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January/February 2013 Vol. 10 No.2

Ivan van SpronSen, rCaBC | BondIng & InSuranCe roofIng | InfraStruCture

Fortius Athlete Development Centre

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January/February 2013 | Volume 10 No.2

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Construction Business is British Columbia and Alberta’s construction magazine. Each issue provides timely and pertinent information to contractors, architects, developers, consulting engineers, and municipal governments throughout both provinces. Complimentary copies are sent bi-monthly to all members of the Architectural Institute of B.C., B.C. Construction Association, B.C. Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association, Consulting Engineers of B.C., Construction Specifica-tions Canada — B.C. Chapter, Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association, B.C. Ready-Mixed Concrete Association, Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C., Urban Development Institute of B.C. and Vancouver Regional Construction Association.

Inside

Industry Focus14 roofingPredicting Roof Surface TemperaturesDual Barrier RoofsAsphalt Shingle Design Trends

19 InfrastructureHealthy Public Infrastructure Victoria’s Largest Infrastructure ProjectInfrastructure Asset Management

25 Bonding & InsuranceInsurance Consistency NeededExtra Bond CostsBond Claims

Departments04 Message from the editor

31 the Legal fileDesign-Build Project DeliveryConstruction Contract Form and RealityAlliance ContractingLiens: No Guarantee of Payment

36 architect Corner Which App is this Anyway?

37 Industry news

06 Connections Ivan van SpronsenAfter taking over from Brian Hofler in 2010, Ivan van Spronsen is settling into his role as executive vice president of the Roofing Contractors Association of BC.

10 feature project fortius athlete development Centre A new purpose built building in Burnaby is a first of its kind in Canada, bringing together a wide range of world class sport medicine and rehabilitation specialists under one roof.

Cover photoFortius Athlete Development Centre, Burnaby, B.C.

Dan GnocatoTel: 604.549.4521 ext. 223

MARCH 19 & 20, 2013

NOVEMBER 5 & 6, 2013

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construction business January/february 20134

Editor’s Note

Playing Sports

I’ve enjoyed and participated in a variety of sports since I was a child — on school teams as well as recreationally. Hockey was an early passion of mine. From the school

gym and the street to the community rink, I remember the countless hours spent playing my favourite sport. Having played sports all my life, I’ve also suffered my fair share of in-juries. And anyone who has suffered an injury understands the importance of proper treat-ment and rehabilitation.

Athletes of all ages and abilities looking for medical expertise will soon have access to a new sport medicine and training facility in Burnaby. The state-of-the-art Fortius Athlete Development Centre, our feature project, is a first of its kind in Canada. It will bring world class sport medicine and rehabilitation spe-cialists under one roof. It is slated to open its doors this spring.

For our profile, I chat with Ivan van Spron-sen, executive vice president, RCABC. He has been in the role now for two years and he says his goal is really to continue the good work the association has done for the past five decades. RCABC is the leading source for technical standards on the many roofing systems used in B.C.

Coincidentally, this is also our roofing issue. We take a look at dual barrier roofs, asphalt shingle design trends and predicting roof surface temperatures. Other features you will find in the following pages include bonding and insurance and infrastructure.

As technology continues to evolve, how the industry does business is also changing. Archi-tect Brian Palmquist reviews tablet operating systems, identifies some weaknesses and software choices which will be of interest to many of you. (You might have caught his presentation at Buil-

dex Vancouver. He is a regular speaker on tech-nology at the Buildex conferences).

Finally, our legal experts cover a range of note-worthy topics: alliance contracting, design-build contracts and lien payments.

Cheryl MahManaging Editor

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Beneath the surface of the earth runs a complicated labyrinth of pipes and cables transporting anything from oil and gas to electricity and telecommunication services. These mazes are complex and constantly changing with the rise of infrastruc-

ture, construction, and improvement projects throughout the province. But as these projects increase, so does the importance of understanding what’s under your feet before you break ground.

Whether you’re building a road, constructing a building, or installing a fence, these underground systems can be dangerous. Hitting one of the pipes or cables could cause gas leaks, explosions, fires, and flooding, which can cause property damage and work delays, and potentially seri-ous injury or even death to workers or other bystanders. The good news is incidents can be avoided with careful planning and proper processes. And getting the information you need on where it’s safe to dig and how to dig safely can be a mouse click or phone call away.

As we all know planning is the key to any successful project and having a proper plan in place to locate underground utilities before any digging takes place is crucial. Doing the research, using check-lists, and applying best practices will help ensure the safety of every-one involved. Getting workers involved at the ground level can help eliminate confusion and answer questions, helping to lower the risk of incidents down the road.

Organizations such as the BC Common Ground Alliance (BCCGA) have developed best practices for safe digging and created a B.C. ver-sion of DIRT, a reporting tool allowing workers, employers, and com-panies to submit underground damage information online, including

near-miss reports. This allows industry to get a better understanding of the root causes behind incidents and how they can be prevented in the future. I encourage you to check out DIRT and all of the resources available at www.commongroundbc.ca.

BC OneCall, is another organization that can help. Give them a call before you dig and they’ll put you in touch with people who can give you with the information you need on where underground utilities are located. They can be reached, toll-free at 1.800.474.6886.

Preventing the consequences of striking buried facilities is a respon-sibility we all share. By doing so, we’ll prevent injuries and save lives. So, no matter how large or small the project is, make sure you know the location of all underground utilities prior to digging. WorkSafeBC is also a great resource for safety materials. Visit WorkSafeBc.com for safety tools such as toolbox meeting guide videos and many other con-struction safety resources.

April is Safe Digging month, and it’s a great opportunity to take a look at the tools and resources I’ve mentioned and increase safe digging awareness on your job sites. Whether it’s having a special safety meet-ing highlighting the dangers surrounding digging or spending some time looking over your safety checklists, it’ll be time well spent if it means preventing a workplace incident or injury.

Please let me know what you think of this topic or any construc-tion safety issue. Call me at 604.214.6989 from the Lower Mainland or toll-free elsewhere at 1.888.621.7233. Or email [email protected]. I’d like to hear from you.

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Connections

Staying on Top

roofing is in Ivan van Spronsen’s blood. Growing up in Dawson Creek, he started working summers in the family roofing business as a 14-year-old and

has never looked back.“I’m a roofer. It’s the only thing I’ve ever done,”

says the executive vice president of the Roofing Contractors Association of BC (RCABC).

By age 23, van Spronsen was managing one of the larger roofing contractors in B.C. with his two brothers. Looking for a change, he eventu-ally sold his interest in D.M. Henderson Roofing in 2004 and went to work for Nelson Roofing & Sheet Metal Ltd. on Vancouver Island. In 2010, he was approached to consider taking over as RCABC executive vice president with the retire-ment of Brian Hofler.

“I care passionately about this association and what we do in the industry, especially in terms of safety,” says van Spronsen about his decision to

BY CHERYL MAH

with Brian and have a tremendous amount of respect for what he and the board and the staff here have done. I want to make sure the integrity and the professionalism that has been established is maintained.”

van Spronsen oversees a staff of 17 including administrative personnel and training instruc-tors at RCABC’s head office and training cam-pus in Langley.

“I’m excited to get to work every day,” he says. “There has been a lot to learn and I’m at the point now where I’ve got to do some things twice which is fun.”

Established in 1958, RCABC is an associa-tion of professional roofing contractors, manu-facturers and suppliers. Currently membership numbers 70 associate members and 64 active firms. Members are responsible for the bulk of the work in the ICI sector but are also active in the residential sector.

“We’re not 100 per cent dependent on new construction. Re-roofing comprises about 60 per cent of the volume. When your roof is gone, you need it replaced no matter what the economy is doing… which has helped to offset some of the recent market challenges,” says van Spronsen, who expects market activity levels to remain steady for the next year or two with some region-al disparities.

As the oldest roofing association in Canada, RCABC has been at the forefront providing leadership, education, testing and warranty pro-grams to the roofing sector. Long standing pri-orities for the association include education and training, improving technical standards and en-suring a skilled professional workforce.

“We’ve been around 55 years and members are proud of RCABC and what we’ve accom-plished,” he says.

Safety is a core value of the association. That commitment to safety is reflected in its manda-tory requirement for all active members to be COR certified. RCABC implemented the re-quirement in 2011, becoming the first and only association in B.C. to do so.

After more than 30 years working in the in-dustry, van Spronsen knows first hand the im-portance of safety.

“There has been lots of unnecessary carnage in the roofing industry over the years. Roofer injuries tend to be pretty catastrophic,” he says, noting as an employer he experienced the emo-tional and moral turmoil of having an employee suffer a serious injury. “I’m really passionate about safety. It’s about ensuring workers get home safely every night.”

An invaluable resource for technical stan-dards, RCABC provides technical product in-formation through its comprehensive Roofing

join RCABC. “On the personal side, it was just a chance to reinvent myself — a new challenge.”

van Spronsen is no stranger to RCABC though. He sat on the board of directors from 2000-2005 and during that time, he also served as president.

“There’s a significant difference between being a roofing contractor and being a roofing associa-tion manager but having been president and on the board, my eyes were wide open to how broad the job description was and the challenges that were there,” he says, noting the association is dif-ferent from most because it is comprised of many different components.

He became associate executive vice president in October 2010 and worked closely with Hofler for seven months to prepare for the transition.

“My goal is really about not wanting to screw up what is a good organization,” he says with a laugh. “I spent a lot of time working

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Practices Manual. The manual is now available online which was a “huge undertaking” accord-ing to van Spronsen, “it’s fully searchable and works across all devices so when you’re on a job site and you need to know a specification, you can pull it up and look at it right there.”

RCABC prides itself on its technical expertise.“Our technical standards are unmatched be-

cause we’ve got 50 years worth of database of all roofing material performance in B.C.,” says van Spronsen. “We have very detailed roof perfor-mance characteristics on every single membrane over a long period of time in our actual climate. We do due diligence and testing before a prod-uct becomes a part of our standards and part of our guarantee program.”

RCABC’s RoofStar Guarantee Program (5 or 10 year) is a unique guarantee program that ensures quality materials are installed to specific standards by members. The program is backed by both the contractor and the RCABC Guarantee Corp and requires inspection of the roof by an independent third party.

“We carry the cost of repairs required under the terms of the guarantee after the first two years. The guarantee is held by the association and that motivates us to be extremely diligent that standards are being maintained,” explains van Spronsen, adding marketing the program (which was rebranded in 2011) has been a prior-ity for the association.

RCABC offers ongoing training and upgrad-ing programs for its members as well as the in-dustry at large. RCABC is the exclusive training provider for roofing, steep roofing and architec-tural sheet metal in B.C.

“If you want to become a journeyperson roofer, you have to do it here — at our facility,” says van Spronsen. “Roofing is highly techni-cal and detail oriented. A journeyperson roof-er will be fully versed in perhaps 15 different systems…and knows how to install all the dif-ferent products.”

He adds that training is also supplied without tuition to anyone who is qualified.

