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Frigid Weather Couldn’t Slow Oil Sands Road Development
Canada’s oil sands are extremely inaccessible, mostly because of the muskeg that surrounds it. Muskeg is soft and marshy ground, which makes it very difficult to travel on or through, much less build a road across. In some areas, the muskeg can be as deep as 5 m. This causes all kinds of problems for anyone trying to reach the oil sands production sites, as well as for those trying to build access roads to those sites. Because of the muskeg, many of the roads in the area are constructed using matting for support and stability. Paradox Access Solutions Inc. is a road-building company based in St. Albert, Alberta, that specializes in building access roads, both temporary and permanent, for the energy companies working in the oil sands area north of Edmonton. Last winter, the company was contracted to construct a permanent road for Meg Energy, one of the oil sands producers. For this particular road project, the company brought in a product called PRS-Neoweb™, which is a honeycomb sand-containment membrane used to traverse very soft, marshy ground.
“We were widening an old road that was more like a cow trail and turning it into a big industrial road,” says Marc Breault, President of Paradox. “It had to be ready for the spring.” Paradox made all the necessary arrangements to build the requested road, and Meg Energy agreed to supply free-flowing sand and gravel material to fill the PRS-Neoweb. It looked like everything was going to run smoothly, but then winter set in. The temperature dropped below the freezing level in mid-November, and the sand and gravel material began to freeze into boulder size lumps. “Boulders won’t fit in those little cells,” Mr. Breault says. “We told the client the infill material wasn’t what we asked for, but they said it was the best they could get up here. So it was either come up with a solution or postpone the project till spring.”
Mr. Breault checked out the specs, confirmed that it was able to crush and break up frozen gravel and purchased an ALLU model DH-4-17-60 Screener Crusher Bucket and an excavator to operate the portable screener crusher bucket. “Once we got it going, the ALLU bucket was just a gem,” Marc Breault says. “It kept production running smoothly and on time. We were able to crush the frozen gravel and sand in just about the same loading time as free-flowing material. We are loading 30 ton rock trucks in 4 minutes while crushing every bucket.”
What surprised Marc Breault, however, was the attention that the bucket garnered from everyone who saw it in operation. Meg Energy had other contractors working in the oil sands at the same time the road was being built, and the bucket quickly caught their attention. No one had seen a crusher bucket in use in the area, except for handling the mixing/blending of materials. “When we showed up with this machine, all the contractors were lined up wanting to get a look at it,” Mr. Breault says. “Before long, we were actually filling their trucks with crushed gravel. They wanted to know where they could get one too.” “An entrepreneur doesn’t leave his equipment sitting around,” Marc Breault explains. “We’ll find a solution to keep it going. Winter applications are very hard on equipment, but the ALLU bucket came through strong. We’ll use it again next winter, but for now, we’ll put it to work doing the easy stuff in the summer.”
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PRS-Neoweb is a geocell product made up of a matrix of small, 15 to 20 cm cells. Once the product is placed in position, the cells are filled with sand and gravel to form a road.
Postponement was not something Breault was willing to consider, so he went to work on a solution. While attending CONEXPO-CON/AGG in 2011, he had seen an ALLU Screener Crusher bucket that was designed to perform cost-effectively on demanding job sites and is perfect for use in rough terrains where stationary machines are unable to go. ALLU Screener Crusher buckets are available in 100 models to fit any size excavator, loader, backhoe or skid steer and operate from the base machine’s on-board hydraulics.
Paradox kept the ALLU processing attachment working all winter with great results. “This new style of road building created a challenge for us, and ALLU was right there to help us solve the problem,” Mr. Breault commented. “This is the first time we’ve gotten into a crushing bucket. We were a little nervous about whether it would work or not, but it’s definitely amazing. I’m very impressed. It turned our job into a success by providing a solution. Without the ALLU bucket, we’d have never been able to successfully solve the problem.”
