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The ACI) recently gave five Awards of Excellence in Concrete for 2024.

The Bow River bridge twinning project won in the Advanced Concrete Construction category.

Other winners were the North Saskatchewan River Bridge on Highway 15 (bridges); Station Lands North (buildings); 14th Street Ramp to Westbound Glenmore Trail Bridge Rehabilitation (restoration); and The Last of Us (civil).

The Last of Us is an American post-apocalyptic drama television series.

Proform Construction Products won for the design and manufacture in its Calgary plant of the Quarantine Zone Wall in the TV series that had the word “WELCOME” written on it.

According to Proform, the project originated when the company was contacted by the series art director when The Last of Us announced it would be filming in Calgary and other parts of Alberta. 

The series wanted to replicate the Quarantine Zone wall that is featured in the video game, and it wanted a real concrete wall. 

Proform got the concept drawings from the art director, which it then converted into a 3D image. 

The 3D image was Proform’s main resource for creating the layout, the drawings of each precast concrete component and the other parts that were needed to connect the precast pieces and put everything together. 

Proform worked with the series’ set designers at its plant during the fabrication stage to make the precast pieces look realistically beat-up and old. 

It created varying textures for different areas of the wall by adding aggregate, embedding and exposing rebar and creating rough voids in order to make the wall look 20 years old.  

Because the wall wasn’t intended to be a permanent structure, Proform designed the supporting structure and many of the connections in order to make the wall easy to put up and then take down and store after filming. 

Made of pre-stressed panels, the wall was a solid six inches thick and 40 feet high, so that the actors and film crew were safe on top of it during the scenes that required them to be there.

During the installation of the wall Proform staff were on hand to provide any engineering services that were required. This enabled quick decision-making that accommodated changing field conditions and reduced delays.

Using precast concrete to build the wall meant it was constructed quickly, which gave the set artists enough time to add the finishing touches to the wall.

“Proform is very excited and honoured to be part of The Last of Us series. Not only is this an incredible show, but we’re proud to have our precast products be a part of Canadian cinematic history and be featured in the largest TV production in Canada,” states the company.

The Alberta Chapter of ACI is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing the practice of concrete across the industry through education, technical practice and networking.

Its members come from a variety of academic, construction, engineering and industrial organizations across the province.

For more information and to see videos of the 2024 award-winning projects, visit .