Supercom Industries and TBT Engineering are partnering to produce a new product that aims to improve the stability of railway tracks that traverse wetlands.
The Spring Drain, or S-Drain, is a tube-like device that’s installed underneath railway tracks in areas of peatland, which is soft and spongy.
Over time, the weight and length of the trains passing overhead causes the peat underneath to liquify, and it can push up and onto the tracks, something called a “peat boil.”
The S-Drain strengthens these areas, reducing maintenance requirements and preventing down time and even derailments.
TBT, a Thunder Bay firm that provides a range of engineering and surveying services, came up with the S-Drain’s proprietary design.
It’s now brought on Supercom Industries — a partnership of six Indigenous communities situated along the north shore of Lake Superior — to help commercialize the product.
Through its licensing agreement, Supercom will manufacture, sell, install and provide training services for the S-Drains.
“The commercialization of Spring Drains has a global potential for implementation and will revolutionize how railroads deal with geotechnical issues related to peat and rail substructure,” Robert Starr, Supercom’s business development manager, said in a March 30 news release.
“Working collectively with our partners, we can make this product successful and continue to achieve results to benefit our communities.
“This project will not only provide financial returns to our communities to continue to do better for themselves, but it will also create career paths for individuals as well as opportunities for our local contractors.”
TBT said the first S-Drains were installed in 2020 and since then it’s seen a reduction of more than 90 per cent in peat boils.
“The Spring Drain improves the performance of the peat subgrade by reducing the risk of peat liquefaction while improving the stiffness and stability of the rail embankment,” explained Gord Maki, a geotechnical engineer with TBT and the S-Drain’s inventor, in the release.
This isn’t the first collaboration between Supercom and TBT.
The two parties worked together on projects related to the East-West Transmission Line, a $700-million project that involved the installation of 450 kilometres of transmission line and related infrastructure to improve the delivery of electricity to customers in northwestern Ontario.
For its work on the project, the Northern Ontario Business Awards (an initiative of Northern Ontario Business) bestowed Supercom with the Indigenous Business Award of Excellence in 2022.
