Malahat Nation Foreshore Reclamation

Scope of Work

The project included approximately 1,040 m3 of excavation to expose the location where the toe of the rip rap structure would be installed. All 1,040 m3 of this material had to be sifted for archaeological material by the archaeological consultant and Copcan crews. Once the excavation was complete, a 300 mm thick layer of filter rock surrounded by geotextile was installed with a 1.4 m thick layer of 500 class rip rap on top. All the excavated material from the toe was then installed back on top of the rip rap near the toe line and the rest was used as fill behind the top of the rip rap structure.

Challenges & Solutions

The Malahat Nation contacted Copcan in July of 2023 to review the Foreshore Protection project. The project was considered an emergency level project for the Nation as the shore has been heavily eroding each year, and the Nation wanted to save as much land as possible in this area before further erosion took place. The new foreshore protection measures had to be installed and completed prior to the Fish Window construction deadline of September 15, 2023. If this deadline was not met, the project could not move ahead that year and the foreshore would continue to erode over the winter season leading to the loss of first nation owned land that was sacred to the community. With such a short window of time to finalize the design, complete the tender process, and construct the works, the Nation engaged Copcan Civil to complete the work and expedite the project.

The land directly adjacent to the foreshore area had been used as a gathering place for the Nation in the past. There was a high chance that construction activities would expose significant archaeological finds. An archaeological consultant was hired by the nation to work alongside a Nation member to help assist the construction crews throughout the construction process.

Copcan utilized GPS excavators for the entire project that allowed Copcan to work underwater with absolute precision. The low tide level at its lowest point was still above the toe of the excavation. All digging was done without any direct line of sight and wouldn’t have been possible without the use of Copcan’s GPS equipment.

Overall Impact

Construction onsite began on July 31, 2023. Excavation activities originally started fairly slow due to the sifting requirements while the team determined the most efficient sifting method. Once the crews and the archaeological team found their rhythm, production started to increase. The rip rap installation met targeting production goals, but all installation and excavation had to be carefully planned around the tidal charts. This led to days of no activity on site as the tide was too high, but these schedule problems were mitigated by Copcan forces working the occasional weekend and long hours outside the typical daily work window.

In the end, all works within the tide zone were completed by September 7th, one week ahead of the fish window deadline. All remaining works were cleaned up and finalized within the following week or two. Substantial Completion was given on September 27, 2023, in advance of the targeted substantial completion date of September 29, 2023.