In June of 2008, a Kiewit- led joint venture was awarded the contract to conduct the initial site clearing and excavations for this oil sands mega-project, located 70 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, in the Athabasca oil sands region.
The scope of work includes the clearing of 3,000 hectares of timber; excavating 6.1 million cubic meters of muskeg; and excavating and segregating 4.8 million cubic meters of topsoil and subsoil. The team performed 42 million cubic meters of common excavation; 21.5 million cubic meters of dyke embankment fills; 1.4 million cubic meters of ditching and drainage; and 1.9 million cubic meters of granular fill; as well as constructing the access road; excavating the opening cut and constructing a tailings dyke. In total, this project involves the movement of more than 50 million cubic meters of material.
To conduct the work required for this project, Kiewit has deployed more than 73 heavy haul trucks and 26 excavators, including an 800-tonne PC 8000 front shovel; 29 dozers; 10 loaders; 11 cranes; 6 packers; and more than 150 pickup trucks.
While constructing this project, the Kiewit team has faced numerous challenges, including working in extereme cold weather conditions ranging from -30 to -40 degrees Celsius; excavating inconsistent muskeg and overburden materials; setting up an office complex and equipment and maintenance facilities at a remote site as well as organizing the logistics of transport and procurement to this site.
This project also faces stringent environmental requirements, as a result of a harmonized federal/provincial environmental assessment. To compensate for lost fish habitat in the Kearl and Firebag drainage systems, Kiewit is constructing a 300,000 square-meter compensation lake, featuring diverse habitat elements for target species.
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