connections...Moosehead Brewery • Precast Concrete Stairs • West Broadway Condos fall & winter 2017 the biannual newsmagazine of the OSCO Construction Group connections Ocean Steel

North Shore Medical Center • Georges River Energy • Queen’s Marque Moosehead Brewery • Precast Concrete Stairs • West Broadway Condos

fall & winter 2017

the biannual newsmagazine of the OSCO Construction Group

connectionsOcean Steel Tops Off New Practice Facility for the Boston Celtics

www.oscoconstructiongroup.com

what’s inside

on our cover... CONNECTIONS is the biannual magazine of the OSCO Construction Group, published every Spring and Fall to share news and information with our valued customers & employees

Comments and submissions are greatly appreciated and may be sent to the editor/designer: Tammy Legacy, c/o OSCO Construction Group 400 Chesley Drive, Saint John, NB • Canada • E2K 5L6 email: [email protected]

The Auerbach Center, Boston MASee story on page 4

OSCOconstructiong r o u p

connections fall & winter 2017the biannual newsmagazine of the OSCO Construction Group

4 .....The Auerbach Center

6 .....North Shore Medical

8 .....NB Bridge Replacements

9 .....Red Rose Building

10 ...Saint John Water

12 ...Queen’s Marque

13 ...Georges River Energy

14 ...Moosehead Brewery

15 ...Irving Oil Home Office

16 ...Irving Blending & Packaging

17....Village View Suites

20 ...Irving Oil Refinery

21 ...Meridian Health

22 ...Misc. Metals

22 ...Mercantile Park Garage

23 ...Mount Allison

24 ...Bath Viaduct

27 ... Refinery Turnaround Complexes

27 ...Wyndham Worldwide

28 ...Courthouse Hill Farms

29 ...Fundy Funeral Home

30 ...West Broadway Condos

32 ...Holiday Inn Express

32 ...Dartmouth General Hospital

33 ...Stonehill College

34 ...Halifax Shopping Center

34 ...Rebar Projects

35 ...UdeM Retirement Complex

42 ... Greenslade Bursary

42 ...NSCC Bursary

43 ...Group Bursary

43 ...MacLean’s Hitching Post

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37 ...Safety: 2017 Safety Awards

38 ... Environment: Sharing Green Habits

39 ...Training & Development

40... Facilities: PEI Aggregate Deliveries

public &community

people

18 ... Product: Concrete Stairs

36 ... Product: Glenholme Concrete Stone

profiles

44 ... Employee Appreciation Celebration

46 ...OSCO Picnic

47 ...OSCO Golf

48 ...Retirement Lane

50 ...Don Isnor Sr.

51 ...Fresh Faces

51 ...Congratulations

3 ..... Message from the President

52 ...Our Locations

priorities

3www.oscoconstructiongroup.com connections | fall & winter 2017

We currently provide many differ-ent construction products &

services from 24 facilities located in the eastern part of Canada and the United States. One of our key goals has been to diversify into product, customer and geographic markets which can offer highly-valued “pack-ages” of construction products or services for our clients. For structural steel combined with architectural precast wall panels, precast con-nections are designed and attached to the steel in our fabrication shop rather than the more expensive option of field-installed. Ready mix and rebar are packaged for cast-in-place structures to assure formwork contractors that material deliveries for both products will be properly scheduled.

Given our multi-product strategy to-date, are we headed in the right direction when compared with the construction industry as a whole?? Over the last 25 years, InfoTech ad-vances have led to the transformation of entire industries: car manufactur-ing, shipbuilding and aerospace are some examples. Unfortunately, the technology revolution has, for the

most part, not improved productivity in the construction industry.

In our view, this is about to radically change…….the construction industry is the next major industry about to be reshaped. It has now reached the “tipping” point because several para-digm shifts will disrupt the industry as never before….

Advances in the development and availability of Building Information

Modeling (BIM) standards will allow the industry to finally achieve true data interoperability and integration. The industry now has or soon will have the means to deploy a digital, 3D model of every component and system in a project…….something the automotive, aerospace and shipbuilding industries have had for

decades. Other new technologies adaptable to construction applica-tions are also emerging……some examples are robotics, artificial intelligence, mixed or augmented reality, sensors & telematics, scan-ning, nanotechnology and additive manufacturing.

In the past, manufacturing processes have been mostly subtractive or formative….. Structural steel fabrica-tion is “subtractive” where waste is

generated when materials are cut from standard-sized pieces into desired shapes. Alternatively, precast concrete is “formative” where mate-rial is deposited into a mould to cre-ate a desired shape. Today, “additive” manufacturing, such as 3D print-ing, has become practical wherein

“In the case of the OSCO Group, we’re ideally suited to participate as the industry moves from outside stick-built methods to off-site factory pre-fabrication. We’re already experimenting with more value-added functions and/or components to combine with our existing factory-built elements.”

Message from the President

continued on page 46...

4 www.oscoconstructiongroup.com

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connections | fall & winter 2017

5www.oscoconstructiongroup.com

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contributed by: Jeff Keith

The Auerbach Center located at 40 Guest Street at Bos-ton Landing, is a mixed-used

development in the Allston-Brighton neighborhood of Boston. It will be the future official world-class practice and training facility of the 17-time NBA Champion Boston Celtics bas-ketball team. The facility will contain a total of approximately 160,000 square feet of space, including: the 71,000 square foot basketball practice facil-

ity; 85,000 square feet of office and laboratory space; 5,700 square feet of retail space; and a total of 190 parking spaces, built across one level at grade and two levels above grade.

The Boston Celtics practice facility will be the latest component at Boston Landing — at 55 feet in the air, cantile-vered out to the edge of the Mass Pike. The Celtics’ new practice home will be highly visible from the Massachusetts Turnpike, with a forty foot glass wall enclosing the practice courts.

The basketball practice facil-ity will be located on the top two floors of The Auerbach Center, and will feature two state-of-the-art parquet-floor basketball courts, and seating for approximately 195 fans. On-site amenities will include: locker rooms, a players’ lounge; expanded media work and studio production space; state-of-the-art audio-visual technology; expanded strength and conditioning facilities; physical therapy areas with hydrotherapy pools; and sports science and nutrition facili-ties. A flexible hospitality area will host community relations activities, partner gatherings, and other guest events.

Boston Landing is a 15-acre mixed-use development owned by New Balance Development Group that in-cludes the new world headquarters of New Balance Athletics, Inc. and the Boston Bruins practice facility.

John Moriarty & Associ-ates, Inc, Construction Manager for The Auerbach Center project, awarded Ocean Steel and Construction Ltd the contract to supply and install: 2530 tons of structural steel; 265,300 sf of metal & acoustic decking; 14 long span joists 6’ x 120’; and 44 composite joists for the project. The structural steel included a complex cantilevered truss system, featuring three field-built trusses that spanned a maximum of 220 feet x 36 feet deep and was stick-built on OSCO-Engineered temporary shoring. A shop-welded truss 120’ long by 6’-4” deep, was shipped to the site in 3 sections for field assembly and install.

OSCO fabricated the project at it’s three fabrication facilities in Saint John, Fredericton & Conklin in order to achieve the tight installation schedule requirements. OSCO subcontracted the installation of the project to Prime Steel Erecting, Inc. Steel Installation started in April 2017 and was substan-tially complete in October 2017.

TeamworkSlam Dunk

@ The Auerbach Center

OSCO Steel Plants Team Up On Complex 2530 Ton Project


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contributed by:

Dan Scally & Alex Linero

North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) is a multi-site health system, headquartered in Salem,

Massachusetts. The North Shore’s largest healthcare provider, NSMC op-erates multiple hospitals, ambulatory care sites and physician offices. They are a member of Partners HealthCare, founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospitals.

NSMC broke ground last fall on a $207 million project which will consoli-date medical, surgical and behavioral health services on the Salem Hospital campus. The construction is being managed by Walsh Brothers, a leading Boston based construction manage-ment firm. Architectural Design is being provided by Shepley Bulfinch, with Structural Design provided by McNamara Salvia.

A Walsh Brothers press release lists the highlights of this extensive project,

scheduled for completion in 2019 as:

• A new 113,000 square foot, four-story building to include a new emergency department, mechanical space, one floor for 24 medical – surgical inpatient beds, one floor to be shelled for a future 24 bed medi-cal – surgical unit with vertical and horizontal connecting corridors to the existing Davenport Building.

• Converting the current Spaulding North Shore to a Center of Excel-lence in Behavioral Health that will be directly aligned with Massachu-setts General Hospital and add 26 new beds to the region for psychia-try and behavioral health services, with a shelled floor for a future 30 bed psychiatric unit.

• Central Utility Plant infrastructure upgrades will include installation of a 1,200 ton chiller & cooling tower and (2) 2000 kW emergency generators.

The OSCO Construction Group is proud to have two team members

involved in this significant project, with Ocean Steel and Strescon providing structural steel and precast concrete. As with all “OSCO Team” efforts, the NSMC project was able to benefit from the close coordination between the sister companies, to ensure a perfect fit between structural steel and precast panels in the field.

Structural Steel

Ocean Steel’s project scope encompasses three buildings, including the main hospital building and upgrades to the Central Utility Plant infrastructure. All structural steel was fabricated in Ocean Steel’s Fredericton, NB facility.

The hospital consolidation included the supply and erection of 790 tons of structural steel. When complete, this building will house the hospital’s new emergency department, two floors of medical-surgical inpatient beds, and mechanical space.

The new building was constructed

North Shore Medical Center


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between three existing buildings, creating a complex building configu-ration with limited space for erection. Significant field survey and coordina-tion was required within the design team during the detailing phase, to maintain floor elevations and expan-sion joints for connection to the exist-ing hospital and renovated behavioral health building.

Steel connection components for the precast panels were coordinated internally during steel modelling, then installed in the shop. This ensured the precast connections were correctly located when the precast panels ar-rived on site. The structural steel Top-ping Off Ceremony was held on July 6, 2017 with the building expected to be occupied by the fall of 2019.

The NSMC project also features the upgrading of two existing buildings which make up the Central Utility Plant for

the consolidated hospital. In May of 2017, the final pieces of the 38 tons of structural steel for the emergency generator upgrade were erected. This involved locating and installing new galvanized steel into existing steel. This was completed under tight time tolerances to ensure the two new 2000kW emergency generators could be placed.

At press time, the final steel compo-nent of the project, the upgrade of the chiller plant and cooling tower, was currently being detailed. This build-ing will allow for a new 1,200-ton chiller and cooling tower to pro-vide the Salem campus with chilled water. As this building will oper-ate up to the time of erection, field survey and coordination has been difficult. Erection is planned for Novem-ber of 2017.

Steel Project Manager: Dan Scally

Precast Concrete

One of the challenges for precast concrete portion of this project, was matching the color of the new precast panels to the color of the existing buildings adjacent to the new con-struction. This was further complicated by the “wavy” appearance required on approximately 165 of the precast panels. The concrete mix design was tested to ensure that there would be no discoloration between flat panels cast on wooden tables, and “ribbed” panels poured on a rubber form-liner to give the panels the esthetically pleasing wavy

appearance. The final approved samples were buff in color, with a very light sand blast finish applied to all panels.

Precast production began in May 2017 and ended in August 2017. Strescon fabricated 387 Architectural Solid panels for this project, all of which were fabricated in the Saint John facility.

To circumvent any shipping stresses while transporting the panels 635 km, some of the larger spandrel panels (required due to the column to column

spans at the building’s vertical con-nector) were pre-stressed. The largest spandrel panel was 44’ long x 8’ high x 6” thick and weighed 24,300 lbs. Overall precast production required 550 m3 of concrete and 93,000 lbs of reinforcing.

BWI Steel & Precast Erectors LLC was subcontracted by both companies to erect the steel and precast for this portion of the project, scheduled for completion by mid-November 2017.

Precast Project Manager: Alex LineroPrecast Detailer: Amy Ames-SlippPrecast Engineer: Jacob Myler

North Shore Medical Center“As with all “OSCO Team” efforts, the NSMC

project was able to benefit from the close

coordination between the sister companies,

to ensure a perfect fit between structural steel

and precast panels in the field.”


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contributed by: Kim Doggett

General contractor Dunbar Construction Limited has awarded Ocean Steel Rebar the reinforc-ing steel components for two New Brunswick

Department of Transportation projects in Peters Mill, NB and Dieppe, NB.

Gaspereau River Bridge #1: Gaspereau River Bridge #1 in Peter Mills, near Richibucto Village, NB is an existing wooden Burr Truss bridge built in circa 1960 over the Gaspereau Creek. It is being replaced with a 34-meter pre-stressed concrete beam construction. Ocean Steel Rebar began work in July 2017 and provided 22 tons of rebar for the East and West Abutments. Another 20 tons of rebar was supplied and installed in September 2017 for the Diaphragm, Slab, and Barrier Walls.

Harrisville Blvd/Route 15 Underpass: The Harrisville Blvd/Route 15 Underpass in Dieppe, NB is part of the large, three-year Harrisville Interchange Project which, when completed, will reduce congestion and improve safety in one of greater Moncton’s busiest intersections. This high-density area sees approximately 2700 cars a day. It ties together the airport, main highways, and two of three large industrial parks. The Harrisville Interchange will see a ‘dog-bone’ shaped traffic pattern, with partial roundabouts along East and West bound ramp terminals; a new east bound exit ramp along Route 15 at Industrial Street; and a wider four-lane underpass at the interchange. This design will eliminate left hand turns and improve traffic flow.

Ocean Steel Rebar has been subcontracted by Dunbar to work on the underpass expansion of this project. The existing two-lane structure will see an additional Eastbound and Westbound lane added. Ocean Steel Rebar started working in August 2017 and to date has supplied and installed 45 of 110 tons of rebar for the East and West abutments, six piers, and six cap beams. Ocean Steel Rebar expects their portion of work to be completed by November 2017.

New Brunswick

BRIDGEReplacements

contributed by: Bill Woodhouse P.Eng., M.Eng.

The Red Rose Building, located at 12 Smythe Street in Saint John, New Brunswick, is managed by Commer-

cial Properties and serves as office space for a number of local businesses. FCC Construction recently completed another phase of the masonry restoration at the iconic building which was constructed in 1903. This has been an ongoing project to restore the exterior façade of the building, with the initial phase of restoration start-ing several years ago. Graeme Duffus of DSRA out of Halifax has been the masonry consultant for this project, overseeing the various phases of restoration work.

This phase of the restoration took place on the first half of the east wall, adja-cent to Main St.. The masonry restoration scope included repointing 100% of the brick, removal and replacement of eroded sandstone sills, bands and capitals, and patching of stone which had minor dete-rioration. Once all brick was repointed, a masonry sealer was applied to the façade

of the building. All of the windows in the Red Rose building are constructed of wood and require ongoing maintenance due to our harsh environment. During the restoration project carpenters removed all deteriorated wood mullions, sills, glaz-ing stops and jambs and replaced with new pieces of wood – custom milled to match the existing. Once all of the wood repairs were completed, all windows were stained and caulked. The last component of the restoration was the reconstruc-tion of the cornice at the roof edge. The existing bent metal profiles were removed, the substructure was inspected and new metal was installed, along with hardwood crown moldings. Again, all material that was installed was custom milled to match the existing profiles to ensure the historical character of the building was maintained.

