10 WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9, 2016
A SUPPLEMENT TO THE WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
TURN IN THE ROAD FROM DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS TO HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION
BY BOB ARMSTRONG
BUILDING A NEW HIGHWAY INTERCHANGE FOR WINNIPEG COMMUTERS MIGHT SEEM LIGHTYEARS AWAY FROM PROVIDING CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION TO DESPERATE REFUGEES IN A WAR-TORN COUNTRY, BUT TO DIANA NICHOLSON THEY’RE JUST TWO WAYS OF USING HUMAN INGENUITY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS.
C urrently, the project manager for Nelson River Construction on the Highway 59-Perimeter Highway interchange, Nicholson spent three years working as an engineer with the aid agency Doctors Without Borders. Conditions in the two jobs could hardly be more different, but both involved making effective use of resources to ensure public safety and develop needed infrastructure. As a subcontractor on the Hwy 59 project, Nelson River Construction is putting down base materials and doing all the paving. As project manager, Nicholson ensures that the work happens on time, on budget and in accordance with the “hundreds and hundreds” of pages of specifications intended to assure the durability and safety of the new roadway. “The intersection is a lot more complicated than most people would realize,” she says. Those hundreds of pages of specifications demonstrate that highway construction is far more complex than the average passing driver might realize. Specifications detail how much granular material (gravel in various sizes) goes under the road; the slope as the road rises to the overpass; the angles of curves; design factors intended to make the road safer and longer-lasting — even factors affecting the ability of snowplows to move snow off the road.
In Central African Republic and South Sudan, the camps came under attack by rebel forces, and workers on occasion had to retreat to a bunker. In Sierra Leone, she worked on sanitation systems during the West African Ebola crisis, donning spacesuit-like personal protection suits and taking her own temperature daily to monitor for signs of infection. Constructing latrines, showers and water wells to provide survival facilities for camps with as many as 50,000-60,000 people brought her face-to-face with people who have nothing. “The first time we set up one of those taps I saw that water really is life – just the sheer joy of people being able to turn on a tap and have clean water,” she says. Earlier this year, Nicholson received a University of Manitoba Distinguished Alumni Award or Outstanding Young Alumni in recognition of her aid work. This winter, when construction season wraps up in Manitoba, she plans to return to wherever she’s needed on another contract with Doctors Without Borders. ■
“We’re not everybody’s favourite people when we’re working in the lanes,” she says, noting that work is scheduled so that two lanes are kept open at rush hour. For Nicholson, who graduated in 2006 with a degree in biosystems engineering from the University of Manitoba, heavy construction is a sharp left turn from her previous path. “Luckily engineering teaches you how to learn really fast, and I’ve been taken under the wing by my boss.” Working for Doctors Without Borders, she oversaw development of safe drinking water supplies and sanitary disposal sites for medical and other waste in refugee camps and clinics in Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Sierra Leone. It was harrowing work for the young engineer, who earned a Master’s degree in biosystems engineering and international development from Guelph University in 2010.
> Just as in other kinds of construction, road builders continually adapt to new materials and techniques to improve results
Just as in other kinds of construction, road builders continually adapt to new materials and techniques to improve results. Nicholson notes that the interchange project is one of the first in Manitoba to use a new base layer called a drainable stable base. The material allows water to drain out from underneath the roadway in order to prevent the freeze and thaw cycles that damage our roads. “Everything is continually reviewed to make sure our roads last longer,” she says. Adding to the complexity of the job is the fact that it’s an extremely busy intersection, travelled by commuters who live north of Winnipeg, trucks bypassing the city on the north Perimeter and people going to and from Lake Winnipeg’s east-side communities.
> Engineer Diana Nicholson is a project manager for Nelson River Construction.
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