Proceedings of the 2006 Winter Simulation Conference
L. F. Perrone, F. P. Wieland, J. Liu, B. G. Lawson, D. M. Nicol, and R. M. Fujimoto, eds.
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the Glencoe Storm Sewer Upgrade
Project in Calgary, Alberta. The proposed tunnel is
2920mm in diameter, stretching along 27th Ave SW from
15th St SW to 20th St SW with a total length of 935m. Its
depth varies from 16m at the working shaft to 42m at the
retrieval shaft. The tunnel will reduce surface flooding by
providing temporary storage of stormwater runoff during
major storm events. The focus of this paper is project plan-
ning. The planning phase includes scope definition, con-
tract setup, cost estimate, team assembly, equipment and
material procurements, risk analysis, constructability re-
view, geotechnical investigation, Safety and ECO Plan de-
velopment, and scheduling and productivity simulations.
The challenges presented in this project are the unfamiliar-
ity with the local conditions and the uncertainty of the pro-
jected productivity and completion date of the project.
Those issues were modeled and mitigation strategies were
established using simulation technologies.
1 INTRODUCTION
The City of Calgary Wastewater Division has engaged the
City of Edmonton’s Department of Asset Management and
Public Works, Drainage Services branch to construct a storm
sewer upgrade in the South Calgary Community. The storm
sewer upgrade consists of a deep tunnel along 27th Avenue
SW from 15th Street SW to west of 20th Street SW. The
tunnel will be 935m in length with an internal diameter of
2920mm. The depth varies from 16m to 42m. The tunnel
will reduce surface flooding by providing temporary storage
of stormwater runoff during major storm events.
Flood protection projects within the City of Calgary are
assessed on a points basis and then ranked in order of prior-
ity. Points are given for several different categories includ-
ing public safety, damage caused by flooding, flood fre-
quency, and the cost to benefit ratio for each project. Each
year, as funds become available, the highest ranked projects
proceed to construction.
Figure 1: Glencoe tunnel cross-section
The Glencoe Storm Sewer Upgrade had been on hold
pending available funds. Funds for the project became
available through a program known as ICAP (Infrastructure
Canada Alberta Program). ICAP is a co-operative funding
program jointly shared between the federal, provincial, and
municipal governments. The City assigned an amount of
$62.9 million to their Wastewater Division to construct a to-
tal of 19 stormwater improvement projects in collaboration
with ICAP. Glencoe B/C is the last of the Wastewater-ICAP
projects to be constructed. The estimated cost for the tunnel
portion of the project is $7.8 million; the total project cost is
estimated at $11.5 million. The ICAP assigned a completion
date for the project of no later than March 31st, 2006.
An Open House took place on March 23, 2005 to re-
ceive comments from the public and to answer questions
about the proposed tunnel project. Construction started with
the re-location of utilities in late March and early April of
2005. Construction on the tunnel entry shaft got underway
in mid-April of 2005.
As shown in Figure 1, the tunnel bores through two
types of soil conditions, resulting in three segments: a soft
segment represented by clay till, a mixed segment at the
transition zone between clay till and bedrock, and a hard
segment in the bedrock. The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)
used in this project is a soft-face machine, which raises the
risk either of not being able to tunnel through the bedrock or
that the tunneling productivity will be very low.
PRODUCTIVITY SIMULATION DURING THE PLANNING PHASE OF THE GLENCOE TUNNEL IN
CALGARY, CANADA: A CASE STUDY
Hussien T. AL-Battaineh
Simaan AbouRizk
Department Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada
James Tan
Siri Fernando
Design and Construction, Drainage Services
City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
2087 1-4244-0501-7/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE