Saturday, August 24, 2024

Local 63 Project Update

Here’s a look at what Local 63 members are doing across the province in 2024

This year continued to be a generally quiet year, but 2025 and 2026 are set to be extremely busy. Fort McMurray will continue to be a centre for significant work, the Edmonton area will be looking to massively increase the local workforce, and the Calgary area will keep pushing forward with major infrastructure work.

Keep an ear to the ground as major Industrial and Infrastructure projects start up. Local 63 Members continue to be the backbone of a strong construction sector in Alberta!

Here’s a look at what Local 63 members are doing across the province in 2024.

Fort McMurray and the Wood Buffalo Region

Heartland Constructors Inc., Hinton Scaffold Solutions Inc., and Integral Energy Services Ltd. recently completed a shutdown at CNRL Horizon, which finished ahead of schedule. Ledcor and Integral have been working on the CoGen project at Suncor Base Plant for the last several years with well over 1,000 Local 63 members. The project is in its latter stages, soon to be completed. Layoffs and transfers have been happening steadily over the last month. According to plan, Ledcor is transferring some members to another project at the same site, Suncor Base Plant. This project is called CDIP (Coke Drum Integrity Project), where the original cokers of the plant are going to be removed and replaced—using the largest crane in the world! The crane will be shipped to Fort McMurray in over 200 containers, assembled, and perform the lifts in 2025. Stay tuned for more on this unique and exciting project.

A large fire southwest of Fort McMurray caught a lot of attention, again, in May, as parts of the city were evacuated and some members left their homes, or their project sites, due to the risk of travel south being affected. The rains came and the fire was extinguished without much effect. However, even after a very rainy June, where some projects were slowed because of mud, a dry July led to wildfires ignited by lightning strikes northeast of Fort McMurray in the vicinity of Suncor Firebag. Several wildfires burned and posed a threat to work sites, as well as work camps, and many members were sent home or stayed home for up to a few weeks. Firebag, IOL Kearl, and CNRL Albian all reduced their workforce to essential personnel only.

This is notable in that unplanned time off work can be a significant disruption to income, particularly for members who just returned to work after time off and were counting on solid work and income picking up again. Sites that were further from the immediate threat of the fire and that did not shut down, such as CNRL Horizon, had members working through some significant smoke, some days requiring masks to help prevent them from breathing in too much smoke. Rains again in late July settled the wildfire situation in the area, and all sites were soon back up and running with members called back to return to work.

Edmonton Area and Central Alberta

Members continue to work steadily through the year, with significant work most notably in the mod industry and the commercial sector. Significant industrial construction projects are on the horizon, with Graham Construction and Aecon Construction Solutions Inc. already starting work on the Air Products site. The DOW Path2Zero project is slated to start in early 2025 and should provide a very significant increase to the amount of industrial construction work available to members in the greater Edmonton region.

Kiewit and Aecon mod yards on the east end of the city (close to Sherwood Park) have significant work, and Kiewit’s SHRED Project nearby is holding on a steady course. PCL Energy Inc. also recently finished work on the Genesee Generating Station natural gas conversion just southwest of Edmonton, a massive upgrade to a major component of the energy sector for central Alberta.

In the commercial sector, there is a significant amount of work all over the city. Nason is finishing work on the Elder Dr. Francis Whiskeyjack School (soon to be home to roughly 2,400 students!), Leduc Ohpaho Secondary School, and Father McCaffery Catholic High School and is starting work on the new Edmonton Islamic Academy building soon!

You can see your fellow members working just by driving around the city, with TWI working on the Terwilliger and Leduc overpasses, and PCL working on creating a new underpass at 127th street as part of the Yellowhead Trail Freeway Conversion. Members are also working on other significant infrastructure, with Weston working on the LRT Valley Line West and Ledcor starting to work on the LRT Capital Line. PCL is also building a wastewater treatment plant out north of Sherwood Park as well. Downtown, Ledcor is working on the MacEwan School of Business expansion as well as finishing two very significant residential buildings (The Parks and Station Lands), continuing to add to the Edmonton skyline.

Calgary and Southern Alberta

Aecon, PCL, and Golderado are ramping up on Deerfoot trail, with lane additions and new on/off ramps and seven new bridges! Relatedly, construction continues to prepare for the long-awaited Green Line LRT addition, as TWI tunnels under an active CP railway to extend 78th Ave. PCL is also busy building the longest runway in Canada (four kilometres), which is slated to open in November.

In the wake of the Calgary waterpipe woes, TWI continues to build and upgrade water, wastewater, and substation plants ensuring Calgary is saturated, sanitized, and switched on.

Borea Construction ULC continues to erect renewable energy with acres of wind turbines, and Maple Reinders is keeping Calgary clean at the Compost Centre. Nason Contracting Group Ltd. travelled to Tuktoyaktuk in Nunavut to take over a school construction project. If the summer scorcher of 2024 is indicative of the next couple years, construction and opportunities for Local 63 members in southern Alberta will be HOT!

Local 63 Project Update

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