business and trade magazine – anchor shoring – 40 years

Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd.

www.anchorshoring.com

By Raimey Gallant

Through 40 years in the construction business, the part-ners at Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd. have learned a few things along the way. For one, too many contractors

on a given job can easily amount to costly delays. Secondly, good communication among all parties involved in a project, both internal and external, is crucial.

The result: the birth of two complementary sister companies that now position Anchor Shoring as a company that provides innovative design and installation for all of the more complex soil retention and engineered foundation systems.

Even in the early days, Anchor worked on projects that literally transformed Toronto’s skyline and history. The com-pany’s credits include three towers of the Toronto Dominion Centre complex for which construction began in the ’60s and the shoring for the Toronto Eaton Centre, which broke ground in the mid ’70s. Anchor also helped put the founda-tion in place for the Royal Bank Plaza in the ’70s, the BCE

Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd., foundation system gurus

(top) anchor Shoring & Caissons ltd. installs caissons and shoring at the north york General Hospital site in toronto.

(Bottom) anchor Shoring’s original team. From left – Gord Stack operating the crane mount drill rig, al Demetrick and Gord Demetrick.(Continued on page 5)

3Business & Trade Magazine®


The drilling, shoring, caisson and piling work for Toronto Transit Commission’s Sheppard–Yonge

subway station is the largest contract that has ever been awarded to Anchor Shoring & Caissons. It was also the most compli-cated, because the challenge was to con-nect the new Sheppard subway line to the existing Yonge-University-Spadina line with pedestrian and automobile traffic bustling overhead. To this day, it is still the most memorable project undertaken by the company, according to Anchor’s President Dawn Tattle.

Starting in 1998 and over the course of a year, Anchor was subcontracted by Ellis-Don Construction to position an impres-sive 1,000 soldier piles, 900 struts to brace the shoring walls, 25,650 square metres of timber-lagged shoring, 3,150 square metres of concrete caisson wall and 9,000 square metres of traffic decking so that vehicles could still utilize the road system above. “So you basically had a big hole in the ground and above it traffic was flowing,” says the project’s geotechnical consultant John Westland of Golder Associates Ltd.

Anchor also supported utilities, stair structures and vent shafts. Excavation depths ranged from nine to 21 metres. Anchor’s man and machine power made all this possible with up to four drill rigs and 50 employees on site at a time.

“At Yonge Street, the complexities were associated with the existing struc-tures, and the number of different exca-vations that had to be made and the sequencing of the work, because it was at the intersection of Yonge and Sheppard – a pretty busy intersection in the city,” says Westland.

Tattle says Anchor had more than just engineering and technical hurdles to over-come. The company had a responsibility to help neighbourhood businesses func-tion during construction. This consisted of “opening and closing entranceways to let people in their businesses, and communi-

cating with them and cleaning up after so they could still be open,” says Tattle.

Westland was already familiar with Anchor’s team as his company had part-nered with them and EllisDon on TTC’s Leslie subway station starting in 1997. “On both jobs, they performed very well,” says Westland. “Both were fairly complex sites,” he continues.

Although not quite as large or compli-cated as the Yonge-Sheppard job, the scope of the Leslie project was nothing to be modest about.

The Leslie underground transit involved the design and installation of 4,950 square metres of timber-lagged shoring, 900 square metres of caisson wall, 720 square metres of traffic decking as well as utility supports.

A combination of steel pipe struts and 20,000 feet of regroutable tiebacks were used to secure the shoring system, which was also designed and installed by Anchor. After some innovative in-house equipment alteration, Anchor was able to drill and fill the tieback holes with steel tendons and grout, each individual tie-back or soil anchor measuring up to 37.5 metres in length, which is well beyond what was common at the time.

“We require high capacity tiebacks and very long anchors. A conventional soil anchor would be less than 60 feet (18 metres). These new anchors are up to 40 metres in length,” said Tattle in an article published in Heavy Construction News in 1999. “So the capacity of the soil anchors used there – they were very high capacity,” says Westland. n

TTC’s Sheppard-Yonge and Leslie Station

left: toronto’s leslie subway station caisson wall braced by regroutable soil anchors. Right: Shoring and decking allowed the yonge-Sheppard intersection in toronto to be temporarily relocated, which made it possible for construction to take place without a road closure.

