Irving Oil Refinery OSCO - OSCO Construction Group...The biannual newsmagazine of the OSCO...

T h e b i a n n u a l n e w s m a g a z i n e o f t h e O S C O C o n s t r u c t i o n G r o u p

Casino New Brunswick • Picadilly Potash Mine Update • Lake Utopia Paper • Cellular & Pervious Concrete • Strescon Seminars

fall & winter 2010

OSCOconstructiong r o u pIrving Oil Refinery

Dehexanizer Project

CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 20102 www.oscoconstructiongroup.com2

Inside...What’s fall & winter 2010

on the 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: Tammy Legacy, c/o OSCO Construction Group • 400 Chesley Drive, Saint John, NB • Canada • E2K 5L6 • email: [email protected]

OSCO Group members continue work on the IOR Dehexanizer Project. See page 8 for an update on the work being done by Ocean Steel, Strescon, Borcherdt and Marque.

pg.18 pg.30 pg.34

3 Message from the President

priorities 4 Safety: OSCO Group Introduces New Hazard

Identification Process for Field Operations

5 Safety News

6 Safety Poster Contest

6 Quality Control Updates

36 OSCO Group Develops Environment Policy

36 Strescon Bedford Recognized for Recycling Efforts

projects 8 Irving Oil Refinery Dehexanizer Project

10 Bridging the Distance Penniac Bridge & Princess Margaret Bridge

11 Casino New Brunswick

12 Fredericton East End Development Parking Garage

13 FCC “Upcycles” Old Strescon Office

13 Dalhousie Correctional Facility

14 Projects in the Precast Pipeline East Bound Pipeline Headwalls; Welsford, NB Bypass; Auburn, Maine

16 FCC Helps Bring New Life to Heritage Building Restoring one of the oldest British Naval facilities in Canada

17 A New Landmark for an Old City Commercial Properties donates clock to the City of Saint John

18 Picadilly Potash Project Update

22 Rebar Project Updates Misc. Projects; Saint John Law Courts; Kings Wharf, Dartmouth, NS

24 MSD Upgrades

24 Marque Industrial Updates IOR Fuel Gas Containment Project; Irving Paper; North Satellite Electri-

cal Substation; Picadilly Potash Mine

25 Lake Utopia Paper

26 Pouring it On: Ready Mix Project Updates PEI Potato Storage; Canadian Coast Guard; Masstown Market; NS Nurs-

ing Home

27 OSCO Concrete Helps Introduce Innovative New Ready-Mix Technologies

Cellular Concrete & Pervious Concrete

28 York Miscellaneous Metals Updates

profiles 20 Customer Profile: CEMENTATION

public & community 29 Strescon to Offer Continuing Education Seminars

29 Strescon Project Wins PCI Design Award Halifax International Airport Parking Garage Takes Home Prize

30 Haiti Relief

30 OSCO Bursary Winners

30 OSCO Excellence Award

31 National Precast Week & CISC SteelDay Tours

people 32 Group Retirees

34 OSCORS Employee Recognition Dinner

37 OSCO Golf Tournament

37 Strescon Golf Tournament

38 OSCO Picnic

39 Fresh Faces

39 Congratulations

40 Our Locations OSCOconstructiong r o u p

CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 2010 3www.oscoconstructiongroup.com 3

Message from the President

...our Saint John precast operation has purchased a state-of-the-art architectural batch plant from Italy... We believe that after this system is commissioned and fully-operational, we will have the most productive and highest quality plant available anywhere in North America.

continued on page 38...

As the American and Canadian economies continue towards recov-ery, we are working hard to prepare ourselves for the next expansion in the business cycle. Although this may be a few years away, now is a good time to evaluate our processes, plant and equipment to ensure we can remain competitive in our various businesses. We believe the time to invest and re-juvenate a business is during business “down cycles”. Our conservative capital base allows us to make any required significant capital investments during this time.

Head Office: At head office, we are once again working on a major upgrade to our Oracle One World software. Our current version has been re-written us-ing the latest internet-based program-ming technology and we need to move onto this new platform to prevent being stranded on an old system that will no longer be supported. As part of this up-grade we are reviewing all of our finan-cial and production reports to eliminate those that are no longer relevant and to fix any formatting or other problems with those we plan to keep. Many of the systems are also being reconfigured; in particular the human resources module, to take advantage of the benefits man-agement functionality which now exists. At the same time, we are modernizing our hardware platforms to be more fault tolerant preventing extended shutdowns and improve response time for all users, both at head office and in our branches. We are also reorganizing some of the accounting and administration departments to offer better service to

our operating business units. In addition, as described in this issue, our environ-mental and safety programs continue to be enhanced with new field hazard identification processes.

Concrete Sector: In the concrete sector, our Saint John precast opera-tion has purchased a state-of-the-art architectural batch plant from Italy. Having received proposals from vendors based in Germany, USA, Finland, Canada and Italy, we chose the Italian offer after seeing the level of sophistication that was possible with respect to batching of architectural and structural mixes. We believe that after this system is com-missioned and fully-operational, we will have the most productive and high-est quality plant available anywhere in North America. Installation of the plant will start in late-2010 and we expect to start using the plant in early 2011. We also have completed our renovations to the lunchroom, washrooms, locker-room and production offices in Saint John. At OSCO Aggregates in Glenholme, N.S., we have relocated the screener/classifier equipment from our north pit, which has been depleted, to our south pit, which has material to be extracted for the next 15-20 years. This equip-

ment has been reconfigured to allow us perform more valued-added work in the future; we are configured to crush our own pit run materials as opposed to sub-letting this work to others.

At OSCO Concrete, we have con-tinued to: (i) upgrade our batch plants to increase hourly peak production; (ii) buy larger ready mix trucks to allow us to haul more concrete per trip; (iii) upgrade our concrete pumping fleet with newer, more modern booms and trucks; and, (iv) optimize our concrete mix designs using better quality control and testing procedures.

Steel Sector: In the steel sector, we have completed our new ISO-based quality control system for our rebar steel business. We have also upgraded our rebar software between the Halifax and Saint John branches to ensure both op-erations are using identical procedures when preparing shop drawings and fabricating & installing rebar. For our structural steel opera-tions, we are in the midst of a complete re-evaluation of our equipment and material routing processes in our plants. We have decided to place more em-phasis on the steel bridge market sector while at the same time maintaining our

Health and Safety legislation requires employers and employees to identify hazards, assess the risks associ-ated with them, and use appropriate methods to eliminate or control them. The legislation, however, does not pre-scribe how this is to be done. Conse-quently, industry has developed various generally-accepted methods to fulfill these requirements. In recent years, particularly on large projects, there have emerged many variations on a general theme – i.e. a foldable card with check-lists and questions. These have ranged from recipe-sized cards with 5 to 15 points to two-sided, full page, extremely busy questionnaires. At the annual Safety Coordinators’ Meeting in April it was agreed that it was time for the OSCO Construction Group to develop its own version of a task haz-ard assessment card. Four of our staff, as a committee, developed a prototype and after several additional reviews we arrived at the final version. We also translated the content into French so we could provide a workable option for our

Francophone crews. Some of our major clients have indicated that we can use our own task hazard assessment cards instead of the site-mandated forms. The card provides some flexibility so it can be used in different situations. It can be used by individuals or collec-tively by a crew; for a day’s assignment or for each individual task. Consider-ing that the main contributing factor to most accidents is “lack of awareness”, these cards are designed with the ob-jective of instilling awareness as well as the philosophy of being proactive with one’s health and safety. The lists are not exhaustive but they represent the ma-jority of common hazards and controls found in the workplace. Although these cards have been developed primarily for construction activities, they may also be used in our fabrication plants for vari-ous non-routine tasks.

p r i o r i t i e s : s a f e t y & q u a l i t y

CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 20104 www.oscoconstructiongroup.com

contributed by ROB FELTUS

4

OSCO Group Introduces New Hazard Identification Process for Field Operations

Editor’s Note:In the last issue of Connections, President Hans O Klohn identified the importance of adhering to our Group’s priorities when working. Above all else, Safety should always come first, followed by Quality, Schedule and Cost. To better reflect the importance of Safety and Quality to the OSCO Construction Group, we are intro-ducing a new format for how the maga-zine is organized. Connections articles will now be classified under one of the following categories: Priorities; Projects; Profiles; Public/ Community; and People. Our Safety and Quality news will now be where they belong - under “Priorities”.

For those of you who may have missed it, below is an excerpt from last issue’s “Mes-sage from the President”

“To ensure that we always follow the right path, we should prioritize our work as fol-lows:

1st – HEalTH & SaFETy: Never endanger yourself, any other employee nor any other parties under any circumstance

2nd – QualITy: Do the work as designed and/or specified so that quality is never compromised! We take great pride in doing a quality job.

3rd – Schedule: We work very hard keep our promised delivery dates; but never at the expense of taking safety shortcuts or doing a poor-quality job.

4th – coStS: We all have cost budgets to meet; but our budgets are meant to allow for our employees to perform their work in a safe manner, in a 1st class fashion and within the sched-uled time frame as agreed to.

The above priorities are extremely important to remember when performing any activities for the Group. Sometimes we may lose our focus while trying to save some money or to speed up our perfor-mance. This thinking if at the expense of safety and/or quality is not in keeping with how we want to run our businesses. We must never compromise on this principle no matter who is demanding that you do so. You can quote me personally on that one!!”


CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 2010 5www.oscoconstructiongroup.com

Group Safety News

5

Congratulations to Adam Sarchfield, Rob Murphy & Luke Johnson!Adam, Rob and Luke successfully completed the extensive Merit Supervisor Training Program, designed to teach supervisors how to safely and effectively improve the efficiency of their teams. (Pictured l-r: Pat Bagley FCC Electrical Manager, Adam Sarchfield, Rob Murphy, Luke Johnson, and Rick Williston FCC Civil Manager)

Congratulations to Ocean Steel Corporation for working 2 YEARSwithout a lost time accident!!!

SAFETYQUALITY

SCHEDULECOST

Quality Control Updates

contributed by KELLY WILLISTON

Marque Construction has once again taken part in the children’s safety poster contest in recognition of NAOSH week (North American Occupational Safety and Health). Employees were en-couraged to ask their darlings to draw a poster of their parent, aunt/uncle, grand parent (etc) working safely on our sites. The submissions we received were ex-

ceptional to say the least. The goal of this contest was to have employees engage in meaningful con-versations with the children about HOW they work safe and then WHY they work safe every day. It’s very easy to remem-ber why we work safe when you are looking into the eyes of a child. Also, for many children this may be the first exposure to the concept of workplace safety. This aspect is monumental, after

all, these darlings may very well be our next generation of Marque workers. Entries were collected and prizes were awarded accordingly. In addi-tion to the office cafeterias, the posters have been hung strategically in our field lunch rooms where our workers can ap-preciate them every day and are subse-quently reminded of the “little reasons” why they will choose to work safe.Please take a moment to admire the artwork of our brilliant artists…then take a moment to remember why YOU will work safe. Thank-you to all those who submitted entries!



Safety Poster Contest

Ocean Steel Updates AISC Certificationscontributed by BILL GATES

All three of Ocean Steel’s facilities are currently AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) certified facilities for Steel Building Structures. The Saint John and Fredericton facilities also have a Sophisticated Paint Endorsement as part of their certification.

AISC Certification is a third party, independently audited program, which means the AISC has contracted to an independent auditing company to con-duct annual audits of each facility. They run on a three year cycle, with year 1 being a one-day audit covering one half of the quality system requirements; and year two covering the remaining half (again a one-day audit). Year three re-quires a two-day full audit. This program

is much better than say an ISO program, because it is tailored specifically for the structural steel industry and audited by people who have worked for years in this industry. OSCO’s Saint John facility is pres-ently in the process of becoming certi-fied by the AISC for Major Steel Bridges with a Fracture Critical endorsement. We expect to be certified by the end of November. In order to meet the require-

QUALIT Y CERTIF IED

STEEL STRUC TURES



ments for Major Steel Bridges, we had to update our Quality manual to include documentation specific to steel bridge fabrication and a Fracture Control Plan for the FCM endorsement. We also un-derwent a two day audit.

New CISC Certifications for Ocean Steelcontributed by BILL GATES

The CISC (Canadian Institute of Steel Construction) has just started a quality certification program. It is designed similar to that of the AISC and recognizes the AISC certification. As a result just last week we received our CISC certification for Steel Structures. Once we receive our AISC Major Bridge Certification we will receive our CISC Bridge certification. This CISC certifica-tion covers both our Saint John and Fredericton facilities.

Ocean Steel Corporation achieves CWB certification, Division 1 contributed by JAY GUILES

This past July, Ocean Steel’s Conk-lin, NY plant received CWB (Canadian Welding Board) certification. This certifi-cation required the testing of all welders using CWB test plates. All of our welders took the appropriate CWB W47.1 weld-ing tests in the FCAW and SMAW and a couple welders in the GMAW process. Congratulations to Mark Moore and Jay Guiles on receiving their certifica-tions as Welding Supervisors and Level 2 Welding Inspectors.

New Concrete Testing Lab for Borcherdt Concrete contributed by GEORGE LAWSON

Borcherdt Concrete Products re-cently completed construction of their new concrete testing lab at their precast facility in Yarmouth. The new laboratory provides their Quality Control Depart-ment with space to perform various testing programs such as compressive strength, sieve analysis, and aggregate moisture determinations. All of these QC functions are important for ensuring that concrete quality meets specifica-tions. In addition to the lab, the building also houses a tank farm for concrete chemical admixtures.

