We work collaboratively with all our departments to custom-tailor our work so you achieve the most satisfactory results for your project.
Site Remediation Program
Project Location: Edmonton, AB
Service Provided: Environmental Consulting & Project Coordination
Brief Description of the Project: Remedial excavation completed inside an industrial warehouse.
Unique challenges and how they were overcome: Significant disruption to an active warehouse and limited work space and access for equipment and soil removal/replacement. Worked closely with the contractors and Site owners to ensure operations were still possible, while completing the remediation in a timely manner to reduce the length of disruption. Utilized small, agile equipment to complete the work within the limited space available. Date Completed: 2020
Brownfield Redevelopment Program
Project Location: Edmonton, AB
Service Provided: Environmental Consulting
Brief Description of the Project: Remedial excavation of a brownfield Site, including the removal of 3,250 metric tonnes of impacted soil from Site.
Unique challenges and how they were overcome: Numerous parties and contractors are involved in a brownfield development. Nichols provided environmental direction and assistance to facilitate everything from pre-job planning through excavation, development, grant funding, permitting/occupancy, and future on/off-site monitoring. Date Completed: 2021
Asbestos Abatement Program
Project Location: Downtown Edmonton
Service Provided: Abatement Monitoring
Brief Description of the Project: Nichols completed a full hazardous building materials assessment on the building, helped develop abatement specs, and aided in bid review with the client. Nichols then completed abatement monitoring on several buildings. Date Completed: 2021
Environmental Liability Study
Project Location: Various locations throughout northern Alberta
Service Provided: File review and thorough data gap analysis, Phase II ESAs, and hazardous building materials assessments
Brief Description of the Project: Nichols was tasked with reviewing previous environmental assessments and developing further assessment plans to complete data gap analysis. This information was then used to provide the client with their estimated liability, from soil/groundwater impacts to hazardous building material abatement. Date Completed: Summer of 2021
Earthen Berm Water Reservoir Design & Construction Support
Project Location: Grand Prairie County No.1, AB
Service Provided: Engineering design of an earthen berm reservoir complete with berm slope stability assessments, a berm breach and flood inundation study, on-site construction monitoring and quality assurance, and completion of as-built figures and the construction completion report.
Brief Description of the Project: To engineer, design, and provide construction monitoring for the build of an earthen-berm freshwater reservoir having the storage capacity of 242k cubic metres. The reservoir had a maximum berm height of 5.55 m and stored 132k cubic metres of water as live storage. These two criteria result in the earthen berm reservoir being designated as a dam. Unique challenges and how they were overcome: Higher in situ moisture content of the clay soils created difficulty in achieving the compaction specifications. This issue was resolved by a couple of methods. Date Completed: March 2020
Project Location: Brazeau County, AB
Service Provided: Engineering assessment of slope stability. This was followed by an engineering design for slope and creek restoration. Additional services included a topographic survey, on-site construction management, and completion of as-built figures for submission to regulators.
Brief Description of the Project: A major storm event resulted in the failure of an 1800 m (6 ft)-diameter culvert, the subsequent washout of a service road, and the undercutting of adjacent slopes. Nichols was engaged to investigate and assess the compromised slopes for stability, joining the project team of consultants to provide geotechnical and civil design for the restoration of the creek and adjacent slopes. After the design and construction plan was approved by provincial and federal regulators, Nichols provided on-site construction management and monitoring on behalf of the client to ensure the restoration work was completed as per the engineering specifications. Following construction, Nichols completed the as-built drawings and collaborated on the completion report. Date Completed: September 2021
Project Location: Edmonton, AB
Service Provided: Phase I ESA, geotechnical investigation, engineering support during design, pile installation supervision, construction monitoring and quality assurance, and material testing
Brief Description of the Project: Over the years, Nichols has overworked on numerous school projects including both new construction and modernization. The project started with the award of the geotechnical investigation and Phase I ESA to Nichols in October 2018. Following completion of these investigations, Nichols worked with the project design team and contractor to resolve any issues identified during design and construction. Date Completed: August 2021
Remedial In Situ Injection Program
Project Location: Stony Plain, AB
Service Provided: Technical environmental expertise and support in developing, implementing, and maintaining an in situ injection program at a former gas bar that is currently an active lumber yard.
Brief Description of the Project: Based on the soil and groundwater media on- and off-site being highly impacted by petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs), the program was initiated in 2017 to obtain baseline data to aid in the research, design, and implementation of an in situ remediation program. An injection well gallery was installed within the lumber yard to deliver an amendment solution to the source area. Annual groundwater monitoring and sampling in the fall of each year had also been conducted to continue to track the remediation of the PHC impacts. Since the program was initiated in 2018, an approximate total of 2,440,260 L of the diluted amendment solution have been injected into the galleries. In 2021, soil gas sensors were installed that would aid in quantifying indicators to support natural source zone depletion (NSZD) of PHCs in the subsurface. Date Completed: The remediation and monitoring program are ongoing.
Spill Response
Project Location: Invermere, BC
Service Provided: Environmental Supervision
Brief Description of the Project: A snowmobile was lost in a lake near Invermere, British Columbia. Nichols was retained to coordinate recovery via helicopter from the mountain lake and to provide environmental consulting regarding the potential loss of fuel into the lake from the incident and the recovery program. Nichols successfully coordinated recovery of the snowmobile from the lake utilizing a local helicopter contractor, and no release of fuel was observed. Date Completed: July 16, 2019
Spill Response
Project Location: Wheatland County, AB
Service Provided: Spill Response and Remediation
Brief Description of the Project: A transport truck crashed into a creek and released fuel and cargo. The fuel was cleaned up immediately but the remaining cargo had to be removed from the creek. Debris that was accessible from the shore was collected and then we waited for the water level to drop. Creek levels didn’t drop enough to access all the debris by foot. As such, Nichols contracted a commercial dive team that recovered the cargo that was lost in the waterbody for proper disposal. Date Completed: March through September 2020
Natural Source Zone Depletion
Project Location: Kerrobert, SK
Service Provided: Environmental Consultation
Brief Description of the Project: At a historical contaminated site, Nichols worked with specialists on designing and installing a soil gas monitoring program to determine degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons by existing soil bacteria. Monitoring the soil gas (methane, carbon dioxide, oxygen, etc.) concentrations over time (or flux) can provide a better understanding of the PHC plume size and confirm the mass of PHCs that are being degraded over time. This information will help Nichols develop monitoring and remediation programs that are more suited to the site.. Date Completed: Fall 2020
Civil Design
Project Location: Edmonton, AB
Service Provided: The full package of project management and geotechnical engineering services were provided for this project.
Brief Description of the Project: The facility was a major construction material distribution center. At the time of the initial assessment, the yard surface was in poor shape with signs of heavy rutting, stormwater backing up and flooding, and an almost non-existent driving surface. The client reached out to us to not only provide engineering recommendations but also to manage the entire project. Following completion of a geotechnical investigation, Nichols prepared a site grading and stormwater management plan and obtained approval from the City. After approval, Nichols provided on-site construction management and monitoring on behalf of the client to ensure the yard construction was completed as per the engineering specifications. Following construction, Nichols prepared the as-built drawings for submission to the City. Date Completed: August 2020