“There’s not a lot of apprenticeship training that you can get that is free of tuition. And it’s not exclusively for RCABC members,” he says, noting that RCABC funds all the capital costs and a percentage of the training which is not cov-ered by ITA.

New for 2013 are classes for residential steep roofing apprenticeship training.

“We’re really excited about the program,” says van Spronsen. “In conjunction with the ITA, we developed this program with the desire to profes-sionalize a portion of the industry that is pretty much unregulated and challenged with unskilled people with little safety training.”

RCABC is the exclusive training

provider for roofing, steep roofing and

architectural sheet metal in B.C.

Sustaining a skilled workforce will be critical for the industry. With the pending labour short-age due to an aging demographic, the association is pro-active about addressing the challenge.

“We’re trying to be creative in our approaches to attracting people into the trade. We are seeing more and more women coming into our industry which is exciting,” says van Spronsen, adding the association is also involved with the ACE IT pro-gram which allows high school students to take the Level 1 Roofing apprenticeship training.

Another important issue that RCABC and other trade contractor associations are closely monitoring is the proposed prompt payment legislation in Ontario. The legislation will ensure trade contractors get paid in a timely fashion. Delayed payments are common in the industry which can create hardships for many contractors who have to pay for their labour and materials quickly but find themselves waiting to be paid.

The Ontario trades and the National Trade Contractors Coalition of Canada are spearhead-ing the lobby and once legislation passes there, it is hoped that it will set a roadmap for other prov-inces to follow.

“Our goal is to have it passed into B.C. legisla-tion by year end. It will bring clarity around the payment of contracts,” says van Spronsen, who is also involved with COCA and COCTA. “Often what happens is subcontractors end up bearing a lot of the financial pressure as they have to pay their workers and suppliers in 30 days but they might not be paid by the GC for 120 days.”

When van Spronsen is not busy working, the father of three enjoys fishing and cheering on the Edmonton Oilers.

Building Information Modeling is moving into the mainstream in the construction sector. However, it still has its skeptics. Now available online, this V-Report explores the value and cost of implementing this technology. Learn from the experts about the uptake rate of BIM in Canada, benefits of adoption, barriers to use and the key “ingredient” for success with BIM.

The Value and Cost of BIM Implementation

Not getting our V-Reports? Sign up at [email protected] for direct delivery to your e-mail inbox. To sponsor a V-Report, contact Dan Gnocato at [email protected].

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Ian FairlieDirector, Information TechnologyZeidler Partnership Architects

CB_VReport_January_2013.indd 1 13-02-28 9:16 AM


feature Project

The first fully integrated sports medicine, science and training facility in Canada is set to open its doors this spring.Designed by leading sports architectural firm Cannon Design,

the Fortius Athlete Development Centre (formerly known as the MultiSport Centre of Excellence) will be a state-of-the-art complex

that brings together a wide range of world class sport medicine and rehabilitation specialists under one roof. »

BY CHERYL MAH

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feature Project

“This is a truly unique project…putting all these varied programs and services together into one place is not only innovative but a very ben-eficial approach,” says Cannon senior associate Greg Kensick.

The flagship facility for Fortius Sport & Health, a not-for-profit society, is being built on approximately 5.3 acres in the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex. As the largest sport park in Metro Vancouver, the area already has ice rinks, tennis courts, soccer fields, rowing facilities and a swimming pool.

It’s an ideal location for the project as it com-plements the current public and private sports fa-cilities in the area and future facilities identified in Burnaby’s strategic long range plan.

Stuart Olson Dominion Construction (SOD-CL) initially broke ground on the $61 million complex in 2008 but the project stalled shortly af-terwards when the global recession hit. Unlike most Canadian sports facilities, the project is privately funded and owned. The project was revived in 2011 with additional funding and a sizeable donation by founder and chair of the project Scott Cousens.

“Once the market crashed it didn’t make sense to continue with the project so it was shelved and then we came back in the summer of 2011,” says SODCL project superintendent Jon Grimston. “We’re into the finishing stages and looking at commissioning soon. The target is April 1 for a soft opening.”

The 144,000-square-foot building at the cor-ner of Sprott Street and Kensington Avenue will feature a sport medicine and rehabilitation clin-ic, a strength and conditioning centre, a multi-purpose gymnasium, office space, an athlete’s village and sport-related retail. Pharmasave and SportMedBC have already signed on as tenants.

The first two levels of the five storey structure (referred to as the podium) houses the various operations while the upper three levels contain the athlete’s village with 120 beds (60 rooms). The site also includes a 200 plus stall surface parking lot.

The building exterior is a combination of cur-tain wall, composite cladding and Alucobond metal paneling. The main lobby features radiant in-slab heating with a polished concrete floor.

Concrete was poured right through last winter with the podium (Phase I) completed at the end of January 2012. Inclement winter weather, how-ever, was a challenge.

“Last fall and winter were the wettest months on record. A lot of the slabs are exposed polished concrete making the slab pours quite challeng-ing,” says Grimston.

The second phase of construction was the ath-lete’s village.

“It was a $7 million change order to add on the village,” notes Grimston. “By adding the village it obviously changed the complexity of the job. We always knew there was the potential for the village and it was a matter of financing.”

Other challenges have included maintaining schedule while accommodating evolving owner design changes. Poor soil conditions were also an initial challenge.

“This project has required a lot of planning and re-planning just based on changes and different conditions. Lots of attention has been needed on all the finishing details and materials used but overall it has worked out well,” says Grimston.

Manpower has averaged 130 and is expected to peak at 150.

The flagship facility for Foritus Sport & Heath... is being built on

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Lake Sports Complex.

January/february 2013 construction business 13

feature Project

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Following the guiding principles of integration, collaboration and in-novation, the design goal was to create a world class integrated sports facility for athlete development and health promotion. Facilitating a design for multiple users and requirements was a challenge.

“To get a program and a vision together that would satisfy all the various users was a huge accomplishment,” says Kensick.

He feels the end result will be a striking building, “The palette of mate-rials is substantive and has been given a lot of thought. Herman Miller has come on as a partner in the building program. All the furniture systems and most of the millwork have been supplied by them.”

The use of Swisspearl panels on the podium adds punches of different co-lours while the entrance is clearly defined with a curvilinear canopy. A cedar soffit on the canopy extends into the interior and ties in with the floating cedar ceiling in the main lobby.

“Architecturally it was envisioned as a wood cloud,” explains Kensick.Natural daylighting was optimized with a two storey clerestory and

a skylight. Vertical tempered glass sunshades minimize the building’s heating load.

The building is equipped with state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, se-curity systems and audio visual. A range of specialized equipment will help to assess and treat athletes such as a hydrotherapy pool with an underwater treadmill.

By providing access to an extensive range of sports-related medical ser-vices and practitioners, the facility is expected to have a major impact on how sports medicine is delivered and the development of athletes of all ages from amateurs to professionals. It will also put Burnaby on the map as hav-ing a one of a kind sports park.

“Success of any project is teamwork,” sums up Kensick, who previously worked with Stuart Olson on the Richmond Oval. “And certainly all the parties came together and did their part to contribute.”

Adds Grimston, “Everyone’s excited seeing it come together. We want it to be a project to be proud to look back on.”

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roofing

Surface temperatures of the building envelope can sometimes reach extreme values due to solar radiation, which can increase temperatures by 20 or 30

°C. In fact, radiation from the roof to the sky can actually decrease surface temperatures. It there-fore becomes difficult to predict what tempera-ture range to expect, unless you have lots of field experience in a given climate.

The same problem was discovered in the de-sign of solar energy collectors, where it was use-ful to know the surface temperature of the col-lector plate in evaluating the effectiveness of the solar collection system. Designers at Levelton Consultants Ltd. thought that it would be useful to characterize the effects of solar heating, inde-pendent of whatever was being heated. A con-cept known as sol-air temperature was used to characterize the “effective” temperature of the air just above the surface, which took into account the effect of solar heating. From there, one could figure in the effect of local wind and geometry to predict surface temperature.

The calculation of sol-air temperature was based on a theoretical energy balance, which accounted for heat flows to and from the sur-face. This was done because, in the strictest sense, you couldn’t involve the surface itself or you would then have to account for heat trans-fer between the surface and whatever was under that surface, which would mean that the sol-air temperature could not be calculated indepen-dent of the surface itself. So they separated the two, and came up with a fictitious intermediate temperature that ignores the building under the roof assembly.

As it happens, engineers don’t really like fictitious temperatures. So when the Roofing Contractors Association of British Columbia asked Levelton to come up with a way to pre-dict the effects of solar heating for a given lo-cation and roof system, they thought that the sol-air temperature would be just the thing, if they modified it to represent a “real” tempera-ture. In fact, they suggested that one could use the sol-air temperature as a direct predictor of surface temperature, as they suspected that an insulated roof (nominally R28 or R40, say) would experience relatively little heat transfer between the surface of the roof and the build-ing under it.

For portability and simplicity, the sol-air cal-culation tool was developed as a spreadsheet ap-plication. A quick calculation was desired, but a single instantaneous calculation was not con-sidered to be useful. Monthly or annual results would produce a large amount of output data

that would be confusing, and would slow down the calculation, so a diurnal temperature profile was determined to be the most useful form of output.

Comparison to Monitored dataLevelton installed monitoring systems on several metal roof systems in Vancouver and Whistler. The direction, location and surface type of the roof systems varied, but the measured maximum surface temperatures are compared with the computed values in the following table:

The only agreement in the above cases occurs on the north panel of a roof in Vancouver, which happens to be insulated (all other panels in the above table were uninsulated metal roofs above vented attic space). This underlines a key aspect of sol-air temperature: it is a surface effect only, and its development ignores heat transfer from the surface to the underlying structure.

Comparison to Calculated dataThe hypothesis that an insulated assembly would be an appropriate subject for sol-air analysis was tested by comparing results from the sol-air calculator with more detailed finite-volume models of assemblies of interest.

A copper-clad roof (Figure 2) was investigated to estimate expected surface temperature under sun-lit conditions. This roof had been leaking and was to be repaired. The existing assembly relied on the copper sheeting for waterproofing, and the many joints and seams in the roofing panels provided

Predicting roof Surface TemperaturesBY ALEX MCGOWAN

Surface Temperature, °C

measured calculated difference

Vancouver, dark brown roof, 6:12 pitch (south)(faces north) cap flashing (horizontal)

42.545.445.9

60.743.455.4

-18.22

-9.5

Vancouver, faded turquoise roof, 5:12 pitch (south) cap flashing (horizontal)

47.4N/A

60.455.8

-13N/A

Figure 2


roofing

several potential avenues for leaks. The preferred repair would install a waterproofing membrane, but as a heritage assembly, the exterior appear-ance of the roof was to be maintained. The pro-posed solution was to install a self-adhered mem-brane covered with copper cladding, but solar heating on the metal surface could heat the sur-face above the service temperature of the self-ad-hered membrane. The result could be softening of the adhesive mastic behind the self-adhered membrane, or melting of the membrane itself. The sol-air calculator predicted a surface tem-perature of 91.2°C, and the finite-volume cal-culation predicted 96.8°C, within a reasonable level of accuracy. Thus, Levelton had some con-

fidence that the expected surface temperature of this roof would exceed 90°C. As a consequence, they specified a high-temperature self-adhered membrane for this application, with a softening temperature of over 110°C (rather than the stan-dard membrane that softens at 60°C).

