The industry is going through some big changes with innovation and technology at the centre of it all, Hammad Chaudhry, national director of digital project delivery services with EllisDon, told those in attendance at the Innovation Spotlight Awards.
The in-person awards ceremony was held in Toronto Dec. 13.
“Let’s reflect on the incredible progress we have made in our industry, specifically around technology and innovation,” he said.
“For too long our industry has been stuck in the past relying on outdated methods and resistant to change, but no longer. Today we stand on the brink of a new era, one where technology and innovation will transform the way we build, the way we work and the way we live. The power of data cannot be denied and its ability to inform and improve decision-making in the industry cannot be ignored.”
Presented by Building Transformations, the awards benchmark innovation by honouring projects, companies and technologies that are forming new best practices and shaping how the sector operates.
“Congratulations not to the winners, not to the groundbreakers, not to the nominees but to everybody in this industry who has persevered in what has been obviously an unprecedented two-and-a-half years,” said Pietro Ferrari, vice-president of Building Transformations, who was the emcee for the evening.
“We were all taken by what happened in March 2020 and we all went through some sort of adjustment period, but it looks like the industry is healthy from the projects…and the pipeline looks very positive give or take a few economic hurdles, but we were able to stay strong.”
Awards were presented in a variety of categories including ion Management, Design and Engineering, Digital Products, Digitalization Strategy, Digital Supply Chain and Fabrication, Project Delivery and Asset Management, Global Envoy, Research and a Professional Achievement award. The awards were formerly called CanBIM.
“Our organization is focused on driving innovation and technology,” said Thomas Strong, president and CEO of Building Transformations.
“It’s a community of individuals and companies that are interested in improving the way the building industry operates. We’re unique because we have architects, engineers, general contractors, trades, developers all working together.”
The eighth annual show was the first in-person awards since 2019.
The Eglinton Crosstown West Extension-Integrated Digital Controls by Aecon won the Best in Innovation Award, which recognizes the importance of improving and creating new solutions and innovating to advance the industry. The project also won the construction management award.
The project enabled the team to mitigate risks and connect design with the plan and costs from the earliest stage of bidding through to execution on the project.
The integrated digital delivery department developed a unique approach to successful project delivery utilizing BIM and GIS for the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension project.
“Aecon’s integrated app-roach provides the best solution to avoid schedule delays early during the execution phase,” the website with the award submission states. “Since most design and build projects are bid with only 30 per cent of the design completed, there are still a lot of uncertainties, but this is about getting off on the right foot.
“Our team does everything we can to support proper planning at the front-end and build the right project team and setup our systems to execute and adjust along the way. As a result, our progress tracking is updated automatically with the schedule and cost and TBM excavation and progress are captured live as we progress. This helps keep track of project progress and productivity.”
This year’s awards were designed by AECOM and inspired by one of its big projects, the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
The six-lane bridge crosses the Detroit River and connects Detroit, Mich. with Windsor, Ont. Once complete, it will be the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America. The project won the 2021 Best in Innovation Award.
The winning project will also be featured in an Innovation Spotlight publication.
Other 2022 award winners were as follows:
- Professional Achievement Award — Guy Paquin, Société québécoise des infrastructures
- Research Award — An integrated design-to-manufacturing approach in construction, Ecole de Technologie Superieure
- Digital Products Award — PipeInsights, AECOM
- Digital Supply Chain and Fabrication Award — Corner Brook Acute Care Hospital — modular racking program, Plan Group
- Digitalization Strategy Award — Highway 401 Expansion Project – Paradim Digital Twin, Parsons
- Project Delivery, Asset Management and Lifecycle Award — Asset information management and BIM at the Calgary Cancer Centre, PCL
- ion Management Award — Eglinton Crosstown West Extension-Integrated Digital Controls, Aecon
- Global Envoy Award — Sea World Abu Dhabi, EllisDon.
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Is this award a joke? The Eglinton Crosstown has become one of the biggest project disasters of all time. It’s been delayed from 2019, to 2020, to 2021, to 2022, and now they aren’t even listing an end date! The project is way over budget as well.
the Eglinton Crosstown project and Eglinton Crosstown West Extension project are two entirely different projects.
This is a completely different project to Eglinton Crosstown. This is the Eglinton Crosstown west extension advanced tunnels. Please get your facts right before making such comments.