Strescon-Bedford Employee Achieves PCI Level 3 Certifi-cation contributed by JOHN FRASER

Congratulations to Phil Jack of Strescon-Bedford, on achieving his Level 3 PCI certification in June, 2010. For this level of certification Phil had to travel to Nashville, Tennessee to take classroom instruction and write the PCI exams. ACI certification, PCI levels 1 and 2 are required as prerequisites for PCI level 3.

Strescon Precast-SJ Updatecontributed by CHRISTINE GILBERT

One of the many projects that PCI certified inspectors at the Saint John Precast facility worked on recently, was providing quality control for the 200 deck girders manufactured for the Prin-

cess Margaret Bridge project in Fred-ericton, NB. Inspectors monitored the initial assembly phase including form assembly, stressing, reinforcing steel and hardware placement and concrete consolidation and finishing. PCI inspec-tors also inspected the final product to ensure dimensional accuracy and approve the surface finish. ACI certi-fied laboratory technicians ensured the concrete met project specifications by testing for air content, slump, segrega-tion and compressive strength.

OSCO Concrete-SJ Update contributed by CHRISTINE GILBERT

The Saint John Ready Mix Facility is supplying two major transportation infrastructure projects in Saint John this year; One Mile Interchange project and Saint John Harbor Bridge Rehabilita-tion project. Concrete supplied to these projects must meet strict specifications to ensure performance and durability. Laboratory technicians tested concrete at the plant and on-site. Special place-ment and temperature considerations meant a substantial increase in the frequency of testing.

Strescon Pipe-SJ Updatecontributed by CHRISTINE GILBERT

Saint John’s Pipe division is sup-plying the concrete pipe for the Rte. 1 Highway project near St. George, NB. Inspectors monitor reinforcement as-sembly, test and approve concrete prior to placement, monitor the curing pro-cess and perform compressive strength and D-load testing.

Borcherdt Concrete Testing Lab



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The OSCO Construction Group continues to work on the Irving Oil Refinery Dehexanizer project. Work on the unit began at Irving Oil’s Saint John Refinery in late 2009 and will be complete by June of 2011. A necessary component to meet upcoming en-vironmental regulations, the new unit will reduce the amount of Benzene and other aromatics from the gasoline refining process.

Ocean Steel: Our Steel Division started preparing shop drawings in late December, 2009. This project required 530 tons of structural steel (fabricated at our Fredericton plant) and 44 tons of grating and stair treads. Steel detailing was a team effort of outside detailers in combination with Ocean Steel’s in-house detailing department. The first steel delivery was on March 29, 2010. Our work consisted of a series of modules and stick built steel. There were two types of modules, some with lifting lugs and others with tempo-rary transport steel added. The modules with lifting lugs were set into place using cranes and the modules with the added transport steel were moved

Irving Oil Refinery Dehexanizer Project

Above: F1/F2 “pancake” modules being assembled by the Ocean Steel Erection Team. This module was moved into place by using a transporter.

Above: Module A partially assembled. This module was moved into place using a transporter which was driven under the module.

Below: Completed Module A before it was moved to it’s final resting location. (Photo was taken on October 6, 2010).

contributed by JILL LAYTON & TOM COUGHLAN

p r o j e c t s

CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 2010 9www.oscoconstructiongroup.com CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 2010

Above: Module A fully assembled. This picture was taken on September 13th, 2010. The columns have been hoarded in to allow MacDonald Applicators to apply Intumescent fireproofing to field connections.

via Irving Equipment’s transporter. For the latter type, the transporter was positioned under the tempo-rary transport steel and the module driven to its final position where it was lowered onto the anchor bolts. Ocean Steel also supplied platforms and miscellaneous supports.” Approximately 1/3 of the steel required for this project required fireproofing before erection. Ce-mentitious fireproofing was provided by sister companies Strescon and Borcherdt Concrete. In addition to the cementitious fireproofing, 22,483 square feet of intumescent fireproofing was required, which was provided by MacDonald Applica-tors and completed at their shop. Ocean Steel was also responsible for all Intumescent touch-up on site and hired MacDonald Applicators as a subcontractor to complete this portion of the project. They finished approximately 63% of the site ap-plication by the end of September and are scheduled to do the balance starting in March 2011. Overall, this project has been a real team effort. In addition to provid-ing support to other trades during the turnaround, Ocean Steel also participated in a composite crew with Marque Construction, to move and set 8 large electrical transformers. The final steel delivery took place on October 18th, with erection scheduled to be complete by the end of November.

Strescon & Borcherdt:The steel for the Dehexanizer re-quired 56.56 cubic yards of ce-mentitious fireproofing. Most of this fireproofing was completed at Strescon’s Saint John facility, however one load was completed by another sister company, Borcherdt Concrete in Nova Scotia.

Marque Construction: Marque’s Industrial Division began the Dehexanizer Electrical Infrastructure Project in December, 2009. This work involves upgrading the current elec-trical infrastructure to allow for the electric power requirements of the new Dehexanizer Unit. Completion is scheduled for November, 2010.

Marque is installing 4,000 feet of electric cable tray, 12,000 feet of 35 kV teck cable, 8 pad-mounted 35kV transformers, high voltage switches and cable bus duct, all in and around operating process units. Extreme care and caution are taken with every installation, as any wrong move could create a problem with refinery operations. One of the unique challenges with this project was dealing with the length and weight of the cable runs. All 12 cables were over 1,000 feet in length and weighed in excess of 10,000 pounds each. To install them without any damage required precise calculation and monitoring of pulling tensions and installation methods. Additionally Marque had to identify, de-energize and cut two existing 35 kV cables at the mid point of their 3,500 foot length. The rout-ing of both cables was a combination of below ground conduit and above ground cable tray on both ends so they could not be visually traced end to end. Because of their close prox-imity to other energized cables vari-ous test meter results were suscep-tible to false readings and therefore could not be 100% guaranteed. To ensure the safety of our personnel after all available identification meth-ods were used to indicate the cor-rect cables we employed a remote activated “Shearing Tool” to make the actual cable cut. Both cables were successfully identified and cut without incident. Marque has also been awarded the Dehexanizer Instrumentation contract which has a completion date of May, 2011. This will require a workforce of 40 electricians and instrument fitters plus foremen, general foremen, quality control technicians, planners, project admin-istrators, safety co-ordinator and a project manager. All Marque’s work at the Irving Oil Refinery is performed on a four day a week / ten hour a day sched-ule, Monday through Thursday. This shift began in September of 2009 and since then the requirement for overtime has lessened and absentee-ism has had a dramatic reduction. In addition, the number of times an employee arrives late for work has

Above: From left to right - Module B and Module D. These were assembled by Ocean Steel in a lay down area at the Refinery in mid summer. MacDonald Appli-cators completed the fireproofing touch up to Module B before it was set in its final location. Both modules are part of a larger structure which was erected by Ocean Steel.

also significantly dropped. Marque also introduced a stretching program on this site that has 100% participation from all our trades and support staff. The program involves stretching exercises every day at the start of each shift with the goal of preventing strains and pulled muscle injuries. Not only has this been success-ful for its original purpose but it has turned into a great morale boaster. We have since rolled the program out at all our sites.

Above: Completed Cementitious Steel at the Strescon Saint John Plant.

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STEEL: Penniac Bridge This fall, numerous welded plate girders for the Penniac Stream Bridge project have consumed much of the real estate within Ocean’s main plant in Saint John, NB. The picture at left shows that when trial fitted end to end, a necessity to ensure proper field assembly, the 8 foot deep girders dominate most of Ocean’s center bay. Twenty-five girders are required for the two-span, 400 foot long bridge located just outside of Fredericton, NB, for customer Dunbar Construction. Plant Manager Troy Hawkes, and Project Manager Jason Presley, have been busy implementing various techniques and practices drawn from the decades of experience of our new Bridge Specialist on staff; Bill Macleod. This project team and ex-perience will certainly lead to several future successful bridge con-struction projects. Erection is scheduled for November of 2010.

PRECAST: Princess Margaret Bridge Strescon has been contracted by SNC Lavalin to provide four separate types of precast units for the replacement of the Prin-cess Margaret Bridge deck in Fredericton, NB:• 207 Deck Girder slabs (shown below) make up the majority of

the 1075 m span bridge. • 20 Through Truss Girders (central portion of the bridge)• 18 Approach Slab Girders (on/off ramp sections of the bridge)• 20 Sidewalk sections to be post installed alongside the through

truss girders for pedestrian use. Production of the 207 Deck Girders began June 16, 2010 and continued until October 5th, 2010. 199 units were fabricated in this time. Due to design modifications still pending, the remaining 8 Deck Girders will be made in the spring of 2011. Shipping of the 199 Deck Girders is currently ongoing, at a rate of 6 units/day. Starting in February of 2011, Strescon will begin production of the 20 Through Truss Girders and 20 Sidewalk Panels, inside their shop to avoid cold weather. Due to their size, and manufac-turing restrictions, the Approach Slab Girders, weighing nearly 120,000 lbs., will be produced outside, in Strescon’s yard. For du-rability requirements, all precast units are water cured for 7 days once removed from the forms, so work is proceeding quickly, to allow exterior water curing while the weather permits. SNC‘s erection plan is to have two phases of precast erec-tion, the first began July 15th, 2010 and included 11 Deck Girders making up one complete span of the bridge. The purpose of this preliminary phase was for SNC to work out any logistic, handling, bracing or unforeseen issues with a short span, prior to initiating the second phase. Phase two will begin in spring of 2011 and will involve the installation of the remaining 254 precast units.

Bridging the Distance

Steel or Precast? The OSCO Construction Group Can Build it!

contributed by BERNIE BLAKELY & BRENDAN CLANCY

On May 8, 2008, Sonco Gaming New Brunswick Limited Partnership was selected as the successful proponent for the New Brunswick Destination Casino Project. Construction of the complex was underway in October 2008 by Atlantic Canada’s Marco Group at a cost of ap-proximately $90-million. The project is comprised of three buildings connected by an interior cor-ridor: a 128-room luxury hotel complete with pool, spa, and fitness facilities; The Palladium, a multifunction entertainment and convention centre with concert seating capacity of 1,800 people; and the 6,000 square meter Casino. The exterior design of the casino features a lighthouse theme. This complex is the first of its kind in the province of New Brunswick and is a highlight of the Moncton area. On July 6, 2009, Borcherdt Con-crete Products was selected to supply all architectural precast concrete elements necessary to satisfy the specifications set forth by Norr Architects and Plan-ners. From that point, Borcherdt con-tracted Peter Takacs at Structural Focus Engineering Inc. to design and detail the 1600+ individual precast items for the project. Through multiple approval stages Strescon’s engineering depart-ment, working with Structural Focus, designed all structural connections re-quired to attach the precast elements to the supporting structure and incorporate

them seamlessly with the other masonry. The lead time on this production was very short. By the time the precast contract had been awarded, construc-tion was already nearing the point where contractors were ready to start install-ing masonry. By the first of August 2009, working closely with Marco Maritimes, Borcherdt was able to construct forms and schedule production to suit the progress of the masons as they installed the product around the first building. The first delivery was made to the Casino structure August 21. After that initial delivery, production expanded to include precast items required on all three buildings so that each build-ing had sufficient product to ensure the masons would not be held up. The final deliveries were made by mid November. The precast provides a contrast to the brick components, while standing out as distinct items resembling natural cut stone inherent in traditional masonry architecture. The elements totaled 11 distinct shapes to be incorporated into the projects masonry façade, including: window sills and headers; arch pieces; door sills; wall caps; and various pieces designed to enclose the brick exterior encompassing the structures. Of the 11 shapes, there were three pieces that formed the main entry and

signature structure of the Palladium facility. The upright portions of the entry were cast as two mirror image items over 18 feet tall. The most impressive piece was the arch spanning this entry, which was over 26 feet in diameter and weighed over 5 tons. This piece was cast from a single use form that took over 100 labour hours to fabricate. When this piece ar-rived on site, Strescon Atlantic personnel were on hand to consult with the masons on proper handling and erection of such

an elaborate precast piece. This project is a fine example

of the coordinated efforts the OSCO Group’s varied contribu-tors provide to the construc-tion industry. The fine detail

and attention to the most exacting requirements of archi-

tectural precast elements displayed by Borcherdt Concrete’s skilled staff

allowed this project to be a successful venture and an excellent end product for the customer. Strescon Engineering in concert with Structural Focus Engi-neering, adapted and incorporated the many design features and connections traditional precast uses to suit this very demanding project. Upon delivery of the Palladium signature arch elements, Strescon Atlantic were available to pro-vide advice and guidance to ensure the safe and efficient installation of the more elaborate components.

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Casino New BrunswickBorcherdt Concrete Provides Old-World Style Architectural Details

contributed by STEPHEN MacDONALD

photos by Kinnon Bona

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Fredericton East End Development Parking Garage ADI International is currently con-structing a major development project for the City of Fredericton that will trans-form the East end of the City’s down-town core. The $77-million project on Queen Street includes the construction of: a three-storey, $24.2 million confer-ence centre; a $41 million, six storey office complex; as well as a 450 vehicle parking facility facing King Street. ADI’s involvement with the proj-ect began in 2005, when they assisted the City in preparing a Master Plan for the surrounding area; including a traf-fic study & parking assessment, and a facility program. In addition to Traffic Engineering and Planning, ADI has also provided: Project and Construction Management; Architecture; Structural, Mechanical, Electrical and Civil Engi-neering; as well as Materials testing for this project.

