The Imperial Oil, Kearl Lake Project, north of Fort McMurray, Alberta will increase production and add additional crushing capacity to the Kearl Lake oil sands.

Ledcor's Site Services team was tasked to build the foundations and mechanically stabilize earth (MSE) walls for two oil sands ore crushers for Ore Preparation Plant 1 (OPP1) and Ore Preparation Plant 2 (OPP2), at the Kearl Lake project.

Ledcor was also awarded the HTI (Hydro Transport Interconnect) scope of work which involved installing 349 driven piles, pouring concrete foundations for four pump houses, building an MSE lock block wall, and general grading in the area.

Work on OPP1 met its milestone completion dates, and although extreme ground water issues delayed the OPP2 start date by two months, all schedule recovery dates have so far been exceeded by taking the unusual step of completing the crusher foundation pour at the same time as the MSE wall was being built.

The project, which began in April 2018, started with frozen ground that quickly turned into soft muddy terrain. The changing conditions however did not affect the team's commitment to safety. The milestone date of completing the concrete panel installation for Ore Preparation Plan 1 (OPP1) was completed incident free.

The team's hard work, focus, and dedication resulted in the frist 72 days ad 50,000 manhours on the project incident-free. The strong safety culture that has been created on this project allowed this team to achieve 300 days and 450,000 manhours recordable-free.

Ledcor expects the project to be completed by the end of September 2019.