ConclusionThe insulated roof approximates the condition of an adiabatic assembly, and therefore the sol-air analysis is suitable for this condition. It doesn’t work well for an uninsulated assembly, but the result actually overpredicts surface temperature, which is a conservative result so one could use it in that case as well.

Where sol-air calculation is appropriate, it provides a simple tool to estimate surface tem-peratures without the need for detailed and complex computer modelling. This tool can be used with some confidence to predict the effect of solar heating on surface temperatures of insulated assemblies during the service life of the system. It would be possible to expand the sol-air tool to include nighttime cooling or lo-cations other than British Columbia, but that was beyond the scope of the investigation upon which this paper is based.

Alex McGowan, P.Eng., is vice-president, tech-nical services at Levelton Consultants Ltd.. The above was excerpted from his paper: “A Practical Design Tool to Predict Surface Temperature in Solar Heating: Theory, Practice and Case Studies”.

Where a sol-air calculation is appropriate, it

provides a simple tool to estimate surface

temperatures without the need for detailed

and complex computer modelling.

Figure 1. Screen capture from sol-air temperature calculator. User enters location and the slope,

direction and finish of roof assembly.

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roofing

durable roof design is accomplished by the selection of proven high perfor-mance materials, detailed to accepted standards and assembled by skilled

trades people. If one of the three parts fail, the roof can fail prematurely and/or perform poor-ly. With sound design following the dual bar-rier theory, defects in workmanship and mate-rial operation can have a reduced impact on the roof ’s performance.

Waterproofing systems or roofing membranes within the roof assembly are generally the only barrier to keep the elements out. This is unlike other building components such as windows or walls. Standard building cladding design recogniz-es that a good performing wall consists of layers of materials or zones to resist wind, heat, rain, etc.

Protected membrane roof (PMR) assemblies can provide superior performance over conven-tional exposed roof membranes since the mem-brane is protected by insulation and ballast from mechanical damage, ultraviolet rays, and thermal cycling.

Drawbacks of the traditional PMR include restrictions to positive drainage, and increased

dead load to the structure. The water that collects and drains over the PMR (under the insulation), can decrease the service life of the roof mem-brane. The flow of water also reduces the effec-tiveness of the insulation. Including the theory of “dual barrier” design can help manage some weaknesses of the traditional PMR. However, while the concepts for dual barrier designs have been common with wall systems, they are less recognized with roof systems. Common uses of dual barrier wall systems include two stage clad-ding sealant joints, compartmentalized window frames and rain screen walls are examples of rain control redundancy. Roof systems over podium decks function as dual barrier PMR where the majority of water drains over hard or soft land-scaping to bi-level drains. Any water that reaches the primary roof membrane is allowed to drain at the lower level of the bi-level drain.

Dual barrier roofing can be incorporated by adding new layers to further improve the performance of a protected roof assembly. The “dual barrier” or “rain screen” PMR has multi-ple water resistance planes to improve leakage resistance. The placement of these additional

water resistance planes can vary depending on the roof. Typically, PMRs utilize the addition-al layer(s) of material above the insulation to act as an additional drainage layer. While this layer(s) above the insulation is not the primary waterproofing component of the PMR, it does act as the first component to shed bulk water to the drains. Typical PMRs consist of, from the top down, ballast, ballast reducing fabric, moisture resistant insulation (extruded poly-styrene), roof membrane and structural roof deck (see Figure 1). Selecting ballast reduc-ing fabrics that shed water will change a typi-cal PMR to a dual barrier system. This can be done with minimal effect on the material and labour cost of the PMR.

Simply described, a dual barrier system is a protected membrane roof assembly which has a primary roof membrane that is the principal plane of air and water tightness, but also incor-porates a secondary layer that can function as the first water shedding layer. This layer can also be designed to better separate the ballast from the insulation and membrane below, reduce air movement under the insulation and provide wa-ter retention above the insulation.

The benefits of the typical PMR can improve the roofs performance over most conventional roof assemblies. PMR dual barrier systems can further improve the roofs performance to ad-dress variables in the materials and how they get installed. Leak prevention is enhanced by dual barrier roofs, but additional benefits can include: increased/extended membrane perfor-mance; improved thermal effectiveness of the insulation; cost effective renewal opportunities; reduced maintenance costs; and improved life cycle costing.

PMR dual barrier roofs increase roof perfor-mance over typical PMRs. The redundancy in the roof ’s performance will help protect the building manager’s key roofing asset at a mini-mal cost. This approach is equally valid in new construction and retrofits, and owners appre-ciate the added value at a minor incremental capital premium.

Torsten T. Ball, B.Eng., RRO, GRP, LEED AP, is a senior project manager at Halsall As-sociates, a national building engineering firm providing consulting services for new and ex-isting buildings, including structural and clad-ding engineering, green planning and design, building restoration and renewal, capital plan-ning, and due diligence consulting. Torsten is a member of Halsall’s facility services depart-ment, and is a LEED Accredited Professional, a Registered Roof Observer (RRO), and one of Canada’s first designated Green Roof Profes-sional (GRP) consultants.

dual barrier roofsBY TORSTEN T. BALL

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roofing

asphalt Shingle design TrendsDesigner Look; Demanding Performance.

2013 promises continued evolution in the world of North America’s most popular roofing choice, asphalt shingles. With a variety of styles, colours and price ranges,

asphalt shingles continue to meet the challenge. While laminated shingles, where multiple sec-

tions of shingles are bonded together to increase dimensionality have been popular for almost 30 years, asphalt shingle manufacturers are challeng-ing the traditional wood shingle appearance with a multitude of styles, cuts and colours to create the “designer look” residential property owners want.

With many available styles, shapes, and colour blends, affordable aesthetics are driving evolu-tion in asphalt shingle design.

“The designer shingle look is without ques-tion a driving trend in today’s market,” says Carol Perkins, director of marketing at IKO. “Looking at the whole house, creating a way for the roof to stand out and define value, is something con-sumers want and something manufacturers are focused on delivering.”

But it’s not just aesthetics driving new devel-opment in the asphalt shingle industry. Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association (ARMA) and the industry have worked proactively and co-operatively with code agencies to develop codes and standards that impact the way shingles are expected to perform.

In recent years, three primary technical trends have emerged as drivers to influence shingle construction:

• Reflectance for increased energy efficiency in southern climates.

• Improved impact resistance.• Increased attention to the wind resistance re-

quirements in hurricane-prone regions.

“While reflective roof coverings are becoming more widely used, they are not always the best option when considering energy cost and con-sumer preference,” says Reed Hitchcock, ARMA executive vice president. “The use of a balanced

whole building envelope approach will provide a much greater flexibility in colour selection and more choices when installing a new roof.”

Energy efficiency is important for any building. When the roof is properly consid-ered as part of the thermal envelope, there is a choice between insulation and reflectance, or a combination of both. Using more insulation reduces heat transfer from the roof and thus saves on air conditioning costs in the summer and heating costs in the winter. A reflective roof covering over ventilated attics can lower the attic temperature, but the energy savings may not be significant enough to drive choice.

“In addition to the energy efficiency aspects of asphalt shingles, there is an emerging trend in sustainability addressing end of life — shingle recycling is now available in most metropolitan areas,” adds Hitchcock.

Sue Burkett, marketing leader residential roofing, at Owens Corning shares, “in addition to developing leading-edge performance prod-ucts that meet market demands, manufacturers are also impacted by changing codes, assur-ing proper installation, including accurate nail placement is imperative for performance, espe-cially in high wind conditions.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently implemented changes to the wind requirements in ASCE-7 which is the stan-dard for building engineering to meet code crite-ria for wind, earthquakes, snow loads and other design criteria. ASCE 7 was updated in 2010. In general, manufacturers continue to focus on product developments that meet or exceed mar-ket demand or regulatory requirements.

But wind events aren’t the only challenge Mother Nature throws at roofing materials. In 2012, there were more than 3,000 hail events in the United States. Damage caused by hail can be noticed immediately or can manifest as latent damage, causing premature deterioration of shin-gles. Developing a robust line of impact-resistant products, compliant with product impact test standards for use in diverse areas of the country, is another trend.

“With a growing consumer-driven focus on performance, pressure to respond with new test-ing and proven compliance continues to be a priority of manufacturers in the industry,” says Emily Cavanagh, director of shingles and new product development at GAF.

The effect of changing energy efficiency and sustainability regulations seeking increased re-flectance, code requirements driving increased wind performance and consumer driven require-ments for greater weather resistance are impact-ing shingle design and development trends.

Cavanagh continues: “We believe that deliv-ering property owner’s products that not only provide beauty and add value to their homes, but also meet increasing performance expecta-tions, will assure asphalt shingles continue to be the number one residential roofing choice in North America.”

Asphalt roofing systems not only offer superb colours and beautiful styles, but they also deliver unparalleled durability, reliability and perfor-mance. Asphalt roofing systems provide long-life expectancy and require little to no maintenance, making them cost-effective.

For more information about asphalt shingles, visit the ARMA website at www.asphaltroofing.org.

...manufacturers continue to focus on

product developments that meet or exceed

market demand...


Infrastructure

Healthy Public Infrastructure Report showcases the economic value of sustained investment in Canada’s infrastructure assets.BY MICHAEL ATKINSON

a report released in February by one of Canada’s leading think tanks dem-onstrates the vital link between the investment in infrastructure such as

roads, bridges and water treatment systems, and Canada’s economic performance.

Although most Canadians readily accept that infrastructure investments provide short term ben-efits — whether through job creation or spurring demand for building materials and equipment — the Canada West Foundation (CWF) report high-lights, for the first time, just how far these invest-ments extend, as well as their necessity if Canada is to continue to compete internationally, increase our trade, and maintain our standard of living.

The authors of the report note that Canadian governments have long “agonized” over how to improve the persistent problem of lagging pro-ductivity, even despite lower taxes and increased funding for research and education. Their con-clusion is that the missing link is investment in public infrastructure.

The report, entitled At the Intersection: The Case for Sustained and Strategic Public Infra-structure Investment, analyzes 200 international studies related to the economic impact of pub-lic infrastructure investment and found a broad consensus that “investment in public infrastruc-ture does contribute to long-term growth and generates significant benefits over and above other forms of government spending.”

These studies also show substantial agreement that inadequate public infrastructure funding is a threat to a country’s long-term growth and eco-nomic prospects.

The CWF urges governments to resist the temptation to reduce infrastructure investments

traffic jams, unresolved water treatment prob-lems and countless boil water orders.”

The federal government has been the catalyst for national infrastructure renewal efforts, and funding remains vital as it helps offset the grow-ing financial burden our aging infrastructure is placing on other levels of government.