Rob Murphy (FCC Construction) was the site superintendent on this project, with Howard Allain (Marque Construction) and Kevin Cox (Marque Construction), who worked on the window repairs and cornice reconstruction.

FCC Helps Maintain Prominent Saint John Landmark

Red Rose Building


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contributed by: Kyle Blanchard, Brendan Clancy P.Eng & David Dunnett P.Eng

The City of Saint John, New Brunswick’s Safe Clean Drink-ing Water Project has made

significant progress through the spring and summer months of 2017.

Water Plant Building

After a long winter of cold weather concrete foundation installations, performed by North America Con-struction, FCC Construction was back on the critical path with the Water Plant Building.

The foundation was turned over to FCC on August 1st, 2017, and as of the second week of September, Strescon Limited had all precast components standing and awaiting grout and concrete topping. Precast components included: 87 insulated load bearing panels; 36 columns; 32 beams; 35,000 sq.ft of hollowcore planks; 3 solid shear wall panels; 6 projection panels; and 5 - 12” thick solid slabs. Due to the critical path, and restrictive site conditions, the building was erected in two phases (July 10-28th and Aug 24-Sept 14).

To expedite the completion of the structure for other trades to begin interior work, FCC performed the hollowcore grouting scope, which was then followed by application of a structural concrete topping instal-lation during the month of Septem-ber. At press time, FCC was in the process of installing the water tight roof system, to allow the mechanical and electrical activities to continue within the plant as the winter season approaches.

Administration Building

Outside of the work on the Plant Building, FCC made great progress on the Administration Building. The structure and building envelope has been completed, with work on the interior well underway, including: mechanical and electrical rough-ins; drywall partitions; crackfilling; interior doors and windows; and the interior masonry block.

Fire Water Pumphouse

The Fire Water Pumphouse is progressing well with the exterior masonry block and the hollowcore roof structure now completed. FCC is currently working to complete the building envelope, which includes roofing woodwork, sprayfoam insu-lation, veneer masonry block, and the built-up roofing system. Once the Pumphouse is water tight, we will continue with the mechanical and electrical works to complete this part of the scope.

Site Development

The site development has been pro-gressing very well through this con-struction season, with all site services and underground infrastructure to the plant installed. We are now focus-ing our efforts on road building, site grading and finish landscape work as we move into the winter months.

Ready-Mix

OSCO Concrete’s Saint John Plant has been supplying the Clean Safe Drinking Water project in excess of one year now.

The entire project at the Water

Treatment plant alone has taken approximately 7000 cubic meters. Most of that concrete was supplied to North American Construction, at the Treatment Plant Building on site. This concrete was a high strength con-crete with an integral water proofing chemical added to the mix. Other concrete was supplied to FCC for the Administration Building as well as Spectrum Enterprises on under-ground infrastructure on site.

Throughout the City, OSCO Con-crete has also been supplying Gulf Operators with various mixes for the distribution network over the past 1.5 years. The West Saint John Wells have been already commissioned as part of this project.

The concrete supply is just about complete as has been slowing down the last couple months.

Wrapping Up

FCC will continue to focus our efforts on mechanical and electrical works in the Water Plant, the Administration Building and the Firewater Pump-house over the next few months. The Water Treatment Plant is scheduled to be turned over for commissioning in April of 2018.

Project Update: Saint John Water Project


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contributed by: Dave Marcatilli

2017 marked the begin-ning of construc-tion on the Queen’s

Marque, Halifax’s largest waterfront commercial and residential develop-ment since Bishop’s Landing was built in 2003. Upon completion, the Marque will be Amour Group’s signature property. In the winter of 2016/2017, Amour enlisted Dexter Construction to excavate the massive project, which will take upwards of 10 months to complete. As part of the excavation work, Dexter hired Petrifond Founda-tions, headquartered in Quebec, to drill and install over 475 rock anchors.

Foundations for buildings are gener-ally considered to support the weight of the structure above. While this is true, tall buildings that could be pushed over in high winds often need the foundations to hold the building

down, restraining the tipping action. Rock anchors are commonly used as a component in retaining walls, as well as in systems to resist the uplift of a foundation, such as in Queen’s Marque. An additional source of uplift on this project is the result of creating a watertight parking garage below tide level, which wants to float unless restrained.

Most rock anchors consist of a pre-drilled hole that is filled with grout (sand, cement, water mixture). A threaded steel anchor bar that is partly sheathed, is then inserted into the freshly grouted hole, and is eventually tensioned to the appropri-ate specifications. Rock anchors are available in a large range of sizes and load capacities, ranging from those suitable for house foundations, to those used for retaining large struc-tures such as bridges and high rises. Queens Marque required 475 rock

anchors drilled to various depths, ranging from 40-70 feet.

OSCO Concrete supplied both con-crete and concrete pumping services to Petrifond for the project. Ten-foot pieces of lightweight 4” truck exhaust pipe were welded together in lengths up to 70 feet. These pipes were then connected to concrete pumps, and used to pump the concrete down the holes. These holes were well below sea level, and consequently full of water. The pipe was lowered to the bottom, so that the concrete could be placed underwater without being di-luted. The process of placing concrete underwater is called a Tremie pour.

The project started in mid-summer of 2017, with completion expected for late November. In total, OSCO Concrete will supply 700 cubic meters of high slump 35MPa concrete and grout to this project.

Queen’s Marque Rock Anchors

contributed by: David Leskie

Founded in 1881, Robbins Lumber is a fifth-generation family owned sawmill in

Southern Maine. In order for any business to be successful for so long, adaptability is key. The firm cur-rently uses their waste products (wood chips, bark and sawdust) to fuel a bio-mass boiler which produces steam to: heat the facility’s buildings; dry lumber in kilns; and produce 50% of its own power. Excess waste material has typi-cally been sold to paper mills as an ad-ditional revenue stream; however, as lo-cal area mills are downsizing or closing, the demand for this waste material has abated. To adapt to this new reality, the Robbins’ are in the process of building a new boiler with better pollution controls and an 8.5 megawatt capacity. The sur-plus 7.5 megawatt capacity will produce electricity which can be sold back to the grid by Georges River Energy (a subsid-iary of Robbins Lumber Inc.).

In addition to creating new employ-ment positions for local residents, local log suppliers will see a new market for their waste products. Currently, Robbins Lumber is producing 3 truck loads of waste material (90 Tons) on a daily basis. The new plant will require 15 truckloads of material daily as feed stock, which will be sourced from local loggers who have seen the demand for their low-grade pulp wood decline with the closure of paper mills.

Ocean Steel’s Fredericton,NB plant supplied 92 Tons of Steel for the cooling tower supports and the new building mezzanine. In addi-tion, our Conklin plant supplied 41 Tons of steel for the new economizer, through the boiler’s supplier, KMW Energy. After a successful installation of these three scopes of work, OSCO has been approached about executing several other work packages on this project.


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Georges River Energy


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contributed by:

Bill Woodhouse P.Eng., M.Eng.

Moosehead Breweries was established in 1867 and is the last major brewery in Canada

that is owned by Canadians. Origi-nally based in Nova Scotia, Mooseh-ead Breweries later relocated to Saint John, New Brunswick, following the Halifax Explosion and has been in Saint John ever since. Mooseh-ead has grown significantly over the years, with a current brewhouse capable of producing 450 barrels. As part of their 150th celebration, Moosehead wanted to expand their product offering, with the ability to create new products in smaller quan-tities for their customers to enjoy. To meet these objectives, Moosehead decided to proceed with a new 20 barrel small batch brewery located within their existing brewery.

FCC Construction was successful in being selected as the construction

manager for this high profile project. Although other members of the OSCO Construction Group have worked with Moosehead Breweries in the past, Moosehead is a new client for FCC, and we are excited to work with them.

FCC was engaged early in the project, at the conceptual stage, and worked through a number of options with Moosehead and their design team before ultimately landing at the current design. The final design consists of a few key compo-nents. Firstly, the brewhouse area will contain all of the brewing equipment, including the lauter ton, mash kettle, liquor tanks, fermentation vessels and filtering/storage tanks. Adjacent to the brewhouse area will be a tap room with the capacity for approximately 20

guests. The tap room will allow customers

to enjoy unique

Moosehead products in the heart of a functioning brewhouse, while product is brewed just feet away. Lastly, the small batch project will include a retail space where customers can purchase Moosehead products, clothing and souvenirs.

The FCC team mobilized to site in September of 2017, with construction activity ramping up in October. Base building construction of the new bre-whouse, tap room and retail areas will continue until March 2018. The new brewhouse equipment is scheduled to arrive in early March, at which point all

piping and electrical will be com-pleted and commissioned. In spring 2018 FCC will complete the fit up of the tap room and retail areas. We

will then complete a rebuild of the parking lot area and entry to the new Brewery.

The full scope of the project is scheduled to be complete and open to the public in Summer 2018. FCC also teamed with Marque Construction, who will be completing the electrical for this project. Key members of the FCC team include Shauna Miller (Estimating/Design), Bill Woodhouse (Project Manager), Rob Murphy (Site Superintendent) and Mary Ann Gates (Site Admin Assistant).

MOOSEHEAD Small Batch Brewery

contributed by: Luke Johnson P.Eng,GSC Andy Miller, David Dunnett

P.Eng & Alex Linero

Work is progressing well at the Irving Oil Home Office project in Uptown Saint John, NB, and

project staff and subcontractors are working to prepare for the upcoming winter season.

With the final levels of the elevator and stair cores scheduled for comple-tion this fall, and the structural steel following close behind, the project is shifting gears towards interior work that will continue through to the end of the project. The tendering process for the interior fit-up portion of the job is well underway and finish subcon-tractors will be starting on site in the coming months.

The tower crane, which has become a familiar piece of the Saint John skyline, is scheduled to be removed by the New Year. This can be completed only after the install of the atrium flying stairs, which will be one of the

centerpieces of the building.

Precast concrete panels, aluminum windows, and limestone are also progressing steadily, with the exterior facades of the building beginning to take shape. Strescon’s primary scope is to provide 675 (74,768 sq.ft.) of struc-tural precast panels which will support the hand laid limestone façade. At the mechanical penthouse level, hand laid limestone was not required, so Strescon will be supplying architectural cornice spandrels, and infill panels with a concrete finish to simulate the lime-stone below. A total of 46 pieces (4,770 sq.ft.) will be provided for this area.

Strescon and Strescon Atlantic have been working closely with the Joint Venture team to coordinate precast erection. For various reasons, pre-cast erection has been scheduled sporadically, and in smaller mobiliza-tions (typically 1-2 days, and often on weekends). Due to the small foot print of the building, and multiple trades all working simultaneously, this was the most effective method to maintain the

project schedule. With the close prox-imity of the Saint John precast facility, and the speed that the structural pre-cast can be erected (approx. ½ floor per day) Strescon Atlantic has been able to work within the strict schedule restrictions both safely and effectively.

OSCO Concrete’s Saint John plant has been supplying the project for over a year now, and are nearing completion. They are currently working on the top floors, and are casting stairs and miscellaneous concrete throughout the structure. The project has taken roughly 7500 cubic meters of con-crete. There were more than 12 differ-ent concrete mixes incorporated in the building. Due to the lack of working space on the site, delivery was often a challenge, especially at high traffic times around King Square.

All trades are working closely together to provide the owner with a finished product that successfully achieves the architect’s vision and will stand up to Saint John weather for decades to come.

Irving Oil Home OfficeProject Update:


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continued on next page...

contributed by: Robert Campbell

Irving Blending and Packaging is a 157,000 sq.ft., ISO 9001 liquid pack-aging facility based in Saint John,

NB, which offers custom blending of liquid products. They have a core product portfolio which includes over 1400 traditional lubricants, wa-ter, solvents, alcohol based chemi-cal specialty fluids, grease, and low viscosity petroleum based products.

Marque’s Industrial Division was contracted by Irving Blending and Packaging to provide the electrical and instrumentation portions of work on a number of projects at their facil-ity over the past year, beginning in December of 2016.

Air Compressors Upgrade

This project involved the installation of 2 air compressors; a 200HP and a 10HP, to improve the reliability and volume of the air system during peak demand. The existing air system was comprised of the #1 compressor

(100HP), the #2 Compressor (100HP) and the #3 compressor (200HP). The 200HP compressor was installed to replace the 100HP #1 compressor. The 10HP compressor unit will be used to handle air requirements when the facility is not in production. A new controller was installed to connect the new #1 compressor with the #2 and #3 compressors; to control the starting sequences (rotates between compressors); and to determine load sharing (when to start 2nd and 3rd compressors).

Work started with the demolition of the old 100HP compressor and asso-ciated cabling. The new 200HP com-pressor and 10 HP compressor with associated piping, was then installed by Lorneville Mechanical. Marque then installed cable tray, power and control cabling, and the new com-pressor controller. Marque’s work was completed in February 2017.

Line #3 Upgrades

Line 3 is the packaging line for 3.78L

bottles of windshield washer fluid and antifreeze. The upgrades were designed to increase productivity and reliability of the line. Upgrades included the demolition and reloca-tion of some existing equipment, and installation of new equipment. The new equipment includes a Spiral Conveyor, Infeed Case Conveyor, Hartness Case Packer, ABC Case Erector, Case Erector Discharge Con-veyor, and VFD/DC Control Panel and associated equipment.

Marque was contracted to per-form the electrical work required for the demolition, relocation, and installation of new equipment. The relocated equipment included the Case Sealer, Case Counter, the Case Printer and the Line #3 Control Con-sole. Marque also provided Mecano Industrie with commissioning assis-tance. This work, from demolition to startup, was completed over a span of just 5 days. Work was completed mid-July 2017.

Irving Blending & Packaging PROJECTS


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Resin Silo Electrical Upgrades

The Resin Silo Tank contains resin pel-lets used in the blow molding process, for bottles used in product packaging. The electrical upgrades were for the replacement of electrical equipment located in an area which is classified a Class 1 Division 2 Hazardous area. Marque was contracted to replace the existing equipment and add a new control panel. The new Resin Silo Filling Control Panel was sent to CSA (Canadian Standards Association) and received CSA’s approval for use in Class 1 Division 2 rated area. This project was completed in early August of 2017.

Chemical Storage Tank

Irving Blending and Packaging added an above-ground (double walled) Chemical storage tank in their facility. This tank is compatible for the stor-

age of 12 chemicals and blends. This project also required piping and valves for transfer of chemicals to and from the tank. A new PLC was installed to control the pumps, mixers, on/off valves, and other instrumentation as required, as well as to interface with the plant’s other PLC’s. In addition to the new chemical tank, Irving Blend-ing is modifying how chemicals are added to the Slurry Pot. The Slurry Pot is where different chemical liquids are combined for mixing their customers’ blends. The new method will decrease the risk of splashing chemicals and al-low the operator to control delivery of chemical from a safe distance away.

