With the theme of The Changing Influences on Dams, CDA held its annual conference in Calgary from October 6 to 10. Held only four months after hosting ICOLD 2019 in Ottawa that saw 1,400 delegates, the Canadian Dam Association’s annual conference in Calgary sold out, showing the industry that CDA’s strength in professional development and technical excellence continues.
The organizing committee was challenged by CDA’s Board of Directors to be innovative and consider alternative formats given how close the annual conference was to ICOLD 2019. Rise to the challenge they did! No pre-conference workshops were held, instead, conference attendees were able to choose from three full-day workshops and two half-day workshops on day 2 of the conference.
Day 1 of the conference kicked off with Dr. Norbert Morgenstern’s keynote address, Geotechnical Risk, Regulatory and Public Policy, which was an update to his Victor de Mello Lecture given in Brazil in 2018. Following Dr. Morgenstern’s address, 42 high-quality papers were presented over the day.
More than 300 people attended the workshops on day 2 of the conference and CDA had to close registration. The last day of the conference opened with brief updates of the work by the various CDA sub-committees, followed by a keynote address entitled, Safety Management Systems, Risk Assessments and the Role of Communication and Culture for Tailings Dam Failure Preventability by Dr. Lianne Lefsrud and Dr. Renato Macciotta, both of the University of Alberta, discussed the implementation of Performance-Based, Risk-Informed Safe Design (PBRISD) advocated by Dr. Morgenstern, and its relationship with a Safety Management System (SMS). The remainder of Wednesday consisted of concurrent presentations on a number case studies, some of which discussed structures associated with the Thursday technical tours. The last session of the conference comprised of an overview of the new Alberta Dam and Canal Safety Directive.
While many conference attendees headed home on October 10, more than 75 people attended four different technical tours that day – a great finish to the conference!
Thank You
With attendance topping more than 430 people, CDA 2019 exceeded the Association’s planning expectations with a sold-out event. CDA thanks the people and organizations that helped to make the conference an overwhelming success – particularly, the organizing committee chaired by Bill Chin, the sponsors and exhibitors.
Sponsors
Pinnacle / Apogée
Klohn Crippen Berger
Platinum / Platine
Hydro Component Systems
Banquet / Banquet
Hatch
Gold / Or
Geniglace Engineering
Silver / Argent
City of Calgary
ConeTec
KGS Group
Wood
Delegate Bags / Sacs des délégués
Hydro Component Systems
Breaks / Pauses
Barnard Construction Company, Inc.
BGC Engineering
Higher Ground Consulting (HGC)
MPE Engineering Ltd.
Tetra Tech
TransAlta
Breakfast / Petit-déjeuner
Evolugen by Brookfield Renewable
Knight Piésold
Manitoba Hydro
Technical Tours / Visites techniques
City of Calgary
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
MPE Engineering
Exhibitors
Alberta Environment and Parks
ASI Group Ltd.
Atlas Polar Company Limited
Barnard Construction Companies, Inc.
BAUER Foundations Canada Inc.
CARPI Tech Canada Inc.
Canadian Dam Association
City of Calgary
ConeTec Investigations
Dewind One Pass Trenching LLC
Dominion Divers (2003) Ltd.
Gannett Fleming
Geniglace
GEOSLOPE International Ltd.
Geotech and Gregg Drilling
Hatch
Higher Ground Consulting Inc.
Hoskin Scientific Ltd.
Hydro Component Systems
Instream Water Control Projects
Menard Canada Inc.
MPE
Mud Bay Drilling (2015) Ltd.
Naylor Association Solutions
PhotoSat Information Ltd.
RST Instruments
Terra Remote Sensing Inc.
Willowstick Technologies, LLC
Worthington Products
2019 Organizing Committee
Thank you to the people who put together this conference:
Bill Chin, Conference Chair – Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd.
Walday Abeda – Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
Mohanath Acharya – Alberta Environment & Parks
Babak Alinejad – Canadian Projects
Mohammad Al-Mamun – Tetra Tech
Deighen Blakely – Sweet Tech
Mike Breunig – MPE Engineering
Garry Bucharski – Alberta Environment & Parks, Retired
Paul Cavanagh – Imperial Oil
Joanna Chen – Klohn Crippen Berger
Mickey Davachi – Wood
Steve Dold – City of Calgary
Catherine Fear – Wood
Rick Friedl – Alberta Environment & Parks
Iain Gidley – Thurber
Joe Groeneveld – Hatch
Javid Iqbal – Alberta Environment & Parks
Justyna Kos-Fairless – Syncrude
Chad LePoudre – BHP
Sharine Mack
Karen Masterson – Klohn Crippen Berger
Scott Martens – Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
Jenna Montgomery – Alberta Environment & Parks
Chad Nixon – Wood
Randal Osicki – Thurber
Narayan Pokhrel – City of Calgary
Richard Slopek – Canadian Projects
Andrew Szojka – Kerr Wood Leidal
Trevor Helwig – St. Mary River Irrigation District