4 Business & Trade Magazine®


“Our philosophy as a business has always been to promote from within and to try and develop talent by training” – Dawn Tattle, President

(Continued on page 7)



Place skyscrapers in the ’80s and the Air Canada Centre in the latter part of the ’90s.

Partners and former co-workers Gord Demetrick and Gord Stack pooled their resources and experience and opened shop in 1968, the former as President handling new business, negotiations and design; the latter as Vice-President Oper-ations. A year later, Al Demetrick, brother to Gord Demetrick, joined the business as Co-owner and Vice-President.

The three original partners have since retired, but not without a well-devised succession plan in place. “Gord Dem-etrick’s my father,” says Dawn Tattle, current company President since 1997. Tattle’s first post at Anchor was as a site clerk the summer before she finished high school. This raised her interest in the construction industry, and she went on to earn a civil engineering degree from the University of Toronto. Tattle then worked for a structural design con-sulting firm until she was approached by her father to rejoin Anchor.

Tattle isn’t the only direct descen-dant on the current corporate roster. Gord Stack handed his reigns to his son Thomas (Tom) Stack, the current Vice-President of Operations. Thomas origi-nally joined the company in 1970. “I saw it as a good career choice after I finished school,” says Thomas.

Tattle explains that even though she and Thomas are each related to at least one member of the original trio, the ownership structure is not based on a gene pool.

“Our philosophy as a business has always been to promote from within and to try and develop talent by training,” says Tattle. The other two key members on the corporate ownership team are Vice-Presidents and Project Managers Paul Kreycir and Derrick Speakman.

the senior partners of anchor Shoring. From left: Paul Kreycir, Dawn tattle, tom Stack and Derrick Speakman.

OOn behalf of Jameson International, I would like to congratulate you on 40 Years of Success in your business.Jameson International has enjoyed working with you to manage your foreign exchange exposure and facilitating your USD requirements. We look forward to continuing to be a valuable business partner of Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd. as we strive to continually bring value to your company. I am thankful for the excellent relationship that we have shared over the years and trust that you in turn value the proactive management style Jameson International utilizes to help Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd. make valuable foreign exchange as well as overall business decisions. We wish you the best of continued success in the future.

Jameson International specializes in providing foreign exchange services to the small and medium business community. Jameson traders employ a focused and disciplined strategy called the “Managed Risk Approach” to develop customized solutions for our clients. A Jameson trading professional works with you to clearly map your FX exposures, and develop an efficient and effective plan to manage them. Best wishes, Christopher P NicholsonVice President / Director of Trading

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New Casino Windsor

Anchor Shoring & Caissons cer-tainly has had its share of elite clients. In the case of the Casino

Windsor expansion project in Ontario, the end clients are Harrah’s Entertain-ment Inc., the gaming legend that oper-ates nearly 40 casinos, and none other than Hilton Hotels Corp., the multina-tional 500-hotel mega corporation.

Renato Tacconelli, Vice-President Operations for Eastern Construction Co. Ltd., the general contractor on the proj-ect, says that Anchor’s enthusiasm for innovation earned the company a lot of praise over the course of the project.

In 2005, the Ontario government made public a $400-million upgrade plan for the casino, which, when fully completed, will include renovations to the existing casino and several addi-tions. “It’s about a million-square-foot expansion,” says Tacconelli, adding that the scope of the project is quite massive. “It’s a 27-storey tower with a connecting link over an existing road, three storeys underground for parking, and an enter-

tainment facility for 5,000 people, and with a 2,250-square-metre ballroom and an assortment of meeting rooms as well,” says Tacconelli. He estimates that the majority of the expansion will be com-pleted by May 2008.

Anchor was involved in the project from September 2005 through to the spring of 2006. The company managed to make quite an impact while on the job, creating for its clients a significant savings in the $250,000 plus range.

The tender documents called for the installation of 31 caissons in the road-way between the new and existing casino structures. The caissons were to be drilled to a depth of 25 metres and would have required up to 50 cubic metres of concrete each in a very congested work area.