Precast Parking Garage According to ADI Architect, Stephen Skinner, the design approach for the parking garage was heavily influenced by the constricted and prominent nature of the site. A compact and efficient layout resulted from its integration within the larger development. Extending to six levels above grade, the parking structure would have a strong street presence, sharing frontage with the office building. ADI made the early design decision to let the parking garage have its own identity, not to disguise it, but accept its func-tionality. “The frontage is deliberately open, partially exposing the structure and contents, allowing natural light and

ventilation to penetrate the building. This

openness also promotes

good vis-

ibility, an important safety feature - ‘see and be seen’.” Exterior panels have a light sandblast finish and simple matrix of reveals that echo the glazing modules on the adjacent office building. Working closely with both ADI and the Consulting Engineer, Reid Jones Christofferson located in Toronto, ON., Strescon engineered, detailed, manu-factured and erected the “Butterfly style” parking structure. Although most precast garages are a single helix design with two-way traffic, the Butterfly design (end to end helix) has a center cross-over with one-way traffic, allowing drivers to quickly ramp up or down the garage by only travelling half it’s length. In Frederic-ton’s case, they wanted the ability to fill/empty the garage quickly during large events in the downtown core. Shop production of the precast began in May, 2009 and was shared between the Saint John and Bedford plants. Production concluded in Decem-ber of 2009, but erection was delayed at owners request until mid May of 2010. The garage was erected by Strescon Atlantic with a 300 ton crane supplied by A.W. Leil and was completed by late August 2010. Strescon supplied 544 precast units consisting of columns, beams, span-drels, solid panels, shearwalls, litewalls, stair panels, stair assemblies, double tee’s and Strescore.

with Contributions from GRANT MAXWELL, ANDREW LEVATTE & STEPHEN SKINNER

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FCC “Upcycles” Old Strescon Office

The completion of the new Strescon Office Building in Saint John created a dilemma for senior management. What

to do with the vacant space of the old office? The build-

ing was in rough shape and the simple answer would have been to call in the demolition crew

and start from scratch. At OSCO Group we don’t do

it simply; we do it right! Why turn an entire building into landfill, when the possibility is there to “upcycle” it into something great? Always looking for the hidden value in our assets, Strescon Senior management decided that much like the Bionic man, “we could rebuild it better than it was before”. The old office space, roughly 8500 sqft in area, was nestled between the Precast plant, metal shop and stores. It couldn’t be more central to the day to

day operation of the Strescon personnel, so what better place to create a much needed new lunchroom, locker room and bathrooms for the plant workers? FCC Construction was contacted to assess the existing facilities and deter-mine whether the vision could be achieved within a reasonable budget. There were times during this process that the plan to renovate rather than build new was questioned, but Senior Management remained confident in the final outcome. Despite the leak-ing roof, the sloping floors, the structural shortcomings and the miles of aban-doned data and electrical cable, FCC Superintendent Daryl Ross persevered, overcoming each obstacle as it appeared. As a result, Strescon now has a truly rejuvenated space which the workers will appreciate for many years to come The project truly became a “fam-ily affair”, in that all sectors of the OSCO

Group contributed to its successful completion: Ocean Steel supplied and installed reinforcing beams to help sup-port the wooden roof structure; Strescon supplied manpower on a regular basis to help with demolition and clean-up;

Strescon’s Richard Roy and crew leveled and repaired the existing concrete floors; and FCC provided the Construction Management services as

well as the electrical/data upgrade. The project began in the fall of 2009 and was carried out in phases to accom-modate the Strescon personnel that still made their home in the space. The final turnover of the building occurred on Sept. 3 and Strescon moved in on Sept. 7th, 2010. The work was completed on budget despite the many hurdles that had to be overcome when working in build-ings of this vintage. Many thanks go out to Shauna Miller and Daryl Ross for their diligent work in managing this project.

Contributed by CARL BLANCHARD

At OSCO Group we don’t do it simply; we do it right!

Borcherdt Concrete Products is currently providing precast to contrac-tor Basque Construction Limited, for the new Correctional Centre located on Miller Boulevard in Dalhousie, New Brunswick. The project will feature architectural sandblasted concrete for the 116 Precast window sills. The $16.3-million facility will be

3,857 sq. metres (41,501 sq. ft.) in size. As part of the provincial government’s Green Buildings Program, the facility has been designed to achieve a silver rating under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a rating system that measures the performance of green buildings in Canada. The project is expected to be com-pleted by 2011.

Dalhousie Correctional Facility

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Projects in the Precast Pipeline

• Wo rk in g With Cl i e nt s to Pr ov i d e N ew a n d Cu s to m ize d S o lut i o n sP I P E D I V I S I O N U P D AT E

East Bound Pipeline Headwallscontributed by MIKE HAZELWOOD

This past summer, Strescon de-signed, fabricated and supplied the components for 2 segmental headwalls to Gulf Operators for Pipeline Rd. East in Saint John, N.B. The production of the components started on the 16th of June and was completed on the 23rd. Everything was shipped out on 2 loads on July 2nd. Each headwall consisted of a base, 2 side walls and the back wall, which were assembled on site. The largest pieces were the bases at a length of 10.2 M x 2.9 M wide and weighing 18,200 Kgs each.

Welsford, NB Bypasscontributed by MIKE HAZELWOOD

Strescon’s pipe division at the Saint John plant is currently working on the

Welsford Bypass in New Brunswick. The Bypass is a 45 million dollar project and has been called in four contracts. Strescon has been the successful sup-plier of concrete products for all of the contracts and is providing 8200 lineal feet of concrete pipe in varying sizes from 18” -120” diameters . Strescon is also supplying 2000’ of concrete median barriers and accompanying catch basins and manholes. The project is expected to be completed in 2012 and will make the Welsford section of the highway both safer and faster.

Crumbling Infrastructure?Strescon to the Rescue!contributed by DARREN BRIGGS

On Thursday, September 2 at ap-proximately 11:30 a.m., in the City of Auburn, Maine, the public was given another stark reminder as to the state of

our deteriorating infrastructure. High-way Route 136, also known as Outer Riverside Drive, suffered a catastrophic failure as it collapsed to the adjacent Androscoggin River. Engineers call it “Circular Slope Fail-ure,” where a river or stream slices into its winding banks undermining them and causing them to erode. It just so happens that Route 136 is constructed high above the Androscoggin’s river-banks and fell victim to its persistent currents. A reputable Maine Contractor, Gary St. laurent and his firm, St. Laurent and Sons, Inc. of Lewiston, were hired to perform the repairs on this section of road. Part of that process included driving corrugated steel sheeting deep into the ground to stabilize the road and riverbank and to prevent any further degradation. St. Laurent enlisted the services of another respected contract-ing firm, H.B. Fleming of South Portland to perform the steel driving phase. They mobilized the necessary equipment including a Link-Belt Crawler Crane with a pneumatic driving head mounted on its boom that would drive the steel deep

Welsford bypass Welsford bypass

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Projects in the Precast Pipeline

• Wo rk in g With Cl i e nt s to Pr ov i d e N ew a n d Cu s to m ize d S o lut i o n s

down into the ground. The process to repair the nearly half-mile section of road had begun and was progressing as expected when the road suddenly disappeared and was engulfed by the river taking not only the road but utility and power lines, guard rails AND the crane. Amazingly, every-one escaped with a few minor injuries including the crane operator who scaled out on to the disappearing ground to escape the crashing machine and scramble to safety. Once the scene was cleared by emergency crews, Highway Engineers, Environmental Officials and more, converged on the scene to evaluate the collapse and determine the measures necessary to stabilize the scene, miti-gating any further disaster amidst the ever-present risk. Three different detour routes were identified and activated as it would take that many roads to handle the volume of traffic each day. Route 136 is a major connector between Auburn and points North and West, including the Western Mountains and the coastal communities such as Freeport where L.L. Bean em-

ploys hundreds of workers and the Bath/Brunswick area, where the shipyard, Bath Iron Works, is located. Strescon was contacted by Gary Wadsworth, Operations Manager at the City of Auburn to assist with sourcing a considerable volume of 48” Reinforced Concrete Pipe (RCP) on a fast-track schedule. The RCP pipe was needed to upgrade the detour routes including the Jordan School Road before they could be put into service as active detours.Jeff lavoie, Highway Supervisor for the City of Auburn, was in charge of the installation of the pipe, which replaced three existing runs of bituminous coated corrugated metal culvert that was fail-ing long before its touted service life as many alternative pipe products do. The City of Auburn has used several different types of pipe over the years but has repeatedly used RCP. This is one such example of a critical application in terms of service, such as very shal-low or extremely deep installations or environmentally sensitive areas. RCP is also considered more esthetically pleasing and blends in nicely with the surrounding environment - RCP shines

by comparison to the alternatives! Strescon is always honored to be consulted and included on many sensi-tive and critical projects. This was a case where professional and forward-thinking individuals came together to make an informed decision on what is in the public’s best interest in terms of SAFETY and VALUE. RCP experiences a service life that far exceeds that of its competition, such as HDPE plastic pipe and Corrugated metal pipe by as much as three times! It requires far less granular material to bed and backfill, as it typically utilizes the native soils already found on site. This, as opposed to having to truck in greater quantities of more expensive processed aggregates that International and National standards organizations, of ASTM and AASHTO demand for safe installations. Strescon stands apart from many other producers as it is one of the few manufacturers that can produce 12 inch up to 12 foot diameter pipe capable of replacing many small bridges for a fraction of the cost. As Engineers, Designers, Contrac-

“RCP experiences a service life that far exceeds that of its competition, such as HDPE plastic pipe and Corru-gated metal pipe by as much as three times!”

East Bound Pipeline Headwalls

Auburn, Maine infrastructure repair

continued next pg...

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tors, Municipalities and other Project Owners are becoming more aware of the true value, benefits and security of using RCP, it is gaining in popularity, as is evidenced by 2010 being one of Strescon Pipe Division’s most demand-ing and successful years to date. Much of this success can be attributed to its team of driven and detail-oriented professionals, who collectively strive to exceed the needs of its customer base that keeps growing by the day.

Strescon Delivers to Northwest New Brunswickcontributed by STEWART TOTTEN

Traditionally, the Strescon Pipe Division has not done much work in Northern NB, because the nearly 400 km shipping distance and the presence of local competition usually makes it cost prohibitive. This construction season how-ever, has seen a shift in the status quo.

Thanks to Strescon’s speed of produc-tion, specialty products, quality, and customer service, we have been able to secure four separate contracts with the three main contractors in the Edmund-ston area. The first two jobs we were awarded were the Water and Sewer Improve-ments in St Leonard, designed by ADI; and the Downtown Redevelopment in Edmundston, designed by Roy Consul-tants with Couturier Enterprises Ltée.. These two jobs consisted of: 4 x 48” sanitary manholes; 1 x 48” storm man-hole; 4 x 30” catch basins; 5 pieces of 36” culvert; 9 pieces of 60” culvert com-plete with fish weirs; and the required cast iron frames and covers to replace existing ones. Following this, we received the order for the site services on the new Police Station in Edmundston, which was designed by Crandall Engineering from Conrad Lavoie Et Fils Ltee. For this order, we supplied: 3 x 42” storm manholes; 1 x 30” catch basin; 1 x 42” sanitary manhole; and an STC 750 Stormceptor along with cast iron frame and covers. The most recent order we received was for the Sanitary Sewer Upgrades

in the Village of Clair (Northwest of Edmundston) which was designed by Roche Atlantic. This is the first time Strescon Pipe Division has had the opportunity to work with Roche. The project called for supply of 20 x 48” sanitary manholes along with the cast iron for each structure. We received this order on September 20 and shipped out the first load on September 27, allowing the contractor to maintain the schedule set out in the tender. On a related note, Strescon’s pipe division has also received its’ first order from L.C.L Excavation Ltd, based in Campbellton. The job is to supply 36” sanitary sewer pipe and related struc-tures for the town of Dalhousie. This project has 170 pieces of 36” air tested pipe and 12 structures ranging in size from 30” diameter up to 144” diameter. The completed sewer line will divert overflow sanitary sewer water to a new outfall away from the marina. One of the main reasons Strescon was chosen as the supplier is the good reputation we have for supplying 100% tested product that, when installed correctly, meets and exceeds all test require-ments, which takes away one worry from the contractor.

