Ball Wins 2017 Ontario Builder Award
The Ontario Builder Awards serve to showcase the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA)’s latest and greatest member projects. This year’s annual event was held at the 10th Construction Symposium held at Blue Mountain, April 6―8, 2017. A winner is chosen from each of six categories.
Ball is proud to have been selected as winner in the Group Two Industrial category for plant reconstruction of Atwood Resources’ 31,000 square-foot facility.
In December 2014, this structure (located in Atwood, a small town in Perth County) was devastated by a fire that destroyed the main building. Ball was entrusted to be the construction manager for the rebuild of their bovine deadstock rendering and processing facilities.
Up until 2003, Atwood Resources served the pet food market but was forced to abandon this due to the discovery of mad cow disease. They decided instead to restructure in favour of renewable energy markets, and the building and all its mechanical and electrical components were designed to accommodate this new business model.
After the fire, Ausenco Engineering Canada was immediately brought in as the prime consultant due to their experience with these types of facilities. Drawing production began on a new non-combustible, efficient, state-of-the art facility that would re-establish and expand Atwood’s current business plan.
Ausenco also recommended that Atwood hire an experienced, competent contractor who could handle the fast-track process that this build would require. Ball’s past history of successful projects with Ausenco helped us establish early budgets and offer ideas for scheduling and constructability.
Following some minor delays to ensure this would be an efficient and sustainable facility for many years, construction began on May 19, 2015. Throughout the project, Ball was fortunate to be able to utilize the skills of many local GVCA members.
The building design was purposely comprised of non-combustible materials including concrete foundations, floor slabs, structural steel, precast hollow core roof slabs and insulated precast flexwall exterior walls.
Ball was not just the construction manager for this project; we also self-performed and installed the concrete footings, foundations, extensive pits and concrete push walls required for the client processes. This enabled us to control the schedule, which was crucial as the clock was ticking on insurance coverage that would run out in early 2016. Testing and commissioning of the existing adjacent gasification unit (to ensure it was undamaged by the fire) could not be completed until the new plant was running.
We are happy to report that in April of 2016, the client was able to run the necessary tests and confirm that the gasification unit was not damaged. This was only achieved because of the total effort of all parties and the fact that Ball maintained a clear and consistent line of communication. Additionally, budgets were maintained on this $6 million facility throughout the fast-track process.
Congratulations are in order to our dedicated teams, to the major sub-trades of Roberts Group and Velocity Mechanical, as well as everyone else involved in planning, designing and building this very successful plant reconstruction. Thanks to everyone for pulling together.
