BAUER Foundations Canada was contracted by Kiewit Black and Veatch (KBV) to construct the foundation piles for Calgary’s newest 800 MW gas-fired power plant. The scope included installation of 1,119 partially cased bored cast-in-place piles with a diameter of 600 mm. Drilled pile lengths were between 9 m and 23 m, and temporary casing with 686 mm diameter was specifically manufactured for this project.

Pile design was based on having a certain length of rock socket for each pile. As rock elevations varied throughout the project, the reinforcement lengths had to be adjusted on a pile by pile basis. Reinforcement cages had hooked bars projecting into the pile caps, which required accurate placement of the reinforcing to the correct elevation. As an additional scope, BAUER Foundations Canada Inc. also installed two 1,372 mm diameter coated permanent caissons for pump sumps with high verticality and position tolerance.

The job was executed by utilizing one BG 28 and one BG 18 piling rig working through the winter in temperatures below -15 °C without a major breakdown.