... continued from previous page

FCC Helps Bring New Life to Heritage Building Built in 1842 as a British Military Ordnance Building, 274 Sydney Street has undergone many changes over the years. Used for various military purposes until 1995, the building was purchased by Commercial Properties in 2009 with the purpose of restoring and bringing new life to the property. FCC Construction has worked with Commercial Properties on the restoration of heritage properties before, such as the (award-winning) Centerbeam project on King Street. FCC now brings that experience to

274 Sydney Street. With tenant work underway on the historic building, we now find ourselves on the verge of making a real statement on restoration being alive and well in the lower south end of Saint John. The building has undergone many improvements since our work began: structural upgrades; new wood / vinyl clad windows and entrances; skylight; copper roofing and siding of penthouse; as well as the installation of a new core stairwell with skylight. Perhaps more important how-ever, is the restoration of many of the original elements of the building: the

stone and granite exterior; the inte-rior window trims; exterior security screens; interior bead board; interior ceiling structure; and a grand set of double doors facing Sydney Street. Overall, this project is a perfect combination of new and restored ele-ments. Work on the building, which is recognized as one of the oldest British Naval facilities in Canada, has spurred a flurry of interest from the commu-nity. Many passers by (pedestrians or vehicular) take time to stop and look it over, and the comments are nothing but optimistic, relative to what this project means to this community.

contributed by MOLLY KNORR

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The City of Saint John, New Bruns-wick’s 225th birthday celebrations began with a bang on May 18th, 2010 with the unveiling of a magnificent Post Clock, which was a gift to the city from Commercial Properties. Hundreds of people were in attendance to see the City’s latest and greatest landmark. Commercial Properties com-missioned the large, 4-dial Howard Clock from Electric Time Company, in Medfield, Mass.. The custom clock was constructed using a cast aluminum post, saddle and head, with aluminum bezels. Although the fifteen foot high stand-alone clock has the appearance of a historic timepiece, its surprisingly high-tech movements are automati-cally controlled from the base with 99B-MI automatic tower clock control and GPS satellite synchronization. It also has translucent acrylic dials with fluorescent illumination controlled by a

photoelectric cell. Dan Glenn from Glenn Group designed the surrounding landscaping, granite benches and pavers. Drawings were finalized in early April, then city council approved the use of the land on April 13th. Construction began soon after, with the relocation of a city water line and construction of the 10ft x 10ft x 5’-6” deep concrete foundation. Work then began to install pavers, landscap-ing, granite benches and planters. Thanks to the combined efforts of Commercial Properties’ team of John Irving, Peter Milan and Chris law-rence; and FCC Construction’s team of Shauna Miller, Rob Murphy and Tim Palmer; the clock was erected on a Thursday night, covered with tarps to conceal it, and then unwrapped and rewrapped with a cloth covering on Sunday the 17th for the following day’s unveiling.

FCC Helps Bring New Life to Heritage Building Over the project’s duration, FCC Civil has employed various subcon-tractors, including FCC Electrical. A building of this nature has its challeng-es, but all have risen to the occasion and have taken pride in making the commitment to not only get the work done, but appreciate those nuances that make this building stand out from typical commercial buildings. The exterior work was completed at the end of October 2010. The entire project will be completed and have its major tenant (Dillon Consulting) settled in and open for business as usual by the end of November.

The clock was officially unveiled at 10 am on May 18th to kick off the City’s birthday celebrations by (l-r): Senator John Wallace, Mayor Ivan Court, Lt-Gov. Graydon Nicholas and John Irving, who presented the timepiece to the city.

A New Landmark for an Old City contributed by

SHAUNA MILLER

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Precast Divisioncontributed by BRENDAN CLANCY

Strescon’s precast division is cur-rently working on the Picadilly Potash Project for AMEC Americas Lim-

ited. The project requires Strescon to provide precast for multiple buildings on the compound. Strescon is provid-ing Precast Concrete Panels (insulated and solid), precast

beams, col-

umns and hollowcore. They began work on the project in January of 2010 and expect to be completed by early 2011. The mine project requires all exte-rior precast to be made from a concrete mix rich in CNI (corrosion inhibitor) due to the high levels of chlorides present from their chemical processes, and the humidity of the local area. Due to strict fall protection rules on site (4’ fall rule) the erection crew cannot get on the trailers to hook the crane to the precast. Panels have to be tilt-lifted off the trailers, which means the crane is only attached to the top of the panel, and a rubber pad is put under the bottom during tilting to prevent cracking. This requires special design for the precast, as the tilting force they are subjected to is their most extreme stressing case.

Wet Mill: When completed, the Con-centrator (Wet Mill Building) will contain both precast and structural steel, consisting of 141 - 8” solid panels used as a firewall between areas in their processes. There are also 149 - 12” insulated wall panels to enclose the remainder of the building. Recent contract additions have added two precast stair towers, one adjacent tank enclosed (MIBC Tank Enclosure) as well as a sump pump enclosure.

Service Head & Production Head E-houses: The Second and third buildings that Strescon is working

Picadilly Potash Update

The $1.7 billion Picadilly Potash Mine expansion project outside Sussex, New

Brunswick, continues to provide work for many OSCO Construction Group

members, as subcontractors to both AMEC Americas Limited and Cementa-

tion Canada Ltd.. To date, we have provided Project Management services;

supply and erection of structural and miscellaneous steel; supply and placing

of reinforcing steel; instrumentation installation; and precast concrete.

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on, are the Service Head and Production Head E-houses, which are two inde-pendent precast structures, designed similarly to suit AMEC’s layouts. They consist of (combined) 79 - 12” insulated precast panels, 16 precast columns, 14 precast beams and nearly 13,000 sq feet of 12” hollowcore.

Steel Divisioncontributed by JEFF KEITH

Compaction Plant: Ocean Steel successfully supplied and installed ap-prox. 3,795 tons of structural steel and continues to perform extra work inside the new Compaction Plant. Com-missioning of the Compaction Plant is expected to take place during the first quarter of 2011.

Wet Mill: OSCO completed Phase 1 of the Wet Mill (Grids S – E) with 2,250 tons of structural steel and trusses. Phase 2 (Grids E – A) is currently being constructed with four fabrication shops feeding OSCO Erection. Detailing is wrapping up on Phase 2 with four de-tailing offices chipping in on this 3,575 ton portion of the project. Phase 3 (Grids A – A.2) 705 tons is in the detail-ing stage with erection slated to start after the completion of phase 2.

Other scheduled work for this area includes the Wet Mill Utility Racks (70 tons), Condenser Access Platform (17 tons), Service Shaft & Production Shaft E-House Platforms (12 tons), Emergency Generator Bldg (98 tons), Waste Oil Shed (4 tons) & Utility Rack PR500 - 505 (100 tons). Work is projected through to July 2011 for these projects.

Raw Ore Building: With 300 tons of the 1600 ton Building / Bin already erected, the remainder is scheduled to re-start in the 1st quarter of 2011. The remaining work consists of 198 Bin Panels, 19 Ridge Tent Panels, 14 Rigid Frame Bin Columns, Seven Rigid Frame Bin Beams & standard structural shapes & sizes detailed by OSCO. Fabrication duties will be split between OSCO’s Saint John and Fredericton Shops. Field welding of the bin is planned to com-mence in spring 2011, at which time, OSCO Erection will be busy with an an-ticipated 11,666 linear feet of weld, both full penetration & fillet, to be performed onsite (approx 4.5 tons of filler metal).

Wet Mill Shops and Ware-house: The 796 ton Wet Mill Ware-house started erection August 23rd, 2010 and completed September 24th, 2010. The building is scheduled to be decked and turned over in early Novem-ber. The Wet Mill Shops Building, 1050

tons, started erection October 4th, 2010 and will con-

tinue into November. Detailing was com-

pleted by OSCO Detailing and

Hache Technical Services. Fabrication is being done by Saint John, Fredericton and Conklin Plants. Installation is by OSCO Erection.

Salt Storage Shed: Structural Steel for the Salt Storage Building, East & West Wall Infill (690 tons) is finished. The Tripper Conveyor Walkway (155 tons) re-mains to be installed later this year and is being fabricated in Conklin. This walkway consists of structural steel, FRP grating and handrail. It hangs from the existing glulam beams and will be a challenge to install inside the existing shed.

Area 300, 305 & 315 Penob-squis Side Existing Mill: Ocean Steel is also working on the expansion and upgrade of the PCS Penobsquis existing mill. Projects include: supply and install of the Cyclone & Low Voltage MCC Building; Medium Voltage MCC Building; HVAC Building; Stair Enclosure; Bucket Elevator Doghouse; Yard Utilities Box Truss; and supply only of the New Precipitator & Load Center Electrical and Mechanical Buildings. The majority of the supply and install projects have been completed. Tying the new buildings into the exist-ing mill, and access in and around the existing mill, posed the greatest chal-lenge. The Yard Utilities Box Truss (80 tons) is being fabricated and shipped in two sections, the first being 8’ high x 11’ wide x 90’ long and the second at 8’ high x 11’ wide x 38’ long. The Yard Utili-ties Box Truss is slated to deliver late this year and the Precipitator Buildings (400 tons) were delivered in October, 2010.

Cementation

c u s t o m e r p r o f i l e :


About Cementation Cementation is an underground hardrock mine contract-ing and engineering company. Structured to handle technically challenging projects. Cementation specializes in the design and construction of underground facilities including shaft sink-ing, ramp and lateral development, raising and large diameter raise boring. Cementation’s engineering expertise plays a critical role in their ability to deliver design and build services for underground mine projects. Cementation is committed to working safely. Their aim is to build long term relationships with their clients based on a “best for project” philosophy.Cementation is part of the Cementation Group of companies with independent offices based in Canada, the United States, Chile, South Africa and Australia. The Cementation Group of companies is active worldwide and has carried out projects in over 30 countries. By working together they incorporate global best practices into project delivery.

News/Developments/Awards• Cementation opened an office in Santiago Chile in 2009 –

Cementation Sudamerica S.A.• Named one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for 2011, the

fourth time Cementation has made this list.• One of Financial Post’s 10 Best Companies to Work For• 2008 Northern Ontario Business of the Year for companies

with + 51 employees

Company History Cementation was started in 1998 with four people and a simple philosophy; hoping to make a difference in the way mine contracting was carried out. Since 1998, Cementation has grown to a strong, vibrant company, that has changed the face of mining contracting, and continues to do so today. It started with Roy Slack, President of Cementation Canada,

who owned his own firm, Mine Project Services. In early 1998, he was hired by UK based Kvaerner Cementation to carry out a study on the possible acquisition of an existing company. In the end, Kvaerner Cementation decided to establish its own company in the North American market and approached Roy to set-up and run the operations. The offer was accepted, and Kvaerner Cementation Canada Inc. was established in the later part of 1998. Cementation added people, and targeted projects. Their first project was Falconbridge’s (now Xstrata Nickel) Strath-cona Mine. Cementation has had steady success in winning projects; Onaping Depth Project in Sudbury, Kidd Mine D #4 Shaft Project in Timmins, Lupin Contract Mining Project in the Northwest Territories, Red Lake Mine, Xstrata’s Nickel Rim South Project, Diavik Diamond Mines in the Northwest Territo-ries, New Afton Project, Vale Inco Shaft Development, and the Picadilly Shafts Mine Project in Sussex New Brunswick. While continuing to make its mark in the mine contracting industry and successfully bidding big projects, the company has gone through a couple of changes in ownership. In 2000, Skanska ASA of Sweden purchased Kvaerner Cementation and the name of the company changed to Cementation Skan-ska Inc. In 2004 the Cementation companies in Canada and South Africa were acquired by Murray & Roberts, the world’s largest underground mining contractor. The Canadian com-pany changed its name to Cementation Canada Inc.

Picadilly Project Cementation Canada Inc. contracted with FCC Construc-tion for the Construction Management of the new headframes at the new Potash Mine just outside of Sussex, New Brunswick. Cementation recognized the strength that FCC could bring to their team. Part of this strength was the affiliation that FCC has with Ocean Steel Structural and Ocean Steel Rebar, Cementa-tion also recognized FCC’s strong working relationship with

contributed by Rick Williston

c u s t o m e r p r o f i l e :


contributed by Rick Williston

New Brunswick’s best sub-contractors, these strengths were seen as being very beneficial to the project. The challenges of building two 300 foot high headframes have been, and continue to be, significant and numerous; building deep foundations in rock with adverse water conditions, building foundations inside 60 foot high secant pile walls, slipforming two 300 foot high concrete towers, structural steel framing and concrete floors inside the concrete towers, etc. The Cementation/FCC team

has met these challenges and have been very successful in delivering the quality products that PCS are expecting. Teamwork has been essential, working side by side since first arriving on site in June 2008, the FCC/Cementation team has evolved to realize substantial accomplishments. At present, the Cementation miners are sinking the two 20 foot diameter shafts at the same time as FCC are continuing to construct the tower. The sinking of the shafts and the building of the headframes, at the same time, has never been done before. Without a cohesive and strong team, this could not be done.

