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YVR Link Phase II
Owner: Vancouver International Airport
General Contractor: Ledcor Construction
Architect: Kasian
Structural Engineer: Read Jones Christoffersen
Structural Steel Detailer-Fabricator-Erector: Wesbridge Steelworks Limited
Our Contract Value: $5+ Million
Fabricated Weight by Wesbridge: 1500 Tons
Start date: August 2006
Completion date: May 2007
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The YVR Link Phase II project consists of 1500 tons of structural steel linking the International and Domestic Terminal with
a new “Front Door” to this world class airport. The main feature of the addition is the “Thematic Structure” – a 55’ wide by
130’ long by 110’ high oval frame consisting of sloping double-columns, multiple ring beams and a sloping vierendeel trussed
roof. Other job highlights include the numerous “tree-columns” and a pedestrian bridge spanning 40m (130’). The grid pattern
for this project was radial resulting in nearly all connections having some degree of skew and the high seismic loads for this
area resulted in very complex connection design and details.
NEWS
On November 1, 2007 Wesbridge Steelworks received the Vancouver Regional Construction Association "Trade Contractor - President's Award" for the YVR Link Project, Phase 2
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Broadway Tech Centre Buildings No. 2 & 3
Owner: Bentall Developments
General Contractor: Bird Construction Company
Architect: Bunting Coady Architects
Structural Engineer: CWMM Consulting Engineers Ltd.
Structural Steel & Miscellaneous Metals Fabricator: Wesbridge Steelworks Limited
Our Contract Value: $3.2 Million
Fabricated Weight by Wesbridge: 940 Tons
OWSJ Weight: 190 Tons
Erected Weight: 1130 Tons
Start date: September 2000
Completion date: June 2001
The Contract for the two aforementioned buildings was awarded to Wesbridge Steelworks Limited in September of 2000. Both buildings were to be erected almost simultaneously. Normally Wesbridge does the majority of detailing in-house, but due to the fast-track aspect, a sub-contact detailer was employed to begin detailing one building, while Wesbridge detailed the other. Building No. 2 is a 4-structural, steel floored, steel roofed structure, while Building No. 3 is a 3-structural, steel floored, steel roofed structure. Both entailed concrete core walls and shear walls. Many of the connections to the concrete walls involved very high loading that required delicate engineering, not only to develop the load capacities, but also to provide tolerance in the construction of the 4 and 5-story concrete core and shear walls. The concrete forming contractor discovered well into the project that without the structural steel in place, the shear walls could not be formed or poured to the full height. Wesbridge was asked by the general contractor to revise the divisions to accommodate this problem. Familiarity with the X-Steel detailing process and company flexibility were utilized to re-determine and re-assign the design to divide the buildings vertically, rather than horizontally, as originally planned. This was a positive solution acceptable to all parties, and allowed the project to be completed on schedule.
Another interesting aspect of this project was the externally mounted steel sunshades. These were designed to be supported by the structural steel, but could only be installed after the exterior glazing wall was in place. All of the supports, which projected through the curtain wall system, had to be carefully coordinated with the curtain wall mullions, as the centres of each were aligned. Following completion of the curtain walls, Wesbridge surveyed all support bracket locations and fabricated the sunshade support steel to match. Incorporated in the sunshade support steel were the actual sunshades, which were initially designed by the Architect using custom fabricated flat-bar grating. Wesbridge suggested a cost saving to the owner utilizing a standard bar grating, with every other bar omitted. This saved hundreds of fabrication hours, and again resulted in a timely completion of the project.