related projects in 2018, none more unique than Vancouver House, a 55-storey mixed-use project Simon Fraser University SE3P building facade, Burnaby, B.C.

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