Anchor took the initiative to design and propose a more efficient and less costly pile driving alternative to the caisson system. The new design was accepted, resulting in the time needed to complete the project being cut in half. Because the amount of equipment and

clean-up efforts needed were reduced, cost savings and reduced disruption levels were achieved.

Another obstacle was that the con-tractors were faced with the difficult task of excavating and building right to the property line. In this situation, mistakes could mean compromising roads and underground services such as sewer and hydro. The creative minds at Anchor, in collaboration with Isherwood Asso-ciates, had to devise a shoring system that would protect the excavation and, because of the inconsistent soil condi-tions, a tieback system that would hold the shoring system in place – not a simple assignment according to Tacconelli.

“Anchor came up with a creative solu-tion to actually do some mockups on site, which are a series of test anchors to determine – one, the capacity of the soil, and secondly, which soil anchor would be most cost effective for our purposes,” says Tacconelli.


the Casino Windsor excavation is braced by a timber and lagged shoring system and up to three rows of regroutable soil anchors.




Banner Piling & excavating ltd. drives steel piles for the esther Shiner bridge in toronto.

The company can make multiple-pile driving rigs available for larger projects and has even built a rig that is capable of operating in as few as 2.7 metres of headroom.



“Paul and Derrick were not part of the family,” says Tattle. “They were working here doing great work, and they were given an opportunity to become shareholders,” she continues. Long-term employees Jerry Van Kooten and Mike LeSage, also no relation, are junior partners and hold roles on the opera-tions side of the business.

Bigger and betterStarting in 1968, Anchor Shoring and Caissons specialized

in the design and installation of foundation systems, which

included shoring to protect excavations and existing struc-tures, drilled caisson walls and some driven pile solutions. The company was reputable and knowledgeable with the types of shoring and caisson groundwork that it provided, and busi-ness grew because of this.

However, Anchor’s founders watched repeatedly as busi-ness from the company’s clients went to firms that were able to provide foundation solutions that Anchor at the time couldn’t provide. “Well, if we couldn’t do caissons, we still wanted to do the job,” was the general consensus among the original owners, according to Tattle.

Banner Piling & Excavating Ltd. was introduced to the mar-ketplace in 1971. Now Anchor could add sheet piling and addi-tional types of pile foundations to its list of services offered. The company can make multiple-pile driving rigs available for larger projects and has even built a rig that is capable of operat-ing in as few as 2.7 metres of headroom.

In the world of construction, the larger the project, the more subcontractors that can be involved. The more subcontractors

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After digging a test pit and conduct-ing some “concrete” tests, Anchor was successful in developing a safe and cost-effective soil retention system. “It was

Piles are driven to bedrock near the existing Casino Windsor structure to create a link between the new and existing buildings.

a little bit of expenditure up front, but overall, the project certainly warranted it because of its size,” says Tacconelli.

Yet another problem encountered

by Eastern Construction was an altered ground water level that was caused by a building on a neighbouring property. “We needed to bring the ground water level back to its original level, so what that allows us to do is to maintain the soil capacities that we’re looking for,” says Tacconelli. Normal-ly, supporting the existing structure from underneath would have been the direction to take in such a predicament.

The project consultant, along with input from Anchor, creatively decided to build an inground dam with sheet piling instead. “These sheet piles acted as like a water net to allow the ground water level to return back to its original state, and therefore allowing us to appreciate the full capacity of the soil consistently throughout the site,” says Tacconelli. Ninety linear metres of sheet piling were used in total on the project.

Of the several dozens of projects that Eastern Construction has hired Anchor for over the years, Tacconelli has dealt with Anchor directly on at least six of them and anticipates partnering with the company again. “I would consider them leaders in their industry,” he says. n

Congratulations to Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd.on their 40th Anniversary.

Eastern Canada: 37 Cardico Drive, Gormley, Ontario L0H 1G0www.dsicanada.ca email: [email protected] tel: (905)888-8988

Neilson Lumber Limited

Manufacturer of Lagging & Lumber

P.O. Box 15Westwood, ON K0L 3B0Tel.: 705-696-2072Fax: 705-696-1059

Neilson Neilson P.O. Box 15

Congratulations to Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd. on their 40 th Anniversary.






there are on a given job, the more dif-ficult coordination of work schedules can become. In 1975, Anchor took action again to eliminate more of the sometimes too many “cooks in the kitchen.”

