QUANTUM MURRAY MAKES THE 2012 TOP 40 CANADIAN CONTRACTORS

Quantum Murray LP takes the 21st spot in the annual On-Site Magazine's Top 40 Contractors list.

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TUCKAMORE COMPLETES PURCHASE OF INTEREST IN QUANTUM MURRAY LP

Toronto, Ontario – October 4, 2011 - Tuckamore Capital Management Inc. ("Tuckamore") (TSX:TX, TX.DB.B and TX.DB.C) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Newport Partners Holdings LP ("Newport"), has completed the indirect purchase of all of the Class C Units in the capital of Quantum Murray L.P. ("Quantum Murray") from the existing unit holders for an aggregate purchase price for the units of approximately $15.7 million. As a result of the transactions, Newport now owns, directly or indirectly, 100% of Quantum Murray. Quantum Murray is a national provider of demolition, remediation and scrap metal services. The transaction was funded primarily with $13 million of proceeds from recent asset sales, which amount had been held in escrow in contemplation of this transaction.

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SHAREHOLDERS OF NEWPORT INC. APPROVE CHANGE OF NAME TO TUCKAMORE CAPITAL

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

TORONTO, ON – (Marketwire – June 29, 2011) – Newport Inc. (TSX:NP) is pleased to announce that its shareholders have approved a name change to the company at its Annual Meeting of Shareholders held on June 20, 2011 in Toronto, Canada. The company will be named Tuckamore Capital management Inc. to be marketed under the name Tuckamore Capital.

Accompanying the name change to Tuckamore Capital the new trading symbol is anticipated to be (TSX:TX). The company’s shares will continue to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and all other attributes of the company remain unchanged.

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WABAMUN LANDMARK COMES TUMBLING DOWN

Controlled drop levels TransAlta’s power plant stacks

By Dave Cooper, edmontonjournal.com

March 18, 2011

EDMONTON — Like giant trees falling to a logger’s chainsaw, the iconic red and white stacks of TransAlta’s Wabamun power plant came tumbling down Friday in what is called an “engineered, controlled drop.”

The first one fell before 10 a.m., but a technical glitch delayed the other two for more than an hour.

Just 15 kilograms of dynamite and 75 blasting caps placed in strategic areas of each stack brought down the three, 100-metre reinforced concrete stacks in a matter of seconds.

“When you think that one or two kilograms of dynamite is used to blow up a beaver dam, its doesn’t seem like much. But it is where you put the charge,” said Ralph Leriger, manager of stakeholder relations for TransAlta Corp.

Ontario-based demolition firm Quantum Murray has spent the last year slowly taking apart the old power plant. The stacks were weakened, and dynamite placed at the base in the direction of the intended drop. The explosion blew out a wedge of concrete, and the stacks collapsed toward that side.

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FORMER SCHOOL TO BE RAZED LANDS SOLD

From Red Deer Advocate Click here for link to original story

By Advocate staff Published: March 04, 2011

Two prime pieces of property in the heart of Olds will soon hit the market.

Demolition of the former Olds High School will start this month.

When the project is completed in May, the land will be put up for sale.

Land previously used as an athletics field, located across the street from the school, will be put up for sale at the same time.

“It’s not often that a developer has an opportunity to purchase such an asset,” said Darrel Dyvig, director of facility services for Chinook’s Edge School Division.

The school, located in the centre of Olds along the south side of Hwy 27, was built in the 1950s.

It closed last year after its students moved to the new Community Learning Campus at Olds College.

The contract for the demolition project was granted to Quantum Murray, a Canadian company based out of Calgary.

This company will begin deconstructing the building by the end of the month.

The main concerns with the demolition project are safety and environmental aspects, Dyvig said.

He said Quantum Murray is experienced dealing safely with hazardous materials like the asbestos found in the building. The company is hoping to recycle 85 per cent of building materials that are taken down.

Dyvig said he doesn’t think the province’s poor spring weather will slow demolition proceedings.

The school was emptied last year after it closed and most of its assets were sold in an auction. The area is now fenced off.

FORMER HIGH SCHOOL TO BEGIN DECONSTRUCTION

Olds Albertan Click here for original story

Tuesday, Mar 01, 2011 | Paul Frey

Work on deconstructing the former Olds High School building will begin later this week, with the work expected to be completed by the beginning of May.

The Municipal Planning Commission approved the permit for the work at its Feb. 17 meeting.

Chris Landry, general manager of demolition in Alberta for Quantum Murray Remediation Services, the firm that will be doing the work, said last week that the company was beginning to take the approximately 60 tonnes of asbestos out of the building. He said that process itself is expected to take about a month.

Once the asbestos is removed by Quantum Murray, Golber Associates will monitor the air quality to ensure the building is safe to deconstruct with an excavator.

“We’re going to salvage the concrete and the cement block inside the school. We’re going to recycle the metal and we might have a company that will come and take the hardwood from the gymnasiums. We’re going to salvage as much as we can on the site,” Landry said, adding that street traffic won’t be affected by the deconstruction.

The asbestos was in the drywall compound, tile, pipe insulation and elbows.

When an area is being decontaminated, it is closed off from the rest of the building and negative pressure is applied inside the room, much like a vacuum, where nothing can get out of the room. There are also filters inside the room so that nothing will escape.

“The guys inside the room are wearing the Tyvex suits, they’re wearing . .. the full face masks and the workers are totally protected,” he said, noting that when they are done, they take the suits off inside the room.

Once the asbestos is double-bagged and removed from the site it will be going to an approved landfill site in Coronation.