Marque also supplied and installed the PLC, VFD’s, teck cables, new junction box, cable tray, instruments, instru-ment air tubing, bonding of all new piping and valves, startup, and com-missioning, of PLC and Weigh Scale on the Slurry Pot. Marque and our subcontractors had to perform our

portion of the project over the last 10 months, working around the delivery and installation of the new chemical tank and associated piping. This project was completed in early September 2017.

Tank Level Sensor System

Irving Blending and Packaging is beginning the process of upgrading its tank level detection system for reading the levels in each tank. Currently a manual level-gauge system; it is being changed to an automated system, utilizing radar sensors and remote communication access to the tank level gauges. In this portion of the project, we will be installing radar detectors with remote digital displays on 10 tanks, including the base infrastructure, which will provide for the future addition of the remaining tank level detectors. This project is expected to be completed by November 2017.

contributed by: Dave Dunnett P.Eng.

OSCO Concrete has substantially completed the concrete

supply for the Village View Suites, Phase 3. Located in the Millidgeville area of Saint John, NB, it is the third apartment building the group has constructed on this property. This particular building is a 4-storey complex offer-ing 1, 2 and 3 bedroom

apartments, with the added feature of an underground parking garage.

The building’s footprint is approximately 15,000 square feet and the project is being

coordinated by Stephen Brittain, one of the partners in the venture. The project

took about 750 cubic meters of concrete and commenced con-

struction in July. It is scheduled to open in the summer of 2018.

Village View Suites Phase 3

continued from previous page...


product profile



product profile


contributed by: Matt MacDermid & Nathan Ward

There are many ups and downs in the

stair business! Throughout the years,

Borcherdt Concrete has supplied

precast concrete stair products in

both the residential and commercial

marketplaces.

In a continued effort to improve the quality and timely production of our stair products, Borcherdt has invested in a new stair form.

The new form is hydraulically ad-

justable for rise and run, will tilt for

efficient stripping, allows for quick set

up times and also allows pouring of

multiple pieces per day.

This will result in improved efficiency for our business, which means increased value for our customers.

A few notable clients/

projects who have utilizing

the new stair form:

Fitzgerald and Snow; Holiday Inn

Express, Moncton: 74,200 sq.ft. of

Strescore plank, 20 precast stair units

and 20 precast stair landings.

The Marriott Hotel, Dartmouth

Crossing: 113,800 sq.ft. of Strescore

plank, 47 precast stair units and 42

precast stair landings.

Callahan Construction Managers;

Hampton Inn, Woburn, Massachu-

setts: 135,760 sq.ft. of Strescore

plank, 22 precast stair units and 22

precast stair landings.

Fort Needham Memorial Project: Borcherdt is pleased

to have worked with Ekistics Plan-

ning and Design and Turfmasters

Landscaping Ltd. on a project for the

Halifax Regional Municipality. The

Fort Needham Memorial Park project

is scheduled to be completed in No-

vember of 2017. The commemorative

park honors those who lost their lives

or were injured during the cata-

strophic Halifax explosion on

December 6, 1917. The

stairs leading up to the

park will honor the

former community

of Richmond, which

was completely

destroyed as a result

of the explosion.

To recognize this lost

community, the designer

wanted to incorporate

the word “Richmond” into the

staircase and asked Borcherdt to help

with a solution. Borcherdt presented

a product from Graphic Concrete

called CG-ArtDesignTM. This product

is a hybrid form liner and chemical

retarder. The chemical retarder is

printed onto a paper form liner and

then placed in the form to achieve

the desired result. There is no bleed-

ing, lines are crisp and the image is

placed very accurately.

In total, Borcherdt delivered 169 stair

risers, 6 precast monument blocks

(to be placed at the park entrances)

and one precast “medallion” (also

featuring GC-ArtDesign). With careful

coordination between our project

management, Ekistics, and Turfmas-

ters, the collaboration was a success

and we are hoping to utilize this very

unique process in future work!

Additional Stair Projects:

Metro Regional Housing Authority/

KTM Services Group; Cunard St.

Renovation Project: 6 residential

step units.


Elmsdale Landscaping; Westwood

Park Renovation Project: Provision

of 5 custom riser slab stair units.


KTM Services; Westwood Tower

Stair Replacement: one @ 5 riser, 10’

wide custom stair unit.

Dexel Developments; St. Joseph’s

Square Condominium Project: 9

residential stair units.

With our new form, our custom work, and continued growth of our client base, Borcherdt is rapidly expanding our capability to help our vertically challenged customers!

Borcherdt Rises to the ChallengeWith Precast Concrete Stairs


projects


contributed by: Tara Urquhart

Marque Construction has many exciting projects at the Irving Oil Refinery that they are currently

privileged to participate in. Marque has been involved in the installations of both electrical and instrumentation for many ongoing projects, including the Jet Plant Clay Treater; demolition of existing equipment to support instal-lation of new firewater pump; replace-ment of PYLE panels; Tier 3 Gasoline Project; support for the 2017 fall turnaround; upgrade of electrical infra-structure at East Saint John Terminals’ Inline Crude Sampler; and repairs to tank 557 at Canaport.

Jet Clay Treater Project

The intent of the Jet Clay Treater proj-ect is to install new upsized Jet Clay Treating vessels, parallel to the existing Jet Clay Treater in No.2 Merox unit. This will increase the Jet Clay Treating capacity and reduce downtime when performing maintenance on either one of the parallel Jet Clay Treaters. Increasing clay treating capacity would yield incremental jet plant rate and, subsequently, jet product.

Marque is providing the installations of power and control to the new Jet Re-covery Pump; installing electric tracing on the piping associated with the new Clay Treater; installation of instru-ments; lighting and receptacle installa-

tion for the new Clay Treater; and tying in the below-grade grounding taps to the Clay Treater/Jet Fuel Solids Filter.

Firewater Pump

Marque will be participating in the de-molition of existing equipment located in Plant 45, boiler plant pump house. The scope is to demolish the electri-cal equipment in order to facilitate the installation of a new firewater pump.

PYLE Panel Replacement

Electrical PYLE Panels are being re-placed in three units at the Refinery. This is necessary, as replacement parts for the existing panels are no longer available. A PYLE panel is a distribu-tion panel designed for use in hazard-ous locations. Many of these panels were installed 35-plus years ago, and because of their age and design, no longer meet the requirements set by IOR. The associated transformers are also being replaced. All circuits will be verified on the existing panel. Tempo-rary power will be required for both normal and critical circuits. Some of the PYLE panels supply power to elec-tric heat tracing, which in turn heats critical processes within the associ-ated process unit. Coordination with operations will be critical during the power cutover stage of the project, as the colder weather temperatures could adversely affect process temperatures.

Tier 3 Gasoline

Tier 3 gasoline has a reduced sulphur content, to just ten parts per million. Lower sulphur content in gasoline means cleaner air for generations to come. We are in the early stages of installations for the Tier 3 Gasoline Project. Installations currently include a new unit ground grid, installed along with new civil and piping infrastructure, and cable tray supports for tray that will run both horizontally and verti-cally down the length of the piperack. Early installation of EHT and cable tray will be starting soon on the upper level of the main pipe rack between Brownfield modules and substations. Marque’s scope is to install all electri-cal & instrumentation for this new unit. This project is expected to reach completion at the end of the Fall 2018 Turnaround.

#1 Cooling Tower substation #4

Marque has been involved in the complete replacement of #1 Cooling Tower substation #4 for the last sever-al months. Completion of new ground grid, substation building, new switch-gear, variable frequency drives & soft starters, new emergency power sup-plies and UPS panels, are taking place. Cutovers from existing equipment to new equipment is corresponding with the 2017 north process turnaround, to minimize any risk to operating units.

Marque @ the Refinery

contributed by: Dan Scally

Meridian Health is New Jersey’s leading health care provider, of-fering the highest quality patient-

centered health and wellness services. These include primary and specialty care, behavioral health, fitness centers,

home care and as relates to this project, assisted living.

Ocean Steel Corp. has recently com-pleted delivery and erection of 580 tons of structural steel (fabricated in our Conklin, NY Plant) and 96,000 square feet of deck, at Meridian Health’s new four-story assisted living complex, in Manalapan, New Jersey. The assisted living facility will include 55 studio units; 40 one-bedroom units; and 2 two-bedroom family units, for over 100,000 square feet of patient

related space. The new facility also includes a 1,250 square-foot mainte-nance garage and a 2,100 square-foot, covered porch/drop-off area.

The General Contractor on this project was V.J. Scozzari & Sons. Inc., a construction firm based in New Jersey. The design team included Brommer Architects and MacIntosh Engineering.

Meridian Living in Manalapan


projects


2017 Fall Turnaround

The annual fall turnaround allows for scheduled refinery maintenance. This year’s turnaround, named Operation Bobcat, is a $100 Million investment starting September 16 and complet-ing 60 days later on November 15. It requires a total of 2000 tradespeople split between dayshift & nightshift, working seven days a week. Marque is supporting several units with the supply of temporary power, as well as supporting the replacement of the reaction furnace in Plant 142.

East Saint John Terminal

Electrical infrastructure is at the end of its life on docks one and two at the East Saint John Terminal. The current

phase of the project will be for Dock #2. A new motor control center is be-ing installed, as well as new lights and lighting contactor, and new cables to support the loads. The existing con-duits and wiring will be removed.

Inline Crude Sampler

A new inline Crude Sampler connec-tion is required for the thirty-six inch crude line. The existing connection is exceeding the spacing required for the certified readings. Marque is assisting with the installation of electric heat tracing for the new connection.

Tank 557

Tank repairs to Tank 557 include the installation of electric heat tracing,

lighting and mixer starters associated with the inspection repair of the tank.

20/20/20 program

Marque Construction is delighted to be able to assist the refinery with electri-cal and instrumentation on so many projects. We look forward to a productive relationship in the future and will continue our focus on safety, customer service and proficient and specialized installations. Marque is proud to support IOR’s newest safety program the “20/20/20 program” where employees are encouraged to every 20 minutes, take 20 seconds to see what has changed within 20 feet of their work area, and take note of any changes or unsafe conditions.

Miscellaneous Metals Divisioncontributed by: Chris Banks, CET

• Jet Plant Clay Treater Project, Saint John, NB, Irving Oil Refinery, 31.2 tons of structural steel.

• Miramichi River Bridge Repairs, Miramichi, NB, MacDonald Applicators Ltd, 21.3 tons of platework.

• Exoskeleton Framing & Pipe Support Steel, Saint John, NB, Irving Oil Refinery, 38.1 tons of structural steel.

• PEMB Steel Structures, Salem, MA, USA, Iberdrola Energy Projects, 70.5 tons of structural steel.

• Polycarbonate Support Structure, Salem MA, USA, Iberdrola Energy Projects, 146.2 structural steel.

• Miller Brook Arch Culvert Bridge Shoring, Miller Brook, NB, Modern Construction, 45.5 tons structural steel.

• F3006 Furnace Temporary Support Steel & Pipe Support Steel, Saint John, NB, Irving Oil Refinery, 11.3 tons of structural steel.

• Tier 3 Gasoline Project, Brownfield Stick Built Steel & Stair, Irving Oil Refinery, 6.9 tons of structural steel.

• Lifting Lug Plates for Concrete Bridge Girders, Bedford, NS & Saint John, NB, Strescon Ltd, 8.8 tons of plate work.

• Galvanized Anchor Bolts for Transmission Structures, Fredericton, NB, NB Power, 5.6 tons of steel.

Mercantile Parking Garage Repairs contributed by: Bill Woodhouse P.Eng., M.Eng.

In early July of 2017, FCC Construction began restoration work on the Mercantile Parking garage in Saint John, NB. This four-level concrete structure is attached to the Mercantile Centre, at 55

Union Street. The parking garage serves tenants who are monthly pass holders, as well as hourly parkers visiting the uptown area. The garage was built in the early 1990’s in conjunction with the Mercantile Centre.

Commercial Properties, who manages the property, hired Stantec to prepare the drawings and specifications for the restoration project. Due to the scope of the project and the impact to the tenants, it was concluded that the work would be completed in two phases, with the first phase focussing primarily on levels 3 and 4. To minimize the impact on the users of the garage, the aim was to complete the work as efficiently as possible, while maintaining access for some of the current parkers on the lower levels.

The scope of work included removal of the existing asphalt wear-ing surface, removal of the existing membrane, and the repair of any deteriorated concrete. Once the concrete repairs were completed, the deck was shot-blasted and the new membrane and asphalt were installed. The primary construction took approximately 8 weeks, at which point the parking garage was reopened for full use by monthly and hourly parkers.

FCC also completed repair work to stairs and handrails, the replace-ment of a curtain wall at the back stairwell, and parging of select concrete walls. Rob Murphy (FCC Construction) was the site superin-tendent on this project.


projects


projects

23www.oscoconstructiongroup.com connections | fall & winter 2017


Ocean Steel Rebar recently completed work for Avondale Construction at Mount Al-

lison University in Sackville, NB. The former Gairdner Fine Arts Building is undergoing extensive renovations, and when complete, will become the Center for Environmental Innovation.

The former Gairdner Fine Arts Build-ing was built in 1965 and named after James A. Gairdner; philanthropist and landscape painter who is better known for creating Canada’s most prestigious medical awards. The building has been closed since 2014 when the Purdy Crawford Centre for Arts was completed – another Mount Allison project that Ocean Steel Re-bar has worked on.

Funding for this renovation was made possible through the Post Second-ary Institutions Strategic Investment

Fund; a funding agreement signed August 2016 between federal & provincial governments to provide a total of 84.5 million in infrastructure investment for universities & colleges in New Brunswick. This fund aims to reinstate Canada’s research and sci-ence base, as well as address existing infrastructure needs, while contribut-ing to Canada’s long-term innovation and sustainability objectives. Another project that Ocean Steel Rebar has worked on, which also benefitted from this fund, include the Centre for Precision Medicine at Université de Moncton (featured in the spring edi-tion of Connections).

The total cost for the Gairdner building renovations is expected to be $13.5 million. Work started in July 2017, with completion set for Summer 2018. Ocean Steel Rebar provided 8.6 tons of rebar for: a new loading dock area; new elevator; new

mechanical rooms; repaired stair landings; and a new entrance ramp. Ocean Steel Rebar also provided 5,600 sqft of mesh for slab repairs on Level 1, 2, and Mezzanine.

The Center for Environmental Innovation will house 15 scientists, their students, and fellow collabora-tors who were previously spread across multiple buildings with aging equipment and small lab space. By consolidating the research of these scientists, the new center will help to better facilitate the study of the effects on changing climate and pollutants on the marine and fresh water ecosystems. The center will also contain dedicated laboratory space, for research on Fish Biochem-istry, Nanoparticle Toxicology, Aquatic Research, Phytoplankton Ecophysiology, Phytoplankton Ecology Modelling, and Molecular Biology/Biochemistry.

