Background

The Rainy River Solar Project which is located near Emo, Ontario will produce enough clean energy to meet the needs of over 3,900 households. The solar power generated at Rainy River will be sold to the Ontario Power Authority under three power purchase agreements.

TBT Engineering’s Role

Ozaanaman Engineering in association with TBT Engineering was commissioned to perform a foundation point layout survey (pile layout) of 13,440 foundation points located at the Dave Remple, Morely, and Vanzwolf sites for the Rainy River Solar Park located near Emo, Ontario.

Investigation (Methodology)

The layout survey was conducted using a Trimble R8 Series 3 RTK GPS System in layout mode. The RTK survey poles where calibrated prior to the survey and where re-calibrated throughout the assignment to provide a horizontal accuracy of 20mm (3/4”).
A two person survey team was used for the assignment (2 instrument persons) along with a field assistant for nail placement. Local hiring of First Nation labour was utilized for the assignment. Survey production proved to be in access of 400 foundation points per day. Each foundation point location was marked with an 8” nail and a 1 1/2” steel washer and flagging tape.

Quality Control

For quality control, each day’s layout points were resurveyed at the end of the day and compared with layout coordinates to ensure layout accuracy.