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INDuSTRIal

Hog Fuel Boiler, luPP - Gulf Operators Ltd - St. Leonard, NB - 127 T rebar

Dehexanizer Brownfield area - IOR - Gulf Operators Ltd - Saint John, NB - 173 T rebar

CP54 Concrete Foundations, Potash Mine - Opron Maritimes - Penobsquis, NB - 132 T rebar

CP35 Concentrator Slabs, Potash Mine - Opron Maritimes - Penobsquis, NB - 603 T rebar

Bark Storage Building, St. Leonard Saw Mill - JD Irving Ltd. - St. Leonard, NB - 35 T rebar

InStItutIonalFredericton Transit Garage - Pomerleau - Fredericton, NB - 126 T rebar

Saint John law Courts Foundation - Bird Const. - Saint John, NB - 313 T rebar

CCNB Edmundston Slab Work - Spring-

hill Const. - Edmundston, NB - 68 T rebar, 51,000 SF mesh

Inverary Hospital link - JonelJim/Po-merleau Inverness, NS - 145 T rebar

uNBSJ Commons Bldg - DORA Const. - Saint John, NB - 129 T rebar, 23,000 SF mesh

New yMCa Foundation - Springhill Const. - Fredericton, NB - 168 T rebar

Discovery Center - Avondale Const. - St. Andrews, NB - 95 T rebar, 12 000 SF mesh

Southeast Correctional Center Phase 4 - Maricon Cont. Management - Shediac, NB - 186 T rebar, 33,000 SF mesh

New Bioscience Building - Marco Mari-times - St. Andrews, NB - 277 T rebar

NBCC-SJ Energy Center Phase 3 - Avon-dale Const. - Saint John, NB - 85 T rebar

Sisters of Charity Residence - Bird Const. -

Saint John, NB - 66 T rebar, 10,000 SF mesh

Emergency Response Center/Town Hall - Maxim Const. - Sackville, NB - 48 T rebar, 65,000 SF mesh

BRIDGES & WHaRvESIrishtown Spillway - Modern Const. - Moncton, NB - 49 T rebar

Bennett lake Dam - Gulf Operators Ltd. - Alma, NB - 94 T rebar

Darnley Bridge Replacement - Highfield Const. - Darnley, PEI - 32 T rebar

COMMERCIalCanadian Tire West Side - Maxim Const. - Saint John, NB - 31 T rebar

Mapleton Medical Center - Acadian Const. - Moncton, NB - 34 T rebar, 64,000 SF mesh

Rebar Update

The Saint John Law Courts, located on Hazen Avenue, will cover 15,506 sq. m (50,872 sq. ft.). It will include: 13 courtrooms; a barristers’ lounge; office space for the judiciary; court services; public pros-ecutions; sheriff services; the Department of Public Safety; and policing. As part of the government’s Green Buildings Program, the facility has been de-signed to achieve a silver rating under the Principles of Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED), a rating system used to measure green building per-formance in Canada. Phase 1 of construction of the $50-million project began this spring, with the awarding of the $6.3-mil-lion contract for structural foundations and steel-work going to Bird Construction. The Law Courts are scheduled to be completed in 2012. In addition to OSCO Rebar supplying and placing 313 Tonnes of rebar on this project, Strescon Pipe has begun supplying site services; the majority of which have been put on hold until the spring.

OSCO Rebar Works on Saint John Law CourtsSaint John Law Courts

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King’s Wharf • Dartmouth, NS Allstar Rebar is currently working on King’s Wharf - Buildings A & B in Dartmouth, NS, for Dartmouth Cove Developments. Building A is a 90-unit apartment building and Building B is an 80-unit condominium building. The $500 million King’s Wharf devel-opment will eventually include 1,300 condominium and rental units, a 200 room hotel and 300,000 square feet of office and commercial space. Allstar is providing a total of 1050 tons of black Rebar and 53 tons of Epoxy Rebar, with fabrication and placing currently underway for both buildings. Timmy Blair is Allstar’s foreman for this project and is currently working both projects simultaneously, while dealing with challenges from the tides coming in and out and the corrosion of their tools from the salt water. Epoxy Rebar is being placed in the lower levels to coun-teract the corrosive environment. Due to the ever-changing tide schedule, they had to work irregular hours. At the beginning of this project they would start at daylight and work for a few hours, then leave, and return later in the day when the tides allowed. On another note, working with the tides allowed for a full days work; half the day on Building A while the tide was in, and half the day on Building B when the tide was out. Allstar Rebar expects to have these two buildings completed by the fall of 2011.

contributed by DAWNE GRANDY

Saint John Law Courts

King’s Wharf

King’s Wharf

Saint John Law Courts

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Marque Industrial UpdatesIOR Fuel Gas Containment ProjectOur Industrial Division is currently working on the Fuel Gas Containment Project at the Irving Oil Refinery. Marque’s work, currently, has been in the HRU Substation and grounding in the unit. However, we are soon launching into the major electri-cal and instrumentation work for the new FGC unit. Prefabricated modules were completed and placed in the FGC unit this summer. Marque will be tying these mod-ules into the off module installations and completing the dressing of the modules. This project will be ongoing and continue until its completion in early April, 2011.

Irving PaperIn addition to providing maintenance support for various activities at the Irving Paper Mill on Bayside Drive in Saint John,

the Industrial Division has been involved in three recent projects: Steam System Upgrade, Vacuum Sump Pumps Installa-tion and TMP Water Recovery. The Steam System Upgrade project is reclaiming the steam that has been vented to atmo-sphere. Once completed, the steam will be used to operate various equipment within the plant. The Vacuum Pumps project is an upgrade to the existing system. The upgrade to the Water Recovery will provide similar advantages as the steam upgrade; in that it will reuse water that otherwise would be released to the environment. Marque provided both electrical & instru-mentation services on these projects.

North Satellite Electrical SubstationThe Industrial Division has also been involved with a major retrofit of the North Satellite Electrical Substation at the Irving Oil Refinery. Existing switch-

gear and MCC’s were being replaced with newer, state of the art equipment. This modernization of the substation will allow for greater reliability and control to be given to operations at the refinery. This project was scheduled as part of the 2010 Fall Turnaround. In addition to dealing with a very tight schedule on this immense turnaround, some of the chal-lenges faced included coordinating tasks & major power outages so as to not in-terfere with the parallel activities of other contractors & Irving operations. Marque was able to perform their work ahead of schedule and without incident.

Picadilly Potash MineMarque is presently working at the Potash site in Penobsquis as an Electrical & In-strumentation subcontractor to Lockerbie & Hole Eastern Inc. More on this exciting challenge at a later date.

contributed by TOM COUGHLAN

By late 2009, MSD Enterprises had grown its business to the point that the supply of the original pit had been exhaust-ed. Over the winter of 2009 and spring of 2010, the process-ing equipment was disassembled and reassembled at the new location, across the road from the existing concrete plant and

maintenance facilities. The new location consolidates opera-tions and resources more efficiently, while the new pit has re-serves sufficient to supply the market for many years to come. The disassembly of the equipment afforded the company the opportunity to refurbish, upgrade and in some cases, replace the original equipment. The end result is a safer, more efficient, more modern, higher production operation. The new

set up also boasts a new 724 John Deere loader that replaces an older, smaller loader. The

environmentally friendly closed loop wash cycle that the old facility used has been replicated at the new location. The truck scale is being relocated to the new facility and will be improved. These improvements result in higher quality products deliv-ered with better service.

The operation currently produces two streams of prod-ucts. The natural stone product line is used in applications such as playgrounds, landscaping, roofing and exposed aggre-gate concrete. The crushed product line is further divided into two categories, gravel and washed stone. Our primary focus is on the supply of concrete aggregate (concrete sand and ¾” stone). We supply these products to northern Nova Scotia from Amherst to Antigonish and also into Halifax. Shawn Putnam and his crew have enjoyed servicing their clients in the past and look forward to supplying their needs in the future from this new facility.

MSD Upgradescontributed by TRACY DOBSON

p r o j e c t s


Marque Industrial Updates For the past 35 years, the Lake Utopia Paper mill has been producing corru-gating medium for markets in Canada, US and Latin America with an annual ca-pacity of 187,000 tonnes/year. Located near the town of St. George, the mill is currently undergoing a very exciting project with the installation of a Biomass Boiler or “Hog Fuel Boiler” as it is also known. This boiler will be fueled by wood waste from the company’s forestry operations in New Brunswick. Hog fuel is comprised of the wood chips or shav-ings and residue from the saw mills and can be used for a number of purposes such as: fuel, as in the case of the Lake Utopia mill; animal feed; and resurfacing pathways and running trails. Once the boiler becomes op-erational, it will provide the mill with enough steam to supply the energy needs of the mill; reducing the mill’s reliance on fossil fuels by the equivalent of 180,000 barrels, and reducing the green house gases emissions by more

than 70,000 tonnes/year. This project has an overall budget of $32.9 million dollars; including $22 million in funding from the Pulp and Paper Green Transformation Program (PPGTP) and a $500,000 grant from Ef-ficiency NB.

Marque Construction’s Industrial Divi-sion has been awarded 2 contracts as part of this project. The first contract is for the installation of the electrical equipment, controls and the necessary wiring and raceways in the new substa-tion. The second contract is to install the electrical equipment and control system for the truck dumper, conveyors,

and building services for the movement of the hog fuel once it arrives on site. The first project be-gan this past July and the expected completion date is mid November, 2010. The second phase of the project began in mid September and is scheduled to be complet-ed by the end of the year. Shortly after being awarded the second phase of the project, Marque was approached by the Project Manager with a request. The mill wanted to have the truck dumper portion of the project completed by the week of Oct. 15th (four weeks ahead of schedule) so they could start bringing the hog fuel to site and start stock piling. The concern was that if they didn’t have fuel on site before winter, they would not have fuel when the boiler came on line in the spring and there would be an issue getting fuel at that time, due to spring weight restrictions on the roads. Always up for a chal-lenge, Marque started work

immediately and it was completed with a week to spare; a shining testament to the work force on site. In addition to the two projects involving the hog fuel, Marque was also awarded the contract to install the electrical equipment and its associated

cable tray & cables, in the new substa-tion for the mill’s Anaerobic Plant and Primary Clarifier. This substation and equipment is an upgrade of the existing facilities which will provide for future growth. In total, these three projects have a projected 10,000 man-hours of electri-cal work to be completed.

Lake Utopia Paper

Once the boiler becomes operational, it will provide the mill with enough steam to supply the energy needs of the mill; reducing the mill’s reliance on fossil fuels by the equivalent of 180,000 barrels, and reducing the green house gases emissions by more than 70,000 tonnes/year.

contributed by TOM COUGHLAN & KAREN MacVICAR

p r o j e c t s

www.oscoconstructiongroup.com

New Tricks for an Old

Building Material

PouringIt On Ready-Mix

Update

2626 CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 2010

Schurman potato storage This past summer, Schurman Concrete provided ready-mix for an 80’ x 190’ Potato Storage Warehouse, located in Kinkora, PEI. The warehouse will hold approximately nine million pounds of potatoes. In total, Schurman Concrete supplied 1000 cubic yards of 3000 P.S.I. to the contractor for the project, G.E.Mac Neill Construction. The contractor used an insulated con-crete form (ICF) system, so all the concrete for the walls and floors had to be placed by a concrete pump. Schurman Concrete began the project the first week of July and were finished by the end of September.

TriStar Concrete Provides Concrete For NS Nursing Home Capital District Health began construction on a new 31,000 square foot nursing home in Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia this spring. The nursing home will replace the aging Duncan MacMillan Nursing Home and provide additional beds and facilities for the residents as well as their families. TriStar Concrete was awarded the contract by con-tractor, Dora Construction, to provide 994 m3 of concrete for the footings and slab. We began pouring the footings in June and completed the slab early this fall. The facility is expected to open September 2011.

OSCO Concrete Does Specialty Pour for the Canadian Coast Guard OSCO Concrete has completed work on the new coast guard tower in Marie Joseph Down on the Eastern shore in Nova Scotia. The project involved flying 10 yards of 5000 psi concrete to an island with a helicopter. The Coast Guard used a ¾ yard concrete bucket filled with ½ yard of concrete, and each trip took about 8-10 min to complete.

Masstown Market The Masstown Market’s new fresh seafood outlet and seafood restaurant in Debert, NS, is not the typical building seen inland. Shaped like a lighthouse with a boat docked at its wharf, the foundation and attached building are all ICF construction. The main floor’s finished material is acid washed concrete, with designs saw-cut into it for an amazing finished surface. MSD Enterprises supplied all the ready mix concrete and gravels needed for the construction of the new Sea-food outlet/restaurant, bakery and septic systems.

Potato storage warehouse

Sheet Harbour, NS Nursing Home

MasstownMarket

Canadian Coast Guard

Although concrete has been around for thousands of years, it continues to evolve even today. This past sum-mer, OSCO Concrete worked with local contractors on two projects that introduced new concrete technologies to the Maritimes. These new products are branded as pervious concrete and cellular concrete.

CELLULAR CONCRETE:Cellular concrete has both lightweight and highly flowable characteristics

The Halifax Water Commission hired Dexter Construction to replace approximately two km of water pipe that had deteriorated over the years. The plan was to excavate four access points in the road, allowing them to break into the old precast pipe and insert a new PVC pipe as a sleeve inside the original

piping. Dexter completed this portion of the work and then hired Wilcraft Con-crete Services to fill the void between the PVC pipe and the precast pipe. This space had to be grouted to provide sup-port and protection to the new pipe. Wilcraft’s president, Dave Wilson, accepted the challenge of finding a product that would be liquid enough to flow long distances in small spaces, would not segregate and would harden into a concrete like product. Dave found the perfect solution in Cellular Con-crete. A non-structural (2 to 3 MPa) void filling product, it can when produced properly, weight as little as 20 pounds per cubic foot and have a flow rate of up to 230 feet per hour. Our job was to produce a portland cement slurry mix using GU cement and deliver it to site where a foaming agent was added

to the mix. We produced three cubic meter loads that increased in volume to eight meters when the liquid foam-ing agent was added. This product was then poured in strategically placed ten inch openings in the precast piping. The project was completed over a five day period and required 121 meters of slurry.

PERVIOUS CONCRETE:Pervious concrete, as the name suggests, allows water to flow through it.