Mount Allison University Environmental Research Facility


projects


By Paul Fournier

The use of Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) techniques is speeding the replacement of

the 60-year-old Bath Viaduct, which carries U.S. Route 1 over local streets and railroad lines, and also serves as the western approach to the Sagada-hoc Bridge over the Kennebec River.

Reed & Reed has a $13.7 million contract with the Maine Depart-ment of Transportation (MaineDOT)

to remove and replace the elevated quarter-mile roadway – and must do so in about one-third of the time it took to build the concrete and steel structure in the late 1950s. The original project was given 720 days to complete, but Reed & Reed has only 220 days to replace the old viaduct, including not only the demolition of 19 concrete piers and 20 spans of concrete and steel superstructure, but building the entire new viaduct.

The new quarter-mile structure has

20 spans of NEXT Beam superstruc-ture supported by 19 hammerhead piers. It is being built in the footprint of the old viaduct, in a path that parallels frontage roads, Leeman Highway and Commercial Street, and is close to downtown Bath. It is also near entrance roads to Bath Iron Works where hundreds of workers are currently building the latest class of U.S. Navy destroyers. Such fac-tors create significant traffic control requirements and other complex challenges.

Accelerated Bridge Construction Techniques Speed Replacement of Elevated Approach to Sagadahoc Bridge by

Reed& Reed The following article appeared in the April 2017 issue of New England Consturction. It is reprinted with the permission of Reed & Reed.


projects


To counter these issues and ex-pedite the job, the project team of MaineDOT, Reed & Reed and design-ers VHB is employing ABC technolo-gies and procedures. These have eased traffic impacts, improved work-zone safety for the public, and are expected to significantly reduce total project delivery time.

Among the ABC technologies utilized for the Bath Viaduct are prefabricated bridge elements and systems (PBES). Use of these elements has slashed the onsite construction time that would have been required to build similar structural components using conventional construction methods. And to further hasten construction, the project team has combined PBES and “Fast Track Contracting” meth-ods with large incentive/disincentive clauses, and requirements for night-time or off-peak hour timeframes that limit traffic impacts.

A Multi-Phase Project

Reed & Reed was awarded the project contract on March 16, 2016, and shortly thereafter began the first phase of three construction phases. Phase I included installing drainage on the frontage roads, replacement of a railroad crossing at the inter-section of the frontage roads with a local street (Washington Street), and modifications to Abutment No. 1 on the western end of the project.

Phase II consists of demolishing the existing viaduct and building the new one. For this phase, MaineDOT allowed the viaduct to be closed to Route 1 thru-traffic from October 18, 2016 to May 25, 2017. Traffic has been detoured during this period to the frontage roads below the viaduct and other local streets.

Demolishing the existing 1,300-foot viaduct while having to maintain at least two lanes of traffic on the detours has been the most difficult challenge of the project, according to Ted Clark, Reed & Reed Project Manager.

“We had to take down 19 piers and 20 spans of viaduct, including 12 spans of concrete Tee Beam and 8 spans of concrete deck on steel beam. Demolition debris amounted to approximately 2,050 cubic yards of concrete superstructure, 710 cubic yards of concrete pier shafts, and 240 tons of structural steel beams. And we did it in five weeks,” Clark said.

During this period, Reed & Reed employed two shifts of workers at night for demolition operations, and one shift during the day to clean up and haul the debris to approved recycling centers. They razed the old viaduct using a 518 Link Belt Crane with a wrecking ball, a Caterpillar 349 Excavator with a Gorilla GSX 180 Hydraulic Breaker, a Caterpillar 330 Excavator with an Allied Ram-

mer 3288 Hydraulic Breaker, Kubota KX121-3 Excavator with a Caterpil-lar 450 Breaker, and various dump trucks, loaders and boom lifts.

Project Manager Clark outlined the carefully orchestrated ‘round the clock’ activities to remove the el-evated structure:

“First the crews installed wood shielding over the traffic spans and railroad span. Next they saw cut the concrete deck on the steel-beam supported spans, and also saw cut spiral shear connectors, then they removed the superstructures,” Clark explained.

“Similarly, they saw cut the Tee Beam superstructures and removed them,” he said.

In another timesaving ABC applica-tion, existing footings were salvaged in place and modified to support new piers. The contractor employed Cat-erpillar 330 and Kubota excavators outfitted with hydraulic breakers, and manually operated jack hammers, to remove pier shafts down to the top of their footings. Then a new 21-inch deep transition footing was formed and cast on top of the existing foot-ing, with transition footing rebar doweled into existing footings.

After a transition footing is com-pleted, a new cast-in-place pier shaft

continued on next page...


projects


is constructed on top of the footing. Shafts are typically 6-foot

8-inches by 4-foot 6-inches, and vary in height from a few feet to ap-proximately 19 feet.

When the concrete shaft has set and its form stripped, a precast concrete pier cap is delivered to the job site and erected on top of the shaft. The pier caps, measuring approximately 35-feet across the top and 6 feet at their greatest depth, are being pre-fabricated by Reed & Reed workers at the company’s dockyard on the Woolwich side of the Kennebec River. The massive 60-ton caps are hauled by trucks to the jobsite as needed and erected by a 150-ton capacity 518 Link Belt crane.

The Use of NEXT Beams

The new superstructure consists of 80 precast concrete NEXT beams weighing 50 tons each. The NEXT Beam (Northeast Extreme Tee Beam) is a double-Tee design developed by northeast state departments of trans-portation, local fabricators and mem-bers of the Bridge Technical Com-mittee of the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Northeast. Its pur-pose is to promote uniformity among DOT’s, engineers and industry, in planning, designing, fabricating, and constructing highway bridges that are in line with the Federal Highway Administration’s philosophy of ac-celerated bridge construction. FHWA considers a bridge with a NEXT Beam superstructure to be a more cost-ef-fective structure than a convention-ally built bridge.

There are two basic designs, the NEXT D beam and the NEXT F Beam. The NEXT D Beam has an integral full-depth flange that acts as the structural bridge deck on which a membrane and a wearing surface such as asphalt pavement can be field-applied, enabling it to be ready for traffic almost immediately after the bridge is erected. This is the de-

sign utilized for the Bath Viaduct.

Manufactured by Canada-based Strescon, a PCI-certified producer, the NEXT Beams for the viaduct are each 8-feet 4-inches wide and are placed four to a span on the new piers. Most span lengths are roughly 60- to 70-feet, with those over the railroad crossing and Washington Street running about 75 feet.

At a staging area near the viaduct, NEXT beams are unloaded from Strescon delivery trucks by a 250-ton Manitowoc 999 Crane. Before beams

are erected, forms and rebar for the deck curbs are installed on the two fascia beams. Weighing between 110,000 pounds and 145,000 pounds each, the beams are hoisted in place by two 150-ton Link Belt cranes. After the beams are in place on top of the piers, crews place concrete for the curbs.

The beams are spaced about 8 inches apart. Ordinarily, they would have to be spaced 24 inches apart if the closure gap is filled with ordinary concrete, but this project employs 20,000 psi Ultra-High-Performance Concrete for the closure, allowing a narrower gap – another ABC feature.

Beams are covered directly by High Performance Membrane that in turn is topped by a 3-inch wearing course of bituminous concrete. The viaduct rail is steel rail, similar to that of the Sagadahoc Bridge.

The new viaduct must be open to traffic by May 25 and the project complete by June 30.

Key personnel for the Bath Viaduct include, for MaineDOT, Glen Phil-brook, Resident Engineer; and for Reed & Reed, Ted Clark, Project Manager, and Thomas Reed, James Whorff and Gardner Parker, Project Superintendents.



projects


contributed by: Robert Campbell

For years Irving Oil Refinery has used construction trailers for turnaround projects. They would

use 50 to 100 trailers for offices, lunch rooms and washrooms. They have also used special purpose tent-like structures for lunch rooms to accom-modate up to 500 workers per shift.

This year, Irving Oil Refinery has built 2 permanent Turnaround Complexes. Each of these buildings were trucked in as 28 modular units, erected and assembled together on-site. Each of the units arrived partially pre-wired.

Each Complex is approximately

20,000 sq./ft. The main floor has a 3,400sq/ft. lunch room capable of seating up to 300 workers at a time. There are 4,800 sq./ft. of locker rooms and 1,200 sq/ft. of wash-rooms. The upper floor of the com-plex has 2 meeting rooms, 14 offices, and the potential for 96 workstations, as well as washroom and kitchenette facilities. The Complex is utilizing energy efficient LED lighting fixtures inside and outside.

Marque’s Industrial Division started working on the new Turnaround Complex #1 in May of 2017. Marque was contracted to provide the electri-cal connection and interconnection of each of the units being combined

to make up each complex. The inter-connection of the units included: the installation of cabling between the 2 electrical rooms in the building and the electrical panels throughout the building; power to the air handling units; Fire Alarm system; gas detection system; and completion of electrical circuitry between each of the units.

The 2nd Turnaround Complex is iden-tical to the first and allows the lunch-rooms between the 2 complexes to handle close to 600 workers per shift.

Complex #1 was completed early in July 2017 and Complex #2 was completed in mid-September 2017.

New Turnaround Complexes for Refinery

contributed by: Daniel Mazerolle GSC

The Wyndham Ho-tel Group is a hotel industry giant with an

unmatched presence of more than 8,000 hotels and over 697,600 rooms in 77 countries. Their inbound Saint John, NB Operations Centre employs over 600 associates.

This past April, FCC Construction was

awarded the electrical and commu-nication contract at the Saint John site, to rework power and commu-nications to 380 existing outdated stationary workstations; making room for 440 new motorized sit/stand workstations on the call center floor.

One of our major tasks was the instal-lation of a new 100amp, 120/208volt, 3-phase electrical panel, as well as the installation of forty-eight 120volt

electrical circuits, to power the new workstations. All 380 existing data lines, along with 60 new data lines, were pre-labeled, disconnected and pulled back from the existing worksta-tions, then rerouted and re-terminat-ed to the new workstation location.

With a condensed 13 day window, FCC’s team lead by supervisor: Ron Rathje, foremen: Ben Kilpatrick & Jeff Sharpe, and team: Adam Brochu, Jamie Morgan, Lonas Pelly, Dave Harrison, and Daniel Kilpatrick made it seem like a walk in the park.

Wyndham Worldwide


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continued next page...


Courthouse Hill Farms, owned and

operated by the Blois family, in West

Gore, Nova Scotia, is one of the

province’s largest Dairy producers. The fam-

ily manages 160+ head of dairy cattle along

with blueberry fields.

With the large number of cattle, comes a

large amount of manure and the question

of what to do with it? The Blois’ decided that

the answer to the question would need to be

environmentally friendly and financially self-

sustaining; a methane digester. Anaerobic

manure digesters are a not a common form

of renewable energy in North America but

have been used in Europe for many years.

The methane manure digester collects ma-

nure and converts the energy stored in the

organic matter into methane, which is used

to produce electricity. The electricity can be

used to satisfy demand on or off the farm.

The conversion to methane is the result of

anaerobic digestion—a biochemical process

in which organic matter is decomposed by

bacteria in the absence of oxygen. Digesters

must be airtight (no oxygen) for anaerobic

digestion to occur. The methane produced is

collected for use, and the remaining sludge

is useful for fertilizer.

When You Have Lemons, You Make Lemonade;When You Have Manure, You Generate Power

contributed by: Kim Doggett & Dave Dunnett, P.Eng.

Ocean Steel Rebar recently

completed work at the Fundy

Funeral Home on Westmor-

land Road in Saint John, NB,

for general contractor

Bird Construction. Work

started in June 2017 with

Ocean Steel Rebar sup-

plying and installing 12.70

tons of rebar for the founda-

tion footings, walls, slabs, and retain-

ing wall. OSCO Concrete’s Saint

John plant is also participating on

this project; supplying approximately

250-300 cubic metres of Ready-Mix.

The expansion consists of a 2300

sqft lower level addition for a two-

bay garage, staff room with wash-

room, and office space. On the main

level, a 3700 sqft addition will add

three large salon rooms, several

office spaces, a kid’s play area,

refreshment area, lobby, and

washrooms. The original foot-

print of Fundy Funeral Home

will also be renovated.

Fundy Funeral Home is one of only

three Co-Operative Funeral Homes

in New Brunswick. The movement

started in the early 1900’s in Western

Canada but did not reach the East

Coast until much later. Started by

several local members of the Co-Op

Credit Union in 1995, Fundy Funeral

Home now offers services to mem-

bers and non- members in the Saint

John area.

Because Fundy Funeral Home

remains in operation during the

renovations, unique scheduling

preparations had to be made to

ensure all construction was stopped

during times when funerals were

being held. The last exterior renova-

tion at Fundy Funeral homes took

place in 2011 when Ocean Steel

Rebar also provided Bird Construc-

tion with two tons of rebar.

Fundy Funeral Home Expansion


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The Blois’ hired Batiment-Bahler of Sherbrook, Quebec, to

construct the digester. Bahler specializes in the construction

of circular biogas tanks. The company uses unique circular steel

forms with no tie rods passing through the concrete, producing

a smooth seamless silo ranging from 7 to 40 meters high.

Bahler entrusted OSCO Concrete to provide a continuous supply

of concrete to the project, with pours as large 275 meters. OSCO

also supplied pumping services, using boom lengths from 32 to 52

meters. The project is projected to require 1500 meters of ready

mix. Supply should be complete by mid-November of 2017.


projects


The following article appeared as a project profile on the Precast/ Prestressed Concrete Institute Northeast website at www.PCINE.org

14 West Broadway Condomini-ums is a new, $35 million, 10-story building in South

Boston consisting of 49 luxury residen-tial condominiums.

Bold and dominant, the steel-framed structure makes a dramatic impression by utilizing dark, parallel precast con-crete column covers that soar skyward and frame floor-to-ceiling windows.

Precast architectural mitered spandrel panels at the top complete the design. Serving as the building’s major decora-tive element, the spandrels, column cov-ers and inside return panels all feature embedded thin brick in a Manganese Brown color encased in brown tinted concrete, according to Tim MacDonald, Project Manager for Strescon Ltd.

The highly complex column cover shapes, designed to create visual depth and shadow, were mastered thanks to the extreme design flexibility of thin brick, precast concrete architectural panels. Collaboration in 3D model-

ing between the precaster and project design team made the unique and dramatic envelope system work.

Going for Bold

“This is South Boston,” explains An-dres Bernal, Project Architect/Project Manager for RODE Architects Inc. “You enter the neighborhood from a sub-way station at Broadway. We wanted to make this structure a kind of entrance to the neighborhood. We wanted something that was not so much a background structure, but a bit of a foreground building — something that

West Broadway Condos


projects


made a statement and was worthy of this interesting neighborhood.”