The CWF provides five investment recom-mendations that include one important caveat: the benefits are not automatic and must be made in a strategic manner. The CWF recommends ensuring investment is sustained, is linked to national and local economic priorities, and that it sets aside a portion requiring innovative prod-ucts and technologies that will spur Canadian research and development.

In early 2012, CCA and a number of orga-nizations came together in the Municipal In-frastructure Forum (MIF) to build consensus on Canada’s infrastructure needs. The group put together a 20-year roadmap for secure and stable investment to keep pace with Canada’s growing needs. Today, CCA is hopeful that through Budget 2013, the Government of Can-ada will provide the funding necessary to enact the MIF infrastructure plan and help secure our economic future.

As the CWF report shows, when it comes to infrastructure, Canada is truly at an intersec-tion. The infrastructure challenge is only going to get bigger if we don’t address it head on. The good news is that by taking action now, we can create the conditions necessary to help secure Canada’s future.

Michael Atkinson is the president of the Canadian Construction Association.

as Canada recovers from the economic recession. Investments are needed now to ensure Canada can better compete with our global competitors who are leveraging sustained infrastructure in-vestments as a key nation building tool.

The authors note that emerging countries like China, India and Indonesia spend more than 10 per cent of their GDP on infrastructure, whereas Canada, even at its peak in the 1960s, only spent five per cent of GDP on infrastructure.

Canada, with a proud infrastructure legacy boasting some of the world’s most impressive projects such as the Canada Pacific Railway, St. Lawrence Seaway, Trans-Canada Highway, Confederation Bridge and Manitoba flood system, now invests just two per cent of GDP on infrastructure.

The results of infrastructure underinvestment were demonstrated last September with the re-lease of the first ever Canadian Infrastructure Report Card by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers (CSCE), the Canadian Public Works Association (CPWA) and the Canadian Construction Association (CCA).

The Report Card examined the state of in-frastructure such as municipal drinking water, wastewater, storm water and road systems in 123 Canadian municipalities, and showed nearly 30 per cent of Canada’s municipal infrastructure stock is at risk.

Last month, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives argued decades of underfunding has created an infrastructure gap estimated at $145 billion. They also painted a vivid picture of the effects of this gap on modern life in Canada, including “spine-jarring streets, mind-numbing


Infrastructure

In a city known for its history and heritage pres-ervation, replacing an aging 90-year-old bridge is no easy task. Victoria’s Johnson Street Bridge has been a highly visible and recognizable

landmark to the city’s harbour and downtown since 1924. Construction of its replacement is set to begin this year. It is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken by the City of Victoria.

Located in the heart of downtown, the bridge crossing provides an important transportation corridor into Victoria’s central business, en-tertainment, and tourism districts. It connects the growing residential area of Victoria West and neighbouring municipalities of Esquimalt, View Royal, Saanich, Colwood, and Langford with Victoria’s downtown core.

With approximately 30,000 crossings taking place each day, including private and commercial vehicles, local transit, pedestrians and cyclists, the Johnson Street Bridge is one of the busiest and most important transportation routes in the area. On average, more than 4,000 pedestrians and 3,000 cyclists use the bridge to access Victo-ria’s downtown each weekday. Many who use the bridge connect from regional area trails includ-ing the Galloping Goose, Lochside, and E&N Rail trail.

Located over a federal waterway, the existing bascule lift bridge also serves the marine indus-

try, commercial vessels and recreational marine users by providing access through the marine channel below.

A few years ago, a condition assessment of the aging bridge identified many issues com-mon to other bridges built in the 1920s: ex-tensive corrosion to steel structural beams, and obsolete mechanical and electrical systems. The assessment also noted significant seismic

vulnerability as Victoria is located in an area with a high probability for an earthquake. It was determined that a substantial investment in the bridge would be required to avoid further deterioration, increasing operational costs, and possible closure.

Victoria city council considered many factors important to the community when determining the bridge’s future. These includ-ed safety concerns of the current bridge, heri-

Victoria’s largest Infrastructure Project BY KEN JARVELA

tage values, traffic and business disruptions, and accessibility needs for pedestrians and cy-clists. After extensive public consultation, city council decided to build a new bridge.

The new bridge will be built to serve the com-munity for the next 100 years. It will provide improved safety and accessibility for cyclists, pedestrians, and those who use mobility aids. By building a bridge with on-road cycling lanes and an accessible multi-use trail, the bridge will encourage more citizens to commute by walk-ing or cycling to access downtown.

One of the unique features of this project is that the new bridge will be built just north of the existing one. By allowing the existing bridge to remain open throughout construc-tion, the need for detours and traffic delays will be significantly reduced and will support the continued economic vitality of Victoria’s downtown and central business district. These were two important factors considered when Victoria chose to replace the bridge rather than refurbish it.

Once complete, the new bridge will be one of the largest single-leaf lift bridges in Canada — and in the world, creating a new iconic structure and attraction for Victoria’s Inner Harbour.

The new bridge will include three traffic lanes, on-road bike lanes, a multi-use trail for pedestri-

Once complete, the new bridge will

be one of the largest single-leaf lift bridges

in Canada...


Infrastructure

ans and cyclists, a separate pedestrian deck allow-ing for better views towards downtown and the harbour, and improved accessibility with wid-ened sidewalks for pedestrians, strollers, walkers, and wheelchairs. The bridge will also feature new and improved plaza areas for the public to view the harbour detours and traffic delays, will incor-porate traffic calming features and will be built to a lifeline seismic standard.

In addition, a public art piece and a new park are planned enhancements to the area as a result of the bridge project.

The Urban Development Institute estimates that construction of the new bridge will have long term local economic benefits in excess of $500 million. This includes economic benefits from new developments and overall revitaliza-tion of the area.

PCL Constructors Westcoast has been con-tracted to build the new bridge. Work is ex-pected to begin this summer and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2015.

Ken Jarvela is the senior project manager for the City of Victoria’s Johnson Street Bridge Re-placement Project. For more information, visit www.johnsonstreetbridge.com

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WHAT GOES UPMUST BRING COSTS DOWNNo matter how high a building reaches, it’s the bottom line that’s most important. And with BC Hydro’s New Construction Program, developers can save even more money through energy-efficient buildings. Proven to be happier, healthier places to work and live, energy-efficient buildings also enjoy enhanced marketability, higher asset value, and lower turnover. And we’ll be there from the start, helping with building design, system design and lighting design. We’ve streamlined the application process and increased funding to help with initial cost barriers. So not only will your next project be energy efficient, but economically efficient as well.

If you’re in the planning stages of a new project, we’d like to tell you more about how we can help get you started on an energy-efficient building.

For more information, call 604 522 4713 in the Lower Mainland, 1 866 522 4713 elsewhere in BC, or visit bchydro.com/construction.

Today, building energy efficiency into new high-end, high-profile mega-projects like the 2010 Olympic Village or the Vancouver Convention Centre seems like a pretty solid bet. Bigger costs up-front for state-of-the-art technology will almost certainly be equaled by bigger gains later, in greater marketability as well as substantially lower operating costs over the long-term.

But what about smaller projects, like offices and warehouses, or more modest multi-unit residentia l or commercial buildings, on tighter budgets and requiring a quicker turnaround? Is the latest in energy efficiency really cost-effective for them?

BC Hydro’s Luis Damy says it is, particularly energy efficient lighting design.

“For offices, warehouses and parkades in MURBs,” says Damy, program manager of the New Construction Program, “lighting makes up a large percentage—as much as 50 per cent—of ongo-ing electricity costs, but at the same time, going energy-efficient on your lighting is low cost in comparison to other new, high-end conservation technologies.”

BC Hydro’s New Construction Program (NCP) is offering what Damy calls “unprecedented and unbeatable” incentives that in-clude $1,000 for creating an energy efficient lighting design that exceeds the B.C. building code by 10 per cent or more, and a size-able incentive to help cover the costs of buying and installing the new lighting. Exactly how sizeable that incentive is depends on the total electrical savings of the energy-efficient design but, says Damy, “we increased our lighting incentives by 70 per cent a year ago, and the incentive is substantial.”

Damy cites Bontebok Holdings Ltd. as one of many examples where the NCP has worked to a developer’s advantage. Over the past three years, Bontebok has received more than $270,000 in NCP incentives for four warehouse projects, based on electricity savings of 1.63 million kilowatt hours in 679,000 square feet of space. Bontebok’s Ron Emerson is now a firm believer in work-ing with his lighting designer, Cantec Electric, to create energy-efficient lighting design because it “results in savings on operating costs, while the rebates from BC Hydro make the initial increase in capital costs palatable.”

Says Damy, “It makes sense to build energy-efficient lighting, as well as other measures if you can, into a new building at the de-sign stage rather than to retrofit later on. Your operating costs are immediately lower so you don’t waste money, and you’re able to determine exactly what you want from the get-go.”

Jerry Wyshnowsky, director of energy and environment for Thrifty Foods, agrees. “Energy efficient lighting design early in the design process pays dividends in many ways,” he says. “Because of lower energy consumption, efficient lighting produces less heat, which means that we are not running refrigeration systems to re-move the heat produced by lighting our products. The products look better and stay fresh longer. As a result there is less waste all around, which helps keep prices low.”

Important, too, for most building developers and designers is the fact that applying to the New Construction Program is easy. For the Energy Efficient Lighting Design component, the lighting designer receives a lighting calculator spreadsheet that makes it simple to determine exactly what lighting will achieve the best en-ergy savings — and the highest incentives — while still delivering the right quality and quantity of light to a space.

For more information about the New Construction Program and its full range of tools and incentives, visit bchydro.com/construction.

energy efficientlighting design

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BEING POWER SMART MAKES BUSINESS SENSEWhen the expanded St. Mary’s Hospital in Sechelt opens in June 2012, it will be a showcase of the latest in safe patient care, where every patient will have his or her own room and bathroom, there will be separate sinks for staff, and everyone will benefit from maximum natural light and fresh air.

“St. Mary’s will be a model for how best to control diseases that can be transmitted from patient to patient,” says Dave Mackintosh, Director of Capital Projects for Vancouver Coastal Health. “At the same time, though, we wanted to make sure this expansion was energy efficient, because the more we can reduce our operating costs, the more we can put back into health care.”

By working with BC Hydro’s New Construction Program to computer-model the expansion, Dave and the project architect, Peter Busby of Busby Perkins + Will, were able to see exactly which energy-efficiency measures will save them the most.

“The energy modeling showed that we could reduce energy consumption by more than 360,000 kilowatt hours a year,” says Peter. “An added benefit: St. Mary’s will also be eligible for BC Hydro incentives to help with the cost of creating a high-performance building.”

Are you looking for new ways to build better?

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BUIldING SAfE PATIENT cARE ANd ENERGy EffIcIENcy AT ST. MARy’S


Infrastructure asset ManagementBY BERT MUNRO

In the summer of 2012, the Honourable Ste-phen Fletcher, Minister of State for Infra-structure, and others toured many parts of our country to hear from Canadians about

the need for a renewed federal infrastructure program to replace the expiring Building Canada Plan. The conclusions from these “round table” meetings have yet to be formally published. However, a number of those invited to attend have summarized what they heard, and there is significant agreement among them, although some regional differences do exist.