Dalhousie University hired Dexter Construction to build a permeable park-ing lot. Dexter requested that we supply 60 cubic meters of Pervious Concrete to a Dal owned parking lot area off Coburg Road. This concrete will be used on a daily basis for parking and will also be studied for durability and sustainabilty by students of the engineering depart-ment at Dal over the next 5 to 10 years. Pervious concrete pavement is a unique and effective means to address important environmental issues and support green, sustainable growth. By capturing storm water and allowing it to seep into the ground, porous concrete is instrumental in recharging ground-water and reducing storm water runoff. This pavement technology creates more efficient land use by eliminating the need for retention ponds, swales, and other storm water management devices. In doing so, pervious concrete has the ability to lower overall project costs on a first-cost basis. The concrete is a unique blend of aggregates and cement that is deliv-ered to the site as a very stiff product. The contractor had purchased a roller screed made especially for placing this type of concrete and sent a well trained crew. This resulted in a high quality proj-ect that only took five hours to place.

p r o j e c t s


New Tricks for an Old

Building Material

Ready-Mix Update

OSCO Concrete Helps Introduce Innovative New Concrete Technologies

p r o j e c t s


• EaST SaINT JOHN TERMINal DOCk 1, Saint John, NB, Irving Equipment, 47.0 tons of struct. steel.

• STuD MOuNTING PlaTES & MISC. METalS, Princess Marga-ret Bridge, Fredericton, NB, SNC-Lavalin Construction, 25.9 tons misc. metals.

• lIFTING PlaTES FOR CON-CRETE BRIDGE GIRDERS, Saint John, NB & Bedford, NS, Strescon, 19.2 tons of plate.

• GalvaNIzE SuPPORT STRuC-TuRE, Eel River Terminal, NB Power, 3.1 tons of struct. steel.

• 50FT lOGGING BRIDGE, Atholville, NB, AV Cell, 16.3 tons of struct. steel.

• STEEl FOR PRODuCTION & SERvICE SHaFTS, Penobsquis, NB, Cementation Canada, 8.9 tons of struct. steel.

• houSe BeamS, various locations in NB, General Contractors, 8.4 tons of struct. steel.

• HOG FuEl BOIlER FOuNDa-tIonS, Lake Utopia Paper, Gulf

Operators Ltd, 10.1 tons of misc. metals.

• BRuNSWICkER BuIlDING, Saint John, NB, FCC Construction, 7.3 tons of struct. steel.

• STIFFENER BENT PlaTES FOR DuMP TRuCk BOxES, Frederic-ton, NB, NB DOT District # 05, 5.9 tons of plate.

• FCC WaREHOuSE MEzzaNINE FlOOR, Saint John, NB, FCC Construction, 2.7 tons of struct. steel.

• REPlaCEMENT GRaTINGS IN TuRBINE PIT 5 & 6, Mactaquac Generating Station, NB Power, 2.5 tons of grating.

• NEW OFFICE & WaREHOuSE BlDG., Fredericton, NB, A&J Hanna Construction, 2.0 tons of struct. steel

• WaTER SlIDE SuPPORTS, Quis-pamsis, NB, Western Recreation Development, 1.2 tons of struct. steel.

contributed by CHRIS BANKS, CET

“WSA Condenser Tube Module Workshop Assembly Structure”Irving Oil Refinery, Saint John, NB

In the picture below, York Steel provided a plat-form structure c/w a base that is used for access to a transport box (WSA Condenser) which would rest on the beam supports shown on the far side of the platform. The structure is a working platform to help place tubes inside the WSA Condenser. When assembled, the platform base is 12’-8” wide x 20’-0” long x 10’-6” high for a total weight of 2.4 tons of structural steel.

p u b l i c & c o m m u n i t y


Calling all Atlantic Canadian Architects, Engineers & Developers:

PCI Design Award for

HIA GarageHalifax International

Airport Parking Garage, Cowinner: Best Parking Structure (1000+ cars)

The Canadian Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute in conjunction with Strescon Limited is pleased to offer your firm a series of lunch & learn sessions on Precast/Prestressed Concrete. No doubt you are already aware of Precast, as this method of framing / cladding is very popular in most areas of Canada. As part of our joint effort to in-crease awareness of Precast/Prestressed Concrete construction to the younger staff members in your office, we would like to present a series of continuing education seminars to Architectural / Engineering Firms / Developers, begin-ning November of this year. Our approach is very simple and

straightforward. We will come to your office and present a lunch time seminar to your firm - we will even provide the lunch.

The commitment from your firm is:• Arrange a date for the seminar• Provide space for the seminar• Invest 1-2 hours of your staff’s time• Choose a topic from the list provided

Available Topics:• architectural / Industrial Precast

Wall Cladding• Hollowcore Floors a System approach• Total Precast Concrete Construction• Rapid Bridge Construction• Introduction to Precast

We trust this offer is of interest to your firm and that you will call to ar-range a date that is convenient to your schedule. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call. We look forward to hearing from you!

Contacts:andrew levatte Bedford Precast Division Phone: 902-494-7404email: [email protected]

Grant Maxwell Saint John Precast DivisionPhone: 506-632-7533email: [email protected]

Free Continuing Education Seminars are Only a Phone Call Away...

Judges’ Comments: The jury liked the way that precast gave the project flexibility to have some really interesting forms. It allowed for this kind of basket-weave articulation. It’s a facade that can only be completed using precast con-crete. There’s no other material that could possibly be used in the same way. It creates a very innovative and dynamic structure that sort of pushes the envelope of what people think of as being possible with precast concrete. It serves as a good example of the flexibility and the fluidity of the material.

Owner: Halifax Airport Authority

architect: NORR Ltd., Architects Engineers

Planners, Toronto, ON

Engineer : BMR Structural Engi-

neering, Halifax, NS

Contrac tor: Three C’s

Contractors,

Lower Sackville, NS

Precaster: Strescon,

Bedford, NS



contributed by BERNIE BLAKELY

OSCO Excellence Award On Tuesday, June 8, 2010, Dalia Dajani (HR Recruit-er, OSCO Group Services) presented an award on behalf of OSCO Construction Group for excellence in Civil Engineering Technology and Structural Design to Ghis-lan losier, a NSCC graduating student. The award was organized by andrew levatte (Strescon-Bedford) acting as the NSCC CETG PAC Committee Chair and Glen Buchanen (NSCC Faculty- Department of Construction Admin Technology). This award continues to show OSCO and NSCC’s strong relationship in supporting students in the CET program throughout the years. The OSCO Excellence Award is presented to a second year student with the highest scholastic average in the Civil Engineering Technology program (Structural Design). Graduates from this program have a variety of opportunities for employment within the OSCO Con-struction Group that include quality control, laboratory analysis and testing of materials, structural design / detailing, estimating, project management, production, technical sales, plus numerous support roles for the steel, construction and precast operations. The OSCO Group wishes all NBCC students the best of luck as they begin their careers.

Haiti Relief Thank you to all employees who donated to the Red Cross - Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund this past year. The Group offered to match donations which our employees made to the Red Cross for this relief effort, and this endeavour was a tremendous success, reaching our target donation of $10,000.00 very quickly. Mr. Hans klohn and Mr. John Irving were pleased to pres-ent our donation cheque to Red Cross representatives, Jeff Moon, President of the Saint John Chapter of Red Cross and Cynthia Reicker, Fund Development Officer. In response to our donation, the Red Cross representatives pre-sented OSCO Construction Group with a commemorative plaque thanking our employees and our executive for their assistance with the ongoing work Red Cross is performing in the disaster-stricken areas of Haiti.

contributed by ROBIN KILPATRICK

Each year OSCO Con-struction Group holds a draw for two $500 Educational Bursaries. Eligible participants are the children of employees & current co-op students who plan to attend post secondary educational institutions in the upcoming school year. This year’s winners were selected by a random draw which was held on August 25th. We are pleased to an-nounce our 2010 winners: Samantha Rathje - daughter of Ron Rathje (FCC Con-struction) pictured top right with Robin kilpatrick of HR; and Peter adamson - 2010 student with Ocean Steel Project Management, pic-tured below right with Robin Kilpatrick. Samantha is currently studying at UNBSJ, enrolled in the Business Administra-tion & Accounting program, while Peter has just entered his 2nd year of the Engineer-ing Program at UNB’s, Fred-ericton Campus. Congratula-tions to our winners!

Pictured l-r: John Irving, Hans Klohn, Cynthia Reicker and Jeff Moon

Pictured l-r: Ghislan Losier being presented his award from Dalia Dajani

contributed by VIVIAN CHIASSON

contributed by DALIA DAJANI & ANDREW LEVATTE

OSCO Bursary Winners

CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 2010 31www.oscoconstructiongroup.com 31

National Precast Weekcontributed by KINNON BONA

This year’s Canadian Precast Concrete Institute’s (CPCI) “National Precast Day” was so successful, that Strescon extended the event to include the entire week of October 4th-8th. These popular tours are extremely beneficial to students, because they not only learn about Precast concrete and how it’s produced, but they get to see the practical side of how to apply their classroom studies to the real world. Tours started on Monday October 4th at Strescon’s Bedford plant, where 10 students were hosted from the Architectural Draft-ing Program of the Bridgewater, NS Community College campus. The following tour day on Tuesday was the largest of the week. Over 180 NSCC students from programs such as Civil Engineering Technology, Architectural Engineering Technician, Construction Management, Architectural Drafting, Carpentry and the Dexter Institute did tours throughout the day at the Bedford plant. The next tours were held in Strescon’s Saint John plant on Thursday October 7th. The first and second year students from New Brunswick Community College’s Mechanical Engineering Technician course visited the plant, steel shop, carpentry shop, pipe plant and also the newly renovated, former office building. They were then brought to the new office building to watch a power point presentation on Strescon’s various products while

enjoying a nice lunch. Dalhousie University’s Engineering students wrapped up the week with 80 students touring Strescon Bedford’s plant on Friday October 8th; bringing the number of students that toured through both Saint John and Bedford’s plants to approximately 330. Sixty additional students are expected to come in November from St. FX University. Making this year’s “National Precast Day” one of the most successful ever.

CISC SteelDaycontributed by BERNIE BLAKELY

In coordination with the Canadian Insti-tute of Steel Construction’s (CISC) first annual SteelDay 2010, Ocean Steel’s Saint John facility opened their doors to the business community this past September 24th. Networking with members of the Design and Construction industry, as well as local Government and University officials, General Manager Harrison Wilson showed firsthand how building with structural steel is an economical building framing material and how Ocean Steel has incorporated advanced technology to reduce or eliminate errors, improve safety, lower project costs, and ensuring a successful project delivered on time and on budget. Nationwide, SteelDay attracted approximately 2,700 attendees at 57 locations – demonstrating that SteelDay was an excellent opportunity for host companies to connect with Engineers, Archi-tects, Educators and Students. The most common visitor feedback was how they enjoyed seeing the process whereby architectural plans were transformed into physical product. Consensus is that the day exceeded expectations for its ability to shine the light on the industry and the role steel plays in building Canada.

Come on in...OSCO Group Opens its Doors for Student and Industry Tours


STEELDAY

September 24, 2010

www.SteelDay.ca

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CLARENCE ALLAINOcean Steel – Saint John PlantRetired: January 14, 2010

When he retired, Clarence was opera-tor of the Burning Table, but Clarence was able to work any machine in the plant, and often did. Any day there wasn’t an operator for a machine, Clarence gladly stepped in to help out. Clarence retired early in 2010, after providing the company with 34 years of dedicated service in our Steel sector and we would like to thank Clarence for his work and wish him all the best in retirement!

FRED BROWNOcean Steel – Saint John PlantRetired: January 28, 2010

Fred was by all accounts a top-notch Welder. He also held the role of Group Leader Welder. His welding skills were well known throughout the plant. His precision work and quality of his craft ensured quality products for our customers. He perfected his welding expertise in the 39 years he remained with the company and we are grateful he devoted his skills to our products. All the best to Fred who retired early this year and who is now enjoying as much time as possible with his favorite people; his grand-children.

HAROLD CAVANAUGHOcean Steel – Saint John PlantRetired: January 7, 2010

Harold retired in early 2010 as a Band Saw Operator but Harold was widely

known to have the ability to run multiple shop machines. Harold was willing to take on tasks at any of the machines at any time and was always willing to put in an overtime shift when necessary. Harold’s reliability and great machine skills were enjoyed by the company for 31 years and we wish him all the best in his retirement!

JACk LINGLEyOcean Steel – Saint John PlantRetired: January 4, 2010

Jack was an expert Welder for Ocean Steel, who retired earlier this year. He was always willing to take on overtime shifts whenever he was needed. His welding skills were put to use on many projects taken on by Ocean over the years and we are grateful to Jack for his dedication to our Company and his contribution of service for the past 22 years. We wish Jack all the best in his retirement!

HENRy (HANk) MyERSOcean Steel – Saint John PlantRetired: May 27, 2010

Hank started as a Steel Shop Fitter in 1972 with Ocean Steel. At the time of his retirement in May of this year, Hank was a Beamline Operator and he knew that machine inside and out! Hank was always willing to take on extra shifts and on some jobs took on 14 – 16 hour shifts. His excellent ma-chine skills and his willingness to assist whenever needed are greatly appreci-ated by the company and we wish him all the best in his retirement!