Before 1975, whenever a contract called for tiebacks, tiedowns or soil anchors, which entail deep drilled holes that are grouted in order to brace shoring systems, Anchor had to hire outside par-ties to do the work. After being the victim of late arrivals and “no shows” on the part of subcontractors enough times, Anchor’s founders decided to take matters into their own hands. The common opinion was, “Well look – it’s drilling. We’ll do it ourselves,” according to Tattle.

Now the only obstacle was acquiring the heavy equipment necessary to partici-pate in this specialized trade. “There was

no real equipment to do that properly,” says Tattle. “The equipment available was infe-rior.” Anchor employee Brian MacMillan accepted the challenge and designed and built the first of many of what are known as “MacDrill” Tieback Rigs.

Crown Drilling Ltd. was formed as a result, and MacMillan became an owner in the company. The company drills and anchors into rock and soil with tiedowns, tiebacks and soil anchors.

Crown Drilling ltd. installs rock anchors to brace a temporary sheet pile wall at toronto’s maple leaf Square.

Currently, the Anchor group of companies have the human resources, heavy machinery, support facilities, bonding capabilities, support inventory and 40 years worth of industry experience to take on any type of complex foundation or shoring system.

Quite literally, Anchor Shoring & Caissons has made its mark in the history of the Province of Ontar-

io. The company has helped build the new $85-million home for the province’s archives, set to open in April 2009.

PCL Constructors Inc. is the contrac-tor at the helm of the York Archives and York Research Tower projects, which are two 11,430-square-metre buildings cur-rently being erected on York University’s main Keele Street campus in Toronto.

Anchor was engaged by PCL for two sub projects, the first of which went as planned. It was to assemble a steel-pile and timber-lagged shoring system braced with regroutable tiebacks to retain the heavy weight of a street and adjacent utilities.

The second sub project however forced Anchor to perform a small miracle. The job called for 96 caissons ranging between 76 and 244 centimetres in diameter to be filled with about 4,000 cubic metres of concrete and 100 tonnes of steel rebar cages to reinforce the concrete.

“The job gets complicated,” says PCL Construction Manager Curtis Paddock. “When we were in the process of putting in the first couple of caissons, we ran into gas problems in the soil.” This made human inspection to assess the base of the drilled holes unsafe.

To address this, Anchor suggested that the base of the caissons be drilled at a higher level and that larger diameter caissons be installed. To the delight of

PCL, Anchor and the consultant on the project, Halsall Associates Ltd., turned the problem around in one month.

“We had a lot of problems, and they were part of the solution and not just waiting in

the corner for someone else to solve the problems,” says Paddock. “So I’d work with them again on any sort of job. I don’t think that there’s any sort of shoring job that they wouldn’t be able to handle,” he adds. n

anchor Shoring installs caissons with drill rigs and a service crane at york University site.

C & T

Congratulations ANCHOR SHORING on your

40 Business Anniversary.

We wish you continued success in providingyour excellent services for many years to come.

th

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Currently, the Anchor group of companies have the human resources, heavy machinery, support facilities, bonding capabili-ties, support inventory and 40 years worth of industry experience to take on any type of complex foundation or shoring system.

The company’s talents also include but are not limited to working with shotcrete, an initial concrete mix that is sprayed on wire mesh against the face of an excavation, and underpin-ning, which is needed in situations when new excavations are dug to depths lower than existing adjacent buildings. Anchor also designs and installs foundations for cellular towers. It has drilled more than 200 elevator shafts and more than 1,200 caissons for high mast lighting and overhead signs.

The expanded services have resulted in plenty of additional opportunities both with past and new customers.

Also because Anchor has reduced what it can’t do, clients now have the added benefit of having to work with only one contractor, where previously they might have needed several.

Collaboration At the core of the company’s business philosophy is the

belief that everyone should be treated as partners – from the subcontractors and consultant firms that Anchor has to col-laborate with on projects right to the general contractors and the general contractors’ clients.

Even employees are treated as partners. “We try and pro-mote a team atmosphere within our company, so that every-one’s working together – whether it’s the estimator or project manager or supervisor,” says Tattle.