Bernal was trying to provide depth and shadow lines in the façade of the building with only a few materials, just curtainwall and precast piers [column covers]. Using a 45 degree angle that came off a hotel planned for next door resulted in a wedge-shaped pier design. The finished precast piers are actually a triangular shape with one corner cut. While the center piers are triangular, the piers at the corners are bigger and no longer triangular.

Designers also knew that a just-finished adjacent building was brick and that the planned hotel was to be brick. The city wanted brick in their building as well. The Manganese Brown thin brick color was selected, says Bernal, because they wanted to stay in the same family of colors of the brick on adjacent build-ings but be a little bit different.

“We envisioned the angle, the depth between the curtainwall and the brick,” Bernal continues. “Then, we had to figure out how to make it happen. We talked to brick contractors and it seemed like it would be difficult for them to accomplish. That’s when we started looking into precast [with thin brick]. Precast gave us the flexibility to achieve what we wanted. Precast met the needs of the design.”

Working in 3D

The next step was to figure out how the whole assembly was going to work. How was the precast going to be sup-ported? Because of the shapes in the building design the connections would be very complex. After the precast was installed, how was the air vapor barrier

and insulation to be installed? Contrac-tors ended up using closed-cell spray insulation with an ignition barrier and then covering it up with gypsum.

Regarding precast connection com-plexity, Bernal notes that “what really worked for us is that the precaster, Strescon Ltd., was working in 3D. We brought them into our BIM model, shared and compared the models. There was a lot of collaboration three-dimensionally. Because of the project complexity it wouldn’t have worked with only 2D blueprints. This helped us

with the brick pattern. Brick is easy when you have a flat wall. But we had triangular shapes meet-ing at odd angles. The 3D component was very important to make it look like we wanted.”

Other Precast Benefits

The advantages in using precast com-ponents for 14 West Broadway extend-ed beyond design flexibility, according to Ryan Sillery, Owner, CPC Corner-stone Development LLC, and include construction efficiency.

Using precast concrete components helped reduce problems during con-struction due to the tight, urban build-ing site. Arriving ready for installation, precast components do not require an extensive staging area and contribute little in regards to construction waste. Moreover, architectural thin-brick pre-cast panels install as one component and do not require additional on-site-trades or scaffolding. “Schedule-wise.” Sillery says, “it was faster than [conven-tional site-laid] brick.”

Foundation of the new structure is cast-in-place concrete. At the base of the building, the façade joins the streetscape with a ground floor restau-rant and glass storefront. The 350-seat, 6,315 sqft facility offers outdoor dining and will connect to the planned adja-cent hotel. The building also contains 4,836 sqft of second-floor commercial space including office and retail.

A covered portico at the rear of the building offers 24-hour valet parking for residents with access to the lobby. Below the structure is a 70-space poured-in-place concrete parking garage reached by car lift.

Building amenities include a roof deck, 24-hour concierge service, bike stor-age, car charging stations, media room and fitness center with a gym and pool. Units range from one-bedrooms to four-bedroom duplexes (707-2882 sqft).

On schedule, the project is projected for completion in the Spring of 2018.

“We talked to brick contractors and it seemed like it would be difficult for them to accomplish. That’s when we started looking into precast [with thin brick]. Precast gave us the flexibility to achieve what we wanted. Precast met the needs of the design.”

“what really worked for us is that the precaster, Strescon Ltd., was working in 3D... There was a lot of collaboration three-dimensionally. Because of the project complexity it wouldn’t have worked with only 2D blueprints.”


projects


contributed by: Kim Doggett , Jean Bourque & Brendan Clancy

Work is underway to build a new Holiday Inn Express, at 777 Mapleton Road in Moncton, NB. The hotel will be six storeys tall and will contain 125 rooms. Future phases

planned for the site will include two full restaurants and another smaller hotel.

REBAR: Ocean Steel Rebar began working with contractor Fitzgerald & Snow (2010) Ltd, in June 2017 to supply and install 88 tons of rebar, and are currently installing 16,800 sqft of wire mesh. The last item to be installed will be reinforcing for the pool area.

READY-MIX: OSCO Concrete’s Moncton plant supplied the Ready-Mix for this project. By early November, they had sup-plied approximately 1000 m3, with another 100+/- to go.

PRECAST CONCRETE: Strescon’s Saint John Precast plant sup-plied six floors of 8” hollowcore 79,603 sqft (878 pieces), and 2,557 sqft. (32 pieces) of 10” hollowcore over the low projected roof for the pool/fitness area. Twenty precast landing slabs were also supplied by Strescon’s Bedford plant, and 20 precast stair units were supplied by Borcherdt Concrete. This is Borcherdt’s first project using their new hydraulic stair form.

The Holiday Inn Express Moncton is owned by D.P. Murphy Hotels and Resorts, a company based in Charlottetown, PE that owns four other hotels in the Moncton area among other assets throughout Atlantic Canada and Ontario.

Holiday Inn Express

The Dartmouth General Hospital provides services to approximately 120,000 people

in Dartmouth, NS and surrounding areas. They are currently undergo-ing a large renovation project with a budget estimate of $132-$138 million.

PCL Constructors Canada Inc. is the General Contractor for the current phase of the project, which includes space for 48 beds on the fifth floor, eight operating rooms (replacing four existing operating rooms and

adding four more) and extensive upgrades to areas including phar-macy and diagnostic imaging.

Allstar Rebar is providing rebar and wire mesh to the Dartmouth General Expansion Innovation & Flexible Care project for the Department of Transportation. The project will require 335.21 Tons of rebar and 2240 square feet of welded wire mesh. Fabrication and placing began June 2017 and is expected to be complete by December 2017.

Dartmouth General Hospital Renovationscontributed by: Kayla Smith

contributed by: David Leskie

Stonehill College was founded in 1948 as a private, Catholic, liberal arts college. Located in

Easton, Massachusetts, Stonehill is situated 22 miles south of Boston, on a 375-acre campus.

Stonehill is currently investing over $50 million in new facilities, which include the construction of an Aca-demic and Welcome Center. The new Center will contain a visitor center, presentation room, offices, confer-ence room, seven classrooms, a 360 seat auditorium, café, bookstore, lobby, and an exterior terrace.

BOND of Boston, MA, is providing preconstruction and construction management services for the 35,000 square-foot academic & welcome center, designed by S/L/A/M Col-laborative, and built on the site of the Old Student Union.

Ocean Steel was contracted to supply and install 183 Tons of Steel, decking, and joists for the new Center. Detail-

ing began in early June of 2017, with all steel fabrication taking place at OSCO’s Fredericton, NB plant. Steel Engineering and Project Manage-ment was handled through OSCO’s Saint John, NB office.

This project presented a few challenges, including making allowances for quiet times, due to the site’s location on the active main quad of campus.

The timeline was also extremely tight. Many of the owner’s subcontracts were awarded late, so OSCO did not receive final steel locations and weights (ie: Roof Top Units, Chillers, Vent Penetrations) until fabrication was substantially complete. To avoid holding things up, OSCO worked closely with the General Contractor to identify steel members that would be affected; evaluate the risk of fabricating certain members without knowing final locations; and releasing each affected member as the vendor information was received. Despite the compressed timeline, all went well, and the erector, HB Welding, was successful in meeting the owner’s Topping Off date of Sept 29th.

The building is scheduled to be completed by August 1, 2018, in time for the fall 2018 semester.

OSCO Tops Off Stonehill College Welcome Center


projects


MARINE & BRIDGESTignish Harbour Boat Pen; Tignish, PEI; Canadyne Navi-gation; 330 Tons Rebar

Precast Bridge Structurs; Spring Valley, PEI; Maritime Precast; 109 Tons Rebar

Harrisville Blvd Underpass; Dieppe, NB; Dunbar Construc-tion; 110 Tons Rebar

Gaspereau River Bridge #4; Richibucto, NB; Dunbar Con-struction; 41 Tons Rebar

Givens Brook Bridge, Kings County, NS; Spicer Construc-tion; 32 Tons Rebar

NSPI Tusket Dam Refurbish-ment, Yarmouth, NS; Elliots Excavating; 322 Tons Rebar

RETAIL & COMMERCIALPrince Edward Square Slab Replacement; Saint John, NB; Hickey Brothers; 53 Tons Rebar

Holiday Inn Express; Monc-ton, NB; Fitzgerald & Snow; 89

Tons Rebar

Shannex Head Office, Halifax, NS; Superior Foundations; 95 Tons Rebar & 63,200 sq ft Mesh

Halifax Shopping Centre Annex Parkade, Halifax, NS; EllisDon; 278 Tons Rebar

New Kent Store Develop-ment, Dartmouth, NS; Maxim Group; 46 Tons Rebar & 14,400 Sq ft Mesh

Government of Canada Building, New Minas, NS;

Maxim Construction; 32 Tons Rebar & 54,432 sq ft Mesh

INSTITUTIONALNAV Canada Dual Redundant Power Project; Riverview, NB; Acadian Construction Ltd; 32 Tons Rebar

Surgical Suite Interiors, Dr George Dumont Hospital; Moncton, NB; Pomerleau Construction; 43 Tons Rebar

Dartmouth General Inno-vation and Flexible Care,


projects



After inspection in the winter of 2016, 20Vic, the manage-ment company for the Halifax

Shopping Center and its HSC Annex, was informed the underground park-ing structure at its Annex location on Mumford Road required extensive repairs or complete replacement. After examining the benefits and negatives of the options avail-able, 20Vic hired Ellis Don to start scheduling the complete replacement of the structure.

The structure provides both under-ground and above ground parking for the Annex, which is a mixed retail and office building with hundreds of visitors per day. With that in mind, Ellis Don was charged with putting togeth-er a schedule to both dismantle and rebuild the structure in one construc-tion season; and do so with limited

inconvenience to the tenants and their customer base.

Demolition began in April 2017 and in June, concrete

and rebar supply was award-

ed to OSCO Concrete and Allstar Rebar respectively. Allstar Rebar supplied 278 Tons of rebar on the project. Concrete and pump supply began in July, with foundation and structural suspended slabs completed firs,t allowing access to various mall front entrances. All above ground work was completed by the fall of 2017, with limited interruption to mall services. The slab-on-grade will be completed in the winter of 2018. The project required approximately 3500 cubic meters and with individual slab pours as large as 357 cubic meters.

Halifax Shopping Center Annex Parking

contributed by:

Greg Tims & Kayla SmithRebar Projects

Dartmouth, NS; Department of Transportation; 335 Tons Rebar & 2240 sq ft Mesh

Yarmouth Elementary School, Yarmouth, NS; Avon-dale Construction; 24 Tons Rebar & 45,120 sq ft Mesh

INDUSTRIALPlant 425 RFCCU Tier 3 Proj-ect, Irving Oil Refinery; Saint John, NB; Gulf Operators Ltd; 54 Tons Rebar

Givskud Potato Stor-

age Shed; Drummond, NB; Keenan Construction; 27 Tons Rebar

Aggregate Tunnel, Moose River, NS; JW Lindsay; 29 Tons Rebar

Sustane Technologies Plant Design - Phase 1, Chester, NS; JW Lindsay; 133 Tons Rebar & 128 sq ft Mesh

Cove Wharf Reconstruction, Dartmouth, NS; Waterworks Construction; 100 Tons Rebar

NSPI Gulch Surge Tank and

Penstock Replacement, Bear River, NS; Elliots Excavating; 74 Tons Rebar

Barrington Street Retaining Wall - Phase 3, Halifax, NS; Dexter Construction; 139 Tons Rebar

Sullivans Pond Strom Sewer Replacement - Phase 1, Dart-mouth, NS; Dexter Construc-tion; 95 Tons Rebar

RESIDENTIALCentral Park Condos; Rothe-

say, NB; Kent Building Sup-plies; 27 Tons Rebar

Stokil, Lower Sackville, NS City Centre Properties; 151 Tons Rebar & 34,608 sq ft Mesh

Spider Lake Subdivision, Dartmouth, NS; Harbour Con-struction; 39.06 Tons Rebar & 112 sq ft Mesh

Bloomfield Place, Halifax, NS; Priciple Development; 431 Tons Rebar & 24,160 sq ft Mesh


projects



The Université de Moncton (U de M) has partnered with Shannex RLC Limited to establish a Francophone retire-ment living complex on Morton Avenue in Moncton, NB.

This complex offers various levels of care and consists of a 60-bed nursing home facility, a long-term care facility, an independent living facility, and a lifestyles apartment building. In total, this facility will house 360 residents. Construction began in 2015 and the nursing home is expected to open first.

This partnership between U de M and Shannex is the first nursing home located on a university campus in the province of New Brunswick. As part of the lease agreement between U de M and Shannex, all services relating to the operation of the complex must be provided in French - with priority given to U de M retirees. This project also provides academic and research space within the nursing home facility which will further enhance capabilities in Gerontology research, and will also create jobs and internship positions for U de M students.

Work is currently underway on the Shannex Lifestyles Apartment Building. The lifestyles building is a five story, 97-unit residential apartment complex with approximately 186,000 square feet of living space. Ocean Steel Rebar started work back in December 2016 for contractor Superior Foundations Ltd. and will provide 223.58 tons of reinforcing steel and 41,600 square feet of mesh.

Building New Brunswick’s First Francophone Retirement Complex


product profile


contributed by: Shawn Putnam

At OSCO Aggregates’ Glen-

holme gravel pit, there is a

65% stone to 35% sand, split

to the bank material. When com-

pared to 85% sand at OSCO’s Canaan

pit, and the availability of quarried

rock in the Maritimes, this could typi-

cally be a cause for concern. Good

quality natural sand for concrete

production isn’t near as plentiful in

the Maritimes as stone, so stone sales

can be harder to come by, due to

transportation costs and competition

from closer quarries.

The saving grace for OSCO is the

makeup of our stone, which at 64%

granite and 22% basalt, is non-reac-

tive when mixed in concrete. Most

other quarried rock in the area has a

different makeup, and is reactive. Re-

active stone is fine for use in standard

construction concrete, when fly ash

is added to the mix. Certain Govern-

ment, marine and high-performance

projects however, specify the use of

non-reactive stone only.

Halifax has a good demand for this

high performance concrete (HPC),

due to some major marine projects

along its harbour. Years ago, the

idea of hauling stone to Halifax from

Glenholme would have been out of

the question, due to the abundance

of closer sources. Since then, it has

been discovered that other local rock

is reactive, so Glenholme’s stone is

not only economical, but necessary.

All major concrete producers and en-

gineers in the Halifax area have now

made Glenholme their supplier of

choice, for high quality, non-reactive

concrete stone.

Some examples:

• The Glenholme stone has been

used in Defense Construction Canada’s Jetty NJ project, on the Halifax Harbour, using almost

24,000 tonnes of ¾” concrete

stone.

• The Port Authority’s Pier 9C expansion used approximately

17,000 tonnes of ¾” concrete

stone.

• The Glenholme pit also produces

a 11/2” concrete stone which is used when mass concreting, to control heat, hydration and shrinkage. The larger stone allows

the concrete supplier to reduce

the cement content, which in turn

helps control these factors.