The opinions of those in attendance, myself included, resoundingly support a new, long-term, effectively managed, needs-based, equitably dis-tributed, federal funding arrangement with the provinces, territories, and municipalities. Interest-ingly, the motivation of those speaking appeared to be both to sustain our current economic con-dition, as well as to preserve what has been previ-ously built, for future generations. Whether this is due to the impact of bridges or malls collapsing or public and private sector pressure for improved transportation systems or new stadiums is unclear. However, what is apparent is that our professional and ethical obligations as engineers to preserve what we in Canada have been naturally blessed with, and what has already been built in this great country, are aligned with the interests of Canadi-ans in general. To maintain our competitiveness in Canada, we need to invest in our infrastructure. Investment in infrastructure is not an expense, but it is an investment in the future.

Professional engineers are obligated under the law to work for the protection of society, the environment, and, vicariously, the public purse. This balance is simply stated, yet often difficult

to achieve, given the associated financial, politi-cal and public influences on development and sustainability. From my perspective, the desire to meet “wants” before “needs”, frequently gets in front of the effective operation and conservation of those assets already in place, or highly critical, but less glamorous infrastructure needs. Often this is with little regard to the criticality of the existing assets and their impact on the preser-vation of our social order. Yet, if we as a society clearly recognize and embrace the need for ef-fective management of our existing assets (such as forests, rivers, buildings, bridges, or drinking water systems), then we will ultimately create benefits for future generations of Canadians. If we ensure the optimal life of infrastructure in-vestments, the reinvestment in critical infrastruc-ture ahead of the less critical, the preservation of natural wealth, and the equitable redistribution of tax dollars as the foundation for a long term sustainable infrastructure program, it will enable us to meet the needs of most Canadians before the wants of some, and thus enhance our future.

The frequent call upon Minister Fletcher to tie asset management to future funding approv-als is a step in this direction. Some of the key features of an effective and efficient infrastruc-ture plan were articulated by attendees, includ-ing the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies, as:

1. Assessing new and existing infrastructure needs considering asset condition, capac-ity gaps, climate change, and population impacts.

2. Prioritizing and sequencing programs and projects for the maximum overall return on investment.

3. Clearly defining roles and responsibili-ties for governments at all levels and the private sector.

4. Realistically timing infrastructure projects and programs recognizing fiscal, climatic, and capacity based realities.

5. Adopting sound and uniformly understood asset management principles for the preser-vation of existing and new infrastructure.

6. Reassessing needs, priorities, programs, and return on investment on a regular basis.

7. Forward planning to enable resource alloca-tion and commitment at all levels.

These features form a fundamental part of an asset management program and should be the basis for our thinking about future de-velopments as engineers and as Canadians. After all, we are all stakeholders, whether as individuals, private companies, or govern-ments, and it is the taxpayers wealth which must be reallocated in the most effective and efficient manner, and in the interest of the greater good.

Our best opportunity to ensure that we as a generation are looked upon as having met our obligations to the future is to recognize the need and take action now to ensure that an ef-ficient and effective infrastructure program is initiated and is based on sound asset manage-ment policy.

Bert Munro, P.Eng., FCSCE, FEC, is vice president and general manager of Associated Engineering‘s Saskatchewan and Manitoba operations and the national director of its asset management division.

Infrastructure


Insurance Consistency NeededBY GLEN MACRAE

bonding & Insurance

when the so called ‘leaky condo’ crisis broached in the mid 1990s general contractors and devel-opers were faced with a double

challenge. First, they had to defend against the claims filed by building owners, and then they often had to struggle and sometimes sue for coverage under their liability insurance poli-cies to pay for damage. Insurers then as now, do not cover faulty workmanship or products and until 2010 they frequently refused to either defend the contractor or to pay for the dam-ages done. The common mantra: ‘Insurance is not a warranty; it is not a performance bond and we are not paying’. (The problem was not quite as bleak for sub-contractors). For general contractors, their insurers viewed the entire project as the builder’s work and oftentimes avoided defending claims. The insurance prod-ucts available in the industry at that time were not designed to deal with the crisis. Relief for the consumer came with the proclamation of The Homeowner Protection Act in 1999. The builder and developer on the other hand had to wait 11 years before the Supreme Court of Canada clarified the rules governing insurer’s obligations for construction deficiency claims.

In that time the protection created by a num-ber of warranty companies has worked well. It is a new kind of insurance product; one that is controlled by the homeowner. It is the first line of relief to deal with construction defect because it is intended to cover the very gap that prevents a builder’s liability insurance policy from reim-bursing repairs. It comes with the purchase of the home and lasts for 10 years with benefits decreas-

ing over time but still covering the cost to repair major structural failures. The warranty compa-nies that sprang up to service this new product has provided a valuable service and much peace of mind, which is what insurance is all about and that should never change.

Between the inception of New Home War-ranty and the Supreme Courts decision in Pro-gressive Homes v. Lombard Insurance Company (now called Northbridge Insurance) 11 years later, warranty companies have interpreted their coverage broadly, sometimes requiring the con-tractor to repair damage resulting from the de-fect where the warranty is not strictly required to do so. Their reasons have been inconsistent. Wa-ter damage is a common example. When a fitting at the base of a washing machine fails and water escapes causing $3500 damage to the laundry room floor and an adjacent wall, some warranty providers treat this as a single defect and require the builder to make the repairs. When a plumb-ing valve under the sink fails through faulty in-stallation and the water damages amounts to $50,000, the same company will argue that hard-wood floors and all other damaged property have suffered from a construction defect. Yet when the scenario repeats itself in a high rise tower and damage amounts to $800,000, they will adopt the view that the defect is the fitting and every-thing else is resultant damage.

We think some consistency is required. Cor-rectly read the standard New Home Warranty limits the defect in this case to the fitting and should include cost to replace it including the cost of access to the item. All other damage to the interior space is a matter for the build-

ing owner’s insurer and the builder’s General Liability Insurance policies to sort out among themselves. That process will not inconvenience the homeowner. Their repairs get done, the building deductible gets reimbursed and the homeowner’s living out expense is covered up to the limit allowed in the warranty. The size or the nature of the loss is immaterial.

With the Progressive Homes decision, the in-surance landscape is different than that of 1999. The courts now compel insurers to recognize that for insurance policies covering general con-tractors, construction involves many complex inter-related components and processes; any one of which can fail for a number of reasons and cause damage to other components. Whereas in 1998 insurers argued that for the developer and general contractor the entire building is the defective work/product, now they must sepa-rate the defect from the damage that results. Al-though this increased clarity compels insurers to engage in reimbursement of repair costs in a way that was absent more than a decade ago, it does not make home warranty any less desir-able. New Home Warranty is the first refuge for a homeowner faced with construction defects. The warranty provider ought to ensure that all other tiers of insurance coverage are engaged with the ultimate view of protecting the consumer. When there are differences between insurance compa-nies over their respective obligations, this can be sorted out quietly, between them and after the consumer has been made whole.

Glen MacRae, BA, CIB, is claims manager at Wilson M. Beck Insurance Services Inc.


bonding & Insurance

Most estimators and project manag-ers know their cost of bonds……or think they do. Just like the projects that the bonds are backing, your

bonding costs are not always the same for every bonded contract. If you don’t accurately esti-mate for all your bond costs, or include appli-cable bond costs to your extras invoicing, those extra bond costs are coming right out of your profits. The following is some of the most com-monly missed bonding costs by contractors.

pre-Qualification feesOnce you win a tender, it is common to go through a cost savings process to determine what items can be removed from the contract to save money. In some cases, the owner or owner’s representative will remove the require-ment of contract bonds, even though a bid bond and/or consent of surety was requested and provided with the tender. Sureties (bond-ing companies) include the cost associated with the underwriting and the risk associated with the bid bond, into the premium charged for the contract bonds. So, if the contract bonds are waived (along with the bond premium), all sureties have a bonding pre-qual fee which they will charge. This fee is typically 20 per cent of what cost of the waived contract bonds would have been, and is charged at the beginning of the project.

additional adjustment premium for an Increase in the Contract amountThis one bites you at the end of the project. The surety charges the bond premium at the beginning of the project based on your bond rates multiplied by the amount of the contract. However, the bonds fol-low the size and scope of the contract. If the contract increases (as it often does) then your bond cost will

increase a requisite amount. If you don’t account for this along the way, you may get stuck paying the addi-tional adjustment premium when the surety’s invoice comes at the end of the job and it is much harder to collect this from the GC or owner. The way that you should handle these costs is by proactively adding the bond costs to all extras at the time they are invoiced.

anniversary feesIt is important to know that all of your bond rates are based on the surety’s risk associated with a con-tract UP TO ONE YEAR in duration. Anything

beyond 12 months and sureties start charging ad-ditional costs for additional time on risk. There are varying ways that sureties charge for this. But regardless of how the surety charges, the best way to ensure that the costs are covered is by adding this bond cost onto all of your invoices going out after the project’s one year anniversary. You should put this in writing at the beginning of any project estimated to take longer than nine months.

design-Build SurchargeIt is becoming increasingly popular with owners to contract with one entity for all hard and soft costs on a project. A D/B contractor may think that the design professional he hired to take care of the de-sign will also take care of the design related risk by way of their E&O insurance policy. Although it is true that the architect / engineer will be covered, their insurance does not cover your risk or your surety’s risk under your contract and the supporting bond. A surety’s typical surcharge for a D/B per-formance bond is either 20 or 25 per cent. Contact your bond broker for your surety’s surcharge.

Broad form SurchargeIf you have never heard of this before you are not alone. Often contractors hear about this for the first time when they are charged extra for it, and often it is too late to include it in your contract price. A broad form surcharge refers to an expanded word-ing on the Labour & Material Payment Bond. The

Extra bond Costs Five Additional Bond Costs That You May Not Know About BY FRED MOROz

If the contract increases (as it often does) then your bond

cost will increase a requiste amount.


bonding & Insurance

standard L&M bond covers payment to all subs and suppliers that have a direct contract with you. Broad form wording goes one level further and also covers payment of subs and suppliers to subs and suppliers. Typically, the surcharge is an additional 10 to 15 per cent. A good bond broker will inform you when this wording is being used and the sur-charge applicable. But a good rule of thumb is to expect this wording as a requirement on all L&M bonds for federal government contracts and BC Hydro contracts. These two obligees encompass the majority of all broad form L&M bonds.

These are five of the most common bond fees that are charged, and they are charged by all of the Canadian sureties including your surety and are often missed by contractors. But, it by no means covers all the bonding costs and fees out there. A good rule to remember is if a contract increases in size, scope or duration, it is going to cost more for the bonds. Most bond brokers who specialize in surety will provide their con-tractor clients with a bond premium guide at the beginning of every year, which covers all bonding costs, so there are never any surprises. But most importantly, so that it doesn’t cost you!

