The Value of Communication - L. Baer

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Published: October 07, 2019

Even the best due diligence practices and environmental modelling software cannot always prepare one for actual field-level remediation programs.  During our monthly safety meeting, we reviewed a project showcase of a remedial excavation program where the amount of contaminated material nearly doubled from not one but two environmental consultants’ initial estimates.  One lesson we learn from these kinds of projects is that constant communication with your client is the key to success!

Thinking Outside of the Box - T. Anderson

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Published: September 04, 2019

Showcased at today’s monthly H&S meeting was a rather exciting project being co-headed by Nichols and another consulting firm that specializes in phytoremediation.  Nichols has been working closely with other consultants, the regulator, and our client through the course of this project to help develop a specialized solution for the site.  We’ve also been fortunate enough to work with academic leaders in the field of phytoremediation.  Sorry for the vague details but we promise it will be worth the wait!  In the interim, we were able to share the variety of assessment tools that have been implemented to help characterize the site, which include almost everything in our tool belt; drone imagery, groundwater assessment, soil assessment – and even running statistics and generating 3D models to help visualize what is happening.  We appreciate being able to apply our innovation and look forward to the outcome on this project.

Leadership for Safety Excellence - B. Rakewich

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Published: June 03, 2019

At our monthly Health and Safety meeting today, we discussed 'Leadership for Safety Excellence'. Here at Nichols the safety of our employees and those around us is everyone’s responsibility. We believe in training all of our staff to be leaders when it comes to safety. A critical part of this training is identifying hazards to assess the foreseeability of a potential incident – from which we can then collaborate to establish procedures to prevent an incident.

Safety is one of the pillars of our corporate philosophy, which was reaffirmed through our discussion today!

Corporate Announcement - Saskatchewan Operations

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Published: February 20, 2019

For Immediate Release: February 19, 2019

Nichols Environmental (Canada) Ltd. is excited to announce our expansion into the Saskatchewan market with the opening of our Saskatoon office this coming March 2019.  Mr. Hans Bakker, P.Geo., one of our longest-serving employees, has been promoted as the Saskatchewan Region Manager and will be overseeing daily operations out of our Saskatoon office.  We are looking forward to the opportunity to better serve our client base throughout the province of Saskatchewan.  The establishment of a permanent office in Saskatoon gives us the ability to respond to our clients’ needs in a more efficient manner.

Nichols Environmental (Canada) Ltd. is a full-service geo-environmental consulting and remediation firm that provides environmental and engineering solutions to a wide range of industrial, government and public sector clients.  Nichols continues to expand our operations throughout western Canada with office locations now including Edmonton, Calgary, Whitecourt, and Saskatoon.

Announcement - Kyle Jackson, Senior Project Manager

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Published: February 07, 2019

We are pleased to announce that Mr. Kyle Jackson, C.E.T. will assume the position of Senior Project Manager for Nichols Environmental (Canada) Ltd. Kyle has continually shown drive and commitment to making Nichols a rewarding place to work for all staff and has been a key contributor to our continued success.  Kyle will be looked upon to continue his growth as a senior level project manager while providing mentorship to our complement of professional, technical and support staff. Please join us in congratulating Kyle on this achievement in this, our 22nd year of business.

Emerging Geosynthetic Products - LK Kachhwal

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Published: February 05, 2019

Emerging geosynthetic products have changed the geotechnical engineering perspective concerning soft and compressible soil conditions.  The conventional approach of excavate, remove, and replace with quality engineered backfill can be very labourious, time consuming, and uneconomical.  An alternate approach involves the use of high-strength geosynthetic material for reinforcement and improvement of subgrade soils.  We utilized this technique to support a 40 m-diameter fuel storage tank on a geosynthetic reinforced earth foundation (GREF) that was constructed on soft and compressible soils.

In 2015 Nichols completed a geotechnical investigation, which revealed that the in situ soil conditions on site comprised compressible, soft, and high plastic black lacustrine clay mixed with organics.  It was determined this upper layer of clay soil was not suitable for the foundation of the tank, and a deep pile foundation was not desired by the client due to cost and other site development constraints.

A 3.0 m-thick GREF pad was designed using eight layers of high-strength geotextile sandwiched between imported 6-80 granular (Alberta Transportation) fill material.  The settlement calculations were conducted manually and using a computer model.  The total maximum uniform settlement of 150 mm was predicted.  During hydrostatic load testing of the tank, conducted over a period of 12-days, the measured total uniform settlement ranged between 54 mm and 122 mm, so the uniform settlement was within the predicted values during the design of the GREF.

The GREF performed satisfactorily and resulted in significant cost and time savings to the client, in comparison to a deep pile foundation strategy.  A case study paper on this project will be accepted for publication and be presented at the Geosynthetics Conference, Houston, 2019.