Canam terminates agreement on sandwich plate system

By Liz White, UT staffBoucherville, Quebec-Canadian Canam Group Inc. which specialises in the design and fabrication of construction products, said in its 2005 results announcement that it is no longer involved with making and promoting the SPS steel/elastomer sandwich panels system for bridge deck repair and construction. Canam said its Solicor business unit has terminated the two-year old agreement it had with London-based Intelligent Engineering Holdings, "due to a commercial dispute." Under the agreement, Canam was fabricating and marketing the SPS steel and polyurethane elastomer plates for uses such as bridge building and refurbishment in North America. "Essentially, Canam Group could not foresee profitability [in its SPS business] within a reasonable timeframe," the group said. Canam said that despite this, Solicor remains committed to identifying, developing and marketing cutting-edge technologies in construction and civil engineering products.Solicor has used the SPS system on three bridges in Canada, at Port Hope, at Saint-Martin de Beauce and on the Lennoxville Bridge in Quebec. The Canadian group had also said it had gained an order to repair a US bridge using the lightweight, durable technology. Elsewhere, the system has been used by developer Intelligent Engineering in repairing tankers and a container vessel at different repair yards in Singapore and in various bridge projects in Europe. "