ESC Steel | Piling Canada

Written by Bruce Colson, ESC Steel LLC

March 2021

Piling team, United Arab Emirates, 2012
Photos: ESC Steel LLC

Five years after ESC Group’s first sheet pile was installed in 1986 at Magnetic Island, Australia, the company expanded into Asia in 1991 (first Singapore, then Malaysia and China, and more). They didn’t stop there. In 2004, ESC established itself in the Middle East, and arrived in the United States in 2012.

Now located in 20 countries and counting, ESC has established manufacturing and engineering offices in different regions, primarily in Asia, the Middle East and North America. This growth through project awards and market footprint spearheaded the company’s recognition and popularity in the global market, helping it become one of the foremost trusted products and service providers with delivery of significant projects all over the world.

ESC, over the years, has evolved into an internationally certified organization with full capacity in engineering and design, project management, research and development, manufacturing, supply and construction.

Heading up operations in North America is ESC Steel LLC, an integral part of ECS Group, which now has locations in North Carolina and Texas, and soon in Vancouver, B.C. The activities for North and South America are coordinated from these offices along with ESC’s offices in Mexico and Brazil.

Over the last 10 years, ESC has increased its product offerings based on requests from clients and also as part of their ever-growing product development program.

For the Canadian market, the majority of the work carried out by ESC has been via its structural steel division. ESC is working on the Annacis Island project in Delta, B.C., with the Pomerleau Bessac Joint Venture. ESC’s scope of work on this project is manufacturing the diffuser pipes, tunnel liners and flanges amongst others. Wastewater from the Annacis Island Wastewater Treatment Plant (in Vancouver) is released into the Fraser River through an outfall pipe once it has been treated. A new outfall location and diffuser system are being installed, which will involve constructing a tunnel approximately one-kilometre-long from the plant to the river.

The new outfall location and design will ensure that treated effluent is dispersed over a broad area underwater to maximize dilution and minimize the impact on the environment.

The new pipe is expected to meet the regional growth needs for the next 100 years while ensuring greater seismic resilience and continuous, reliable and safe management of liquid waste.

Another current project that ESC is working on in British Columbia is the LNG Canada export facility in Kitimat, on the traditional territory of the Haisla Nation. The scope of ESC’s work on this project mostly covers various steel structures from steel walings, to bull rails, ladders and more. LNG Canada will export Canadian natural gas to Asian markets, and in the process, put Canada on the global map of LNG exporting countries and create a world-class liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in British Columbia and Canada.

Foundation piling and marine projects in Canada by ESC have traditionally been carried out in British Columbia. Now ESC is moving east, towards the Great Lakes as its arsenal of products includes those made in the U.S., which allows for more competitive options into these areas.

From its humble beginnings as a manufacturer-supplier of steel sheet piles, ESC has successfully incorporated engineering support and design to its discipline as a systematic approach to foundation solutions, marine piling, marine equipment, trench safety, corrosion control and diversified structural steel fabrication.

ESC’s traditional offerings

ESC’s marine and foundation piling product range consists of steel sheet pile and vinyl sheet pile, H pile and pipe pile combination walls, steel pipe piles, strutting systems and tie-rod systems.

Over the last 10 years, ESC has increased its product offerings based on requests from clients and also as part of their ever-growing product development program. The ranges include:

ESC’s trench safety range, which incorporates trench shields/boxes that are a two-sided, high-quality and economical excavation support system to provide a safe working environment in trenches.
ESC’s marine equipment, including mooring bollards and marine fenders.
ESC’s structural steel fabrication division, which covers steel bridge structures, pre-engineered steel buildings/prefab steel buildings, offshore steel structures, heavy steel fabrication, pressure vessel and material handling structures. ESC supplies steel columns, purlins, frames, trestles, beams, trusses, conveyor gantries, mineral processing plants, crusher and screening structures, bridges, walkways, ROM bins, stairs, platforms, handrails, guards, grating, conveyor supports, frames, towers, pipe racks and mechanical support steel.
ESC’s corrosion protection systems, which provide high quality corrosion protection by means of coatings: coal tar epoxy, glass flake epoxy coating, hot dip galvanizing, and duplex coating system and cathodic protection, or the combination of both.

More than simply supplying products, ESC takes a different approach to its product ranges which are often tailored to the customers’ requirements. ESC believes that just supplying a product is insufficient and they strive to provide a level of support that is beyond customer expectations. This support ranges from general advice on the client’s options to full engineering support and design.

ESC entities are either contractors, engineers and manufacturers or a combination of all three, in various parts of the world. ESC Steel in the U.S. in particular aims big and will be continuing its domestic manufacturing set up, and looking at installation aspects of the business with external and internal resources.