b'MEMBER PROFILEFive-storey helical pile building foundation.Credit: Atlas Piling & Drilling.ATLAS PILING & DRILLING INC.A MOM-AND-POP APPROACH TO CONSTRUCTION BY KELLY PARKERA tlas Piling & Drilling ofThe transition into piling was dictatedrock drilling, soil nails and tie back Kelowna specializes in pilingby necessity. We were having to sourceanchors, and underpinning.and drilling services forout piling from other companies, and industrial, commercial and residentialwe found that the quality of pilingThe business went to another level when clients. Founded in 2010 as BCfrom the contractors we were gettingAtlas began to get into drilling. The Concrete & Piling, the name wasto assist us wasnt something we weresoils arent always conducive for a helical changed to Atlas after a number ofcomfortable withwhere we thought itpile, yet people in the industry tended companies adopted similar names.needed to be, explains Johnson. to keep moving forward when it was the From its beginnings as a provider ofwrong pile and drilling was required, residential concrete repair services, AtlasOne of the projects that kicked Atlassnotes Johnson. So we morphed into has since pivoted to specializing in deeppiling services into high gear was adrilling, and drilling has taken up a foundation work. contract for BC Hydro. They were absolutely first class to deal with,big chunk of our business. Were now The company began as a foundationemphasizes Johnson. They were inrunning three independent drills of repair business, evolved into a pilinga bind, and we went and did a verydifferent sizes around the province.business over time, and is nowdifficult project for them. We like to predominantly involved in pilingspecialize in the odd, the difficult, theJohnson gives some of the credit for and drilling. Weve been pleasantlyunsolvable. Weve had all the guysAtlass success to relationships with surprised at the response, says ownertrained, for example, on rope access,industry leaders in piling and drilling. I Lance Johnson. We increase ourand we do limited access, and wellwork with local contractors here in the business by 25 to 50 per cent every year,go under buildings, well go hang offinterior and on the coast that are much and the reason is we do it old school:buildings. Well do all sorts of bizarrebigger than us. We have a wonderful we respect our clients. We act as theirthings to achieve the goal. If you canrelationship with them, and theyre very partners, not as their contractors. Isolve problems that nobody else canhappy to help us with information and tell [my staff] to take the little extrasolve, [its good for business]. training, etc., Johnson says. Weve put steps; whether its a mom-and-pop jobtogether a group of people throughout or a multi-million-dollar project, we treat everybody the same. We do theBeyond pilingincluding helical andB.C. and Alberta that want to improve simple old-school things like promptlydrilled micro-pilesthat growing list ofthe quality of the piling industry, and returning phone callsthe courtesyservices now includes shotcrete, shoring,we help each otherits working well things that make the difference. slope stabilization, pile load testing,for us.14 SOUTHERN INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION ASSOCIATION'