Achievements recognised by Canadian TAC Awards 19 Nov 2020

In its 2020 annual awards, TAC, the Tunnelling Association of Canada, has recognized outstanding achievements by individuals and by companies who have completed projects in different parts of Canada.

Richard Staples - Lifetime Achievement Award

Connor Langford and Andre Solecki - Young Tunnellers of the Year

The Lifetime Achievement Award honours the long career of Rick Staples in recognition of his involvement with numerous projects over the course of four decades in the industry and his support of TAC, including being President of the Association during the highly successful World Tunnel Congress 2010 in Vancouver, and representing TAC and Member Nation Canada in the ITA International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association.

Two young engineers, Connor Langford and Andre Solecki, are recipients of the 2020 Young Tunneller of the Year Award. Having selected careers in the underground engineering field, Langford and Soecki have been involved in leading projects in Canada, filling roles of responsibility and showing leadership for the successful management and execution of underground works.

Three mined stations for the of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT project in Toronto and as alternatives to the original open box stations construction designs, is the winner of the Project of the Year of more than CAD$100 million. Design, excavation and construction of the Laird, Avenue and Oakwood Stations is an outstanding success for the Crosslinx Transit Solutions Joint Venture of Dragados, AECON, Ellis Don and SNC Lavalin, its design engineers Dr Sauer and Partners and gGravity, and for the project client Metrolinx.

The Project of the Year Award of up to $100 million is awarded to the Riverside Stormwater Interceptor in Saint Lambert, Quebec where contractors and consulting engineers Ward & Burke Microtunnelling, Les Entreprises Michaudville, CIMA+, Golder, Hatch, ABS and the client la Ville de Saint-Lambert used microtunnelling pipejacking to complete a section of the interceptor under the foundations of a road and a railway bridge.

The Canadian Innovation Initiative Award is awarded to the teams that completed the McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant Cross Harbour Force Main and Outfall in Victoria, the capital city of the Province of British Columbia on the west coast of Canada. The Harbour Resource Partners of the AECOM, Graham Construction Joint Venture, Michels and the CRD completed the project successfully using horizontal directional drilling for the cross-harbour force main and microtunnelling for the effluent outfall.

In recognising the achievements within its industry, and acknowledging the leading technologies introduced and applied to projects in Canada, TAC invites all to its 2020 Vision Underground conference in October 2021. The conference is to convene in Toronto from 19 to 21 October next year and will present a comprehensive programme of technical sessions and provide a welcome event at which the international and domestic tunnelling community can look forward to gathering in person.