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Helical Pier Systems (HPS) is North Americas largestengineering, manuacturer, and installer o helical pilessince 1977. As a proven leader in the piling industry,HPS is committed to providing custom engineered he-

lical piling solutions that meet the needs o clients over a diverserange o industries rom residential, commercial, power trans-mission and telecommunication, oil & gas and provincial andmunicipal government agencies.

During the winter o 2008/2009, ACO Electric looked toHPS to engineer, manuacture and install pile oundations or theirrecently approved Wesley Creek to Miekle 240 KV double-circuit

transmission line in the Peace River area o Alberta. A projectvalued at $120 million, the transmission line was designed with426 steel lattice towers stretching over 126 km over varying andmuskeg terrain, and spanning one major river crossing. Multipleoundation types would be required and installed to support eachstructure, and helical piles were chosen as the primary tower oun-dation system.

Te original project schedule was set at 60 days with fve unitsor the installation o approximately 6,000 piles, based on an esti-mated installation o 20 piles per unit per day. ACO Electricproject managers also needed to ast-track the construction due to

THE POWER

TO DELIVERBy Tom Bradka M.Eng., P.Eng.

ProJeCt SPotLIGHt

30 Piling Canada

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o validate the helical pile design, a comprehensive testing pro-gram was initiated by HPS to ensure the highest level o qualitycontrol and assurance. As well as having to adhere to the ASMstandard or load testing, HPS personnel also needed to be mobile,ast, and accurate.

HPS perormed multiple load tests, where the results were thenused to optimize the helical pile design or each o the tower bases.In some cases, the load test results allowed or an extra 50 per centcapacity to be utilized.

HPS manuacturing quality assurance required an equalamount o management; cradle-to-grave product traceability isstrictly enorced rom raw materials, through production to stor-age, and delivery to installation. Material selection, steel plate andsteel pipe, needed to be o the expected quality readily availableand traceable. HPS coordinated their manuacturing acilities tomeet the needs o this project while ensuring all other projectsboth large and small receive the same level o controls and consid-erations. Enough lead time was taken to ensure the production o6,000 piles was completed on time. Improvements in abricationenabled HPS acilities to drastically increase production.

Troughout the complete cycle o the project HPS surpassed

the logistical challenges o a cold climate, production, and deliveryand installation in a remote location. At the request o the client,due to the downturn in global economy, only 35 per cent o thepile installation was completed. HPS doubled expected installationrates mobilizing three units, which installed 2,136 piles in 18 days,averaging 40 piles per unit per day. Pile cap installation was expe-dited through the use o Shelters and wire ed welding processes.

Teir perormance beginning with engineering and designthrough to installation conrmed once again HPS has the powerto deliver. PC

various obstacles such as weather, access, political disruptions andthe migration o wildlie.

Helical pile oundations are both dependant on the appliedload and resistance o that load in the soil, so a proper geotechnicalinvestigation was carried out. Te results or the geotechnical pro-gram were utilized to determine the most appropriate oundationtype at each structure location.

In order to stay on schedule, the brushing (tree clearing) neededto stay ahead o the pile installation. Winter installations proveto be easier accomplished over dif cult terrains and sot (muskeg)grounds but climate and rozen ground creates a challenging instal-lation environment or the crews and their equipment.

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