John Grainger : From Good Old Rock & Roll to Engineering

Before deciding on a career in engineering, John Grainger was an avid teenage record collector, wrote record reviews for his high school newspaper, and dreamed of writing for Rolling Stone magazine. With the guidance of his father, an electrical engineer and college professor, John entered engineering school at Carleton University in Ottawa. Not quite ready to leave behind his love of rock and roll, John wrote a music column for the weekly Carleton University newspaper, 'The Charlatan', and also worked part-time as a disc jockey for a rock FM radio station. While working as a disc jockey, John had the thrill of a lifetime meeting and interviewing many rock and roll icons. He recalls, “The highlights were standing 10 feet away from Paul McCartney at a press conference and drinking beer with the Beach Boys after a show in 1974.”

While the music world was exciting, the young civil engineering graduate had a desire to “…do something different--something that would leave a lasting impact on my community”. After working for a couple of years for an Ottawa municipal consulting firm, his sense of adventure and love of the outdoors took him to the Yukon, to a position with the Yukon Government.

These were the late 70’s, a time of growth and development in the Yukon. John recalls, “The Yukon proved to be a marvelous training ground for a young engineer. Our Director and the Deputy Minister encouraged research and development. In the mid-1980’s we embarked on a program that pioneered and developed cold climate wastewater treatment and disposal using lagoons with natural and man-made wetlands. We built a number of small community wetlands sewage treatment and disposal systems, and received international recognition for our work.”

After 15 years with the Yukon Government, John decided to move back to consulting engineering, and enjoyed much success on a variety of municipal, environmental, and transportation projects. As Project Manager, John led the reconstruction of Robert Service Way, a $12.5 million roadway and infrastructure reconstruction project from the Alaska Highway to downtown Whitehorse. This project posed some technical and project management challenges for the design team. “We overcame a variety of issues that arose during the project by following sound project management practices and fostering an environment of “partnering” between the Owner, Engineer and the contractors.” The project team received the prestigious Transportation Association of Canada Environmental Achievement Award for the Robert Service Way project in 1997. The award recognized the project for its design of salmon spawning and rearing habitat enhancement works, constructed in the adjacent stretches of the Yukon River, as well as how the team addressed environmental issues working with the Yukon Territory Water Board, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

John at home with his wife, Ann, and their two dogs

After 25 years in the Yukon, John and his wife, Ann, decided to move South, closer to his family. John joined Associated Engineering’s Calgary office as a Project Manager and Senior Municipal Engineer. Associated Engineering’s reputation for providing value and service to our clients and our positive internal corporate culture attracted John to the company.

Since joining Associated Engineering, John has been a key player on projects such as the Calgary Airport Authority’s Apron VII Expansion for FedEx, the Town of Banff’s Tunnel Mountain Reservoir water supply line, and the Town of Banff’s $10 million downtown urban renewal and infrastructure reconstruction project.

John relishes the opportunity to apply his Northern experience to projects in Alberta and B.C. John remarks, “Engineering in the North is similar to what we do here (in Alberta and B.C). Working in the North, we had to develop some innovative solutions on many of our projects, and work on tight budgets. In some instances, we have been able to apply the advanced techniques that we developed to suit Northern conditions to projects here.”

John applied some of the innovative and economic solutions from the North on the Calgary Airport Authority’s Apron VII Expansion. Part of the project’s environmental requirements was to prevent glycolcontaminated runoff, generated from aircraft de-icing operations, from entering the airport’s stormwater system.

The main stormwater drainage lines ran through the middle of Apron VII. John led the design team that developed an innovative system of separating normal rainfall and snowmelt drainage from glycol runoff and de-icing over-spray. The system included a new separate storm sewer and sewer relocations, dry stormwater storage ponds, ditching, and a lift station. The glycol flow was directed to the lift station, and then pumped to the airport’s central treatment facilities via a new 1.9 kilometre forcemain.

The stormwater drainage system for the adjacent Purolator apron (also designed by Associated Engineering) was tied into this new drainage system, allowing Purolator to de-ice its aircraft on-site. The ability for the companies to de-ice aircraft at their own facilities has saved these firms considerable costs and time. Previously, aircraft had to taxi over to the main terminal to de-ice during Calgary’s frequent snowstorms.

The Calgary Airport Authority plans a third apron expansion for UPS in this same area in 2005. John and the Associated Engineering team will provide design and construction management services for this expansion.

John’s extensive experience has left an indelible mark on him for the importance of working as a team. He explains, “Projects must be completed in a spirit of “partnering” for all involved. To be successful, all participants must have a sense of “ownership”, and pride in the work and the final product. Maintaining a good working relationship with our clients is extremely important to me. I believe our clients should like working with us. When projects come in on time and on budget, they are usually the result of good engineering, positive teamwork, and good project management.”

John’s consummate belief in teamwork throughout all areas in life is also evident in the 20 years he has worked as a leader and adult volunteer trainer with Scouts Canada. John actively pursues his ideals as he passes onto our youth his philosophy of “teamwork”. He has recently joined the 1st Banff Scout Troop as a leader. John says, “As in engineering, scouting provides a great chance to mentor young people--something I firmly believe in.”

After work, John finds that outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, kayaking, downhill skiing, biking, and roller-blading are a great way to relax. Listening to a favourite Grateful Dead or Bob Dylan CD while walking his two dogs (a Flat Coated Retriever and a Chesapeake Bay Retriever) provide John with exercise and time to think.

And what about good old rock and roll? Today, John remains an avid collector of classic rock, heavy metal, blues, jazz, and folk music. His treasures include his 35-year collection of Rolling Stone magazines, along with his 5,000 records and 3,000 CD's, not to mention fond memories of the Beatles and the Beach Boys.