Open communication is essential in keeping those partner relationships strong, and the company does whatever it can to reinforce those relationships. “Whoever bids the job and nego-tiates the job stays involved from start to finish so there’s no disconnect,” according to Tattle.

“You know, construction is a tough business,” says Curtis Paddock of PCL Constructors. “There has to be a lot of faith for

it to work well,” he continues. Paddock worked with Anchor for the first time in 2007 as Construction Manager for PCL on the York Archives and York Research Tower projects. “They would be categorized as a good contractor, a reliable contractor and very knowledgeable in their field,” says Paddock.

“They really try to be cooperative with the clients and people they are dealing with – the stakeholders – and that’s a big thing, because one can get into a lot of battles in the construction world,” says Dave Amm, Project Manager for HDI Joint Venture (Hatch Mott MacDonald, Delcan and IBI Group), the Greater Toronto Transit Authority’s agent on the Simcoe Street Extension project, which Anchor worked on.

Amm says that he appreciated the flexibility that Anchor demonstrated. “Yeah, we had our discussions, but at the end of the day, we all accepted a solution, and they were very coop-erative and very disciplined in carrying out the work as we had all agreed. And that’s really important to us,” says Amm.

The proof is in the numbers: Tattle estimates the company’s revenues from existing clients account for 90 per cent of total earned revenues each year. This is in large part attributable to Tattle’s corporate predecessors, who she says put developing long-term business relationships and delivering quality work atop their list of priorities.

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E-mail: [email protected]: 416-239-9559Fax: 416-239-7535

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Congratulations to Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd. on their 40

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the original partners of anchor Shoring in 1989. From left: Gord Demetrick, Gord Stack and al Demetrick.

At the core of the company’s business philosophy is the belief that everyone should be treated as partners – from the subcontractors and consultant firms that Anchor has to collaborate with on projects right to the general contractors and the general contractors’ clients.

Thirteen active train tracks have been a major impediment to traffic on Toronto’s Simcoe Street. As the gen-

eral contractor hired to link the busy north-south downtown thoroughfare under the tracks, Soncin Construction Corp. engaged Anchor to literally help bridge the gap.

“So the plan was to put in a temporary bridge for each track crossing over this construction area,” says David Amm, Program Manager for HDI Joint Venture (Hatch Mott MacDonald, Delcan and IBI Group), the consultant representing the rail corridor’s owner GO Transit.

A big concern was finishing the con-struction on schedule without major interruptions to train traffic. The work at track level had to be done at night and completed by 5 a.m. every week-day morning, with all tracks ready to be reopened for rush-hour train service.

Amm says access to the job site made the task difficult as well. “The real dif-

Simcoe Street Extension

ficulty is to get this huge equipment that Anchor Shoring uses to do these caissons – to get that up onto the track level and then actually be able to do the drilling and not have any trains crash into them,” says Amm.

The crew also had to contend with a restrictive work space. Of a total of 126 piles required for the shoring system, 22 were drilled in less than seven metres of headroom below an existing skywalk.

Anchor successfully completed its contract, and building of the under-ground roadway system is currently underway.

Because of the complexities involved, the Simcoe project is a good example of what can be accomplished when Anchor Shoring and its two sister companies, Crown Drilling and Banner Piling & Excavating, collaborate on a project. “They know what they’re doing,” says Amm. n

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Drill rigs boring vertical holes for soldier piles from track level, including a low-headroom rig below the skywalk.




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Markets “We’re able to work across many

markets, so we try and spread it out so that we’re not pigeonholed in one area,” says Tattle. “But that said, the condo market here is so hot that you automatically end up with a big chunk of work in that market,” she continues. Some of the higher profile jobs include Maple Leaf Square, Pure Spirit Lofts & Condos and the Pinnacle Centre proj-ect, which when finished will comprise of four towers with prime real estate overlooking Lake Ontario.

The private sector has also been key to the success of the company. “For a number of years, the hospital market was big,” says Tattle. The company has been contracted to work on many Ontario hospitals includ-ing the Hospital for Sick Children, the R.S. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Clinic, North York General Hospital, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, the Oril-lia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, Southlake Regional Health Centre, “phase two” of the South Muskoka Memorial Hospital.

ARC & CUT

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Anchor Shoring for reaching this

milestone, their 40th anniversary.

