St. Albert Trail Barrier Wall Project
The main highway north, Highway 2, runs thru the center of present-day St Albert. Over the years residential neighborhoods have been built on both sides of the road. The traffic has to be heavy, noisy, annoying, and constant.
The suburbs all try to curb the noise with sound abatement initiatives. We were asked to help install a concrete noise barrier alongside the road. A good one. Stamped and colored to resemble rock, 12 ft. high, 4 inches thick. Each piece 7-11 thousand pounds. That would help to make the homestead a bit more comfortable.
But most of the wall would run along the top of a ridge, 20 to 40 ft. high, at some points 60 ft. from the road. The panels were approx. 11 ft. long, and not light; 7-11 thousand each. And it was quite a ways up that hill.
We met our precast contacts and walked the route, the hill. There were over 400 panels, just over a kilometer of work. There was no question in our mind that our largest knuckle was the perfect truck for the job, but it was a hefty price tag. We would have to talk. We had done some work on a similar project, and the general had aggressively ground us for cheaper rates, then insisted the best unit was our large machine. He was half right.
We knew it was the perfect unit and the only one around. We compromised on the pricing and it felt fair for both parties. This situation, as we walked the surprisingly steep hill, kept demanding our biggest girl. There would be a pathway along the top, hundreds of columns, and thankfully a crude road cut into the middle of the hill. That would help unless it rained. The plan was to keep the material on the street, block off a single lane and funnel the trucks thru there. Our crane would climb onto the hillside cut line, reach down below to grab the product, then swing it up over the road, over our truck, and further up the hill above, to the build.
Our knuckle boom would work. With its big stick, our crane operator could stabilize his truck, then climb up to the wall site and stand inches away from the insert points where the concrete slabs fit between the columns.
Down below, the transport driver could rig up the barriers. It was a simple hook to eye procedure, but even more important, delivery times and coordination between crane and delivery wagon would be critical.
We asked for and were awarded the barrier transport. That would help. The coordination of extra companies in a changeable, weather-dependent job site can be brutal. Also for the offload and rigging; we would have a tractor driver we could depend on for some help. Sorry Y’all but many a tractor driver just sits in his cab once he gets the load untied.
Plus we could coordinate the loading. That proved to be a bit of an issue. The precast company wanted trailers staged in their yard. We supplied. Then they realized they could only load inside their building and once the trailers were loaded, they needed them moved; tout de suite, to load more, or do other tasks. But they had no way of moving the trailers.
We supplied them with a small shuttle tractor.
So we had a loading plan, a coordinated transportation procedure, decent pricing, and a lift plan for the site.
It all worked. A 3-month job and we were done in 2 and a half. Watch the video, it tells the story.