Cold Lake Air Force Base Runway - Alberta

This was a summer job with Public Works Canada, for the DND. I was assigned to Construction Engineering Unit 2 of the military to work as a soils and concrete technician at the on-site laboratory for the construction of a new parallel runwayand the resurfacing of the cross-runway. We took and tested samples of soil (clay), sand, soil-cement, concrete and asphalt and tested both beside the runway and in the site laboratory. The new main runway was constructed using a slip-form paver with no-slump concrete. Once the base and sub-base were finished, I took samples of concrete for cylinders and beams, air content and slump tests, and then participated in testing the cylinders and beams in the lab. One of the difficulties was compacting no-slump concrete into the prisms. The only way was to use a mechanical vibrator. Great fun, but very hard work with long days. A couple of highlights were learning to fliy a glider with the base gliding club and my first helicopter ride.

Cold Lake Runway - Alberta