• The 11/2” concrete stone has also

been used at the Halifax Ship-yards, in their 4’ thick slabs, as

well as at the gates of the Halifax Airport, in their 15” thick slabs.

• All the maintenance concrete at

the Halifax Port Authority is a

50Mpa fiber, reinforced grout mix

that contains our 1/2” concrete

stone.

• Strescon Bedford uses Glen-

holme’s ½” concrete stone in all its

HPC concrete, for bridge girders,

NEXT beams etc.

• Glenholme’s ½” and 3/8” concrete

stones are the overwhelming

choice for exposed concrete work, in all three Maritime provinc-

es. Chances are, if you’re walking

on exposed aggregate concrete,

you’re stepping on Glenholme

stone.

If you’re looking for a great concrete

stone for your next project, be sure

to specify Glenholme stone! “Don’t

just take it for Granite”.

Glenholme’s Unique Concrete Stone: Not to be Taken for Granite


priorities | safety


2017 Safety Awardscontributed by:

Carrie Watson-Mahwhinney

The OSCO Construction Group recognizes the importance of protecting

our most valuable resource—our people!! We strive to create a healthier and safer workplace by

continually improving our safety management systems.

The dedication of our employees, managers and safety department, is critical not only to identifying safety hazards; but to promoting understanding and adherence to the safe work procedures which

strengthen our safety culture.

Each year, we are proud to recognize our operational divisions and employees who foster this culture and focus on incident

prevention. Congratulations to this

year’s award recipients on a job

well done!!

OSCO Aggregates

50,000 hours without a lost time incident!

READY-MIX SAFETY AWARD

Strescon Pipe Plant300,000 hours without a lost time incident!

LARGE PLANT SAFETY AWARD

OSCO Erection650,000 hours without a lost time incident!

FIELD SAFETY AWARD

Borcherdt Concrete125,000 hours without a lost time incident!

SMALL PLANT SAFETY AWARD


priorities | environment


contributed by: April Glendenning, PTech

OSCO Construction Group currently operates

over twenty locations through Atlantic Canada and the Eastern United States. Although they are all involved in the construction industry, the products, regulations and work practices vary from site to site.

One thing that my job requires me to do, is to travel to each company site and look at their overall environmental compliance. I very rarely see any major issues, and instead, usually walk away with great ideas that can be shared throughout our Group. Some of these ideas may stem from regulatory obliga-tions, while some are simply habits that get created as time saving measures or best work practices. During my annual Environmental Audits this year, I noticed a few sites have implemented great practices which deserve to be shared.

Borcherdt Concrete

Borcherdt Concrete is one of our precast facilities in Yarmouth, NS. It is a 10,000 square foot facility that pro-duces on average 550 yards of concrete each year, which is used to create high quality precast concrete products. While on site, I noticed that Borcherdt has a container placed underneath their air compressor to collect any fluids that

may leak out of the compressor. This smart idea not only allows employees to identify when the compressor is leaking and may require a fluid top-up, but it also saves the company thousands of dollars in environmental cleanup costs.

MacLean’s Ready-Mix

MacLean’s Ready-Mix is one of our Ready-Mix operations on PEI. Our sites on PEI are not required to have Ap-provals to Operate from the Dept. of Environment like some of our other operations; however they still have to ensure their operation is meeting the requirements set forth in the PEI Envi-ronment Act. One smart practice they utilize daily, is in their form area, where blocks are made with leftover concrete. They spread a layer of absorbent mate-rial down prior to spraying the forms with form oil. This proactive approach allows the zorball to collect the form oil before it hits the surface underneath, making cleanup much easier.

Schurman Concrete

Schurman Concrete is another Ready-Mix Operation on PEI. There are two Schurman locations; one in Charlotte-town and another in Summerside. Both of these locations generate very little waste, partly due to the relationships we have with the local community. Sludge

that comes from our reclaim system is hauled off by local farmers to use on their fields. This means less waste that we have to try and dispose of ourselves.

At the Summerside location, we have a few trailers parked in the yard; this can become problematic if they are parked there for long periods of time. The longer a vehicle sits, the more likely it becomes, that the fluid lines become weathered and brittle. Leaks and spills are bound to happen in industrial set-tings, however by having proper controls in place, we can lessen the impact to the environment. The yard at our Summer-side location is mostly paved in concrete. This makes for the perfect spot for vehi-cles that are awaiting repair or to be sold. An impermeable surface makes cleanup much easier if there is ever a leak or spill on the property because the fluid cannot be absorbed into the ground.

Ocean Steel Corporation

Ocean Steel Corporation’s plant in Conklin, NY has different rules and regulations, with stricter environmental laws. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can show up at any time, unannounced, and issue fines for non-compliance issues, so the facility has to run a very tight ship. One measure that has been implemented at the site is the use of absorbent spill mats placed on

Sharing Green Habits


priorities | training


top of waste oil drums. These mats decrease the chance of oil spilling all over the drum when emptying a smaller container into a larger one. Also, as shown in the picture, the drum is clearly labelled with the contents of the drum. Label-ling is very important, not only to identify what’s in the drum, but for disposal purposes as well.

Strescon Precast

Another great habit I have noticed is at our Precast Plant in Saint John, NB, where employ-ees label containers when transferring products from the original container into a smaller con-tainer. This labelling requirement stems from WHMIS 2015 (Workplace Hazardous Material Information System) and GHS (Globally Harmo-nized System). Some companies simply write on the smaller container with a sharpie; however, the employees at Strescon are utilizing labels that clearly identify the product, as well as any risks associated with it. I have also noticed this practice at our Conklin facility and at MacLean’s Ready-Mix as well.

We can all learn from one another by sharing the safe and green work practices that each site has implemented over the years. From recycled water at Bedford Ready-Mix; to the recycled waste furnace oil at MacLean’s Ready-Mix; to the pond waste at Annapolis Valley Ready-Mix that gets hauled away and mixed with Class A gravel; to the composting in our office buildings every day; I am continuously impressed to see all of the different ways each site operates while keeping environmental issues in mind.

Training & Development

contributed by: Kristen Shaw CPHR

Training and Development is a top priority at OSCO, as

evident by the 2016 launch of the Leadership Certifi-

cate Program and quarterly Employee Training oppor-

tunities. Given the success of these programs, the Plant Supervisor

Training program was launched in 2017.

Plant Supervisor Training: The Ocean Capital Plant

Supervisor Training Program was launched in January 2017, as a

pilot program. It is an 11-month program offered to front-line shop

supervisory staff, designed to enhance and develop their soft skills.

The program includes facilitator-led training, that teaches a com-

bination of theoretical and practical approaches when faced with

tough supervisor decisions when working with people. Given the

successful pilot program, we launched the training for our Ocean

Steel Saint John and Fredericton shops in September.

Testimonials:

“I find this and all of the sessions very helpful per-sonally, as well as for team building.”

“As with every module of this program, I find gems of practical tools that I can use in my everyday interactions with employees.”

FROM LEARNING TO PRACTICEMAKING IT WORK


priorities | facilities


PEI Ready-Mix Aggregate Deliveries by the Boatload

contributed by: Jamie Reid

Once or twice every year, Schur-man Concrete receives an or-der of concrete stone by ship.

The stone is purchased from Atlantic Minerals Ltd., and is loaded at their quarry in Lower Cove Newfoundland. Although it can change from time to time, the ship that is primarily used is

The Atlantic Huron of the Canadian Steamship Line. The Huron is a self-unloading bulk carrier, that operates in the great lakes, and is quite often used on Canada’s east coast. The ship is 736 ft long x 77 ft wide, and has a draft of approximately 30ft. She carries approximately 36,000 tonne of product.

The process starts when the Huron arrives at the quarry in Newfound-land and is loaded using a conveyor belt system. It takes approximately 22 hours to load all five of the ship’s compartments. The sailing time from Newfoundland to Charlottetown is about 24 hours. Schurman usually books the ship for what they call a dual port discharge. This is where

Like a Finely Tuned Machine...

When making concrete on Prince Edward Island, the only raw ingredient that we get directly from the Island, is the water. To that end, a great deal of aggregate must be delivered from out of province each year, to OSCO Concrete’s PEI concrete plants. Although ships are a great way to quickly get a lot of product delivered, the process requires a massive amount of coordination, planning, equipment, and people, to ensure that everything goes smoothly and safely, over the roughly 30 hours it takes to get a ship unloaded.


priorities | facilities


some of the product is taken off at the port in Charlottetown, and the remainder is unloaded at the port in Summerside. The water depth in Summerside isn’t enough to handle the Atlantic Huron when it is fully loaded, so it needs to go to Charlotte-town to be partially unloaded first.

The ship can arrive at any time of the day or night, and the schedule is largely dependent on weather and other ship traffic at the port. We usu-ally have a reasonably accurate ETA 24 hours in advance. Everything has to be organized and ready for unload-ing as soon as the ship arrives. We need to arrange for trucks; equipment on the wharf and in the yard; staff on the wharf and in the yard; as well as security on the wharf. There are usually 90–100 people involved in the process of unloading. Once the ship arrives and is secured, the crew posi-tions the ship’s conveyor belt out over a hopper on the wharf. The stone is offloaded into the hopper, and trucks pull under the hopper to get loaded.

All of the Charlottetown product is

hauled to the Schurman yard on the outskirts of Charlottetown. Be-cause this is almost a 12 km round trip from the wharf, it usually takes 50-60 trucks to keep up to the ships conveyor. We usually average about 2000 tonne of product per hour, loading a truck every 45 seconds. Each time a truck pulls under the hopper, staff pull a lever to open the hopper gate and load the truck at a rate of about 3000 tonne per second

In the yard, we have staff to direct every truck where to dump each load, as well as to ensure everything is done safely. In an effort to keep up with all of the product com-ing in so quickly, two large loaders and two large excavators are used to pile the stone as it arrives. When completed, the pile is almost 60 feet high. The discharge in Charlottetown usually takes about 12 hours. The ship’s crew determine the quantity of stone that has been unloaded, by how high the ship is sitting on the water. The hull of the ship is clearly marked with numbers for measuring this. Once the correct amount has

been offloaded, the ship immediately swings its conveyor in, and sets sail for Summerside. A clean-up crew then gets started in Charlottetown, thoroughly cleaning the wharf.

The sailing from Charlottetown to Summerside takes about 6 hours. Ev-eryone uses that time to prepare and have a quick rest, before we are ready to go again. Once in Summerside, the exact same process is repeated. We are able to use most of the same trucks and staff for both locations. Our plant is quite a bit closer to the wharf in Summerside, so we only require about half of the number of trucks, and the unloading process takes about 8 continuous hours.

Schurman has been accepting aggregate deliveries by ship for many years. The company was one of the first to use ships for deliveries on PEI, rather than the previous standard practice of using barges. Although some things have changed over the years, this process started by Schur-man’s Bill Davis almost 30 years ago, has generally remained the same.


public & community


contributed by:

Vivian Chaisson CPHR

On June 8, 2017, Strescon

presented Taylor Russell, a graduating stu-

dent from the Nova Scotia Com-munity College, with the Com-pany’s annual bursary, valued at $500. The bursary is awarded each year, to the student with the high-est average in Structural Design. Vivian Chaisson, HR Generalist, made this year’s presentation on behalf of Strescon.

This bursary was presented at the College’s “Student Success Cele-bration” awards, held each year at the College’s Waterfront Campus (recently renamed Ivany Campus). The event allows organizations and industry to acknowledge the hard work these students put into their studies.

Strescon focuses on the Engineer-ing class, as those students often become our future employees, customers, or suppliers. Strescon’s bursary is a tribute to the excellent work that the Nova Scotia Com-munity College does, in consis-tently training quality profession-als who are well educated and engaged in our industry.

Strescon and NSCC have a long history of collaboration; sup-porting the engineering techni-cal students in their learning of precast concrete methodologies, in particular. Each year, students take tours of Strescon’s facility, connect with staff, watch our processes, and get an opportunity to ask questions. The classroom teachers report that the students value the time at our plant, and it assists them in project work once they are back at the books. We are proud to sponsor a bursary to

NSCC, alongside many industry colleagues, who were also in at-tendance at the event.

The total amount of scholarships, bursaries and awards funded to the NSCC Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the Com-munity College, was reportedly $842,672 in the past year. The chair of the NSCC Foundation, Don Bureaux, and the NSCC President, Barry Saunders, re-cently noted in a joint statement in their “Annual Report on Giving”, that sometimes the scholarships donated by industry mean the difference between a student “attending college or not”, or that bursaries pushed them to “suc-ceed in their program”.

Congratulations to Taylor Russell and we wish every success to all of the NSCC 2017 graduates.

Greenslade Bursarycontributed by: Vivian Chaisson CPHR

Congratulations to Saint John High School Graduate, Larissa King, on being named the 2017 recipient of the Pte. David Greenslade Bursary, which was presented in June, at the

school’s graduation ceremonies. This bursary was established by Strescon Limited in 2008 to honor the memory of fallen soldier, Pte. David Greenslade. David was a 2004 SJHS graduate, and the son of Strescon employee, Donald Greenslade. He and five other soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in 2007, while on active duty with the Ca-nadian Armed Forces. Each year, Donald and his wife, Laurie, attend the graduation ceremonies at Saint John High School and, on behalf of Strescon, present the award to the recipient. A wonderful tribute to a young man who dedicated his youth and life to national service.

Larissa is enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts Program at St. Thomas University, in Fredericton, N.B. and plans to major in the study of Gerontology.

Strescon Presents Annual NSCC Bursary


public & community


OSCO Group Bursary Program

MacLean’s Ready Mix Installs Hitching Post to Welcome Amish Families

contributed by: Doug MacLean

Over our long history, MacLean’s Ready Mix has welcomed and supplied concrete to many

groups of newcomers to Eastern PEI.

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, a large number of tobacco farmers relocated to PEI from Ontario. This resulted in a great deal of farm construction and expansion, providing a new market for MacLean’s.

During the late 70’s and 80’s, the “back to the landers” settled in Kings County, once again causing a spike in

business for the local concrete plant.

Fifteen years ago saw a migration of Buddhist Monks to Eastern PEI, which led to many new construction proj-ects, with a lot of the concrete being supplied by MacLean’s.

Last year, it was the Ontario Amish and their families that moved to the eastern end of the Island. As of now, there are approximately 20 Amish farms in Kings County, with upwards of 40 families still expected to arrive.

Every one of these settlers have taken over abandoned or unused small

farms and put them back into produc-tion! A surprising amount of concrete has been used for houses, barns, silos, and even a new schoolhouse. Hardly a week goes by, that a horse and buggy doesn’t enter MacLean’s Ready Mix’s yard. To that end, the MacLean’s crew has constructed a hitching post, complete with a stainless steel frame and concrete base, to welcome the Millers, the Streichers, the Shetlers, the Troyers, and the many other Amish families we hope to meet!

A Place to Hitch Your Buggy

contributed by: Tyler Isnor

Each year, the OSCO Construction Group sponsors an educational

bursary draw. The draw is open to children of employees, summer students and co-op students who are pursuing post-secondary educa-tion. Three draws are held, each for a $500 bursary.