Fred Moroz, B.Econ., is vice-president, Con-struction Contract Bonding at BFL Canada In-surance Services Ltd. in Vancouver, and past chair of the Surety Association of Canada. Fred can be reached at [email protected]

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bonding & Insurance

when I left my accounting career behind to join the bonding busi-ness in 1996, our senior manage-ment at the time warned us new

bond underwriters about the emergence of a new insurance based subcontractor default product, which, left unaddressed, could damage the surety business. Created for general con-tractors as a response to inadequate bond claims handling on their subcontractor defaults, this product is now used by large general contrac-tors throughout North America. It has mud-died the waters significantly for project owners, subcontractors and suppliers looking to manage construction default risk.

As a successful broker, I make money in bond-ing when my contractors win bonded projects. I like this approach. Work hard, align yourself with the needs of your clients and everybody wins. I was initially drawn to the bonding in-dustry because it embodies this same principle: If you are small but determined and capable, you will be given a chance to access government tendered projects. If you prove your merit, you will graduate to larger projects. If you fail to per-form, you will be weeded out. Bonding provides this access, independently vetting and qualifying contractors for various jobs in a competitive en-vironment, free from government intervention, cronyism and turf protection by older and pos-sibly less efficient firms. This keeps the construc-tion industry vibrant, competitive and innova-tive. Everybody wins.

Bonding also provides payment protection for sub-trades and suppliers. When times are tough, a large public project can go sideways,

crushing many independent subcontrac-tors. Non-payment can ripple like contagion through a local construction community as GC’s, subcontractors and suppliers are im-pacted through their links to each other via various seemingly unrelated projects. Labour and material payment bonds protect innocent sub-trades and suppliers from non-payment. This provides stability for all participants in the construction industry.

The bonding industry is far from perfect. Contractor prequalification and claims han-dling remains inconsistent among Canadian bonding companies. Recent default files like GCNA’s Concrete stand out as an example of bonds working effectively. Media attention and the focus of the Ontario government on the bonding industry have no doubt played a positive role on this file. Unfortunately, some bonding companies have handled their recent bond claims poorly. Frankly, a couple rogue bonding companies have a reputation for ignoring claims initially as a first response strategy. If you are a government body or a contractor buying a bond, the protection you

get from your bonds may vary significantly if you end up with one of these inferior bonding companies on your project. One B.C. munici-pality recently black listed a bonding company that was too slow to respond to a claim. Ap-parently, this was effective in bringing about a quick resolution. Clearly, the cost of enforc-ing a claim against a bonding company is too high. With at least four new significant sub-contractor defaults occurring in B.C. in recent months, all stakeholders should get experi-enced legal advice when claiming on a bond. Political pressure, media exposure and publi-cally vocalizing dissatisfaction can be effective strategies when dealing with a slow or evasive bonding company.

Often frustration from bond claimants stems from a misunderstanding about what the bond actually does. The bond is designed to respond to a bond claim when there has been a default un-der the contract and the owner has formally de-clared that a default has occurred. Once this has occurred, the bonding company will commence an investigation. Often times, non-performance is due to a dispute, not a default. When this oc-curs, a quick resolution may not be possible. The bonding company has an obligation to the pur-chaser of the bond to make good on its commit-ments but it also has a duty to the contractor in whose name the bond was issued. An incorrect payment by a bonding company in an uncon-firmed default may prejudice its ability to recover its costs from the defaulting contractor. Bottom line, bond claims can be very messy affairs that may require time to investigate and resolve. Re-grettably, bonding companies often do a poor job communicating to stakeholders what claims they are handling and when a resolution might be expected. This causes frustration, impatience and misinformation. Not what most owners are looking for when their project is delayed and be-hind schedule.

We are in a challenging construction environ-ment. Default risk is back in a significant way. Profits are elusive, skilled labour is difficult to find and the lending environment is inconsistent. Large general contractors once again hold power. Bonding encourages competition while provid-ing payment protection and stability. The surety industry needs to do a better job with claims handling. It must also better police the rogue players within its community. Even so, bonding remains the best way to protect against subcon-tractor default while still encouraging an open, competitive, innovative, fair and merit based construction industry.

Steve McConnell, CGA, CAIB, CRM, is an insurance and bonding broker with CMW Insurance Services Ltd.

bond ClaimsAs Sub-contractor Default Risk Rises, Bonds Provide Industry with Financial Protection and Stability BY STEVE MCCONNELL

Labour and material payment bonds protect

innocent sub-trades and suppliers from

non-payment.


touted as a time and cost-saving mea-sure, “design-build” project delivery has taken the North American con-struction industry by storm. It is now

used in 40 per cent of all non-residential con-struction projects in the United States, including 80 per cent of military projects and 50 per cent of projects worth more than $10 million. Cana-da has kept pace. The Canadian Design-Build In-stitute promotes design-build in Canada. Addi-tionally, the Canadian Construction Documents Committee (CCDC) has model design-build contracts, including CCA Document 14-2000 (Design-Build Stipulated Price Contract) and its companion, CCA Document 15-2000 (Design-Builder/Consultant Contract). It is expected that CCDC will soon issue CCDC 14 and CCDC 15 to replace the CCA (Canadian Con-struction Association) documents.

While design-build agreements can vary, their defining feature is that owners contract with a single entity to design and construct their proj-ect. That entity bears sole legal responsibility for both aspects. This contrasts with traditional delivery methods where design and construction are undertaken by separate entities, each having their own contract with the owner.

The popularity of design-build is found in its advantages. One of those is the potential for design innovation. Owners can benefit from cre-ativity generated by close collaboration between designer and constructor — for example, the use of new technologies or materials and features that reduce project cost while meeting aesthetic sensibilities. Subject to intellectual property rights, design and construction innovations can then be used by contractors and designers in their future projects.

In order to take full advantage of the single point of contact and responsibility for design and construction, owners should develop a comprehensive description of project require-ments including functional relationships, per-formance specifications, and clear details about expected level of finish. During delivery, the owner deals solely with the design-builder for any issues related to either design or construc-tion. The design-builder is then responsible for resolving those issues, ensuring compliance with local laws, codes, and regulations and en-suring that delivery conforms to requirements found in the design-build agreement. From a le-gal perspective, standard agreements combined with professional design standards can offer re-duced litigation risk for all parties.

Lower costs can be another design-build ad-vantage due to the close relationship and syner-gies between the designer and the builder that start at conceptual design. Then, during con-struction, the design-builder has an incentive to reduce the number of design changes — also an advantage for the designer. Also, disputes over “extras” and delays that typically arise when de-signers and contractors are separately retained in “traditional” delivery can be avoided. Finally, savings can be realized through early ordering of materials. It appears that the greatest potential for cost-saving may be in larger works projects (e.g., water and waste-water treatment projects) given the recent study of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) that reported savings of up to 43 per cent compared to “traditional” project delivery.

Design-build can also offer shorter timeframes for project delivery — certainly an attractive feature for owners. Contractors and design-

ers can also benefit from reduced timeframes as they may be able to take on more projects over time. Because design and construction are coor-dinated and collaboratively delivered, alternative design proposals can be provided to owners for review before they are completely finalized, again with the potential to accelerate project delivery. Shorter project delivery times are greater for larg-er projects — a 33 per cent schedule reduction was reported by ASCE for water and waste-water treatment projects.

Design-build delivery is not necessarily ap-propriate for every project. For owners, it is of-ten difficult to compare design-build proposals where the designs are radically different. For this reason, owners should consider having third party expertise to aid in this evaluation as well as to assist with performance review and decisions during project delivery. Cost control may be dif-ficult in design-build depending upon the detail found in the owner’s statement of requirements and performance specifications. Owners select-ing design-build delivery should ensure that the performance level and quality of materials and workmanship are fully described. Contractors, conversely, should be aware of quality obliga-tions and their responsibility to deal with design related-costs arising during project delivery.

There are also liability issues to consider in design-build. Design-builders should car-ry adequate professional liability (errors & omissions) insurance. Owners should review the design-builder’s coverage because typical “contractor” liability policies may not extend to damages caused by faulty design. Also, it should be noted that single-point responsi-bility will not always reduce finger-pointing between contractors and designers — project delivery can be impacted if the designer and contractor are in a heated dispute.

Finally, some design professionals argue that design quality is improved if they can focus on creative and innovative design without worrying about construction constraints or contractor in-terference. Certainly, this concern is not molli-fied by the typical makeup of design-build teams which are usually led by contractors who then subcontract design responsibilities to an archi-tecture or engineering firm.

The decision by the owner to deliver a proj-ect by design-build ultimately depends on the objective, scope, complexity and timing specific to the project. However, current trends in the design and construction world suggest that design-build will only continue to increase in prominence as a project-delivery mechanism in the years to come.

Owen Pawson is a partner in Miller Thom-son’s Vancouver office.

legal file

design-build Project deliveryBY OWEN PAWSON


legal file

Construction Contract form and realityBY J. MARC MACEWING

In a perfect world, there would be no differ-ence in construction relationships between contractual form and practical reality. That would mean that owners, contractors, sub-

contractors and material suppliers would only commit themselves to rights and responsibili-ties which accurately reflected actual condi-tions and were reasonably sure of performance. It would also mean that in the performance of their respective functions, each would fol-low agreed contractual procedures. If those approaches were the norm, there would be far fewer construction disputes and those disputes which did arise would be easier to resolve.

In practice, construction-related contracts of-ten contain provisions which unrealistically dis-tribute construction risks or impose difficult or even impossible duties.

When standard form contracts are used, the dirty work is usually done in the supplementary conditions. For example, it is suggested that it is both unrealistic and unfairly onerous for a general contract to place on the contractor the full risk of changed site conditions or to exclude additional compensation for delays caused by factors beyond the contractor’s control. Simi-larly, a provision seeking to require a contractor to waive its right to file a builders lien is not an unreasonable attempt to negate legal rights, but is in any event likely unenforceable by virtue of Section 42(2) of the Builders Lien Act.

Obviously, if they want to be awarded a contract, contractors or subcontractors (“con-structing parties”) are usually limited in their ability to negotiate away unreasonable con-tract provisions which the paying parties seek to impose. However, all potentially contract-ing parties should keep in mind that generally no one is well served by contractual provisions

which are unfairly balanced or which do not reflect practical construction reality. This is because a party seeking to benefit from an unreasonably onerous provision may find that the form of contract imposed results in higher tendered or quoted prices, a more difficult contractual relationship and higher likelihood of construction claims.

Problems also arise when the conduct of a con-struction project varies from what was agreed. Examples of this phenomenon are when extra work is performed on the basis of a verbal di-rection and promise rather than in accordance

with contractual requirements for documented change directives/change orders, when certifica-tion of payment or payment are habitually late relative to specified time limits and when notices, such as those relating to delay or the dispute of findings made by the Consultant, are not pro-vided in a timely way or at all.

Non-compliance with specified contractual procedures may be so serious as to amount to breach of contract. Even if it does not, variation between the contract and practice always intro-duces uncertainty into the analysis and enforce-ment of the parties’ rights and responsibilities.

