[developing article]

Municipal --- Designed and administered construction in a small team of multiple specialist consultants to place earth fill dug to build housing and to ultimately provide park space for sport activities including rugby and tennis as well as a field building. We designed the earth retaining system to be sure we had enough area to deliver the future sports park.

McGavin Field Earth Fill and MSE Retaining Wall

British Pacific Properties started this fill site as part of the original Rodgers Creek plan. We had started using the site when building the last parts of the Whitby Estates, which Tom Blackburn was wrapping up when I joined the team at InterCAD.

The soil retaining system involves two components so that we have room for the desired park assets. At the lower elevations, we used blasted rock fill to retain the glacial till. For the top 6 metres, we used Maccaferri's Terrawall mechanically stabilized earth system. Terrawall joins geogrid-reinforced earth fill to a galvanized steel mesh carrying blast rock as the exposed slope face.

We worked with Randy Williwams from Golder Associates and the engineering team at Maccaferri Canada and finished the fill construction in 2010.

During the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, before reaching our final elevation, BPP placed gravel for bus parking and the transportation logistics group used the area to stage buses serving Olympic operations at Cypress Mountain.

Rodgers Creek, British Pacific Properties Ltd. (West Vancouver, BC) Municipal --- Designed and administered construction (small team, multiple specialist consultants) for 55 ha site on West Vancouver Upper Lands (of 215 ha hillside) spanning several projects: (Highview Phase 1, Chippendale Road Extension, McGavin Field Earth Fill and MSE Retaining Wall, and Highgrove). Project elements: local roads with full services and low-impact development features (1.2 km); two major 6 m high shotcrete retaining walls with simulated rock finish; fully serviced two-lane collector roads (2 km); major creek crossings; major trailhead (Rodgers Creek West - Chippendale Road); intersection with provincially-managed Cypress Bowl Road; 6 m high mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) retaining wall; hillside pocket wetland; creek diversion inlet; park plaza; systems of tall MSE walls spanning multiple lots; 6 m high MSE wall on strata lot