Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
No slacking off for consulting engineers
JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA Enlarge Image
New Manitoba Hydro building
IT's a good time to be an engineering consultant, and that's also good news for the province's construction industry.
"The last five years have been as busy as it's ever been," Harley Pankratz, president of Consulting Engineers of Manitoba Inc., said, and this year is shaping up to be just as busy.
Restoration of Waddell fountain earned award. (JOE.BRYKSA@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)
And the awards of excellence go to...
Here are this year's winners of Manitoba Awards of Excellence in Engineering:
Keystone Award:
-- AECOM Canada Ltd. and Crosier Kilgour Partners Ltd. for their work on Manitoba Hydro's award-winning downtown highrise office tower. AECOM provided the mechanical and electrical services and Crosier Kilgour provided the structural engineering services.
Engineering Awards:
-- AECOM and Crozier Kilgour Partners in the building engineering category for the Hydro project.
-- Accutech Engineering Inc., also in the building engineering category, for development of a new senior school in Arviat, Nunavut.
-- Crosier Kilgour & Partners, (infrastructure/transportation), for restoration of the 1914 Waddell fountain in Central Park.
-- AECOM, (environmental), for a project to remediate and redevelop several contaminated properties in Brandon.
-- Teshmont Consultants LP, (energy resource development), for providing a cost-effective solution for replacing PCB-filled AC filters, two HVDC converter stations and some aged, non-PCB-filled capacitors for Great River Energy.
-- KGS Acres Ltd., (municipal & water technology), for retrofitting the waste-water collection system at Manitoba Hydro's Pointe du Bois generating station.
Awards of Merit:
-- MMM Group Ltd., (infrastructure/transportation), for preparing design build documents and functional planning study for the CentrePort Canada Way inland port project in Winnipeg.
-- J.R. Cousin Consultants Ltd., (environmental), for designing a new solid waste disposal facility for the Town of Lynn Lake.
-- AECOM, (municipal & water technology), for its work on a new membrane-treatment water-waste treatment facility for the City of Brandon.
-- AECOM, (municipal & water technology), for its assistance in designing and constructing a new marine water main for the City of Kenora.
Lifetime Achievement Award:
AECOM Canada Ltd., for construction of a railway bridge and embankment at Emerson as part of floodway expansion.
-- George Rempel, co-founder of TetrES Consultants, for his individual achievements, leadership and contributions to consulting engineering over 35-plus years.
Engineering Action Award:
-- Ralph Kurth, president of Teshmont Consultants LP, for service and dedication to the Consulting Engineers of Manitoba Inc.
Rising Star Award:
-- Beth Phillip, emerging as a leader in the early stages of her career through outstanding engineering achievements and involvement with CEM.
-- Source: CEM Inc.
"Most people have as much work as they can handle."
A CEM official once said the role of an engineer is to "take the vision and all of the other things an architect wants to do, and make it a reality."
So when engineers are busy, that means a lot of new projects are proceeding. And that means more work for contractors and tradespeople.
It also usually means more jobs for engineering-industry workers, which include engineers, technologists, scientists and geologists.
Pankratz said industry officials are anticipating a modest increase in employment levels this year, although it won't be as big as last year's five to 10 per cent gain.
Pankratz was commenting as the industry prepared to honour 2009's best engineering projects at its 11th annual Manitoba Awards of Excellence in Consulting Engineering dinner, which was held Thursday night at the Winnipeg Convention Centre.
Twelve company awards and three individual awards were handed out, with the top honour -- The Keystone Award -- going to AECOM Canada Ltd. and Crosier Kilgour Partners Ltd. for their work on Manitoba Hydro's award-winning downtown highrise office tower.
"Manitoba Hydro Place has drawn attention from around the world and serves as a model of excellence internationally on how a project can be developed from the onset with sustainability in mind and utilize natural passive systems to create dynamic efficiencies in energy usage and human comfort," the CEM said in announcing this year's award winners.
A total of 23 projects were submitted for this year's competition. AECOM was the big winner, with five awards.
Pankratz said one of the reasons the engineering sector never experienced a slowdown during last year's recession is there were a number of ongoing projects that got underway before the downturn and continued into 2009. The Hydro building was an example of that and the airport redevelopment was another.
A flurry of new government infrastructure projects also helped to offset a slight decline in commercial and mining-industry projects last year, he said. And this year there seems to be just as much infrastructure work and the number of commercial and mining-related projects is starting to pick up again, he said.
murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 23, 2010 B4
History
Updated on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at 8:17 AM CDT:
AECOM Canada Ltd. won three Awards of Merit Thursday from the Consulting Enginéers of Manitoba Inc., including one for construction of a railway bridge and embankment at Emerson as part of floodway expansion.
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