��������

Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd. (KWL) and McElhanney Ltd. were recognized recently by the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies British Columbia (ACEC-BC).

The companies won kudos in the Natural Resource and Habitat category for their work on the

One of the dozens of ancient waterways in the Lower Mainland, Guichon Creek in Burnaby, B.C. flows south to north through the centre of the campus of British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT).

“We’re really proud of the work our team did on the project,” says Andrew Kolper, senior hydrotechnical engineer at KWL, which acted as the hydrotechnical engineers on the project. “It was a big team, and we all worked well together.

“We reduced flooding on the school campus and enabled salmon to spawn in the creek for the first time in 60 years.”

Joe Cosh, BCIT’s director of facilities improvements, says that, until about 1970, the creek was still in its natural state on the property. 

“A 400-metre section of it was culverted through the centre of the campus, and the northern portion was culverted around 1973.”

Over time, water slowly eroded the corrugated steel pipe through which the creek flowed. In 2023, a three-metre hole collapsed into the ground near the school’s recreation centre. 

Working with BCIT, the team, led by KWL and McElhanney, decided against replacing the culvert. Instead, they opted to design a daylit, vegetated corridor and naturalized fishway, and to restore the connection between the upper and lower portions of the creek.

Stream daylighting is an ecological restoration process whereby buried pipes are removed and surface habitat is restored to allow natural creeks to flow as surface water again.

“Daylighting the creek is a key part of BCIT’s master plan, so we took this opportunity to not only repair a failure but to move the needle on the progress of naturalizing the campus,” says Cosh.

The uncovered sections of the creek are natural community amenities and resilient sustainable infrastructure, he says.

“This project may have proven to be of benefit in its own right, but it is only a single step on the path,” says Cosh. “ that will further uncover the creek in a sustainable and responsible way.”

The Guichon Creek project faced a number of complications.

“Because all of the work was done while BCIT was in session, we had to pay close attention to everyone’s health and safety,” says Kolper. 

The work on the stream attracted the curious, so the team was kept busy managing vehicle traffic and pedestrian movement in the middle of campus.

The delivery of concrete box culverts that were an important part of the daylighting project was unfortunately delayed.

“As a result, the work ended up being done during the rainiest part of the year,” says Kolper.

A diversion channel was built to go around the damaged culvert, and it was designed to be sufficiently robust to be able to withstand a serious flood.

“The channel worked as it was supposed to,” says Kolper. “There was flooding that winter, but no serious damage.”

A major accomplishment of the project is the new fish ladder in the creek.

The original culverted system included a two-metre spillway that pushed water into the underground pipe system, which blocked salmon on their migration to spawn.

Crews excavated a 25-metre section of creek that was buried near the BCIT gym. They removed the corrugated steel culvert pipes and steep walls to create a stream bed.

Where culverts were still needed, the corrugated steel piping was replaced with concrete culverts that were shaped for the fish to pass safely through.

And crews installed a salmon ladder that will let chum travel past the site of the spillway.

The Guichon Creek daylighting project is not a one-off initiative. It is part of which is itself part of the BCIT Campus Master Plan. Plans call for further opening up of the creek and refurbishing of its environs.

Kolper says KWL is currently in detailed design to daylight 80 metres of the creek in the downstream portion at the Concert Properties Centre for Trade and Technology.

Completion of that project is expected in 2027-28.

“We’ve also done the conceptual design for the remaining daylighting of the creek,” says Kolper.

For more information on the 2025 ACEC-BC Awards of Excellence, go to .