Lean on us for our civil engineering and geotechnical expertise.

MEG Energy, a major upstream oil and gas company, tested Stratum Logics with the construction of a 3.5km x 8.0m access road. The client knew that the conventional construction methods used by the oil and gas industry would fail because the ground was virtually entirely muskeg with a CBR= < 1.0. As the EPCM firm in charge of the turn-key project, Stratum Logics had to design and build the road as cost effectively as possible. Stratum Logics knew they could mitigate the need to import costly aggregates by applying advanced geosynthetics. In fact, adoption of the NPA geocell technology allowed Stratum to beat all the challenges set by MEG Energy. In the end, the unpaved access road was built in just 40 days using sand in the subbase and base layers and a thin layer of aggregate for the wearing course.

Stratum Logics’ know-how and experience in designing load-bearing structures in extreme environments were called upon to design Barsi Enterprises’ rail yard project. Advanced geosynthetics: NPA geocells were employed to stabilize the ground for the new Mammoet heavy-lift crane at the CN Rail yard in Egremont.

During the summer of 2015, I visited the Canfor Mill in Fort Saint-John, BC, to gain an understanding of the mechanical behavior of the NPA (Neoloy) geocell reinforced structures. Under the supervision of Wayne Hotte, yard supervisor for Canfor, I met with Mark Stuckey of Stratum Logics (Engineering Design and Construction Supervision) and Derek Breault Paradox Access Solutions, (Installation Contractor) to identify the drainage systems, choice of materials, layer thicknesses for the structures, NPA geocell design and installation process.

This visit was very successful as the perforated NPA geocell is a very interesting product for many road engineering practices, specifically in areas where access to decent construction materials and/or weak subgrades can be a challenge. The sub structure bearing capacity seemed to have increased tremendously and the drainage systems seemed to be working quite well.”

*FPInnovations is a Canadian non-profit member organization which carries out scientific research and technology transfer for the Canadian forest industry.