We are pleased to announce that our 2017 Bursary Recipients are Meagan Galbraith, Daughter of Candace Galbraith (Marque Construction), Sarah Fraser, Daughter of John Fraser (Strescon Limited) and Darion Jones, Daughter of Jason Lund (Schurman Concrete).

Meagan has been accepted into the chemical technology program at

NBCC SJ, Sarah is continuing her education at Dalhousie University taking Medical Sciences, and Darion has been accepted into the theater program at Acadia University.

Congratulations to Meagan, Sarah and Darion! We wish them, and all the other applicants best of luck with their future studies.


people


EMPLOYEEAPPRECIATION

CELEBRATIONOSCOconstructiong r o u p

contributed by: Kristen Shaw CPHR

Thank you to everyone who attended the Employee Ap-preciation Celebration on June

9th! Highlights from the celebration are outlined below.

Retirees

As a token of appreciation, retirement recognition videos were created for all retirees who opted to have one. We reflected on the retirees’ careers and marked the transition to the next exciting phase of their lives. Our re-tirees’ peers, managers, fellow Group members, and customers were asked to be involved in the filming process to create a thoughtful expression of gratitude about each retiree’s relationships and commitment to the OSCO Construction Group. This year, videos were made for David Bishop, Garnet Edgett and Paul Biggar. Other retirees recognized at the din-ner were Terry Arseneau, Marven Jordan, Brian Lane, Allan McTag-gart and Wayne Gaudet.

Safety Awards

The Management and Staff of OSCO Construction Group are committed to the safety of our employees and work

environments. The work of individual employees, plant and field managers, and the safety department, are critical in identifying safety hazards, pro-moting understanding, and adhering to safe work procedures. It is these hallmarks that maintain our safety culture, for which a collaborative effort is demonstrated by individuals and the company overall.

Duanne Shanks and Lou Totino, Safety Managers, announced the win-ners of this year’s plant and field sites who have achieved the lowest OSCO Safety Index (OSI) rates in the past year. We applaud all employee’s ef-forts and personal commitment to the safety of our people and operations. (see page 37 for a full list of winners).

Game

The game was short and sweet this year, with “Pick A Box.” 5 table num-bers were drawn from a bucket, and each table had to agree on which sealed box would be selected for the table to win. Each person at the win-ning tables won a prize. The prizes included: patio lights, pre-paid Visa cards, hardcover luggage, wireless speakers, and hammocks. Congratu-lations to all of our winners!

Charitable Candy

For the fifth year in a row, the candy for the treat bags was purchased from Freak Lunchbox during their “Candy for Kids” campaign. During this campaign, 100% of the proceeds of their bulk candy sales go to the Freak Lunchbox’s charity of choice. This year’s charity was the Canadian Mental Health Association, Saint John Branch. OSCO’s donation this year was $880.18.

50/50 Draw

For the fourth year, we sold 50/50 tickets in the weeks prior to, and during the dinner. The winner of the draw was able to choose a charity of their choice for the other 50%. This year’s winner was Jeff Price, who chose Bobby’s Hopsice as his charity.

Event Feedback

For event feedback or suggestions, please contact any member of our Planning Committee: Bernie Blakely, Sloan Gillis, Tyler Isnor, Heather MacKenzie, or Madison Spear.

5 YearsAlex Linero

Kenneth J. Woodworth

Stephane Martel

Sandi Hansen

Larry Ross

Fred Stewart

Sarah Durley

Josiah Matthews

Trevor Watters

Shane Jones

Jeff Vincent

Andrew Surette

Maurice Payeur

Jason Klingensmith

Rebecca Aube

Marc Leblanc

Chris Yurchesyn

Paul Fisher

Doran Gilbert

Andy Miller

George Hubley

Brett Harrison

Jeff Kyle

Matthew Mangan

Colin Crealock

10 YearsGillian Young

Steven Spicer

Mike Payzant

Kurtis Fanjoy

Shonda Burgess

Vivian Chaisson

Earnest Cliff Williams

Josh Mishaud

Rebecca Patterson

Jeff Boucher

Tim Schotanus

Cyndy Clark-Richardson

Tina Blair

Rheal Arseneault

Erica Campbell

David Brown

15 YearsTheodore Mazerolle

Amy Ames-Slipp

Gerard Bungay

Dwayne Jenkins

Glen Anstey

Scott Osmon

Jean-Pierre Lachance

Nicholas Kilpatrick

Delbert Noble

Michael Hillis

Gerald Grassby

Tracey Welsh

Darren Briggs

Robert Bailey

Audrey Perry

Richard Cleveland

Normand Thibodeau

Nihad Balihodzic

Melanie Melanson

20 YearsHarvey Parsons

Juliana Bogliuni-Wright

Ben Smith

Frank Godsoe

Owen Paisley

Glendon Wright

Richard Digout

Serge Boudreau

Davis Schedler

Clint Graham

Andrew Mackenzie

25 YearsTony Awalt

David Stevens

Mark Chamberlain

Thomas Cormier

John Fraser

Chris Greer

David Webb

30 YearsDave Marcattili

Shawn Putnam

Mike Hazelwood

Heather Fox

James Cosman

William O’Hearon

Wayne Hartin

Robert Morin

James Leamon Lawless

Donald Daigle

Michael Jones

35 YearsDaniel Mailman

40 YearsHarrison Willison

Bruce Durley

Harry Ehrie

45 yearsAlfred Condon

Roger Allain

Service AwardsBased on years of service from Jan 2017 to Dec 2017


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EMPLOYEEAPPRECIATION

CELEBRATION

As a supporter of professional development, OSCO Construction Group continues to recognize the ongoing development of our employees. This is an opportunity for everyone to celebrate our collective commitment to professionalism and learning.

Luke Johnson (FCC): Master’s Certificate in Project Management (UNB); Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification (Project Management Institute)

Dan Fox (FCC): Master’s Certificate in Project Management (UNB)

Josh Fowler (Oc ean Steel Rebar): Master’s Certificate in Project Management (UNB)

Alex Linero (Strescon): Professional Engineer (APEGNB)

Ling (Lori) Li (O cean Steel): Professional Engineer (Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine, West Virginia)

Professional Development


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OSCO Group Picnic contributed by: Janessa Kelley CPHR

This year’s annual OSCO Group Picnic was held on Saturday, August 12th at the Oak Point Camp-ground. We had another successful year, with al-

most 1300 employees and guests registered for the event! The weather didn’t want to cooperate, but it was still a great time despite the rain. The Picnic is a way to show our appreciation to our employees and their families, by having a fun-filled day with a delicious BBQ, games and prizes. A big thanks to everyone who made their way out!

While the BBQ was firing up burgers, sausages and other yummy treats, DJ Duffy kept the crowd entertained at the sound stage, and kids dotted the park with colorful faces from our face painters! Adults were also able to try their luck at our auction tent - congratulations to the following winners:

• Wine Opener Kit: Stewart Totten (Strescon)• $100 Prepaid Mastercard: Anthony Jennings

(Strescon)• Samsung Tablet: Cody Chaulk (Ocean Steel)• Woods Cooler Bag: George Andrews (retiree)• Self-winding Hose Reel: Kevin McGrath (Strescon)• Dinner & Movie Package: Rich Tyner (Ocean Steel)• Cuisinart Knife Set: Abdul Maftah (Ocean Steel)• $500 Irving Gift Card: Abbey Duguay (FCC)• $100 Stews Buffing & Cleaning Gift Card: Ryan Char-

bonneau (Strescon)• 2 T-Fal Frying Pans: Norma Little (Rebar)• Monster Blue Tooth Speaker: Nick Kilpatrick (FCC)• $60 Costco Membership: Karen MacVicar (FCC)• One Free Vacation Day: Andria Goguen (Group Ser-

vices)

Thank you to our committee members who worked hard throughout the year to organize the picnic: Amy Cairns, Andria Goguen, Meaghan Murray and Tyler Isnor with Group Services. Also, thanks to Mark Keirstead and Kris Hogan (Group Services) for loading all the supplies, driv-ing the trucks to and from the picnic, and arriving bright and early to help out; we couldn’t have done it without you! Putting on a huge event like this means all kinds of help is needed throughout the day, and we want to thank everyone who came along to help us out in any way they could.

Eastern Trades College were also on hand to volunteer, and they did a great job making the day run smoothly. A donation was made to the College in the amount of $1,412! Thank you to those who could join us this year and make our company picnic yet another success. See you all next year!

Hans O. KlohnPresident, OSCO Construction Group

components are made by depositing small layers of materials without the use of moulds or the creation of waste.

At the same time, owners, governments and con-sumers are demanding more environmentally sensi-tive building methods where waste reduction, energy efficiency and other “green” initiatives are becoming the norm. Global competition has forced private owners and public owners to demand better use of private and taxpayer funding. Contractual relation-ships are moving towards more collaborative ap-proaches such as Integrated Project Delivery formats. There now exists a shortage of experienced & skilled construction tradespeople whose costs continue to climb…..Safety on congested jobsites with com-pressed schedules is becoming more challenging…..

So where are these changes & trends going to take the construction industry???

We believe that more and more work on construc-tion sites is going to move off-site into factories which will specialize in making either components, panelized pieces or 3D volumetric modules for rapid, kit assembly on-site. Like the shipbuilding industry, more and more specialized building elements will be pre-manufactured with a greater degree of finish than traditional stick-built methods. Elements will in-corporate multi-disciplinary functions, such as struc-tural, fire rating, air & vapor barrier, aesthetic effect, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, and interior finish. We’re already seeing companies in Europe and Asia where this conversion into factories is starting to occur…….

In the case of the OSCO Group, we’re ideally suited to participate as the industry moves from outside stick-built methods to off-site factory pre-fabrica-tion. We’re already experimenting with more value-added functions and/or components to combine with our existing factory-built elements. Our knowl-edge and experience includes: construction man-agement; manufacturing of components for struc-tural steel, precast concrete, ready mix & rebar; and, specialty subcontracting for electrical & mechanical elements. This broad understanding of different building methods & disciplines should give us a good base from which to retool & contribute during this transformation. Should be an exciting journey for us all……….

... President’s Message (continued from page 3)


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contributed by: Chelsea Presley

The Annual Group Golf Tourna-ment was held on Saturday, September 9th, at the Sussex

Golf and Curling Club. The day ran extremely smoothly and we were lucky enough to get in 18 holes of golf with no rain. We enjoyed a fabulous meal by Timberland Cater-ing and each employee walked away with a prize. Some were also lucky enough to win a door prize.

• Dave Yorston (FCC) $100 Irving Gift Card

• Matt Gass (FCC) $100 Irving Gift Card

• Chris Banks (York Steel) $100 Irving Gift Card

• Gaetan Vaillancourt (Strescon) $100 Irving Gift Card

• Randall Rackley (Ocean Plant) $100 Canadian Tire Card

• Colin Crealock (OSCO Group) $100 Canadian Tire Card

• Derek Bowen (Strescon) $100 Canadian Tire Card

• Rusty Kilpatrick (FCC) $100 Ca-nadian Tire Card

• Rob Murphy (FCC) BBQ – Value $700 Donated by MQM Ltd.

Congratulations to the following

winners of this year’s tournament:

• Closest to the Pin for the Women: Jenn Wilcox (Ocean Steel)

• Closest to the Pin for the Men: Mark Shaw (Strescon Atlantic)

• Longest Drive for the Women: Monique Walsh (OSCO Group)

• Longest Drive for the Men: Derek Bowen (Strescon)

• Winners of the Tournament: Chris Greer, Brad Johnson, Mark Shaw and Derek Huskins (Strescon Atlantic) with a score of 65.

Congratulations to all of you for a game well played and we look forward to seeing you next year!

OSCO 2017 Golf Challenge


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contributed by: Janessa Kelley CPHR &

Vivian Chaisson CPHR

DAVE BISHOP

Dave Bishop started with the OSCO Group in October 2009 and retired at the end of December, 2016. As the first Environmental Manager for the company, Dave established and implemented many policies and procedures that we use today. Dave was also responsible for auditing all of our locations and he was able to do so, by building long-lasting relationships with site personnel. He paved the road to success, enabling OSCO to be recognized by Sustain-able Saint John for making envi-ronmental improvements in many areas. Dave will be enjoying his retirement with his wife Marsha and you can find him in warmer climates where the sun is shining! We would like to thank Dave for all of his time and dedication that he put into work here at OSCO and wish him all the best in his retirement.

TERRY ARSENEAU

Terry Arseneau retired from Ocean Steel as the Senior Purchaser in February 2016 after an incred-ible 45 years with the company! Terry was in high school when he started working here as a summer student, which eventually led him into purchasing. He was responsible

for all logistics and buying, and built many relationships with vendors over the years to ensure we were always getting the best pricing and deals. Terry has been a key resource for the company, helping to guide and share his knowledge with the rest of his team. Terry has two daughters that he is very proud of and beams whenever talking about them. We are sure he is appreciat-ing his new-found time by enjoying the outdoors; gardening, fishing, landscaping; and of course, helping his daughters around their homes. Thank you, Terry, for your commit-ment to the company and we wish you all the best in your years to come. You will be missed!

PHIL THOMPSON

Phil Thompson started with Strescon in November 1974 and recently retired on June 30th, 2017 after 43 years of service! Phil was a long service employee at the Precast plant in Saint John, where he was responsible for making architectural panels. His was such a unique skillset, that Strescon had a training video created, to ensure the process was captured before Phil’s retirement. Phil was the lead in the video and it will be shown to new employees for years to come. We wish to thank Phil for his many years of dedicated service and hope he has a long and happy retirement!

GARNET EDGETT

Garnet Edgett retired from Marque Construction on March 30, 2017 after 29 years of service. Garnet supervised many Marque sites, and was most recently based at the Irving Pulp & Paper mill. He enjoyed supervising the crews, providing input when quoting jobs, and most importantly, providing quality ser-vice to his customers. Over the last 25 years, Garnet has noticed a real evolution in how the company has become more safety conscious, and doing its due diligence to ensure the safety of its employees. One of Garnet’s greatest sources of pride is that his son, Dwight, has been a site supervisor with Marque for the last 20 years. Garnet still returns to help out at times, but when he’s not supervising our sites, he serves as a volunteer Captain of the KV Fire Department, which he has done for many years. We would like to thank Garnet for all his hard work and commitment to the company, and we wish you all the best in your retirement!

JOE DAFCIK

A fond farewell was given to Joe Dafcic when he retired from Ocean Steel Corporation in February 2017. Joe started with the company in 2004 and worked as a Fitter for many years. Joe is an avid deer hunter- both in archery and rifle seasons and is also known to enjoy turkey hunting and sport shooting. Joe is a wonderful family man and takes pride in being a grandfather. A retirement celebration was held for Joe in the plant lunchroom, as he said his final good-byes this past February with coworkers and friends he had worked with. Many came out to give their well wishes and to show their appreciation for all his efforts and contributions he

Best of Luck to This Year’s Retirees

from All of Us at the OSCO Construction Group!


