| Work Detail |
The work of consulting engineering firms was celebrated, as 20 projects were recognized for their technical excellence and their contributions to society, during the 2024 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards (CCEA).
In addition, five Special Awards were also presented to projects that best demonstrated: technical innovation (Schreyer Award), dedication to the environment (Breton Environmental Award), Canadian expertise abroad (Ambassador Award); and how engineering enhances Canadians’ social, economic, or cultural quality of life (Engineering a Better Canada Award). Winners were selected by an independent jury of distinguished experts from varied backgrounds.
Now in their 56th year, the CCEA (jointly produced by Canadian Consulting Engineer and ACEC-Canada) are recognized as the industry’s highest honours, presented to projects by Canadian consulting engineering firms that illustrate the most remarkable engineering feats.
“These awards spotlight the remarkable achievements of consulting engineering firms that are building the foundation of Canada’s future,” said ACEC-Canada president and CEO John Gamble. “The projects recognized exemplify the creativity, expertise, and leadership that define our industry. Whether enhancing sustainability, safeguarding communities, or driving economic growth, the impact of their work is substantial. We are proud to celebrate the dedication and innovation of our members, whose contributions resonate both locally and internationally.”
Three individual awards were also presented that during the awards ceremony.
The 2024 Beaubien Award for lifetime achievement which was presented to Claude Décary, P.Eng., of Bouthillette Parizeau.
This award was created in 1984 to honour Dr. James de Gaspé Beaubien who founded ACEC in 1925; it recognizes individuals for their lifetime contributions to ACEC and achievements in the consulting engineering profession. Mr. Décary was announced as this year’s recipient during the 2024 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards on the evening of October 24th.
Throughout his impressive career spanning over four decades, Claude has stood out for his unfailing work ethic and excellent judgment. Early on, he made a name for himself as a pioneer in energy efficiency and sustainable development in Quebec. He led initiatives in this increasingly important area in response to the first oil shocks in the 1980s and was responsible for one of the first efficient lighting programs in the province. He also conducted an ambitious energy analysis program for thousands of commercial and industrial buildings across Quebec so that efficiencies could be found and implemented.
The 2025 Allen D. Williams scholarship, recognizing a young professional’s commitment to consulting engineering, was awarded to Negin Tousi, EIT, ENV SP, of David Nairne & Associates.
An exceptional young leader in the consulting engineering industry, Negin has proven time and again that her ability to take projects over the finish line is truly exemplary. With over seven years of experience in water and wastewater treatment, as well as in conveyance for rural, urban, and Indigenous communities across Canada, Negin is known for implementing innovative solutions that address complex challenges. Her inclusive approach and ability to foster positive collaboration among a wide range of diverse stakeholders is widely praised by her peers. Negin’s focus on community engagement and safety, as well as her deep understanding of what’s needed for the water sector and the future of the industry, makes her a strategic leader in her field.
The 2024 Chair’s Award was awarded to MP Francis Scarpaleggia.
Every year, the outgoing Chair of ACEC’s Board of Directors presents this prestigious award to an individual, individuals, or organizations who have had a positive impact on the consulting engineering industry. During this year’s Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards gala on October 24, 2024, ACEC’s outgoing Chair, Allyson Desgroseilliers, P.Eng., presented the award to Mr. Scarpaleggia in recognition of his leadership in advancing data-based climate resilience and environmental policy.
Mr. Scarpaleggia’s Private Member’s Bill C-317—which proposes the creation of a national flood and drought forecasting strategy—exemplifies a commitment that strongly aligns with ACEC’s advocacy efforts, particularly when it comes to building a more sustainable and stronger future for all Canadians. At a time when bipartisan cooperation is rare, the bill achieved the commendable feat of passing through the House of Commons with all-party support. By championing a bill that advances evidence-based policy in the fight against climate change, Mr. Scarpaleggia is raising the standard for effective, collaborative policymaking while also addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing the country today.
“Promoting sustainability and strengthening our communities has never been more essential,” said ACEC president and CEO John Gamble. “I’m pleased to see Mr. Scarpaleggia recognized for his dedication to advancing these goals, which are shared by ACEC and the entire consulting engineering industry.”
2024 Canadian Consulting Engineering Award Winners
Schreyer Award
Montreal, Que.
