Town of Blackfalds Reservoir | Blackfalds, Alberta, Canada

A Complete Formwork and Shoring Package for the Blackfalds Water Reservoir

Blackfalds, Alberta, Canada

Why did the Town of Blackfalds build a new reservoir?

To double the town’s drinking-water storage and add backup supply for Blackfalds and the Aspelund Industrial Park. The reservoir is a large underground tank: poured in place, buried, and then filled. Because it holds potable water, the interior must be smooth, with no grooves or ridges where algae and sediment could collect.

Why choose a single-source formwork and shoring package?

Because one supplier for the walls, columns, and slab gave the contractor a consistent finish and one point of accountability. Caveman Contracting Inc. formed every concrete element with EFCO. EFCO LITE® handled the walls and columns, EFCO DECK® and E-Z DECK® formed and shored the slab, and PLATE GIRDER® with Combination Bias Corners (CBC) squared up the corners. The deciding factor was EFCO LITE®’s steel face, which leaves a smooth surface straight off the form and removes the joint patching a rougher finish would demand.

How do you form a smooth-finish reservoir wall?

With steel-faced wall formwork rated to carry the full pour pressure, so the wall strips clean without patching. On the Blackfalds reservoir, EFCO LITE® panels rated for 1,200 PSF (57.6 kPa) formed walls 13 ft 2 in. (4,025 mm) tall and 400 mm (1 ft 4 in.) thick. The crew stopped the forms just below the hooked reinforcing bars at the top of the wall, keeping the steel clear and avoiding lost time bending bars. SUPER STUD® soldiers and she-bolt ties carried the pressure, and Heavy-Duty Pipe Braces held the gangs plumb.

How do you form and shore a 22,500 sq ft roof slab?

By combining slab formwork with heavy-duty shoring sized to hold the entire footprint at one time. EFCO DECK® formed the 250 mm (9 7/8 in.) structural slab, which thickens to a 500 mm (about 1 ft 8 in.) drop capital over each of the 45 columns to carry the roof load down. In the deeper zones, the crew set E-Z DECK® posts, capped them with EFCO DECK® drop heads, and ran E-BEAM® primaries and secondaries above — pairing the reach of one system with the fast cycling of another. EFCO modeled the layout in Revit before anything shipped.

How does a complete EFCO package lower in-place concrete cost?

By designing rework out of the job and shoring the whole slab at once so it pours in fewer, larger placements. The steel-faced walls and columns came out smooth, removing an entire patch-and-grind step — the single biggest labor and schedule saving on a job like this. Shoring the full 22,500 sq ft (2,090 m²) footprint at once let the crew place 1,044 m³ (about 1,365 cu yd) of concrete in just two large pours instead of many small ones. One supplier for walls, columns, and slab meant one set of drawings and one point of coordination. Together, that is Lowest in-Place Concrete Cost (LIPCC) in practice.

Why Caveman Contracting Chose EFCO

For Caveman Contracting, the Blackfalds reservoir came down to building it right the first time. A drinking-water tank needs a clean interior finish, and EFCO LITE® delivered that straight off the panel, with no patching cycle to add later. Pairing EFCO DECK®, E-Z DECK®, and E-BEAM® over the drop capitals solved the shoring with a single coordinated system rather than a patchwork of parts. And because every forming component for the walls, columns, and slab came from EFCO, the contractor had a single accountable source for both engineering and delivery. On a project with a short timeline and no room for rework, that mix of finish, support, and single-source reliability is what delivers the Lowest in-Place Concrete Cost. It is why Caveman ran a complete EFCO package from footing to roof.

EFCO Equipment

Caveman Contracting Inc.

Sean Pringle, Owner

Timcon Construction Ltd., General Contractor

EFCO Formwork Specialists- Airdrie

Jeff Dergousoff, Territory Manager

Chris Manson, Engineer

Rob Cottam, Field Service

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a single-source formwork package?

A single-source formwork package means one manufacturer supplies and engineers every forming and shoring system on a project — walls, columns, and slab — instead of mixing equipment from several suppliers. On the Blackfalds reservoir, EFCO provided the complete package, giving Caveman Contracting one set of erection drawings, one point of coordination, and a consistent finish across the whole structure.

What is a drop capital?

A drop capital is a thickened section of an elevated slab directly over a column. It spreads the roof load into the column and carries the higher shear near the support. On this reservoir, the 250 mm (9 7/8 in.) slab thickens to 500 mm (about 1 ft 8 in.) at each column, shored with E-Z DECK and EFCO DECK.

Why do water reservoirs need a smooth concrete finish?

A drinking-water reservoir needs smooth interior surfaces because grooves and ridges trap algae and sediment and are harder to clean. Steel-faced formwork such as EFCO LITE leaves a smooth surface straight off the form, so the finished concrete meets that requirement without a separate patch-and-grind pass.

What is Lowest in-Place Concrete Cost?

Lowest in-Place Concrete Cost (LIPCC) is EFCO’s approach to lowering the total cost of finished concrete in place, not just the purchase price of the forms. It weighs the whole picture — labor, cycle time, rework, freight, and engineering support — to reach the lowest cost per cubic yard actually placed. Often that means matching the right formwork to the job so the savings show up in the work around the forms, not on the equipment invoice.

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