City awarded for innovation in underground safety best practices

Collapsed mine discovery leads to City of Excellence in Innovation Award

NEWS RELEASE - Distributed June 16, 2014 12:00 PM

Summary

The BC Municipal Association and BC Common Ground Alliance have awarded the City of Nanaimo with the City of Excellence in Innovation Award for its work on a collapsed coal mine shaft, discovered during underground infrastructure upgrades in fall 2013. The award recognizes the steps taken by the City to protect workers, the public and infrastructure from harm during the difficult work associated with the collapsed mine shaft. Upgrades to the underground infrastructure were completed without incident, despite the unusual challenges.

Each year, the BC Municipal Safety Association along with the BC Common Ground Alliance award municipalities in BC who excel in protection of underground infrastructure during ground disturbances. This is not the first time the City has received this honour, the City received an Excellence Gold Award in 2011 and the Honourable Mention Award in 2012.

Link to Strategic Plan: Protection of infrastructure from coal mine voids supports the Asset Management strategic priority.

Key Points

The City of Nanaimo has an award winning excavation program which is highly recognized throughout the province.
Steps taken to protect workers, public and infrastructure while dealing with a former mine that partially collapsed below a city street has earned Nanaimo the City of Excellence in Innovation Award.

Quotes

"I am pleased to accept this award on behalf of the employees of the City of Nanaimo and to congratulate them for their dedication in making the city a safe place to work and live."

John Ruttan

Mayor

City of Nanaimo

"You probably all remember a case last year where there was an underground mine underneath one of the streets. That took a lot of extra work on behalf of City of Nanaimo staff to make sure that staff and the public were protected throughout that process. It's nothing short of amazing, the steps that were put into place."

Cathy Cook

Executive Director

BC Municipal Safety Association

Quick Facts

The city performs an average of eight kilometres of excavations per year as well as up to 1500 requests to locate underground services.
The City has moved forward on a $50,000 project to study and map areas where the city's network of abandoned mines could pose a risk to underground infrastructure, buildings and people.

Images

Mayor Ruttan accepting City of Excellence Award

Received June 9th, 2014 from Executive Director BC Municipal Safety Association, Cathy Cook

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Contact:

Jason Duchak

OH&S Coordinator

City of Nanaimo

250-755-4411

Jason.Duchak@nanaimo.ca

Michael Strain

Construction Projects Manager

City of Nanaimo

250-756-5328

michael.strain@nanaimo.ca

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