A Wild Ride Foundations of a Company Coming of Age

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A Wild Ride Foundations of a Company Coming of Age What still stands is what we created. The dams, the roads, the bridges, the schemes, The idea of forming consortiums always struck me as a good one, as problems The more difficult projects in which I was involved required detailed attention by me. That wasn’t My boss asked if I would be interested in working in Africa and got me a job interview with A valley failed where a company was building a mining tailings dam in Papua New Guinea called Ok When I joined Klohn Leonoff, I brought a capability in rock mechanics and a background in tunnelling. The variety of clients and market sectors is a driver as to why I came back into consulting We realized in the early 2000s that we had to fundamentally change the culture of the company to survive. That meant teaching professional engineers and I have found KCB to be a company that values the “why.” Our focus is on understanding the problems and KCB is a purpose-driven enterprise. Our purpose is the application of engineering and science for the betterment of our world. We and all the construction did not disappear with the company. These structures show FOUNDATIONS OF A COMPANY could be ironed out around the Board table. When there were problems on site dictated by me—it was dictated by the projects. The concentration that was required on these projects METAMORPHOSES COMING OF AGE PROJECTS AND PROGRESS ONE CHAPTER CLOSES A NEW MILLENNIUM A WILD RIDE C.B.A. Engineering. Don Bazett hired me and sent me to be the dam engineer on the Hadejia Tedi. They asked us to put in a proposal to review their options. The first thing Earl Speer asked was “Where That’s why we got the Tumbler Ridge tunnels project. We had to drive the six-kilometre Wolverine Tunnel, scientists that every KCB project had to contribute more value to the company than it cost. Of course, the return of more value than expended is plainly and simply technical issues that clients want us to help them with, and making sure there is a clear basis for our designs and need to be at the forefront of the key issues of our day, including clean energy, the environmental and sustainable disposal of waste the vision of my employees and the community feeling of Crippen Engineering. between differing areas of work, the decision-makers had to find the solution had a creative, in-built incompatibility with the aspect of doing broader project engineering. If that River Basin study in Nigeria. We studied the whole river basin and laid out potential dam sites, and the nine-kilometre Table Tunnel. It was one of the biggest projects ever done in British Columbia of that in the early 1990s. One day you can go from helping with the big oil sands mining The 1950s: The Roots of Klohn Crippen Berger detailed work hadn’t been given to them, the projects would have been far less successful. The 1960s: An Era of Change the hell’s Papua New Guinea?!” I said, “We’re going to put all our senior people on it, including me.” Earle What we accomplished as a group will be our legacy for the 21st century. for the good of the company as a whole. I liked the idea! and did site investigations and preliminary design of the systems. That was 1974. The 1970s: A Changing World nature, at least until that point. We delivered on budget and a month ahead of schedule. The 1980s: Ventures and Adventures companies, to working up in the Canadian Beaufort Sea, to remediation projects in the The 1990s: The Changing of the Guard what all companies call profitability: without this basic understanding all enterprises eventually fail. With this approach, we taught our professionals that recommendations; not just doing it because “that’s the way we have always done it.” We value different opinions and from a world hungry for resources, clean and sustainable water supply, and a safe and resilient infrastructure. No doubt we will —CHARLIE RIPLEY, QUOTED IN A DEDICATED TEAM, 1991 Klohn said, “But you’re the manager of this office.” I replied, “Earle, if we don’t get this job, we’re not going The 2000s: Organizational Evolution and The 2010s: Peaks and Valleys —HARVEY MCLEOD, PRINCIPAL AND VICE PRESIDENT OF STRATEGIC MARKETING, KLOHN CRIPPEN BERGER, 2017 —RAYMOND BENSON, FORMER PRESIDENT, KLOHN LEONOFF, 2017 collaboration in getting to solutions. I really enjoy the team and working with others who are solution-focused. Being adapt to address these challenges. We have adapted for seventy years, and we will continue to do so, now and into the future. —GLENN CRIPPEN, FOUNDER, CRIPPEN WRIGHT ENGINEERING LTD., 1999 City of New Westminster awards —GLENN CRIPPEN, FOUNDER, CRIPPEN WRIGHT ENGINEERING LTD., 1999 to have an office.” He looked at me and said, “I agree with you.” Ok Tedi is what saved us. Mackenzie Delta to dam and water infrastructure projects. Everything we do is exciting! profitability is a good thing. This is the essence of sustainability. A company cannot contribute to society unless it remains profitable