EVERGREEN RAPID TRANSIT

Shoring Wall for Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) | Port Moody, BC

For this major infrastructure development, Henry Foundation Drilling Inc. successfully installed 150 secant piles (3’ in diameter) with drilling depths reaching up to 70’. This high-performance secant wall created the essential structural shoring required for a massive tunnel-boring machine (TBM) to drill safely through Burnaby Mountain as part of the Evergreen Rapid Transit Line Project.

  • The Challenge: Project timeline was of the utmost importance. Navigating extremely difficult drilling conditions due to an ancient subsurface riverbed, our team encountered massive boulders measuring up to 8’ wide by 5’ deep.

  • The Solution: We deployed three advanced drill rigs simultaneously within a tight, high-traffic work area.

  • The Result: Despite adverse geotechnical conditions, the project was completed successfully within a strict one-month timeframe. This project proudly received an industry excellence award from the Vancouver Regional Construction Association (VRCA).

Rapid Transit Station Drilled Shaft Packages | Coquitlam & Port Moody, BC

Henry Foundation Drilling Inc. (HFDI) was selected as the specialized subcontractor to execute all drilled shaft packages for the new rapid transit line stations, showcasing our capabilities in high-vibration, urban, and mathematically complex deep foundation environments.

1. Lougheed Station & Special Structures

This critical transit station and special structure required the installation of large-diameter drilled shafts (6’ diameter) to a depth of 66’.

  • Live Infrastructure Challenges: Operations were executed within tight site constraints, working mere feet from the live, elevated guideway of the active Vancouver SkyTrain network.

  • Deep Foundation Engineering: Following the 6’ shafts, machinery was re-mobilized to build a special structural support carrying the guideway directly over an active business. We successfully advanced 9-foot diameter shafts up to 21 meters deep under specialized polymer slurry, working as close as 8’ from the open commercial property.

2. Lafarge Lake-Douglas Station

Deep foundation works at this station involved the installation of 19 drilled piles (6’ diameter) equipped with permanent 6’ x 1” wall steel casing pipe.

  • Geotechnical Conditions: Our drilling crews successfully overcame highly challenging soil profiles, including intense artesian water pressures and dense, variable layers of cobbles and heavy glacial boulders.

3. Port Moody Station

This scope of work consisted of installing heavy-duty foundation piles sized at 914mm and 610mm in diameter, reaching deep structural depths of 34 meters.

  • Vibration-Sensitive Drilling: The site enforced strict 15mm per second vibration tolerances near active bridge abutments. Henry Drilling utilized precise rotary drilling methods to perfectly comply with all local vibration monitoring tolerances without disrupting surrounding civil infrastructure.

  • Construction workers and equipment working on a large underground pipe at a snowy construction site, with cranes and excavators in the background.
  • Construction workers operating heavy machinery on railroad tracks during daytime.
  • Yellow construction crane on a city street with tall modern apartment buildings in the background, during winter weather.
  • Construction site with cranes lifting large steel beams against a cloudy sky and a backdrop of hills and buildings.
  • Construction site with excavated deep trench supported by steel reinforcing and retaining wall. Wooden planks and construction equipment are at the bottom.
  • Construction workers installing a large clock face in a deep excavation site.