HARRy WALkEROcean Steel – Saint John PlantRetired: August 26, 2010

Harry was a long-service Anglemas-ter at the Ocean Steel Plant. Harry’s expertise on the Anglemaster machine produced excellent quality jobs for the Steel sector for the majority of the years the company has been in busi-ness. In addition to Harry’s excellent contribution in his role, the company came to rely on Harry as a bridge to our retiree community as well. Harry always let us know when a former employee had passed on, or when one might have been celebrating a special an-niversary etc. Harry looked after 50/50 draws at the plant and was always will-ing to help anyone in need. Harry also acted as Secretary for the Shop Union for several years. We thank Harry for his incredible 45 years of dedicated service to our Company and he has all our best wishes for a wonderful retire-ment!

kEN MACLEANSchurman Concrete – Charlottetown, PEIRetired: September 30, 2010

Ken was a 34 year veteran of the roads as one of Schurman’s Ready Mix Driv-ers. Ken began with Schurman in 1976 and over all those years dedicated himself to delivering our product on time to, and building good relations with, our valued customers. Ken’s willingness to help out with anything when needed was greatly appreciated by his coworkers and managers alike. The Company appreciated Ken’s re-sourcefulness and easy going person-ality, which made it easy for cowork-ers to get along with him and rely on him for help when they needed it.

Best of Luck to

This Year’s Retirees

from All of Us at the OSCO Construction Group!

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Ken hung up his keys to the truck and retired in September of this year and we wish him all the best for a wonderful retirement!

PAT OAkLEyOcean Steel – Saint John PlantRetired: February 26, 2010

Pat started with the Company in 1971 and was an expert welder at the Plant for 39 years. The com-pany always appreciated Pat’s will-ingness to take an overtime shift if necessary and always made himself available when needed. In addition to being an excellent welder, Pat willingly took on the role of trainer to our new welders. He was patient in his teaching and remained as a mentor for them as time went on. He passed down much of his own knowledge with this skill and the company continues to ben-efit today in our excellent welders working the plant floor currently who learned from him. Pat retired earlier this year in February and we wish him all the best!

JEAN BELLIVEAUStrescon – MonctonRetired: May 28, 2010

Jean joined us in 2006 as a Strescon Ready Mix Truck Driver and was best known for his courte-ous service to our customers in the time he was with us. Jean retired in May of this year and has actually not stopped driving since – he planned a cross-country trip shortly after retirement in his new 34ft. fifth wheeler! We know Jean is enjoying his retirement and wish him all the best!

DAN CALLAN Ocean Steel CorporationRetired: March, 2010

Dan Callan held the position of Working Leader at the time of his retirement, although he previously

had roles in painting, fitting and layout. By all accounts, he was considered a very good fitter and his expertise was often sought for complicated layout work. He is an avid outdoors man, particularly enjoying fishing and hunting. Dan Callan retired after 41 years of ded-icated service to the Company for which we thank him and extend to him best wishes for a wonderful retirement.

BOB BUTTS Ocean Steel CorporationRetired: September, 2010

At the time of his retirement this year, Bob Butts held the position of leadhand out in the receiving yard, where he’d been for several years. He always did an outstanding job and was skilled with many talents. Besides the great job he did at the plant, Bob also was a passionate model train collector. We thank Bob for his 43 year dedication and service to the Company and wish him all the best with his retirement.

ERIC MURRAy Strescon MonctonRetired: October 29, 2010

Eric worked with Strescon Monc-ton as a Driver for the past 4 years and was a great addition to any project we had in the delivery phase. His experience, coupled with an Engineering degree, made him a valuable resource for com-plex project deliveries. Eric was efficient in his work, and he will be missed. Eric retired on October 29th, 2010 and we appreciate his work and dedication to the com-pany and wish him all the best in his retirement.

WAyNE ROBERTSON Ocean Steel Fredericton Retired: October 28, 2010

Wayne began with Ocean Steel in Fredericton as a Detailer over 43

years ago. He was a Detailer there for many years before modern tech-nologies were introduced. In the last few years leading up to his retirement, Wayne was a Steel Fit-ter Lead Hand. He knew his job very well and was an exceptional organizer. Wayne’s plan for retire-ment has a major component of relaxation. The company wishes to extend their gratitude for Wayne’s many years of service and wish him all the best in his retirement.

FRANCIS LEVESQUE Ocean Steel FrederictonRetired: September 30, 2010

Francis worked with Ocean Steel for over 36 years, starting as a Labourer in the Yard and ending this past September looking after supplying the shop with steel, organizing availability of materi-als and handling ordering. Francis was a very responsible and efficient worker who could be relied upon by his supervisors to take on a task and ensure it was completed. Fran-cis’ retirement plans include taking it easy for a few months. The Company is grateful to Francis for his many years of dedication and service to the company and wish all the best in his retirement.

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The OSCO Construction Group held this year’s annual Staff Employee Rec-ognition Dinner on Friday, May 14th at the Marco Polo Cruise Terminal on Saint John’s gorgeous waterfront. The charm-ing host for the evening was once again Bernie Blakely (Ocean Steel). Bernie gave a warm welcome to all of our guest’s attending this year’s OSCORs before in-troducing ashley Dooks (Group Services) who presided over grace before our meal. Everyone enjoyed a lovely buffet provided by the Saint John Delta, which included carved Roast Beef, Chicken and many fanciful desserts.

Safety Awards The 2010 OSCORs started off with Duanne Shanks presenting the Safety Awards, for exemplary performance in the following categories: Large Plant; Small Plant; Ready Mix; and Field Safety. Con-gratulations to these groups who work together to ensure the safety of their workplace and their co-workers at such an outstanding level.

Professional Development The Professional Development Awards were handed out next by Bernie

Blakely, to acknowledge all employees that furthered their education or com-pleted training within the last year.

Service Pins The Service Pin Presentation was next on the agenda, with HR handing out pins to all of those with significant years of service. Thank you to all for your dedicated year’s of service.

Retiree Don Isnor then recognized lloyd Ginn’s 45 years of service by giving a speech informing all of Lloyd’s accom-plishments within work and family. Lloyd was presented with a gift and years of service cheque, while his wife was pre-sented with a lovely spray of flowers.

Employee Recognition The Employee Recognition Awards were then handed out to the 2010 win-ners, for their outstanding performance within each of our four sectors. The General Manager from each sector pres-ents these star performers with a plaque, gift, and “OSCOR” statue. Congratula-tions to all our winners and nominees!

Career Achievement Carl Blanchard, the General Manager for Construction Sector was

pleased to present this year’s Career Achievement Award to recipient, ab-bey Duguay (FCC Construction, Civil Project Manager). Abbey has worked for the OSCO Construction Group for 27 years. Carl presented a speech outlining the highlights of Abbey’s career and life within our company.

Fun & Games Steve adams (Group Services) our very own resident Game Show Host then took the floor, putting our guests of the evening to the test with challenges from the hit t.v. show “Minute to Win It”. It was a serious showdown between luke Johnson (FCC Construction) and allister Mood’s (York Steel) guest, karlee Muise. The challenge was the “Nut Stacker”. With Karlee and Luke tied at 3 stacked nuts each, Luke made an attempt to take it all by stacking a fourth nut, causing his nuts to topple over at the last second, and sending Karlee home with the $1,000 grand prize. Luke still took home an impressive $500.00. Congratulations to you both! Mr.Klohn and Mr. Irving ended the night with a bang, handing out gifts and cash prizes. Thank you to all those that came out to support and cheer on their peers!


Professional Achievement Melissa Condly (Group) .............. Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP)

vivian Chaisson (Group) ............. Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP)

Jason Comeau (Group) ....................... Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP)

Tyson Martin (Strescon) ..Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI-Level One)

Sheri Fanjoy (Strescon) ...................... American Concrete Institute (ACI-Level One)

Cory vail (Strescon) ............................ American Concrete Institute (ACI-Level One)

andrew Gabriel (Strescon) ............... American Concrete Institute (ACI-Level One)

andrew O’Donnell (Strescon) ......... American Concrete Institute (ACI-Level One)

Mike Redmond (Strescon) ................ American Concrete Institute (ACI-Level One)

Jay Guiles (OSCO-NY) ............. NACE International (Level One Coating Inspector)

lorne Hanson (OSCO-Fred).... NACE International (Level One Coating Inspector)

Dave lang (OSCO-SJ) .............. NACE International (Level One Coating Inspector)

Tim latter (OSCO-SJ)............... NACE International (Level One Coating Inspector)

kristy Waalderbos(OSCO-SJ) NACE International (Level One Coating Inspector)

Best Actor/Actress: Dwight Edgett (Construction) Debbie keyes (Steel) Stewart Totten (Concrete) Duanne Shanks (Corporate) Best New Actor/Actress: luke Johnson (Construction) allister Mood (Steel) Christine Gilbert (Concrete) Jody Corbin (Corporate)

Best Director: Robin young (Construction) Ron Estabrooks (Steel) Gaetan vaillancourt (Concrete) Jennifer Gregoire (Corporate) Career Achievement: abbey Duguay - FCC Construction

Safety Awards Large Plant Safety ................................................Ocean Steel Corporation

Small Plant Safety.......................................................... Borcherdt Concrete

Ready-Mix Safety ............................................................. M.S.D./Glenholme

Field Safety Winner .....................................................Marque Civil Division

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CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 2010 35

Recognition Awards Susan Marshall .................. Group ................................. 5 Brian Maxwell ................... Group ................................. 5 Ron Margeson ................... Group ................................. 5albert Doyle ....................... Kennebec ........................... 5 David Harrison .................. Kennebec ........................... 5Jeff Sharpe ......................... Kennebec ........................... 5Druce F. Smith ................... Kennebec ........................... 5Stephen young ................. Kennebec ........................... 5Pam Mcallister .................. FCC ...................................... 5Shauna Miller .................... FCC ...................................... 5Joe McDevitt ..................... FCC ...................................... 5Tony Trecartin ................... FCC ...................................... 5Nancy Jones ...................... Strescon .............................. 5allan McTaggart ............... Strescon .............................. 5Megan Webber.................. Strescon .............................. 5Michael Mackenzie ......... Strescon .............................. 5Jayna Presley..................... OSCO-SJ ............................ 5li lan Pook ......................... OSCO-SJ ............................ 5kevin Hogan ...................... Strescon ............................ 10kevin young ....................... Strescon ............................ 10ann Eagles .......................... OSCO-SJ ......................... 10 lisa Frazee .......................... OSCO-SJ ......................... 10Paul Gould.......................... OSCO-Fred ..................... 10Morel Ouelette ................. Kennebec ......................... 15Sherri linton ...................... Marque .............................. 15Daniel Fox ........................... FCC .................................... 15David Mahaffy ................... Strescon ............................ 15Tim Ganong ....................... OSCO-SJ .......................... 15 Douglas Thompson ......... OSCO-SJ .......................... 15 alan Horncastle ................ OSCO-SJ .......................... 15 Greg Carrier ....................... OSCO-Fred ..................... 15George Rector .................. Group ................................20Beverley Sarty ................... Group ................................20 Sylvia Fowler ..................... Group ................................20Thomas Coughlan ........... Marque ..............................20 Christine Boyd .................. Strescon ............................25David Dunnett ................... Strescon ............................25William Gates .................... OSCO-SJ ..........................25 Bruce Beckett .................... OSCO-SJ .........................25 Gerald Higgins .................. Group ................................30James Johnson ................. Kennebec ........................35Jack Rackley ...................... Strescon ............................35linda Dixon ........................ OSCO-Fred .....................35 Paul Biggar ......................... Schurman .........................35 andrew Jordan ................. OSCO-Fred .....................40 Marven Jordan ................. OSCO-Fred .....................40 arthur Wooden ................. OSCO-Fred .....................40

Pins are based on the years of service as of May 14th, 2010

Name Company Pin

Service Award Pins2010 Service Award Recipients

p r i o r i t i e s : p r o t e c t i n g t h e p l a n e t


Doing Our Part...On August 13th 2010, OSCO Group President, Hans

O. klohn signed the first Group Environmen-tal Policy. The Policy was formulated by our

President and General Managers among others, with considerable thought and discussion. An Environmental Policy represents a Company’s philosophy on its interaction with the environment and its commit-ment to respect for the environment as it

conducts its business and grows. In keeping with this policy each of us has a role to play

in reducing our impact on the environment. On an individual basis for the most part that means three things:• The first is REDuCE WaSTE, environmental

impact is mostly about waste, whether it be material, energy or water.

• The second is to RECyClE MaTERIal , en-ergy and water where possible

• The third is when we do produce wastes, to make sure we DISPOSE OF WaSTE PROPER-ly or in the case of spills, contained immedi-ately, cleaned up as soon as possible, reported

properly and disposed of properly. Now that we have this policy in place, employees will be:• Introduced to information that will make you more

aware of the environment and your interactions with it.

• Given tools in the form of instruction and guidance documents to help you better deal with environ-mental issues.

This will be an ongoing process. The most important part of our environmental system is the employee. As the people who work day to day in our companies, you have the greatest opportunity to improve our environmental perfor-mance either through how you do your daily work, or providing ideas on how we as a company can reduce our impact on the environment by reducing waste, reducing energy usage or just plain changing the way we do something. If you have ideas please tell your supervisor or me. We have a good environmental track record so far let’s keep it that way and improve it.