and survives. work to Canadian-British Engineering Seepage assessment at the Cleveland Dam, North Vancouver, B.C., circa 1968. —ERNEST PORTFORS, CHAIR EMERITUS, KLOHN CRIPPEN BERGER, 2017 Technological Transformation Consultants Ltd. in 1956. —BRIAN ROGERS, VICE PRESIDENT, ALBERTA, KLOHN CRIPPEN BERGER, 2018 —BRYAN WATTS, FORMER PRESIDENT, KLOHN CRIPPEN BERGER, 2018 part of a group that collectively strives to make ourselves and each other better has been an amazing experience. —LEN MURRAY, PRESIDENT & CEO, 2019 Cleveland Dam on the Capilano River in North Vancouver, B.C., 1959. Rod and ball mills at the Craigmont Mine, near Merritt, B.C., circa 1961. Drilling in permafrost in the Northwest Territories, 1972. Construction of the cyclotron, Ray Benson addressing the —MARY-JANE PIGGOTT, MINING ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP REGIONAL MANAGER, NORTH AMERICA, 2018 CN Railslide Vancouver International Airport, B.C., 1996. TRIUMF Project, Vancouver, B.C., 1970. gathering at Klohn Leonoff’s First Ripley job, Jenny MacDougall conducting Fortieth Anniversary open B.C., 1951. Excerpt from 1981 Klohn Leonoff brochure. a cyclic triaxial laboratory test, Centre: Jan Blom, founder of Pitt Polder Ltd., 1958. house, Richmond, B.C, 1991. Engineer Drew Alcan’s smelter plant, Kitimat, B.C., circa 1963. Richmond, B.C., 1981. Foreshore Hegadoren Melissa Carrico investigation Geochemist Jennifer Geotechnical and hydrogeological at the proposed analyzes data work by Ripley Vancouver office Durocher using a Chris Strachotta characterization at the Bongará Kerr-Sulphurets- from the Project meeting, and Associates staff, 2009. handheld XRF analyzer at the Mount Project, Amazonas Region, Mitchell mine cyclic triaxial Calgary, Alberta. Ltd. at the on a slag pile in Isa Mine tailings Peru, 2013. site, B.C., 2012. Site C Generating Station and Spillway, B.C, 2020. machine at the 2020. Crofton pulp Coniston, Ontario, as storage facility, geotechnical mill, Vancouver part of the Coniston Queensland, Clockwise from lab, Vancouver, Island, for client Smelter Remediation Australia, 2011. top left: Excerpt from a Ripley, Klohn, and Leonoff Mayerthorpe rail bridge, Alberta, Canada, 2016. B.C., 2018. H.A. Simons Len Murray and his daughter Project, 2012. Bob Maartman, International Ltd. brochure, 1972. Ellie at the Ok Tedi mine site, Ltd., 1957. Letta Lewis, Papua New Guinea, 1986. K. Ian Morrison, Mark Olsen. First soils testing laboratory in Terzaghi Dam, originally called the Mission Vancouver, B.C., Dam, was completed in 1960. Happy Hour Barbecue with Neil Singh 1952. Charlie and Alex Sy, Richmond, B.C., 1997 FOUNDATIONS STRONG Mark Olsen (left) and Dwayne Donald working at the testing bench, 1952. Contractors at Alcan’s Kitimat, B.C., Left to right: Earle Klohn, Mark Olsen, Charlie Ripley, David Construction of the Port Mann Bridge across the STORY CRIPPEN BERGER THE KLOHN Ripley is seated at smelter site poked fun at Charlie Fraser River between the cities of Coquitlam and Campbell and Ian Morrison; Cyril Leonoff at front, in 1963. Katherine Palmer Gordon his desk. Ripley’s estimates of how much fill Construction of the Mica Dam, looking upstream on the Columbia River is the author of seven bestselling Pitt Lake Dyke, B.C., 1953. Surrey in the Lower Mainland, B.C., circa 1961. In 1965, the Mission Dam on the Bridge River in B.C. was renamed the Terzaghi Dam in honour of Karl Canadian non-fiction books, several of would be required, 1957. near Revelstoke, B.C., circa 1970. them award-winning, and has contributed This book is about a fascinating human enterprise. Set against the development that Annacis Channel West Bridge, B.C., 1986. Forty Mile Coulee irrigation reservoir, St. Mary Irrigation District, Alberta, commissioned 1987–1988. Terzaghi. Left to right: Mark Olsen, Charlie Ripley, Richard Goodman, Cyril Leonoff, Bryan Watts and Jackpine Mine, Alberta, 2010. Artist’s rendition of Brenda Mines starter to numerous anthologies. She has also followed World War Two, it provides an insight into many interesting places across the Maduru Oya reservoir, Peter Brown visited the cairn commemorating the renaming in 1993. Balambano Dam, Indonesia, 1999. worked as a journalist for many years, tailings dam, Peachland, world. But it is not just about glamorous projects and travel to exotic places. The book Ripley, Klohn and Arvind and Uma Dalpatram at a Sri Lanka, 1983. Gateway Skytrain Station, Surrey, B.C., circa 1990. writing for publications including brings out the human side of our business and is full of stories of challenges overcome: STRONG FOUNDATIONS B.C., June 13, 1970. Canadian Geographic, the Globe and Mail Leonoff Ltd.’s office at market in Baun, East Timor, 1978. Arraw Dam at the Amrun Mine challenges triggered by worldwide events, challenges that rocked the best-laid plans, Alex Sy conducting field study for the Left to right: Earl Speer, John Burrows, Douglas Watts, newspaper, BC Business magazine and challenges of ownership through the good and bad times.
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