while providing a turnkey solution from survey and manufacture,
to installation and pile cap welding. Roterra Piling
Ltd. was selected for the task by Voltage Power (purchased in
early February by Aecon) and arrived on site last September.
Roterra is a solutions-focused contractor with high safety
and quality standards backed by industry-leading engineering.
This Alberta-based company has been involved with
helical screw pile technology through its parent company –
Genax Metal Manufacturing Ltd. – since 1992 and has been
active in the transmission and distribution space over the last
15 years. Its engineering team brings decades of piling solution
design experience and utilizes sophisticated numerical
modelling to analyze any installation anomalies and refine
the cap plate design.
“We are able to self-perform the engineer, manufacture,
supply and install of helical screw piles of large scale and
high volume,” said Garrett Axani, vice president at Roterra.
“Roterra supports the execution of projects with sound project
management and are capable of adding geotechnical
investigations and survey in our scope to complement the
pile design, pile install and pile cap install.”
Roterra was initially brought on the project as an alternate
to the base foundation design with a scope of 50 lattice
tower structures. Based on the performance, time savings
and financial considerations of what Roterra’s team was able
to bring to these first 50 structures, the company’s scope of
work was expanded for MMTP and they were able to take on
a total of 116 structures.
“We are all extremely proud to have been considered as
one of the solution providers for this project and we are
pleased with what our team was able to contribute,” said
Axani. “I would personally like to commend the work of our
employees on this project who bring more than 300 personyears
of experience from the helical pile industry. The fact
that our scope increased significantly after our initial mobilization
is a testament to the value proposition of our team,
our services and our product.”
GREAT CANADIAN PROJECTS
For the installation of the structures in Roterra’s scope,
the company used two helical pile install units built off of
excavator base machines. A John Deere 350 unit is able to
install piles up to 33 feet in length, which is a fairly standard
top-out capacity for a helical piling unit. However, Roterra’s
Volvo EC460 unit is equipped with an in-house engineered
and manufactured custom arm to allow for the installation of
piles up to 48 feet in length. In addition to the custom-built
excavator arms, Roterra is also one of the early pioneers of
mounting large-capacity drive heads on excavators.
“For us this means that instead of installing a pile lead
section and extension afterwards, we are able to install the
piles in a single section, which is significantly faster and more
effective from an install perspective,” said Benjamin Luu, field
operations manager at Roterra.
The 2,120 Manitoba Hydro-designed, job-specific piles –
combined with Roterra engineers’ welding design that was
used in this project – were fabricated by the company and
then shipped direct to the job site. The helical screw piles
range from 30 to 40 feet in length and have up to three helixes,
one-inch thick and 36 inches in diameter. Roterra was proud
to showcase the quality of its manufacturing from its ISO
9001:2015 certified, quality management program and facility
at Acheson, Alta.
“There are not a lot of companies that can perform the
internal engineering, manufacture and install of large diameter,
large-capacity helical piles at scale,” said Axani. “Roterra
is excited to have started offering our services throughout
North America with the opening of our Houston, Texas,
location in 2019. We are now focused on expanding our service
offerings geographically, and are excited for what the
future holds.”
The right-of-way required for the transmission line
depended largely on the design of the tower structures, which
are either guyed or self-supported. The towers are spaced an
average of 400 to 500 metres apart and range in height from
40 to 60 metres.
PILING CANADA 45