NWR Refinery From the end of 2014 to the first four months of the 2015 construction season Blacktop was tasked with installing all of the hardscape items, asphalt and concrete, for the Central Administration Building and Firehall at the NWR Sturgeon Refinery Project. Both of these buildings were crucial to the site being constructed and as a result they were driven forward to have them functional as soon as possible so the construction of the rest of the plant could occur smoother and safer. Blacktop Paving was a subcontractor to PCL for this project and built 14,500m2 of asphalt parking lot, 2100 lineal meters of curb and 2200m2 of concrete sidewalk and pads.
The Problem:
Without question the biggest challenge of this project was dealing with the stringent safety expectations that exist when working on an industrial plant site. A site of this nature is deemed as high risk and as a result all trades working on the site are expected to participate and enforce the site’s health and safety plan. While Blacktop is used to working on sites where safety is the primary objective, productions and expectations had to be adjusted to adapt to this site’s policies. The Solution: As always, Blacktop’s strong group of managers and employees came together to embrace the heightened safety culture of the plant site instead of fighting it. We dedicated numerous resources to this project, including moving our HSE Officer to be on site full time and bolstering our manager presence as well. This allowed for our crews to focus more on the installation of materials instead of being bogged down with excess paperwork and red tape.
The Return:
As a company we had many trying moments while on this project. When it was all said and done we had learned a lot about our own safety program and how we can adapt our operation to be more safety conscious on all of our jobs, not just those in the industrial sector. Some of the measures that were forced upon us while on this site are now a part of our daily safety practices and procedures. We are pleased to say we finished this project on schedule and with no man hours lost due to injury. We proved to ourselves that we could still achieve our high standards of quality and schedule while at the same time operating in one of the most safety oriented working environments.
