The Southwest Calgary Ring Road (SWCRR) is a large, complex project providing safe, efficient movement of goods and people in and around Calgary. The SWCRR reduces overall traffic congestion and provides effective routes for commercial vehicles taking goods across the province, country and to foreign ports. The project was delivered via the design build finance operate maintain (DBFOM) method.
The project involved the design and construction of 31 kilometers of 6- and 8-lane divided highway from Highway 8 to the southeast end of Macleod Trail. It included the reconstruction of Glenmore Trail from Sarcee Trail to east of 37 Street, including a roadway flyover and a railway crossing.
A total of 47 bridges were constructed (30 NU girder structures, 10 box girder structures, 6 steel girder structures, 1 cast-in-place deck structure) with four bridges spanning over Elbow River and Fish Creek. The project brought construction of 14 interchanges, including Glenmore, Sarcee and MacLeod Trails, as well as extensive earthworks totaling 15 million cubic meters.
Roadway and asphalt aggregate reached 6 million tons and 995,000 tons of asphalt were placed. Additionally the project addressed 168 utilities conflicts through removal, relocation or protection, including relocations for 16 electrical transmissions and 18 gas lines. For ease of management and construction, the project was broken down into 3 distinct geographical sites and 14 construction sites.
The SWCRR included both greenfield and brownfield construction in constricted work sites near live traffic, railways and environmentally sensitive areas. Five bridges cross water bodies, including three across the new Elbow River alignment prior to the realignment of the river and two across active rivers at Elbow River and Fish Creek. The bridge over Fish Creek was particularly unique as a portion of the pier work and grading occurred in the floodplain and was completed during the fish window.
EXP provided geotechnical services to Mountain View Partners to design, build, partially finance and operate the Southwest Calgary Ring Road project. EXP’s portion of the SWCRR design included the roads/highway and 25 structures consisting of 23 bridges, one tunnel and one culvert.
Innovative geotechnical services for environmental stability
Geotechnical services encompassed design of bridges, roads, storm ponds, light and sign foundations, retaining walls and utility relocations and protection. The EXP team conducted geotechnical subsurface exploration during the RFP and detailed design stages. The exploration consisted of solid stem auger, sonic drilling and rock coring of up to 40m depths, along with DCPTs, SPTs, vane shear and pocket penetrometer testing.
Laboratory testing and engineering analysis
Laboratory testing on selected samples included consolidation testing, Atterberg limits, moisture content determinations, triaxial tests, direct shear tests gradation testing, sulphate testing and corrosion testing.
Engineering analyses included shallow and deep foundations, seismic performance, settlement, slope stability, lightweight fill for utility protection and retention ponds and dams. EXP’s team also provided natural hazard assessments for slope movement to help facilitate constructability.
Slope assessment and remediation strategies
A detailed site mapping, field exploration and laboratory program assessed the strength parameters of the slope materials under both short-term and long-term conditions and failure zones. The team conducted stability analysis using strength parameters, as well as back-analysis of slopes.
Slope improvement and design included the combination of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall with long geogrids, drainage measures and replacement of unsuitable materials and toe buttressing.
Services
Geotechnical