Thank youDavid Bishop, Environmental Manager

OSCO Construction Group Develops Formal Environmental Policy

Bedford Plant Recognized for Effortsthe following article previously appeared

in the Halifax Regional Municipality’s “Naturally

Green” newsletter

HRM Educators assist business in improving

their waste diversion programs. In this edition

of the Naturally Green newsletter, we would like to spotlight an industrial sector business, Strescon. This concrete fabrication facility in Bedford, has been successful in enhancing diver-sion in their business practices. Strescon Bedford employs 75 profes-

sionals in every aspect of the precast concrete fabrication process. After learning that much of Strescon’s waste products were recy-clable and compostable, safety supervi-sor keith Burke called upon Solid Waste Resources to develop a waste diversion strategy. Due to the diversity of manufac-tured products and work environments, there was no “one size fits all” approach to waste management. To maximize Strescon’s diversion from landfill, all waste items generated on site were grouped into one of HRM’s 5 waste categories: organics, recyclables, paper, garbage and corrugated card-board. Once that task was completed,

customized “what goes where” posters were developed and displayed through-out the sprawling 50,000 sq. foot facility. HRM bin decals were applied to the newly implemented “waste cluster sta-tions” and each of the employees were educated on the importance of recycling and composting in the workplace. They continue to source-separate all of their waste and are recycling and com-posting to their full potential. It is industry champions like Keith Burke and his team at Strescon that enable us all to sustain our leadership position in waste management! “It means a lot to us (at Strescon), we want to do this right and it is now part of our business practice.” Keith Burke

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OSCO Group Golf Challenge

It was a beautiful, clear, and slightly chilly early September morn-ing that welcomed our golfers to the annual OSCO Construction Group Golf Challenge. The frost-covered hills of the Sussex Golf & Curling Club delayed the 8am shot gun start, giving our OSCO Group Employees an opportu-nity to socialize in the club house with the Group heading out around 9am. It did not take long for the sun to warm up our 100 Golfers, as they spread out over the rolling green hills that morning. What a gorgeous day it turned out to be! All golfers, from ex-perienced to novice , enjoyed 18 holes of golf under clear blue skies that day! Then it was back to the club house, where all the teams’ score cards were collected and an amazing BBQ Chicken Dinner was enjoyed by all. This year’s winners of the Golf

Challenge was the team of: Greg Os-mon, Gaetan vaillancourt, Ted Mof-fet, and Mike Hazelwood. For a third year in a row the title goes to Strescon Limited. Closest to the Pin Winner for ladies was kristy Waalderbos (Ocean Steel) and for men Gary Johnston (FCC Construction). Longest Drive Win-ner for ladies was Heather Fox (FCC Construction) and for men Jeff keith (Ocean Steel). Congratulations to all of you for a game well played! It was not all about how you played the game, there were many door prizes to be won based on pure luck alone - and everyone went home with something! Gaetan vaillancourt proved to be both lucky and skilled that day taking home not only the Golf Challenge Title but also a Nike Golf Club Bag and $75 Delta Gift Certificate. A few other lucky golfers that day

walked away with a DeWalt Miter Saw, I-Pod Boom Box System, Tom-Tom GPS, and Nike Golf Bag with a $90 Scholten’s Landscaping Gift Certificate. We want to say a special thank you to a few dedicated volunteers: Chelsea McGuire (Group Services) for coordinat-ing registration, processing payments, prize shopping and prize set-up; Jason Presley (Ocean Steel) for determining the shot gun start/player’s per hole schedule and golf cart coordination; and Greg Osmon (Strescon) for another year as our great M.C.. Also deserving of a thank you is Randy Gallant (Ocean Steel) for looking after score cards; amy Shanks (Group Services) for taking photos; Ger-ald Marks (Strescon Limited) and Cody Huber (Ocean Steel) for looking after payment collection at their locations. Hope to see all of you next year!

The 21st Annual Strescon Plant Golf Challenge was once again, a huge success. The Strescon Challenge is an annual golf

tournament in which the employees from Saint John, NB battle the employees from Bedford, NS in a

“Best Ball” Golf Tournament. This year’s chal-lenge was held at the Northumberland Golf

Course in Pugwash, NS on Saturday June 26th and was won by the Saint John,

NB Team by four shots.

Congratulations to this year’s winners: Closest to the Line: Wade Osmon (Saint John)Closest to the pin: Dave Bonin (Bedford)Low 2 Man Score: Ted Moffat & Gerald Hebert (Score of 71 -

Saint John)Low 4 Man Score: Wade Osmon, Dave Moore, Mac Belding &

Jody Hunter (Saint John)Highest Score Diff erential - Jim Pettipas & larry Flemming

(Bedford – 8 Strokes)

Thank you to all those who helped to organize this years tournament and all those who attended. See you next year!


Strescon Golf Challenge

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The 2010 OSCO Company Picnic was a day filled with sun, fun, and many, many smiles on the faces of employees and their families. The picnic was held on Saturday, August 7th and once again, the location was beautiful Oak Point! This year’s picnic featured an obstacle course inflatable, amusement rides for all ages, a petting zoo, game booths, and Pearly Palmer, the Magician. For energy to keep us going, an amazing BBQ style buffet

was provided by Rivers Edge Catering. New to this year’s picnic were the “Strawberry-Go-Round” and the chil-dren’s “Train” and “Swing” amusement rides! Many happy people enjoyed the new rides as well as the return of the classics, the “Scrambler” and “Fun Slide”. All ages enjoyed grabbing a burlap sack and zooming down the slide! The “Petting Zoo” was once again a huge success at this year’s picnic. The children loved feeding handfuls of feed to the eager and happy animals. The “Petting Zoo” featured many furry and

feathered friends, including lama, emu, ducks, geese, goats, a donkey, and many more. This year, the children also had the option of sitting up on a saddle for a pony ride. Step right up and win a prize at the OSCO game booths! Ball toss, putting challenge, Frisbee toss, and Ring toss as always were enjoyed by many. There were many prizes and treats for all, and tons to do. A special thank you to all the volunteers who came out to Oak Point to help that sunny Saturday! We couldn’t have done it without you!

Hans O. KlohnPresident, OSCO Construction Group

ability to fabricate complex structural components for the heavy industrial market. Currently, we are looking at several equipment vendors and plant layouts to determine which will best suit our needs to compete in the future. In the shop drawing area, we are creating additional standard connection designs that we can use for typical frame details. This will help to optimize our material, fabrication & erection costs and further enhance our competitiveness.

These are very interesting and chal-lenging times for all businesses. Locally, there has been a lot of media atten-tion focused on how Maritime-based businesses can continue to compete in an ever-increasing global market-place. Maritime businesses which have remained heavily dependent on the USA market are now finding it extremely difficult. Our strategy has been to be geographically diversified and exchange rate neutral by offering several different types of construction-related products

or services. The Maritime Provinces face some difficult economic challenges; however, I remain optimistic that our region will find the answers to meet those challenges. In any case, the OSCO Construction Group plans to remain focused in the Atlantic region so we can all maintain and enjoy the unique and fulfilling lifestyle that the Maritimes has to offer.

... Message from the President • continued from page 3

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39CONNECTIONS • Fall & Winter 2010

congratulations!Family Additions:Bill Woodhouse (FCC Con-struction) and wife Laura welcomed their first born son, Elliott William Woodhouse into the world on July 8th. El-liott weighed in at 9lbs, 1/2oz.

katherine antworth (FCC Construction) and Robbie Mills welcomed their little girl on July 8th as well, Sydney Angela Mills weighing in at 7lbs, 11oz. Proud big brothers are Matthew and Chris, proud big sister is Sam.

Brad MacPhee (OSCO-SJ) and wife Shawndelle along with big brother Jax wel-comed a 2nd little boy into their family on July 1st. Anthony Lucas weighed in at 7lbs, 15oz.

JP lachance (Strescon Bed-ford), his wife Jennifer and daughter Ava welcomed their new little girl early morning on June 9th, Tessa Kate Lachance weighing in at 6lbs, 12oz.

louis Stoltz (Strescon Bed-ford) and his wife welcomed twin girls, Poppy 5lbs.10oz and Maia -5lbs, 6oz!

Chad Muscat (Strescon Bed-ford) and wife Vicki welcomed their second daughter, Lola, into their family!

Carrie Watson (Group Services) and her husband welcomed a new edition to their family on August 10th, Rachael Cathleen Mawhinney, who weighed 8lbs, 4oz.

len andrews (OSCO-SJ) and his wife Kalie welcomed there 2nd child, Sebastian at 10lbs, 1oz on April 24.

adam Brochu (FCC Electrical) and wife Julie welcomed a new baby girl, Zoe on April 19th.

andrew Biggs (FCC Electrical) and wife Jill welcomed Lau-ren, 6lbs, 2oz, on March 20th.

abdul Maftah (OSCO-SJ) and his wife Sara Elfatouri wel-comed twin girls on Oct. 25th. Dana Abdul Mafta and Danya Abdul Maftah weighed 5.8 and 5.4 lbs, respectively.

Dayne Ring (OSCO-SJ) and Kayla Reese welcomed son,Hunter Floyd Ring, weighing 7lbs, 8oz on Oct. 15th.

Greg Carrier (OSCO-Fton) and his wife Seantel wel-comed a new little brother for sister Emma on Nov. 5th. Evan Joseph Gregory Carrier, weighed 9lbs, 3oz.

Weddings: Jean Bourque (Strescon-Moncton) celebrated the mar-riage of his daughter, Marie-Josee Bourque to Serge Matte on October 2, 2010.

Applause:Congratulations to karen Gatien (Group Services) & Chris Thompson (OSCO Group Services) on recently obtaining their CMA (Certi-fied Management Accountant) Designations.

Congratulations to Plant Man-ager Troy Hawkes (OSCO-SJ) on receiving his Professional Engineer (P.Eng) designation from the Association of Profes-sional Engineers and Geo-scientists of New Brunswick (APEGNB) in Sept. of this year!

Congratulations to xiangning (Simon) li (Strescon-SJ) who recently received his structural professional engineer licenses for both the State of Rhode Island and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

FRESH FACESOcean Steel: Bill Macleod .............................................Bridge Specialist

Norma little (Promotion) ......................Plant Supervisor

Wendy Balemans .................................Document Runner

vanessa Buckley ..........................................Rebar Detailer

Ocean Steel Fredericton:Tony Guimond ............................................Shop Foreman

Strescon – Saint JohnJordan MacNeill ............................................ QC EngineerMitchell MacFarlane ..............................Project ManagerJustin Bell...............................................................EstimatorJeff Murphy ..............................................................DetailerRob Hicks ...................................................................Detailer

Schurman Concrete:Wade Bingley .................................... Dispatcher/Batcher

OSCO Group Services:Jeff Price (Transfer) ...........Accounts Payable SpecialistJoyce Murray (Transfer .....Accounts Payable Specialistalison Jones ........................... Payroll & Benefits AnalystDebby letkeman ................... Payroll & Benefits Analyst

Allstar Rebar:Dawne Grandy (Transfer)………………Operations Assistant


David Bancroft Appointed General Manager of OSCO Concrete & Aggregates Limited Congratulations to David Bancroft, who has been appointed General Manager of OSCO Concrete & Aggregates Limited effective November 1, 2010. In this newly created position, David will assume overall responsibility for all ready mix concrete and aggregate operations of the OSCO Construction Group. The ready mix businesses included are: • Strescon’s Saint John & Moncton plants; • Schurman’s Charlottetown & Summerside plants; • Sackville Concrete & Bedford Ready Mix in Halifax;• Glenholme Ready Mix in Debert;• Annapolis Ready Mix in Windsor; and,• TriStar Concrete in Sheet Harbour In addition, David will look after OSCO Aggregates’ sand gravel business in Glenholme and the GC Cartage cement hauling operation. With his extensive experience and knowledge in ready mix and concrete construction materials, David will provide strong leadership to continue to expand and improve these operations.

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 Office25 Burlington Mall Road, Burlington, MA • USA Phone: (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

REBAR: OSCO REBaR SERvICES Saint John 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

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

STRESCON lIMITEDBedford office & plant

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

STRESCON lIMITEDNew England Sales Office25 Burlington Mall Road, Burlington, MA • USA Phone: (781) 221-2153 Member Since • 1991

BORCHERDT CONCRETE PRODuCTS Office & plant RR#4, Hardscratch Road Yarmouth, NS • CA Phone: (902) 742-7811 Member Since • 2008

READY-MIX (OSCO Concrete):

STRESCON REaDy-MIxSaint John plant 101 Ashburn Rd., Saint John, NB • CA Phone: (506) 633-8877 Member Since • 1963

STRESCON REaDy-MIx Moncton plant1212 Berry Mills Rd, Moncton, NB • CAPhone: (506) 858-7110 Member Since • 2004

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

SCHuRMaN CONCRETE Charlottetown office & plant 412 Mount Edward Road Charlottetown, PE • CA Phone: (902) 628-0127 Member Since • 2004

GlENHOlME REaDy-MIx - plant RR #1 • Debert, 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

TRISTaR CONCRETE - plant 23557 #7 Hwy Sheet Harbour, NS • CA Phone: (902) 885-2358 Member Since • 2008

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

OSCO aGGREGaTES M.S.D. Enterprises Little Dyke Rd, Glenholme, NS • CA Phone: (902) 662-3722 Member Since • 2008

GC CaRTaGE 400 Chesley Drive, Saint John, NB • CAPhone: (506) 632-2600 Member Since • 2004

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

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