Jointly owned by Imperial Oil and ExxonMobil Canada, the Kearl Oil Sands Project is one of Canada’s largest open-pit mining operations, with regulatory approval for up to 345,000 barrels a day of bitumen production.
This project included utilidor, hydrotransport, and tailings construction. Ledcor constructed 2.5 miles (4 km) of above-ground utilidor to carry utility lines from the main site to the ore preparation plant, including air, fuel, process water, and supply water lines. Tailings and hydrotransport construction included the installation of 14 heavy pump units, piping and electrical systems, and more than 6,000 lineal feet (2,000 lineal metres) of sheet piles for an emergency dump pond.
The project also included pre-fabrication of over 300 modules at Ledcor's
Pipe Fabrication & Module Assembly facility in Nisku, Alberta.
Ledcor's presence at Kearl also includes work on the tailings distribution extension. This includes the construction of 4.35 miles (7 km) of above-ground 30" (76 cm) carbon steel pipelines carrying long-pour and intermediate-pour tailings from the plant site to multiple destination points around the external tailings area.
Ledcor's scope of work for this project includes:
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Poured concrete foundations
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Heavy earthworks
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Installation of both driven and screw piles
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Piping
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Mechanical equipment setting
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Fiber optics
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Electrical and instrumentation
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Off-site module assembly, fabrication and installation
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Structural steel