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made to the team over the years. Joe, we would like to thank you for your hard work, and we hope you enjoy your retirement!

DAVID MCSHEFFREY

David McSheffrey started with Strescon’s Saint John plant in Au-gust 1991 and retired this past March from the Pipe Plant. During his final years at the plant, he was responsi-ble for finishing the products. When asked about David, his coworkers described him as someone that could always be relied on. When he took on a new task, everyone knew that it would be completed to the best quality and standards, as he always did excellent work no matter what he was working on. Thank you, David, for your valuable contribu-tions to the company and we wish you a long and happy retirement!

BRIAN LANE

Brian Lane started with the com-pany on March 15, 1976 and put in an incredible 40 years of service at the Saint John office as a Checker/De-tailer. Brian had a passion for cook-ing and was a member of the Saint John Y Service Club for many years, serving as their President from 1984-85. He was also a former member of the Seaside Lawn Bowling Club, rep-resenting NB at a number of different championships. It was met with great sadness, when the family announced his unexpected passing in August. Brian served the community and company for many years and his dedication will not be forgotten.

MARVEN JORDAN

Marven Jordan started with York Steel on January 2, 1970 and worked an amazing 46 years of service. His most recent role before his retire-

ment was Plant Superintendent. Marven’s passion was being out-doors, and he loved nothing more than going to his camp where he could hunt and enjoy nature with his family and grandchildren. We were deeply saddened by the news of Marven’s unexpected passing this July. Everyone who worked with Marven always said how kind and generous he was, both at work and at home. He was a loyal and dedicated employee and he will be missed by many.

WAYNE GAUDET

Wayne Gaudet began his career with Schurman Concrete in 2001 at our Charlottetown Ready Mix plant. He worked in the office, in a complex, multi-tasking role of: paperwork; order taking; scheduling; batching concrete; and dispatching drivers; all the while making this dif-ficult job look easy. Wayne gave his all to customer service, and repre-sented OSCO Concrete very well in Charlottetown. He would regularly be giving out directions to a driver one minute, batching concrete for another driver the next, all while simultaneously figuring out the next five moves of their fleet for the day. Wayne adapted to this role’s evolving challenges as well, having learned the new computerized batching system, and OneWorld Software along the way. Wayne spent the last few years in the position seasonally; balancing the needs of the com-pany, with his need for sun in Florida the other half of the year. It worked well until he decided full-time retire-ment was the plan. Wayne retired in November of 2016. We wish him a wonderful, long and healthy retire-ment, with lots of sun-filled days.

EWING SNOWDEN

Ewing Snowden began his many

years of service at Schurman Con-crete in 1997. Ewing held the role of Ready Mix Truck Driver at the Summerside plant. He was an excel-lent driver for the company, and great with customers who he dealt with every day; whether it be at a construction site, or in a resident’s yard. Ewing could always be relied on to be ready for work, adapting to our seasonal needs and changing schedules. Over the years, Ewing’s driving skills and patient personal-ity were noted to be of particular help in training new hires to our fleet; and he was often the go-to for that, when needed. Ewing is an avid outdoorsman, enjoying fishing, animals and gardening, monitoring his own greenhouse regularly. We enjoyed working with him over the years, and hope that he gets to kick back a little now, and enjoy the extra time with his wife Gail, their three children, and their families. Best wishes in Retirement, Ewing!

GEORGE GAMBLE

After 30 years with the Irving companies and the last 20 years with the OSCO Group, George Gamble retired from his role of Group Controller. Over the years, George has mentored our sector controllers into a strong and knowledgeable team of accounting professionals, by overseeing their growth and success. We will greatly miss his can-do attitude, enthusiasm and dedication to our organization. We would like to thank George for his insight and his wise counsel on accounting issues, as we acquired new businesses and integrated them onto our systems. George has agreed to come back and help out from time to time with the fiscal year end close out, but mostly he will be enjoying his time with his wife, family and grandkids.

www.oscoconstructiongroup.com

people

connections | fall & winter 201750 www.oscoconstructiongroup.com

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It is with much sadness that we announce the death of Mr. Donald E. Isnor P.Eng. on

August 1, 2017.

Donald Edward Isnor was born in Hal-ifax, Nova Scotia on February 3, 1927. He graduated from the Nova Scotia Institute of Technology (now DalTech) with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1951. Don moved to Saint John in July 1951 and immediately started work at Irving Pulp and Paper as a junior Engineer. Later in 1952 he met and became friends with Hans W Klohn who had come over from Germany representing the steel company pro-viding the steel for the mill expansion.

In November 1955 KC Irving estab-lished Ocean Steel & Construction Ltd. with Hans W Klohn as president. Don immediately joined the newly formed company as employee num-ber 2 and was appointed Manager of the Construction and Concrete divi-sions. Strescon Limited was formed in 1963 at the current location on Ash-

burn Lake Road after a fire destroyed the Ocean Steel and Construction precast concrete production facility on Chesley Drive. Don was appointed General Manager of the company and remained at Strescon until his retirement in 1993 as Vice President and General Manager.

Don realized that if the new company was to grow, it needed to diversify its product line beyond the precast wall panels it had started with. Accord-ingly, in 1961 he travelled to Ohio to visit a Martin Marietta prestressed concrete plant to learn how to make prestressed concrete products. As a result, in 1964 the first prestressed double tees were produced for the Garden street car wash and in 1965 Strescon produced its first preten-sioned bridge beams for the prov-ince. Other products were added and new markets were entered as the company continued to grow.

In addition to growing the precast product line, Don oversaw Strescon’s

entry into the local ready mix con-crete market in 1968, its entry into the Atlantic Provinces concrete pipe market in 1972 and finally, in 1978 the acquisition of the former LE Shaw Pyramid Precast Concrete Plant in Bedford, Nova Scotia.

Don’s reputation in the precast concrete industry was Canada-wide through Don’s early adoption of the fledgling CSA precast plant certifica-tion program in the early 70’s. At the time, the program was managed by Kai Holbeck. Don and Kai would dis-cuss solutions to industry issues that Kai would see during various plant inspections. Don was respected both as an innovator of new technology and a person you could do business with “on a handshake”. His knowl-edge of the industry and sage advice will be greatly missed.

In addition to his years at Strescon, Don was an avid sports fan, espe-cially baseball, having played senior ball in Halifax. He also enjoyed spending time camping with friends and family. Above all else, Don was a loving husband to his wife of 66 years Patricia and father to sons Don (Darlene), Jim (Kim) and daughter Peggy (Eric Hopper).

Donald E. Isnor • 1927-2017A Fond Farewell to a Company Icon

l-r: Jack Irving, Don Isnor Sr. (left) with Hans W Klohn & Hans O Klohn at Don Isnor Sr’s Retirement Dinner.


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congratulations!FRESH FACESOcean Steel

Cody Chaulk ..................Document Printer/Runner, SJMarissa Jurada ...................Procurement Associate, SJNathan Gilbert ..................Shop Foreman, FrederictonSloan Gillis ..........................Procurement Specialist, SJChristy Reeves .................. Procurement Specialist, SJ

OSCO Group Services

Matthew Erb ........................ Technical Support AnalystKen Glover ...............................Director of ProcurementLina Thiperson .............................. Programmer/AnalystChris Woodill...............Strategic Technology Manager

FCC Construction

Ryan Fox ............................................Junior Estimator, SJElena Ezzat ................. Site Administrative Assistant, SJClare Tooley ................................ Safety Coordinator, SJ

AllStar Rebar

Dawne Grandy .... Promotion – Plant SuperintendentKayla Smith .............................. Administrative Assistant

Schurman Concrete

Wendy Czajkowski ...... Batcher/Office Administrator

Strescon

Trina Delaney .................... Administrative Assistant, SJSean Tait ...........................Quality Control Inspector, SJKatherine Card ..............Quality Control Inspector, SJSwapan Saha ...................Quality Control Inspector, SJKaitlyn Clark .....................................Precast Detailer, SJRyan Jurada ........................Precast Yard Supervisor, SJDouglas Pearce .......................... Safety Coordinator, SJMichael Laskey .........................Member in Training, SJCraig McCullum .............................Project Manager, SJ

Family Additions:Congratulations to Vanessa Buckley (Ocean Steel) and Nick Cowan who welcomed baby girl, Mya Deanna Cowan, on April 20th.

Congratulations to Nidal Alshoun (FCC) and his wife who gave birth to a baby boy April 27th!

Congratulations to Mike Neil (Group Services) and Jessica who gave birth to a baby girl, Emery Mae Neil, on May 10th.

Congratulations to Chris Carmichael (Group Services) and Jessica Bragdon, who welcomed baby girl, Stella Mae Carmichael, on July 12th

Congratulations to Paul Fisher (OSCO Concrete & Aggregates) and Alysha, who welcomed baby girl Abigail Elizabeth Fisher, on August 29th.

Congratulations to Craig Reid (Strescon-NS) and his wife Debra, who welcomed their first child, Linden Michael Reid to the world on Sept. 27th.

Congratulations to Ben Kilpatrick (FCC) and his fiancée Tracey on the birth of Charles Gordon Kilpatrick, born on July 25th.

Congratulations to Mitch Gass (FCC) and his wife Kristen on the birth of their baby boy Hazen, born on August 4th.

Congratulations to Chandler McDevitt (FCC) and Jaydah on the birth of Waylon William Brad-ley McDevitt, on Nov 8th.

Weddings:Congratulations to Colin Crealock (Group Services) and his wife Samantha, who tied the knot on Sept. 16th!

Congratulations to Eric Bordage (Group Services), on his marriage to Jocelyn Hall, on June 17th.

Congratulations to Dave Yorston (FCC) and his wife Robin, who got married on July 28th.

Congratulations to Scott Patterson (Group Services) and his wife Stephanie who got married on Sept. 9th!

Congratulations to Terry Cernjak (Strescon) and his wife, Victoria, on their recent marriage on Sept. 16th.

Congratulations to Stacy Card (Bedford Ready Mix) and his wife Beverly, on their Aug. 19th wedding.

Applause:Congratulations to Mark Chouinard (Allstar Rebar) on completing his Masters Certificate in Project Management at Saint Mary’s University in June.

Congratulations to Ashley Dooks (Group Services), who received his Registered Professional Recruiter (RPR) Designation through the As-sociation of Professional Recruit-ers of Canada.

Congratulations to Ling (Lori) Li (Ocean Steel) who, in addition to the Province of New Brunswick, now holds Professional Engineer-ing licences for Massachusetts, Maine, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and West Virginia. WOW!

Congratulations to Brent DeMerchant

and Robynne Higgins on achieving

certification as Rebar Detailers through

the Reinforcing Steel Institute of Canada.

Certification requires a specified amount

of experience, in addition to having exam-

ples of their work submitted and reviewed

by a peer based RSIC Review Board.

Our LocationsSTRUCTURAL STEEL:OCEAN STEEL - Corporate office & SJ plant 400 Chesley Drive, Saint John, NB • CAPhone: (506) 632-2600 Member Since • 1955

OCEAN STEEL - New England Sales Office40 Burlington Mall Road, Suite 207Burlington, MA • USAPhone: (781) 221-2152 Member Since • 1991

YORK STEEL - Plant & service center 550 Wilsey Road, Fredericton, NB • CAPhone: (506) 444-7989 Member Since • 1995

OCEAN STEEL CORPORATION - Office & plant 53 Shaw Road, Conklin, NY • USA Phone: (607) 584-7500 Member Since • 2004

PRECAST:STRESCON LIMITED Corporate Office & SJ plant101 Ashburn Lake Rd., Saint John, NB • CA Phone: (506) 633-8877 Member Since • 1963

STRESCON LIMITED - Bedford office & plant 131 Duke St., Bedford, NS • CA Phone: (902) 494-7400 Member Since • 1978

STRESCON LIMITED - New England Sales Office40 Burlington Mall Road, Suite 207Burlington, MA • USAPhone: (781) 221-2153 Member Since • 1991

BORCHERDT CONCRETE PRODUCTS Office & plant 326 Hardscratch Road, Brooklyn, NS • CA Phone: (902) 742-7811 Member Since • 2008

READY-MIX (OSCO Concrete):

OSCO CONCRETE NB - Saint John plant 101 Ashburn Lake Rd., Saint John, NB • CA Phone: (506) 633-8877 Member Since • 1963

OSCO CONCRETE NB - Moncton plant1212 Berry Mills Rd, Moncton, NB • CAPhone: (506) 858-7110 Member Since • 2004

SCHURMAN CONCRETE - Summerside plant 240 MacEwen Rd, Summerside, PE • CA Phone: (902) 888-4331 Member Since • 2004

SCHURMAN CONCRETE Charlottetown office & plant 412 Mount Edward Rd, Charlottetown, PE • CAPhone: (902) 628-0127 Member Since • 2004

MACLEAN’S READY-MIX - Montague plant 669 Queen’s Road, Montague, PE • CAPhone: (902) 838-2925 Member Since • 2012

SACKVILLE CONCRETENova Scotia office & plant 17 Estate Drive, Lower Sackville, NS • CAPhone: (902) 864-3230 Member Since • 2008

BEDFORD READY-MIX - plant 414 Bluewater Rd., Bedford, NS • CA Phone: (902) 835-0882 Member Since • 2008

GLENHOLME READY-MIX - plant 749 Little Dyke Road, Glenholme, NS • CA Phone: (902) 662-3722 Member Since • 2008

ANNAPOLIS VALLEY READY-MIX - Plant 20 Park Drive, Windsor, NS • CA Phone: (902) 798-2291 Member Since • 2008

AGGREGATES:OSCO AGGREGATES 749 Little Dyke Rd, Debert, NS • CA Phone: (902) 662-3722 Member Since • 2008

OSCO AGGREGATES 248 Canaan Mountain Road, Canaan Mountain, NS • CAPhone: (902) 546-2373Member Since • 2014

CONSTRUCTION:FCC CONSTRUCTION - office 400 Chesley Drive, Saint John, NB • CA Phone: (506) 632-7800 Member Since • 1960

MARQUE CONSTRUCTION - office400 Chesley Drive, Saint John, NB • CA Phone: (506) 634-1144 Member Since • 1966

KENNEBEC CONSTRUCTION - office 400 Chesley Drive, Saint John, NB • CA Phone: (506) 632-7800 Member Since • 1994

REBAR: OCEAN STEEL REBAR LIMITED Saint John office & plant 400 Chesley Drive, Saint John, NB • CA Phone: (506) 632-2600 Member Since • 1955

ALLSTAR REBAR NOVA SCOTIA Office & plant 48 Duke Street, Bedford, NS • CA Phone: (902) 832-0917 Member Since • 2008

Documents

connections...Moosehead Brewery • Precast Concrete Stairs • West Broadway Condos fall & winter 2017 the biannual newsmagazine of the OSCO Construction Group connections Ocean Steel