MAJOR MACKENZIE DRIVE CULVERT REPLACEMENT PROJECT Successfully Planning, Executing, and Minimizing the Impacts of an eight-week, Double Culvert Construction Under a Major Urban Arterial Ontario Public Works Association Award Submissions 2019 Public Works Project of the Year The Regional Municipality of York Transportation Services TABLE OF CONTENTS Project Overview ........................................................................... 1 Project Background ...................................................................... 2 Construction Management and Schedule ............................ 4 Construction Safety ...................................................................... 6 Community Relations .................................................................. 8 Protecting the Environment ....................................................12 Accomplishments under Adverse Conditions ....................14 Why this Project is Important .................................................16 Conclusion ....................................................................................17 PROJECT OVERVIEW The Regional Municipality of York (York Region) recently undertook Given the various sensitivities surrounding the temporary road an emergency culvert replacement for a large 50-year old corrugated closure, York Region pre-qualified three top general contractors steel pipe arch (CSPA) culvert in the City of Vaughan. The culvert to bid on this project. Coco Paving Inc. was awarded the contract. conveys the West Don River under Major Mackenzie Drive, one of By working 24-hours a day, including weekends and holidays, Coco the busiest urban arterial roads in York Region. The condition of the Paving Inc. was able to re-open the road almost three weeks ahead existing culvert required a temporary full closure of Major Mackenzie of schedule, despite running into a number of complications. During Drive to safely and efficiently carry out the work, which had to be the eight-week construction period, the project team was able to: completed within a two month timeframe in order to comply with environmental in-water work timing restrictions. • Remove all impacted asphalt, granular material, curbs and sidewalk from the project site During consultations with the City of Vaughan, it was requested that the project incorporate critical pieces of city infrastructure. This • Excavate the existing 8 metre high earth fill embankment included a second perched culvert to facilitate pedestrian and cycling (approximately 10,000 cubic metres of soil, of which 5,800 cubic passage under Major Mackenzie Drive, a watermain connection metres required special disposal as it was contaminated) to to support the new Mackenzie Health Vaughan Hospital and new expose the CSPA culvert multi-use pathways. • Construct a temporary diversion of the West Don River to permit There were several technical and logistical challenges associated work “in the dry” with expanding the project scope to include the City’s infrastructure. However, it was also recognized that the temporary road closure • Secure a permit from the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario provided a unique opportunity to implement a piece of infrastructure (MTO) to allow overnight delivery of the 53 large precast culvert that could be enjoyed by the community for generations to come units on Highway 400. This was to further mitigate traffic impacts and therefore, the decision was made early in the process to include of having oversize loads delivered to the site during congested the City’s infrastructure as part of our project. daytime hours York Region’s engineering consultant, HDR Corporation, worked • Install the drainage and pedestrian culverts using a large 600 hard to expedite the detailed design, permit requirements and utility tonne crane conflict resolutions for the two new culverts. In order to meet some very constrained timelines, York Region pre-ordered the two new • Realign the West Don River to the new drainage culvert location concrete box culverts in early spring 2019 through a tender process from Decast Ltd. The first culvert was a 52 metre long, 6 metre by 3.5 • Install a new oil-grit separator unit to treat storm run-off prior to metre precast concrete structure that would convey the West Don entering the watershed River. The second culvert was a 44 metre long, 6 metre by 3 metre precast concrete box culvert that would serve as the pedestrian and • Install a new 5 metre high RSS wall and a new 2.7 metre high cast cycling underpass for the City of Vaughan. in-place retaining wall 1 • Install, test and commission a new 400 millimetre watermain connection within our project limits PROJECT BACKGROUND • Reinstate an existing sanitary sewer within our project limits The West Don River crosses Major Mackenzie Drive through a large CSPA culvert (4.7m x 2.9m x 58m), that was installed in 1968, just • Install a new and upgraded storm sewer system within our east of McNaughton/Avro Road in the City of Vaughan. During an project limits Environmental Assessment for Operational Improvements to Major Mackenzie Drive in 2018, it was found that the structural integrity • Reinstate the pavement structure for Major Mackenzie Drive of the culvert had deteriorated significantly over the last two years. based on geotechnical recommendations Inspections of all Regional structures are undertaken every two years. • Install new curbs and new multi-use paths on both sides of At the latest 2016 inspection, the culvert was observed to be stable the road and was rated as being in “fair to poor” condition. The intention was to review the culvert replacement as part of the ongoing Delivery of the project involved a tremendous amount of planning Environmental Assessment and plan the replacement accordingly. across various departments and agencies, construction coordination However, when the structure was inspected in spring 2018, it and public engagement. The project was a great success as the road was discovered that the culvert deterioration had significantly was reopened in eight weeks, well ahead of schedule. In order to accelerated, with severe buckling of the floor plates. achieve the eight-week delivery timeline, York Region implemented innovative procurement, construction management and public engagement techniques. We are pleased to submit this project for your consideration in the 2019 Public Works Project of the Year Awards. Culvert before 2 Structural engineers confirmed that the existing culvert was in A constructability review was carried out in February 2019 due to the immediate need of replacement due to significant structural culvert designs revealing a significant risk if a staged construction degradation. Failure of the culvert could result in the collapse of approach was attempted to complete this emergency work. The the structure, embankment and roadway. York Region decided to primary concern was the existing culvert might not withstand the proceed with the culvert replacement separately from the rest of pressure and vibration caused during installation of piles for the the recommendations of the Environmental Assessment study. temporary roadway protection system. Major Mackenzie Drive is a busy, four-lane arterial road in the heart of the City of Vaughan, A bi-weekly monitoring program was initiated in June 2018 to with average annual daily traffic of approximately 35,000 vehicles. monitor signs of any further culvert degradation. This was completed The risk of collapse would have been greatly compounded by the while a temporary bracing system to stabilize the structure and presence of workers and live traffic on Major Mackenzie Drive permanent culvert replacements were both being designed. during construction. Installation of the temporary bracing system was completed in To mitigate this risk, staff recommended a full closure of Major January 2019. While the bracing was substantial, it was designed to Mackenzie Drive, immediately east and west of the culvert location safely support live loads for a period of one-year from the time of to facilitate safe removal and replacement of the culvert. installation. Culvert temporary bracing Culvert temporary bracing 3 through logistical challenges (emergency medical services, transit, CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AND SCHEDULE detour routes, signal timing adjustments, etc.), and having a strong community engagement plan and process in-place to deal with Timing was critical at all stages of this project, from planning to questions and concerns from local residents and business owners, as construction. While the delivery of this infrastructure in eight weeks well as frequent road users and daily commuters. is an impressive feat, there was a substantial amount of work that occurred prior to the contractor coming on board to make this It was imperative that the Region and our contractor maintained possible. good public relations and that we were doing everything we could to accelerate the construction work. In order to meet the delivery Once the Region learned of the precarious condition of the existing timeline, York Region facilitated the following: culvert, we arranged for the design, procurement and installation of a temporary bracing system inside the existing culvert to prevent it • Secured corporate and political backing for the project. It was from collapsing before it could be replaced. The temporary bracing expected that closing Major Mackenzie Drive in the heart was installed over the winter and was designed to carry live loads of Vaughan