November 27, 2008

TERRY TINKESS

Gormley-based contractor Restoration Environmental Contractors (REC) is in the final stages of the demolition/remediation project at the former Phillips Cable facility in Brockville, Ontario.

Restoration Environmental Contractors

REC brings due diligence to Phillips Cable facility demolition

TERRY TINKESS

correspondent

BROCKVILLE, ON

Demolition can be a tricky business, but taking the time to completely understand every project detail usually ensures things work out the way you planned.

According to Don Bremner, president of Restoration Environmental Contractors (REC), due diligence before one even begins a project is essential. With well over 9,000 environmental remediation and demolition projects successfully completed throughout Ontario since 1989, Bremner seems positioned to provide good advice.

The Gormley, Ont.-based company is nearing completion of a demolition/remediation project at the former Phillips Cable facility in Brockville. The project involved leveling the 500,000-square-foot plant, which is located on a 54-acre site slated for redevelopment as residential housing.

“Due diligence was done before the project started,” says Bremner.

“We’re proactive; we always deal with the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of the Environment up front to go over what the procedures are. The local fire chief and the fire department were invited over to go over procedures as well.

“Safety is always number one, and there are homes adjacent to the property, so we wanted to make sure all the notices were out and everyone was invited to the site prior to us starting.”

REC started the project over the winter months, concentrating on abatement and environmental issues, with approximately 30-35 employees on site.

The actual demolition started in May, but a symbolic step in the process took place on June 24, 2008 with the leveling of the 200-foot smokestack that was a part of the facility. Over 500 local residents, former employees and dignitaries gathered for the event.

Because of the decline of Ontario’s manufacturing sector, REC has many projects like the one in Brockville where an unused facility is demolished to make way for new development.

As long as it stands, empty and unused, the plant remains a constant reminder of the jobs that had been lost.

Bremner says he understands that and believes that the work his company does helps to turn a negative into a positive.

“We hire local people,” says Bremner. “When we work out of town we bring basic management staff or site superintendants, some key lead hands and then we hire people and train them. We’re a unionized contractor: We’re with the Labourers International Union and the Painters and Allied Trades.

“We get in touch with our unions and they get local people and it creates work. We also try to buy a lot locally, and rentals are all done locally so it creates a good effect on the economy.”

Bremner says there is also an effort to recycle as much of the debris as possible, but in Brockville it wasn’t done to the extent he would have liked.

“This project was a little more difficult because it was an older building,” says Bremner, “and you couldn’t really salvage any of the windows or give them to Habitat for Humanity. There just wasn’t a lot you could reuse.”

REC expects to complete most of its site work towards the end of 2008 or early 2009. It was, by all accounts, a fairly straight forward job.

“The project was basically demolition,” says Bremner. “There was abatement, there was asbestos, and there were some environmental issues. We’re doing contaminated soils right now.

“Obviously, there were fluorescent bulbs and there was mercury in all the thermostats. It was pretty well a standard project, but a half a million square feet laid out over a few acres is a big project. The only thing we had that was unusual was the rain we had all summer. That slowed us down a little bit.”

Redevelopment of the property is expected to take place some time between 2009 and 2010.

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