Parrish and Heimbecker's Milling Group announced in late 2015 that they would be building a new flour mill in Hamilton, Ontario. The mill (a $60+ million dollar investment) is to be built adjacent to Parrish and Heimbecker's existing terminal elevator. It is the first new flour mill built in Ontario in 75 years.

Bermingham Foundation Solutions was retained to complete the piling for the facility and started work in January 2016. Caymar Mill Systems managed the project and had an aggressive schedule to complete all piling (108,000 linear feet of 9-5/8" pipe piles) in 4 months. Making the schedule more difficult was the fact that the radial distribution of piles also called for 1:6, 1:12 and 1:18 batters often beside each other. Bermingham confronted the schedule by utilizing two major time saving techniques; longer piles and the use of three Berminghammer Vertical Travel Lead (VTL) systems to seamlessly adjust to the multitudes of battered piles.

Typically, most piles are ordered in lengths less than 60 feet but for this project, Bermingham procured the piles in 100 foot (30.5m) lengths brought in by special trombone trailer trucks. Splicing piles greatly slows the piling operation as the piling rig must assist the operation and cannot continuously drive piles. It is estimated that by utilizing the 100-FT length piles, Bermingham reduced the total pile installation by a month. See the photo below of a Berminghammer VTL System lofting a 100 foot pile.

To complement the longer piles, Bermingham chose cranes and Berminghammer VTL combinations that could accommodate the longer lengths. 100/110 and 165 ton cranes were used with L-18 and L-23 VTL systems. VTL systems allow for quick and accurate pile alignment on batters as high as 1:3.

Bermingham's piling blitz enabled the foundation portion of the project to be completed in an extremely quick manner. Project Manager Andrew Morrisey believes that with the orientation of the piles and the aggressive schedule, VTL was the only real option. The experience of Bermingham's team and the speed, flexibility and accuracy of the Bermighammer VTL made this project a success.

Download a PDF of the Parrish & Heimbecker Project Report