The original Champlain Bridge joining Brossard to Montréal had been one of Canada’s busiest vehicular bridges until its closure in 2019. Harbourside and sub-consultant gbi, served as the deconstruction engineer for Nouvel Horizon Saint-Laurent (NHSL), the contractor designated to deconstruct the structure. Harbourside and gbi oversaw all phasing and sequencing, temporary works, and means and methods for the deconstruction. Sophisticated jacking techniques for lifting and lowering concrete spans, that incorporated real-time monitoring of various parameters such as load distribution and barge movements ensured precise control and safety during critical operations and efficient dismantling of the steel superstructure. The project’s success enhanced public perception of engineering while paving the way for future projects to consider similar innovative deconstruction methods.
Breton Environmental Award
PEPSC groundwater pumping and treatment – Montreal – AtkinsRéalis
Montreal, Que.
The Pointe-Saint-Charles Business Park (PEPSC) in Montreal is made up of embankments directly on the bed of the St. Lawrence River. Having served as a dumping ground for over a century, it harbors contaminated soil and waste of all kinds. The City of Montreal engaged AtkinsRéalis as prime consultant to carry out the engineering, construction management, and commissioning of an innovative solution to pump and treat contaminated groundwater, thereby preventing further St. Lawrence River contamination. To achieve this, ammoniacal nitrogen was removed from the water using a physicochemical treatment method, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are removed through adsorption onto granular activated carbon (GAC) filters, and a sludge dehydration and air treatment system were implemented to manage byproducts and ensure environmental compliance.
smartWhales – DSS: Decision Support System – WSP Canada Inc.
Montreal, Que.
The endangered North Atlantic Right Whale faces a critical threat, with the possibility of becoming functionally extinct within the next 30 years, primarily because of fishing entanglement and collisions with vessels. In response, the Canadian Space agency, along with two other federal ministries, launched the smartWhales initiative to harness innovative solutions using Earth Observation technologies. WSP Canada led one of the consortiums in developing a Decision Support System (DSS) that provides near real-time predictions of whale movements in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, an invaluable tool for conservation efforts. This system combines hydrodynamic dynamic habitat, agent-based, marine traffic forecasting, and ecological risk models to produce collision and entanglement risk models, displayed in a unique interactive map.
Engineering a Better Canada Award
Haida Nation 2 MW Solar Array & Microgrid – Hedgehog Technologies
Masset, B.C.
Haida Gwaii is an archipelago and the home of the Haida Nation—an Indigenous group with a culture deeply rooted in the land and sea. Hedgehog Technologies partnered with the Haida Nation to design, build, and facilitate training for a 2-megawatt solar array and microgrid near the Masset airport. The completed project connects technologies such as a customized off-grid battery storage and microgrid control, with ancient cultural identity, empowering community members with essential skills and promoting self-determination. By selecting contractors based on their commitment to training and capacity building, this ensured the project’s successful completion and support to the community’s long-term sustainability
Ambassador Award
Quebrada El Leon Flood Control Project – Hatch Ltd.; Consortium Besalco–Stracon (CBS)
Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru
The Quebrada El Leon flood control project was part of a Peruvian government program aimed to reduce recurring flood risks and minimize damages. Hatch was engaged with developing the project’s conceptual design, conducting cost-benefit analyses, securing environmental permitting, and delivering detailed engineering for construction. Despite facing a fast-tracked schedule and navigating through a challenging environment characterized by climate change impacts, public safety concerns, flash floods, and high seismicity, the project successfully achieved its goals.
Buildings
University of Ottawa Faculty of Health Sciences – WSP
Ottawa, Ont.
uOttawa wanted to transform a former industrial brownfield site into the new home for its Faculty of Health Sciences building. As the prime engineering consultant for the project, WSP Canada revitalized the site and designed a high-performance building that is constructed with sustainable materials. The facility actively supports the area’s Francophone and Indigenous communities. Students, faculty, and the public are able to move throughout the grounds and experience the indigenous landscape and mature trees, the open Fire Circle, the vibrant Social Heart, the smart teaching labs and the unique biophilic design elements. In turn, this state-of-the-art LEED® Platinum facility significantly enhances the social fabric of the community while using 57.2% less energy and producing 57.8% less greenhouse gases than typical institutional buildings.
Shefford, Que.