39 Greybeaver Trail, Scarborough, ON M1C 4N6Phone: 416-801-4468 Fax: 416-284-4596

Wakefield Canada Inc.Distributor of Premium Castrol HD Lubricants

3620 Lakeshore Blvd. West, Toronto, Ontario M8W 1P2www.wakefieldcanada.ca – 1-888-CASTROL

Congratulations to Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd.

on your 40th Anniversary

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Land is considered gold in downtown Toronto, and developers are willing to pay for the added costs that are inevitable when forced to build in less than optimal construction conditions.

“As more and more development happens in the city, the projects become more and more complex, because they’re on tighter and less desirable properties,” says Derrick Speakman, Vice-President of Anchor Shoring & Caissons. “And so the requirements for shoring and/or special foundations increase,” he continues.

Such was the case for a Canadian Tire store that was erected on reclaimed land in downtown Toronto. The prior tenant was a warehouse for Brewers Retail Inc. Although the old building was knocked down, the existing foundation system along with the existing piles were still firmly in place underground, “which the client had to work around, rather than try to pull all of those piles out,” says Speakman.

In total, 8,400 metres worth of approximately 15-metre long piles were strategi-cally driven around the old infrastructure. n

The condominium market in Toronto is sizzling right now, which for Anchor

Shoring & Caissons means that “a good size portion of our work is in the condo and development business,” according to company Vice-President Paul Kreycir.

One project of note that Anchor was selected to work on is the four-tower Pinnacle Centre condominium project, with its choice location near Union Station and Lake Ontar-io’s harbour front.

Anchor completed work on the first 40-storey tower in 2004. The second phase is 29 storeys, and Anchor finished that contract in the summer of 2007.

Because the property is on reclaimed land, the project offered up some unique obstacles. “They dumped the dirt into the water and created more space,” says Thomas Stack, Vice-President Opera-tions for Anchor. “They buried all the docks underneath the dirt, and then we have to drill through all those existing structures.” In this case, Stack says that some of the obstructions that Anchor came across included the rock and timber infrastructure for the old wharf, parts of a Ford Model A and collectible bottles.

Mondiale Developments Ltd. part-nered Anchor with Isherwood Associates

Pinnacle Centre condos

Canadian Tire project

Pile driving at Canadian tire project site.

to handle the design of the multiple soil retention systems, and Anchor carried out the installation of the systems.

Ninety linear metres of 6.7-metre deep temporary sheet piling were installed so that the excavation could be completed in two phases. The temporary sheeting system was built to support the excavation for a three-year period, and so it was braced by corrosion-protected rock anchors.

Because of the close proximity to the elevated Gardiner Expressway highway, the design had to safeguard the highway’s infrastructure. Also, because the struc-tures are so close to the waterfront and well below lake level, 640 interlocking caissons were installed to keep water from seeping into the excavation. “That’s called creating the bathtub effect,” says Kreycir. The cais-son wall was braced by 190 anchors that were drilled into bedrock. n

During the construction of the Pinnacle Centre condos in toronto, a sheet piling wall is installed (left side of photo) to allow the excavation to be done in two stages, and a caisson wall is braced by rock anchors (back of photo).



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CONGRATULATIONS TO ANCHOR SHORING & CAISSONS LTD.

40 Y

ears

Congratulations to Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd. on their 40

th Anniversary.

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The company is currently working on St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

Other projects that the company cur-rently has underway include the new phase of the MaRS Discovery District, an entrepreneurial science industry cluster in Toronto; the Windermere by the Lake condominiums, the Shops at Don Mills and Greater Toronto Transit Authority’s Stouffville Corridor – Hagerman Dia-mond Grade Separation project.

Despite an impressive resume that includes numerous Ministry of Trans-portation projects, the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada’s National Ballet School, Casino Niagara and Casino Windsor, the company still handles all sizes of projects. “We’ve done jobs as small as one hole, and we’ve done jobs with thousands of holes,” says Tattle.

Always innovatingIn 40 years, more than 4,000 projects

have been completed. Along the way, not only have tricks of the trade been acquired, but the masterminds behind the business have developed a knack for finding the best foundation solutions for its clients through little more than innovative gumption.

