Friday 29 August 2008

The wonderful world of work

So what does a PEng do all day? At the moment I'm very busy with tendering and projectmanging construction projects. Edmonton has four seasons: Nearly winter, winter, winter nearly over and construction season. During all but the latter, the gound is frozen and covered in snow so no work can be done in the field. Therefore, once summer comes it is all systems go. Designs need to be finalized and contracts let. I am currently working on three main projects:

Drayton Valley - 2008 Street Improvements

Drayton Valley is a town of 7,000 people located 2 hour's drive south west of Edmonton. I am project managing the design and construction of various improvements including a couple of junction improvements, regrading and surfacing a car park and a couple of road realignments. It is under construction at the moment and will stretch over this year and next year.

Highway 22/50 Avenue. The junction is being realigned as it is at a skew angle and is hard for large trucks to negotiate.

Leduc - Black Gold Drive

The City of Leduc is a bit closer to home. It is located half an hours drive south of Edmonton, just beyond the airport. Black Gold Drive is one of the residential arterial routes and is currently a two lane road. I am project managing the design and construction to widen it to 4 lanes. It is currently out to tender, and there will be some construction work this year, but most of it is next year. Fortunately, over here there is the opportunity to plan ahead so when the original road was built, enough land was set aside to widen it at a future date. Also the crriageway was built so that it falls to just one side instead of being a balanced road, so the new lanes can butt up to the old ones, without the need for regrading the existing road. Smart.




Black Gold Drive

City of Edmonton Rail Crossings

Last summer I carried out a study of all 37 level crossings on arterial routes within the city to determine which are most in need of bridges. Factors such as numbers of trains, volume of traffic, physical layout of the crossing, importance of the railway line etc. played a part in coming up with a list of priorities. I am currently working on a concept plan for the highest ranking crossing, doing a preliminary design and assessing the impact and issues.



50th Street Rail Crossing

Tuesday 19 August 2008

It's hot, hot, hot


Having coped with -40 in the winter, summer came with a vengeance this week. It's been over 30 most days, and yesterday it officially reached 36 degrees C which is a bit warm. However in the little sun trap outside the back door, temperatures have reached +40. That's an 80 degree difference within the year. It also means we're getting some pretty spectacular storms each night.

Camping in Jasper

Had a fabulous weekend just gone. We brushed the dust off our tent and went camping at the Wapiti Campsite in Jasper with Ian and Lorna and Lorna's mum Linda who was over from England. We arrived Friday evening, and Ian had very kindly put our tent up for us as they arrived Thursday night. So all we had to do was unpack and work out how to get the double lilo, which had to be pumped up with an electric pump powered from the car, into the tent through the small tent door. With difficulty, that's how. We sat up chatting until midnight, toasting marshmallows over the firepit which is a present on almost every camping pitch in Canada.





BF making fire








Saturday morning we woke up early and there was a whole herd of (well, about 8) wapiti (elk) wandering round the site within feet of the tent. Close to, it's surprising how large they are - about the size of a cow. They hung around for ages, and didn't seem to mind the waking campers.





Early morning visitor







After breakfast we went for a marathan hike from Malign Lake to the Bald Hills. The walk was only 12km but the increase in elevation was 600m over the 6km there. However, as always, the view from the top was worth it and we all just about survived, although I am paying for it today.





All energized for the start of the walk. Yes, we were headed up those distance mountains.


The weary travellers make it to the top...






...and the view is fantastic





Saturday evening was a well earned shower, chilli for supper and then an early night due to exhaustion. Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then drove back to Edmonton, arriving abut 3pm.

Rock n August

Richard wandered down to the annual car show in St Albert with John. Here's a few pics but if you want to know more, he'll have to get off (or even onto) his backside and do a post for once (hinted Jacqueline).





A red car











A cream car









A silver car










An orange car











A blue car

Heritage Day

We went along to Heritage Day again this year where the numerous countries that contribute to Canada's population are represented by their cuisine, crafts and dance. We bought several tickets and exchanged them for various food items including my first cornish pastie in 16 months. One surprising thing is how many countries claim the kebab as a national dish. It may be spelt various different ways, but almost all the tents had some version of meat on a stick.



Bearded fool enjoying something that isn't a kebab.










Morris dancing at the England stand






The England stand also had a 'country garden' area for partaking of one's cream tea.

Monday 18 August 2008

Flying Cows and Killer White Rabbits


A couple of weeks ago King Arthur started his quest for the holy grail in the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton and we went to see Spamalot. We'd seen the show in London a couple of years back with the excellent Tim Curry playing King Arthur, but unfortunately Richard was recovering from a bad cold so couldn't really get into it. This version was directed by Mike Nichols (of The Graduate, Primary Colours and Charlie Wilson's War fame) and starred an American cast. The dodgy English accents were hilarious with sentences generally starting in Somerset or London but racing across the Atlantic by the end of them. Richard was 100% fit this time so we had a great time.

On a rather bizarre note I got sent a reminder a few days before the show from Ticketmaster. It also had an 'if you enjoy this show you may also like...' section. However, as its recommendations for me were Swan Lake and Alice Cooper, it appears that they were based on venue rather than genre.

Monday 4 August 2008

Work Work Glorious Work

I have come to the conclusion that work as a pastime is highly overated. Little does Jacqui know that every day I'm actually wandering off to complete my new hobby of bridge collecting. Admittedly the basement is getting full so she may notice sooner or later. Got a nice wooden one yesterday from down Leduc way....

And in other news I have now been employed for almost 2 months and not been fired yet. I have not been able to unleash what I loosely call my 'sense of humour' so that's probably why. They have enough trouble understanding me normally. I've managed the team for three weeks and that's been okay, now I may do something else, wish me luck on that. Look forward to seeing those of you who read this and even some of you that don't. Bye bye.

I'm now a Proper Engineer

I received a letter on Thursday from the Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (equivalent of the Institution of Civil Engineers) to tell me that I can use the letters PEng after my name. It means that I am now licensed to practise engineering in Alberta, signing my own drawings and reports (and that I can now be sued if anything goes wrong). So with the letters CEng, MEng and PEng after my name, I'm going to need wider business cards.

Don't mention the war

At the start of July we had our neighbours John (Dutch), Sonja (German), Sonja's brother Tony (German too, suprisingly) and his partner Angie (also German). To make them feel at home, we fed them roast beef and yorkshire pudding.

After dinner we all went down to the basement to play with the wii. It's fantastic having the space for four people to play, and it's more fun watching them than the animation on the TV.
Tony, Sonja, Angie and Richard competing at Raging Rabids

Tony and Sonja going head to head in the tennis. Sonja to serve.

Sorry...

...we haven't been keeping the blog up to date. I blame the fact that Richard is now in full time employment. However, our news for July shall follow...