École du Zénith, also known as Lab-école Shefford, is an exemplary elementary school that aims to improve the province’s educational facilities. Built almost entirely in wood, it is the result of a meticulous collaboration between architects and engineers, resulting in a refined, ingenious structure with an exposed timber frame. The result of an architectural competition, the simple, repetitive structure results in a rich and complex structural design. Collaboration with researchers at Laval University led to the development of a unique structural system for the project.
Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre – Dialog
Calgary, Alta.
The Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre, set to open in fall 2024, will be Canada’s largest cancer treatment and research facility and the second largest in North America. The centre, designed and built by the DIALOG, Stantec and PCL design build team, integrates communities for treatment, education, and research. The outdoor views help support wellbeing and wayfinding throughout the centre. Additionally, the dynamic glazing with electrochromic tinting, integrated into the Building Automation System, enhances efficiency and comfort year-round. The project’s innovative solutions align with the team’s vision of world-class healthcare, and the design focuses on a heart shaped courtyard, fostering trust, comfort, resilience, and hope. This advanced facility features cutting-edge engineering design, showcasing advancements in healthcare design and public infrastructure.
Place Banque Nationale – WSP
Montreal, Que.
WSP Canada’s mandate was to support the Immobilière Banque Nationale Inc. project team in the design and execution of the structural plans for its new head office in Montreal. The 40-storey building reaches a height of 206 metres from the upper parapet, with a 22-storey inclined structure. Innovation was at the heart of this project’s design, addressing the challenges of wind on the tower and vortex effects in the space between the new tower and its surroundings, prevention of concrete creep and seismic calculation.
Transportation
Stoney Trail Twinning – Stantec
Calgary, Alta.
Completing the Calgary Ring Road for the Alberta Ministry of Transportation involved enhancing transportation infrastructure and improving travel efficiency for Albertans. As part of this endeavor, twinning the NW Stoney Trail bridge over the Bow River was required to alleviate traffic congestion and minimize delays. Stantec designed a new 470m-long, five-span bridge over the Bow River, directly west of the existing Stoney Trail bridge. The bridge employed an innovative segmental cast-in-place technique using a balanced cantilever method— allowing for bridge construction within a small working area.
MRT Double Arch Replacement and Rehabilitation – Hatch
Montreal, Que.
The Mount Royal tunnel–double arch replacement and rehabilitation project in Montreal was commissioned for the Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM) project to meet current safety standards and ensure the tunnel’s durability and functionality. This involved a critical 540-meter upgrade of the 5km tunnel for the project owner CDPQ Infra, including structural enhancements and modernization efforts. Hatch’s design, executed by the CIMA+ Hatch (CCH), featured canopy spile replacement for 92 meters and observational repairs for 240 meters. This complex work, completed fully underground, was pivotal in eliminating the double arch concerns from the transit project’s critical path.
Highway 5 Reinstatement – Kiewit
Hope to Merritt, B.C.
In response to severe damage caused by the atmospheric river event in the southern part of the province, the BC Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure launched the BC Highway Reinstatement Program. The program’s first project, the Highway 5 – Category B Project, involved highway reconstruction and the construction of six new permanent bridges designed to withstand a 200-year return period and enhance climate change resilience. Through the Alliance contract model approach, the design team led by Kiewit Engineering Group Canada developed a design process that enabled construction to start and finish four months ahead of schedule.
A. Murray MacKay Bridge Deck Panel Replacement – COWI
Dartmouth and Halifax, N.S.
The A. Murray MacKay Suspension Bridge, which opened in 1970, carries four lanes of traffic and 65,000 vehicles daily over the Halifax Harbour between Dartmouth and Halifax, representing a critical arterial. Halifax Harbour Bridges (HHB) engaged COWI to design modular replacement orthotropic steel plate deck panels during weekend bridge closures. Replacing these panels extends bridge life, improves safety, and prevents potential future long term bridge closures, thus avoiding unprecedented disruption to the city. Additionally, this modular design allows HHB to pre-fabricate replacement panels in advance of replacement on the bridge and install them in virtually any location providing HHB the maximum agility in risk management.
Highway 29 Realignment – WSP
Fort St. John, B.C.
The creation of the reservoir for the Site C Clean Energy Project will widen the Peace River by two-to-three times, significantly flooding sections of Highway 29, a crucial link connecting Hudson’s Hope with the Alaska Highway and Fort St. John. BC Hydro partnered with the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and retained WSP Canada to develop and implement design solutions for five replacement bridges spanning 150m to 1042m in length. These bridges had to overcome many complex and difficult technical challenges, including poor ground conditions prone to debris flows and slides, and significant fluctuations in local climate, wind patterns, and hydrology before and after reservoir formation.