“When we see what the client is trying to accomplish, then we figure out a way to do that,” says Tattle. “So we go into our bag of tricks, and we figure out what the right solution is,” says Tattle. “We try and come up with new ideas on how to do things – redesigns or fine tuning designs,” explains Tattle.

Safety firstThe safety of the crew is a top priority,

says Thomas. Anchor has a health and safety policy handbook, written proce-dures, new employee safety orientations and provides ongoing on and off-site training. The company also employs a full-time safety officer.

A participant in a Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (for Ontario) safety pro-gram since 2003, Anchor has made itself open to spot audits. The company experi-enced such an audit in 2006 and passed with “flying colours.” Anchor received a 100 per cent mark and was commended for its implementation and documentation.

Tattle stresses that not only is safety important on the job site, but it is important through the ranks. “Safety is something that we’re all involved in,” says Tattle.

anchor Shoring & Caissons ltd.: design and installation of soil retention systems and caisson foundations.

Date of incorporation: march 15, 1968

Banner Piling & excavating ltd.: design and installation of sheet piling and all types of pile foundations.

Date of incorporation: July 29, 1971

Crown Drilling ltd.: design and installation of tiedown, tieback and soil anchor systems.

Date of incorporation: nov. 6, 1975

location: toronto

main market serviced: Greater toronto area

Other markets serviced: remainder of Ontario, Quebec, manitoba and northeastern United States

total facilities: 3.5 hectares

Service facilities: 900 square metres

Office area: 540 square metres

Project sizes: one-hole to multi-million dollar projects

number of employees: approximately 110

Professional affiliations:

• toronto Construction association

• Heavy Construction association of toronto

• Ontario association of Foundation Specialists

• Professional engineers Ontario

• Deep Foundations institute

• Canadian Welding Bureau

• Ontario Road Builders’ association

• Civil Construction / WSiB Workplace Safety and insurance Board of Ontario) Safety Group

• association of Drilled Shaft Contractors

• Canadian Geotechnical Society

The Anchor group of companies

Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd. Banner Piling & Excavating Limited Crown Drilling Limited

Anchor Shor ing i s a de s i g n -

b u i l d c o n t r a c t i n g c o m -

p a n y w h i c h s p e c i a l i z e s i n

s o i l r e t e n t i o n , e a r t h s h o r-

i n g , c a i s s o n w a l l s , s h o t -

c re te , c a i s so n s , d r i v e n p i l e

f o u n d a t i o n s , s h e e t p i l i n g ,

t i e b a c k s a n d r o c k a n c h o r

i n s t a l l a t i o n s .

T h e A n c h o r G r o u p o f f e r s

o v e r 4 0 y e a r s o f c o n s t r u c t io n

e x pe r i e n c e i n t h e de s i g n a n d

i n s t a l l a t i o n o f so i l r e t e n t io n

a n d e n g in e e re d fo u n da t io n

s y s te ms . W i t h o u r e x te n -

s i v e e qu ipme n t a n d ma te r i a l

i n v e n t o r y w e a r e u n i q u e -

l y e q u i p p e d t o c o n s t r u c t

y o u r f u t u r e p r o j e c t s . We

a r e a b l e t o p r o v i d e p e r-

fo rma n c e a n d l a bo u r ma te -

r i a l bo n ds fo r p ro je c t s . We

o f f e r o u r c a pa c i t y to me e t

t h e c h a l l e n g e o f l a r g e h i g h

p r o f i l e c o n t r a c t s a n d o u r

c o mmi tme n t to p ro v ide

s u p e r i o r s e r v i c e o n

a l l p r o j e c t s ,

i n de pe n de n t

o f s i z e .

Tel: 416-292-1401 Fax: 416-292-1124 [email protected]

w w w. a n c h o r s h o r i n g . c o mTel: 416-292-1401 Fax: 416-292-1124 [email protected]

w w w. a n c h o r s h o r i n g . c o mTel: 416-292-1401 Fax: 416-292-1124 [email protected]

w w w. a n c h o r s h o r i n g . c o m

a l l p r o j e c t s ,

i n de pe n de n t

o f s i z e .

Anchor.indd 1 2/29/08 9:56:50 AM

business and trade magazine – anchor shoring – 40 years

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