CWA Innovation Awards 2021 – Virtual Edition

On November 17th, CWA will hold its  13th Annual Innovation Awards, a tradition that is one of the biggest events on our corporate calendar. As in past years, this will be a festive evening full of fun, camaraderie, and friendly competition, providing our engineers with an opportunity to showcase their work, highlighting the creative ideas and innovative thinking upon which CWA has built its reputation.

Creativity is at Our Core

Engineers are in essence problem-solvers, skilled at devising practical solutions to complex problems. Their ingenuity derives from one of their greatest tools – their creativity.

CWA recognizes the importance of fostering a culture of innovation. We’ve built our business on it and it’s what we do best: solve problems with innovative, cost-effective solutions.

We continuously strengthen our culture of innovation and excellence, both as individuals and as a corporate team, by embracing new technologies, ideas, and novel approaches to design methodology and project development. Our Innovation Awards event is a celebration of this culture.

Inventive Solutions to Unique Challenges

They said it was too costly.  We said, “let’s find a way.”

To avoid the prohibitive costs associated with undertaking a construction project in an extremely remote northern region and the environmental impact of dredging, CWA developed a modular steel design concept for the construction of a 20 by 240-metre deep-sea wharf for a port that is at the spearhead of Canada’s current transportation investment strategy. A total of 13 kilometres of steel pipe piling and 1,580 tonnes of fabricated modular steel were used and, at the deepest sections of the wharf, total pile lengths were over 80 meters long. Read more about the project here.

Other firms said it was impossible. We said, “anything is possible.”

We designed a new expanded flow surge bin that doubled export capacity while maintaining the existing surge bin’s height, eliminating the need to replace existing conveyor structures, and ensuring that operations continued throughout construction while the new surge bin was seamlessly integrated into the existing system. Read more about the project here.

CWA Believes in The Power of Innovation

That’s why each year, we celebrate the creative efforts of our people in the spirit of friendly competition. As our company grows with an eye toward the future, we will continue to cultivate a community of innovators and stay connected to the values that have been fundamental to our success.