Case Study: Port Mann / Highway 1 Project

Highway 1 in Metro Vancouver is BC’s busiest transportation corridor. The $3.3 billion Port Mann / Highway 1 Project is the largest highway infrastructure project in Canada and has involved widening 37 km of highway, reconstructing 14 interchanges and totally rebuilding the Cape Horn/Lougheed Highway Interchange. The project also included the construction of the new Fraser Heights Connector linking Highway 1 with South Fraser Perimeter Road and the Golden Ears Crossing.

During the bid process, the design-build contractor, Kiewit-Flatiron, approached BKL to join its team to carry out the noise impact and mitigation assessments that were required as part of the contract. BKL’s scope of work has involved providing all acoustics-related information through three separate client-contracts (with the contractor, Kiewit-Flatiron, with the designer, H5M, and with the public agency, Transportation Investment Corporation) during the bid process, the pre-construction, the construction, and the post-construction phases.

scope of services

BKL services included the following:

• developing a 3-D noise model of 2009 and 2023 road traffic noise for the entire project, with more than 450 lane km and more than 1,000 residences and schools, to assess noise impacts and noise mitigation against the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s Traffic Noise Policy and the design-build contract requirements;
• construction noise modelling to identify construction operational limits that would be required to meet project criteria;
• construction noise monitoring to assess compliance with project criteria;
• construction vibration monitoring to assess the potential for building damage;
• acoustical design for more than 35 noise walls, including options analyses, iterative acoustic performance reports, review of shop drawings and field reviews; and
• post-construction noise monitoring to confirm compliance with project criteria, including testing of noise wall performance to ANSI standards.

Project benefits

BKL took advantage of its large team and software to provide timely deliverables. For example, the firm developed three noise models in parallel. In addition, BKL identified risks with proposed noise wall designs and optimized noise wall geometry to meet project acoustical criteria, established compliance with project noise criteria during construction to avoid delays, and met the stringent quality criteria adopted by the project.