This is particularly significant with respect to a constructing party’s potential entitle-ment to additional compensation for extra or changed work or for delay. When the specified contractual procedures for making such claims are not followed, the claimant at the least gives to the paying party a potential defense which will delay and complicate the resolution of the dispute, and possibly surrenders any right to additional payment.

In the context of the above comments, it is useful for construction contracting parties to keep in mind the following basic principles of the common law of contract and contractual interpretation:

• Clear and unambiguous provisions of con-tracts between commercial parties will gen-erally be enforced as written.

• There is limited scope for clear contractual provisions to be supplemented by implied contractual terms.

• It is usually only in the case of ambiguity in contractual wording that extraneous factors such as customs of the trade will be applied to assist in contractual interpretation.

• An ambiguous contractual provision will be interpreted against the interest of the party which imposed its inclusion in the contract.

• To the extent that equitable principles might be applied to the application of a contract, a claimant will need to be seen to have acted eq-uitably itself if it is to obtain equitable relief.

These principles show that the best business practices of construction contracting parties are to commit only to contractual rights and responsibilities which reflect practical reality and are capable of performance, and to follow strictly the procedures set out in the contract for its performance.

J. Marc MacEwing is associate counsel with Shapiro Hankinson & Knutson Law Corpora-tion. He provides his expertise in many areas of construction law, focusing on tendering dis-putes, builders liens and the preparation and analysis of contract documents.

…contracts often contain provisions

which unrealistically distribute construction

risks…


traditional construction contracts place significant emphasis on the conse-quences of failure and tend to focus primarily on how risks are allocated

between the contracting parties. The natural reaction to this type of contract is the reinforce-ment of self-protective behaviour due to the per-ception of contracting parties that the contract is a “zero sum” game wherein project participants only gain/profit at the expense of the other party. This traditional model has been criticized as inef-ficient, costly and counter-productive.

“Alliance” contracts have been touted as an answer to these issues. Alliance contracts are incentive based relationship contracts in which the parties agree to work together as one integrated team. Defining characteristics of an alliance project are a culture of coopera-tive decision-making, risk sharing, no blame/no dispute, and financial transparency. Ideally, an alliance contract will see an alignment of the business goals of the primary parties. Alliance contracting is gaining in popularity in Canada although it has still not reached the level of ac-ceptance it has achieved in countries such as Australia, where it is reported that nearly 50 per cent of publicly procured government projects now use an alliance project model.

The following is a brief overview of some of the key aspects of an alliance based project.

CooperatIve deCISIon MaKIngIn an alliance contract, the owner, contractor and designer(s) are all parties to one project agreement. Project development is driven by a co-operative, but all powerful, board of manage-ment made up of representatives of the parties,

with a mandate to deliver the project in accor-dance with agreed goals and alliance principles. Generally, all decisions of the project board must be unanimous. The alliance should result in an integrated “virtual organization” comprising the primary parties for the duration of the project.

rISK-SHarIngWhile risk is spoken of as shared in the alliance model, in reality, most project risks do remain with the owner. The contractor is entitled to be reimbursed for all direct costs, even in the case of delay, negligence, cost overruns or defective design. Most projects will have a target contract cost and a target completion date. The purpose of these targets is to drive pain-share or, more hopefully, gain-share in decision making. The contractor is incentivized by earning a greater or lesser profit margin depending on perfor-mance and on having a share in the overall cost performance of the development as it relates to the agreed upon budget.

tranSparenCYTransparency is the hallmark of an alliance proj-ect. The concept of transparency in an alliance contract extends beyond subcontracting and requires an open book as between the owner and the contractor. It is not unusual for owners to require the contractor to open the books on earlier projects so that the owner can fully un-derstand contractors’ overheads, margins, and costs. Procurement/sub-contracting is done on a construction management style basis (and may involve somewhat counter-intuitively more con-ventional risk allocation to the subcontractor for the benefit of all alliance parties).

no BLaMe/no dISputeThe owner and the contractor (and any other alliance parties) release each other from all li-ability except in the case of ‘wilful default’. Dis-putes must be amicably resolved, although some-times there will be an ultimate deadlock breaker (though not in a ‘pure’ alliance contract).

The philosophy is that rather than spending time and energy on apportioning blame, and de-veloping costly claims, a more efficient approach is for the parties to work co-operatively to over-come problems and risks that have manifested themselves during the life of a project.

Time consuming and expensive claims pro-cesses therefore do not exist in an alliance con-tract and there is no incentive to resort to litiga-tion in the event of disagreement.

rISKSOne of the most significant and difficult to quan-tify is that alliance projects rely to an even higher degree on the competency and quality of par-ticipants than other projects. Moreover, alliance contracting is not for the faint hearted and with-out genuine commitments from all participants to principles of transparency, open communica-tion, and “no blame” the project will likely not get off the ground. Another risk is the lack of certainty in price and completion dates and, ac-cordingly, an alliance contract may not be appro-priate for smaller projects where early price and time certainty are a key consideration. Questions have also been raised as to the enforceability of the alliance contract model given that aspects of the contract have the appearance of “agreements to agree” which courts have traditionally been unwilling to enforce. Finally, given the unfamil-iarity of the market to alliance contracting, it can be difficult to find appropriate insurance cover-age for otherwise insurable risks that may occur over the course of a project, whether it relates to alliance aspects or otherwise.

ConCLuSIonAlliance contracting requires the adoption of a completely different philosophical approach on the part of the participants and necessarily involves the development of mutual trust, open and honest communication and free sharing of information. Such conduct is quite contrary to the pattern of self-protective behaviour that is associated with ‘traditional’ models of construction procurement. It remains to be seen whether alliance contracting will be able to overcome the traditional mindset and become an important feature of the Canadian procurement landscape.

Christopher Hirst is a partner and the prac-tice group leader of Alexander Holburn Beau-din + Lang LLP’s Construction & Engineer-ing Team.

legal file

alliance ContractingBY CHRISTOPHER HIRST


legal file

although the Alberta Builders’ Lien Act has been said to provide contrac-tors, subcontractors and suppliers of materials or equipment with “security

for payment”, those with experience know this is not the case. Security is generally understood to mean protection from harm or resistance to loss of funds. Although the Builders’ Lien Act in Alberta does provide additional assistance in enforcing balances due, it is by no means a “guar-antee” of payment or “security”. Nor was it ever intended to be.

As disputes arise between parties to agree-ments, their resort is often to the courts, which involves lengthy and costly litigation. There is no guarantee of payment or that the wronged party will be made right. Judgments may not be enforceable if the debtor is without assets. The Act was established to provide, as a limited addi-tion to normal contractual remedies, a statutory charge against land or mineral rights to which materials or services were provided. Generally speaking this charge allows for the right to sell the liened lands or minerals in a process similar to a foreclosure. More often than not, the lien gives the right to share in the lien fund. The lien fund, when established, is often simply 10 per cent of the value of the work done.

If one undertakes work or furnishes materials in respect of an improvement, a lien under the Builders’ Lien Act exists from the commence-ment of work through and until 45 days from completion of it. If the work or materials were

supplied to a gas well site or an oil well site, the 45 day period to register the lien is extended to 90 days. Liens may only be registered for “so much of the price of the work or materials as re-mains due to the person”.

The Alberta Builders’ Lien Act is very clear that one cannot return to the site and correct one’s own deficiencies or undertake work which ought to have been done by the lien claimant.

If a lien is not registered within the time speci-fied in the Act, the lien ceases to exist. It can-not be resurrected by the court. Similarly, if a lien claimant fails to preserve its lien by issuing a Statement of Claim and registering a Certifi-cate of Lis Pendens against the title within 180 days of the date that the lien was registered, the lien ceases to exist.

A lien can only be registered against the in-terests of an owner as defined with the Act. This is an entity on whose credit, on whose behalf, with whose privity and consent, or for whose direct benefit the work is done or the materi-

als are furnished for an improvement. If work is done for a tenant, the lien may be registered against the leasehold interest of the tenant, but may not be registered against the interests of the fee simple landlord. One can only bind the interest of a landlord if statutory notice is given prior to commencing the work and the landlord, within five days of receipt of such no-tice, does not advise that it will not be respon-sible for it. If work is done on a condominium project at the request of an individual unit holder that will only give rise to a lien on that specific unit and that owner’s share in the com-mon property. If work is done on the common property, the lien arises on the estates of all unit owners and all common property. No lien exists with respect to a public highway, to land held by the board of directors of an Irrigation District, or the Crown. It is possible that lien rights may exist in relation to the estate of a tenant or lessee of the Crown, but one cannot lien the Crown’s interest itself.

Liens are subject to all prior secured creditors for amounts legitimately advanced prior to the registration of the lien. Thus, notwithstanding the registration of a lien, should the owner fail to make payment to its secured creditors, foreclo-sure by those secured creditors could discharge the lien without any payment being made to the lien claimant.

The existence of a lien may prevent advances of funds and thus the Builders’ Lien Act provides opportunity for owners or contractors to pay the lien fund into court or alternatively post security for the lien. In such cases the lien is discharged from the lands and becomes a claim against the funds or security posted. Once that security has been posted, a lien claimant must continue with its litigation in order to have its lien declared valid and to secure payment from the lien fund or security posted.

Should a lien claimant incur the costs of reg-istration of its lien, issuance of a Statement of Claim, registration of a Certificate of Lis Pen-dens against title to preserve the lien, and an ap-plication for declaration of validity of the Lien, only then does the right to sell the land come into play. At that point, the lien fund could be established, after significant cost has been in-curred by the lien claimant. Those costs are gen-erally not recognized at the time of distribution of the lien fund. A lien fund may be insufficient to pay all of the lien claimants and thus pro rata sharing may occur.

Thus, although liens do enhance the ability to collect what is due, they are by no means a guar-antee of payment.

Joseph J. Kueber, Q.C., is a partner at Bryan & Company LLP. www.bryanco.com

liens: No guarantee of PaymentBY JOSEPH KUEBER

A lien fund may be insufficient to pay all of the lien

claimants and thus pro rata sharing

may occur.

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architect Corner

What app is this anyway?BY BRIAN PALMqUIST

In the last five years the mobility landscape for computers has changed dramatically. The five-year time span is important because it is easy to underestimate the current speed

of change and many people in decision-making roles are still thinking of the universe as it was five years ago. Yet with all the improvements in speed and functionality that have transpired, at least half of today’s latest operating systems and associated hardware still have an Achilles heel when it comes to the management of design and construction.

This article will outline the eight processes re-quired for design and construction in the field and recent improvements to them; identify the weakness that affects half of the current mobile operating systems and suggest a simple way to evaluate the effectiveness of your indicated hard-ware and software choice.

In 2008 a tablet computer was a seven-pound indestructible brick, probably made by Panason-ic, likely designed for the military or police. Us-ing this hardware and associated software it was possible to:

• Store a complete set of project documents (drawings and specs) for virtually any size project on a tablet.