Don Reid, chief administrative officer for the Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission, said he recommended against disposing of the asbestos in the county landfill. He said to accept the material, a large part of the landfill would have to be dug up to store the material and he recommended against it. He also strongly recommended that as much other material as possible be recycled. He said all the companies that showed interest in the job were quite interested in recycling.

“If they do it the way they say they’re going to do it, there’s going to be a lot of material saved. I commend them for the process,” he said.

Landry said the asbestos is not harmful until it is disturbed inside the contained area, then it is disposed of.

“Before we get our air clearance, they seal the room with …glue. And that will lock or kill every particle that might have been left behind and then it’s safe for anybody to come in,” he said.

Prior to starting the work, Quantum Murray was ploughing snow from the site and disconnecting all utilities.

Sandy Bexon, communications coordinator with Chinook’s Edge School Division, said the division wouldn’t be commenting on the process until after the contract for the work was approved by Alberta Infrastructure. That is expected to be done sometime this week.

GREEN GIANT

Green giant Rising 49 storeys, here's what makes Eighth Avenue Place a LEED Platinum hit

Tricia Radison Source: Alberta Construction Magazine Mar 2011
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If all goes as planned, the 49-storey Eighth Avenue Place in downtown Calgary will soon become the first LEED Platinum (Core & Shell) high-rise office tower in Canada.

It's one thing to become LEED-short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified. But reaching the highest level, Platinum, is much more difficult in the internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of a high-performance green building.

So what does it take to reach such a high level of sustainability? Here's a look.

AN EFFICIENT CURTAIN WALL SYSTEM

"The glass curtain wall system is a huge part of the overall energy efficiency of this building," says Brenda Morawa, president and principal of BVM Engineering Inc. in Atlanta.

"The whole objective is trying to find that sweet spot among having glass that gives you access to not just the daylight but the full views from floor to ceiling, being able to mitigate the heating load from outside to inside with that glass, and then the cost."

The solution is a unitized curtain wall system with dual-pane glass that has solar screening coatings. Within this system, the interior and exterior aluminum mullions are thermally separated to prevent heat transfer. The mullion system was custom-designed and fabricated for the building.

"It is a fully thermally separated system," explains Avi Tesciuba, vice-president of Hines Interests Limited Partnership, the company developing the project, from his office in Toronto. With very little air coming in through the curtain wall, baseboard heating wasn't required around the perimeter of the building.

"You have glass all the way to the floor," Tesciuba says. "You can literally walk up all the way to the glass and use all of that space."

Heating and cooling the perimeter space can now be done using the same overhead air delivery system used to for interior spaces instead of installing a second system.

CAREFUL MONITORING

Another important aspect of energy efficiency is reducing the amount of outside air brought into the building. Again, it's about the sweet spot, the perfect balance between providing high-quality air to breathe and not having cold air to heat.

"We are doing a combination of different things to optimize the amount of outside air and then very efficiently heat that outside air to reduce the operating costs," Morawa says. One of the most innovative aspects is that the building management and control system monitors the CO2 level in the building and the carbon monoxide level in the parking garage. When levels go higher than desired, air is brought in just until the level reaches the right point.

The system also monitors temperature and lighting. It will make automatic adjustments to ensure air quality and operators can make adjustments from a computer, in the building or remotely.

GREEN ROOF

"A green roof is one of the features that impacts the most credit categories," Morawa says. First, green roofs mitigate the heat island effect in summer, absorbing heat so that it's not absorbed into the building. Second, they retain and treat stormwater and reduce the amount of water discharged into the municipal stormwater system. They also provide habitat for creatures like birds, bugs and butterflies.

The garden atop Eighth Avenue Place is thought to be the largest in Canada at 30,000 square feet.

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Managing new construction waste is one thing. Managing demolition waste is another. But even with demolition, those involved in building Eighth Avenue Place were able to divert approximately 80 per cent of waste from the landfill.

"It's easier to achieve a higher diversion percentage when you're demolishing a building the way that they demolished the old Penny Lane [shopping centre] complex," says Kim Rishel, manager of Sustainable Building Services, Western Canada, for EllisDon Construction Services Inc. EllisDon is the project manager.

Murray Demolition of Quantum Murray LP performed the demolition, dismantling the old complex instead of just knocking it over. Everything was examined to see if it could be reused or recycled. For example, the ceiling tiles were sent to Armstrong World Industries, which runs a recycling program and uses old ceiling tile in some of its new products.

COMMITMENT

Sustainable building practices are common in the today's industry. The LEED program promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:

• Sustainable site development
• Water efficiency
• Energy efficiency
• Materials selection
• Indoor environmental quality

Rishel credits the effort exhibited by Hines, BVM Engineering, the design team and consultants, EllisDon and the subtrades for the sustainability of Eighth Avenue Place.

"Its that collaborative, integrated design process where you have everybody working together all the time," she says.

Designed by Pickard Chilton Architects, Inc., Eighth Avenue Place will feature a two-storey retail podium spanning a full city block. It will also have an atrium winter garden and a 1,143-car, below-grade parking garage. Construction began in December 2007 and should be completed this summer. Future plans include construction of another tower.

For Hines, protecting the environment is actually a secondary goal. Eighth Avenue Place has been built for the people who will occupy it.

"We look at what's important to the tenants and then design around that," says Tesciuba, pointing out things like lots of natural light, great views, high-quality air and thermal comfort. "If we do the things that matter to the tenants, then we end up getting the points that the Green Building Council has on their list."

December 11, 2006 - Quantum Environmental Group teams up with Ontario demolition company to create leading decommissioning and environmental remediation firm.