Water Resources
Rankin Inlet Utilidor Replacement – Dillon Consulting
Rankin Inlet, Nunavut
Rankin Inlet, an isolated Nunavut community located on the west coast of Hudson Bay, is home to a rare Arctic water and sewer system built in the 1970’s that is now facing age-related and environmental deterioration. The Government of Nunavut engaged Dillon Consulting Limited to design system-wide upgrades to mitigate contamination risks, improve reliability, and increase capacity. These solutions leveraged unique Arctic design principles that centered on environmental sustainability and remote capture technology, ensuring successful delivery of upgrades in the challenging construction environment.
Natural Resources, Mining, Industry & Energy
LNG Canada MOF – Stantec
Kitimat, B.C.
The LNG Canada Material Offloading Facility, a $96M project, stands as the largest steel sheet pile bulkhead in BC and is designed to withstand extreme marine conditions and seismic activity. Nestled in Kitimat, this 550-metre-wharf is designed to facilitate the construction of the largest private capital investment project in Canadian history. Stantec’s innovative design solutions allow the facility to be resilient against tsunamis, seismic activity, strong waves, local tides, and a plethora of environmental conditions while also handling the import of massive 8,000-tonne Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) plant modules to facilitate the terminal construction.
Special Projects
Modular Multi-unit Housing Design – gbi
Beloeil, Que.
The design of a modular multi-dwelling unit reduces the construction time for housing by 50% compared to traditional methods, thus responding to the current housing shortage issue. Each module is built independently in the factory to a high level of detail and precision, then assembled on site in record time. This project, for which gbi was responsible for civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering, required a high degree of coordination and collaboration to ensure consistency and compatibility in every aspect of the project. The design model developed is sustainable, replicable, high-quality and environmentally friendly. Right from the design phase, particular attention was paid to reducing material waste by optimizing the use of material resources.
Calgary Valuation of Natural Assets – Associated Engineering
Calgary, Alta.
The City of Calgary’s Natural Assets Valuation documents the significant value of forests, riparian areas, and waterbodies, and the vital services they supply. This provides essential insights to guide decision-making and strategic planning for land-use and natural asset management, protecting the environment and mitigating the effects of climate change. Associated Engineering inventoried and financially valued Calgary’s natural assets and their replacement costs, prioritizing services like recreation, habitat, water retention, heat reduction, and carbon storage. Integrating spatial data into a Geographic Information System, they developed an online dashboard for comprehensive data analysis and devised a method to value water retention. This method revealed Calgary’s natural depressions offer significantly higher storage capacity than current stormwater management practices. This project serves as a model for other communities seeking to harmonize built and natural asset management practices.
BC Housing CRAF Tool – Morrison Hershfield
Burnaby, B.C.
Morrison Hershfield (now Stantec) developed a portfolio-scale Climate Risk Assessment Framework (CRAF) tool that allows BC Housing to apply a standardized approach to integrating climate risk and resilience at its assets across the province. This first-of-its-kind tool can be used to assess site viability for new development, development proposal scoring across sites, and prioritization and budgeting of risk mitigation strategies. With a goal of achieving balance between comprehensiveness and ease of use, the tool focuses on six priority climate risk categories projected into the 2050s and 2080s, including extreme heat events, extreme rainfall and flooding, emergency power, wildfire risk, wildfire smoke, and general air quality. Notably, this tool has potential for future expansion to address additional climate risks and communities.
In-house Initiatives
Structures Decarbonization Practice – WSP
Toronto, Ont.
The WSP Structural Decarbonization Practice is an in-house initiative driven by a dedicated team of structural engineers taking a holistic approach to decarbonizing their design practice. Their transformative journey began with establishing internal embodied carbon benchmarks and developing foundational training materials tailored to empower Canadian structural engineers to understand core decarbonization issues. Thereafter, they developed an industry-first, early-stage optioneering webapp that empowers clients to select the most carbon-efficient structural systems when the cost to change is low. Along with these efforts, the team also focused on bringing innovative design practices into construction, such as implementing low-carbon concrete and steel reuse. As a result of this practice initiative, WSP has now been able to become a leader in driving down embodied carbon emissions throughout their projects and industry engagements. |