• Manoeuvre to a specific location on the drawings or specs

• Expand that location to fill the entire tablet screen

• Annotate the expanded detail area with defi-ciency information, sketch and text

• Photograph the location in real time, or as-sociated areas, using a separate digital camera

• Create an action or instruction associated with the location

• Attach the photos and sketch annotations to the action from separate devices

• Issue the assignment via email in such a way that all of the data (assignment, attachments and all subsequent emailed responses) are automatically captured in a database easily accessible from any other tablet or conven-tional computer.

Once item 1 was set up, we needed several minutes in the field to prepare most of the data in steps 2 through 6. Step 7 required of-fice time to download images from a camera

to the mobile unit. After that step 8 could of-ten be accomplished in less than one minute. The overall cycle time was 5-10 minutes per item, more if the user was interpreting data from others, such as third party inspection reports. No wonder that the working assump-tion was that there must be dedicated data entry staff, preferably one in the field and one in the office.

Regardless of perceived awkwardness, this eight-step process is the essence of managing de-sign and construction in the field and must form the evaluation basis for the hardware and soft-ware that you seek to employ. Devices today do much more than these eight processes, but those eight remain the essence of design and construc-tion effort in the field.

In particular, the eighth process (let’s call it “Pro-cess 8”) is fundamental to the quality management of design and construction in the field. Until in-structions and their images are assigned, scheduled and recorded, nothing of substance has occurred.

Five years later it is now possible to do so much more — key improvements are underlined below and a sample of specific software is noted where applicable. Now the 8 processes are:

• Store a complete set of project documents (drawings and specs) for virtually any size project on a tablet (Dropbox, GoodReader, iAnnotate PDF), as well as its 3-D BIM model (Revit/AutoDesk)

• Manoeuvre quickly to a specific location on the drawings, specs or model using simple hand gestures (all operating systems)

• Expand that location with simple hand ges-tures to fill the entire tablet screen (all oper-ating systems)

• Quickly annotate the expanded detail area with deficiency information, sketch and text — in the case of a BIM model, attach anno-tations in 3D space

• Photograph the location in real time, or asso-ciated areas, using the same tablet or smart-phone hardware.

• Create an action or instruction associated with the location (e.g., Aconex, ProCor, Contract Manager, Quality-Works)

• Attach the photos and sketch annotations to the assignment all from the same device

• Issue the assignment via email in such a way that all of the data (assignment, attachments and all subsequent emailed responses) are automatically captured in a database eas-ily accessible from any other tablet, smart phone or conventional computer

Using more current tablet hardware and soft-ware we now consistently measure the cycle time required for Processes 2 through 8 as less than 1 minute. Remember that the previous benchmark was one minute for Process 8 alone.

When you talk to field staff and management about cycle times of one minute or less, they both recognize a threshold has been passed. The need for dedicated data entry staff has been eliminated — design and construction professionals can do the complete job efficiently first time with no transcription.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: To read Brian’s full ar-ticle, please visit our website: www.construction-business.ca/features/technology.aspx]

Brian Palmquist, Architect AIBC MRAIC BEP CP LEED AP BD+C, is director of qual-ity at Ledcor Construction Limited.

...at least half of today’s latest operating

systems and associated hardware still have an Achilles

heel...


Industry News

fundIng approved for arena Edmonton City council has approved funding for a new $480 million arena to be owned by the city and operated by the Katz Group, owner of the Edmonton Oilers. The new agreement includes some changes such as an additional $30 million for the arena which will be split between the city and the Katz Group. The cost for the entire Edmonton arena project is expected to be $601 million and will include various components: the arena, a Winter Garden, a pedestrian corridor, and LRT connection.

PCL Construction Management has been selected to manage construction with Icon Venue Group as project manager. 360 Architecture is the architect. Construction for the new arena is expected to start in late summer to early fall with completion in 2016.

guIde BooKTo help senior construction business people gain a practical understanding of the complexities of construction insurance, BLG partners Bruce Reynolds and Sharon Vogel have written a plain-language book that demystifies the subject. A Guide to Canadian Construction Insurance Law is a comprehensive review of the many types of insurance needs and products for managing risk on Canadian construction projects.

The book explains in plain terms the struc-ture and legal principles of an insurance policy, and outlines the various kinds of insurance policies commonly used on construction proj-ects, how different insurance products work together, and how to choose the best avail-able coverage for any project. The guide helps business people understand insurable and un-insurable risk and outlines how those risks are allocated in construction contracts and pro-fessional services agreements. Order online at www.carswell.com.

perez JoInS MCwVancouver based Perez Engineering has joined MCW Consultants Ltd. The acquisition will strengthen MCW’s regional presence and allow for continued growth in the consulting engineer-ing and energy management fields. The new ad-dition will become an integral part of MCW’s Vancouver operations, with all Perez staff being immediately consolidated into MCW’s down-town Vancouver offices. Willie Perez, the found-er of Perez Engineering Ltd. and former partner at Keen Engineering, has now become a princi-pal of the MCW Group of Companies.

rInK renovatIonCanlan Ice Sports Burnaby 8 Rinks will be un-dergoing a significant renovation of two of their rinks from May to September. Rinks 5 and 6 were a part of the original 4 Rinks built in 1972, and though the rest of the building received a major upgrade in 1995, these rinks were only partially upgraded.

Some of the new renovations planned on Rinks 5 and 6 include: structural repair of col-umns and subfloor; full repairs and replacement of ice rink floors; full repairs and replacement of these rinks refrigeration system; refurbishment of rink boards and glass; and improvements to dressing rooms.

Six out of the eight playing surfaces will remain in service during the renovation. The renovations will occur May 1 through September Labour day in 2013.

SeISMIC upgradeFrom January to December 2013, the Granville Street Bridge in Vancouver will be undergoing seismic upgrades and expansion joint replace-ment. This project will greatly increase the seismic performance of the bridge, and in the event of an earthquake, minimize the risk of bridge closures, costly repairs or even bridge decommissioning.

Graham Construction and Engineering Inc. is the general contractor on the project.

new InfraStruCture foruMThe province of British Columbia and the British Columbia Construction Association (BCCA) have launched a new partnership called the Infrastructure Forum. The forum is an important step in strengthening public-sec-tor procurement processes.

A 14-member group will consult, discuss and share information and ideas related to improving government’s infrastructure pro-curement practices and use of construction-industry resources.

Committee members will provide recom-mendations to government about updating, implementing and communicating changes to the Capital Asset Management Framework (CAMF), including the oversight functions to ensure compliance with these guidelines.

On the committee will be five construction industry representatives and two representatives from design consultants’ associations. Commit-tee representatives for government including deputy ministers for advanced education, in-novation and technology, citizens’ services and open government, education, Health, and trans-portation and infrastructure.

The committee will be co-chaired by the dep-uty minister of finance and the BCCA board chair. Special advisers will be BCCA president Manley McLachlan, Philip Hochstein, the president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association and Sarah Clark, the president and CEO of Partnerships BC.


Industry News

onLIne appLICatIonThe Gold Seal Certification Program for construction management professionals has launched a new online application and study portal. The application portal is designed to replace paper-based applications. Initially ap-plications will be only available in English, but French-speaking applicants will be able to apply online by March 2013.

The new study portal, designed to help pre-pare applicants for Gold Seal Certification ex-ams, is currently available for the construction safety coordinator designation and all desig-nations in the general contracting discipline. The portal is scheduled to be available for all disciplines by the end of 2013. For more info: goldsealcertification.com

port Mann CaBLe SoLutIonSEngineers working on the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver have identified possible solutions to prevent further incidents of snow and ice build-up on the bridge’s cables.

A custom-fitted cable sweeper has been devel-oped which will be fitted around bridge cables and used to remove snow and ice before it can ac-cumulate. Engineers have also identified hydro-phobic coatings and de-icing sprays to prevent ice accumulation.

Fabrication of the sweepers is now underway and installation and additional testing will fol-low. The sweepers will be installed on the 152 bridge cables that cross the roadway.

In December 2012, more than 200 vehicles were hit by falling chunks of ice after cold tem-peratures caused ice to form on the cables.

CuttIng red tapeThe B.C. government has announced regulatory changes to cut red tape and make exploration and mining more efficient in the province. The package includes a new policy which will allow companies to apply for a Multi-Year Area-Based permit, to avoid having to apply for multiple per-mits when working in the same exploration area. A new electronic application system will be initi-ated in February, with the Notice of Work appli-cation as the first document added to the system. The B.C. government will also finalize a review of the existing mineral and coal-land reserves in the coming months.

terMInaL expanSIonKinder Morgan Canada Terminals has entered into long-term contracts to support construc-tion of an additional 1.2 million barrels of merchant storage capacity at Trans Moun-tain Pipeline’s Edmonton terminal in Strath-cona County, Alberta. Construction of the new tankage is scheduled to commence this spring following receipt of supporting per-mits, with completion expected in late 2014. Phase 2 will cost approximately $112 million. Construction of Phase 1 of the expansion, which consists of 3.6 million barrels of new storage, is well underway and all of that capacity is expected to be in service in late 2013. Total capital invest-ment for the combined 4.8 million barrel proj-ect is approximately $420 million. When com-pleted, total storage capacity at the Edmonton facility will be 9.4 million barrels, including the existing Trans Mountain system facility and the North 40 merchant terminal.

vrCa MeMBerS Honoured VRCA celebrated three of their own at a special event to honour lifetime members Robert Lashin, Ron McFee and Don Vandervoort, all recipients of Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals. The event took place February 8 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Vancouver. The prestigious honour is given to select Canadians who have made a significant contribution to a province or community within Canada.

L-R: Ron McFee, project

director, Stuart Olson

Dominion; Robert Lashin,

president of Houle Electric;

and Don Vandervoort,

a distinguished veteran

of the B.C. construction

industry.

Ceo BonneYBrian Bonney has joined the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of British Columbia (CHBA BC) as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), ef-fective February 25, 2013.

Having owned and operated a number of busi-nesses, Bonney’s background positions him well to understand and serve the needs of CHBA BC’s membership. An entrepreneur, business builder, manager, communicator and sales execu-tive, Bonney also has experience with all levels of government and a strong sense for creative problem solving, strong attributes that will serve CHBA BC members well.

Bonney will succeed CEO M.J. Whitemarsh in the position. Whitemarsh has been CHBA BC CEO for more than 13 years and in that time, has helped raise the bar of professionalism in British Columbia’s residential construction industry.

CHurCHILL appoIntMentThe Churchill Corporation has announced the appointment of Allan Tarasuk to the position of president, Churchill Services Group (CSG). CSG provides industrial electrical, mechanical, insulation and related services to oil sands, min-ing, potash, power and LNG clients from On-tario to British Columbia.

Tarasuk is an industry veteran who began his industrial construction career more than 20 years ago first as a field engineer, then as a project engi-neer, before advancing into project management and then into more senior roles. He will oversee all facets of CSG’s operations and his responsi-bilities will include business management and leading the growth of the CSG division.

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File: 310CB_8.75x12.25_Raindrop-RCABC.indd Client: RoofStar (RCABC) Construction Business

design one Size: 8.75” x 12.25” Date: Oct 13, 2011

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