Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1494367
42 | M A R C H 2 0 2 3 Structural Steel One point Benson made recently was, "with the current economic pressures, the rising costs, and the challenges of significant labour shortages, the industry needs to refocus on what partnering truly entails. This means paying subtrades on-time, not just saying they will. Cashflow is critically important in normal economic times, but in challenging times like these it's even more important and owners, general contractors, developers, and construction managers needs to ensure their trades are paid in a fair and timely manner, in accordance with terms agreed, or pay the trade interest on the funds being 'borrowed,' as in fact that is what is happening. The trade is incurring a cost not factored into the tender or award and borrows the funds, at prime rates-plus, while waiting for the funds to be received." On every project Benson focuses on safety first – one such project that spot- lights this is The Spiral NYC tower (in partnership with NYC Constructors) that are actually large cocoons that encompass the entire high-rise structure to give all workers a safe environment as they build a 70-plus storey tower. Other recent projects of notes are the Bermuda International Airport as well as Pickering Casino and Brock University residences – all these projects are fabricated at the Benson structural steel facility/plant in Bolton, Ontario. Once the steel is fabricated and ready to install, at the right time in the project's schedule it is brought to the construction site and rapidly erected, accelerating the overall project schedule. Supermétal, a subsidiary of Canam Group Inc., supplies, designs, fabricates, and erects structural steel for all types of projects in all sectors: commercial, institutional, industrial, or civil. Bridges, office towers, research centres, and airports are among its projects. Its fabrication facilities have an annual produc- tion capacity of 40,000 tons, with its Lévis, Quebec-based fabrication plant having been expanded on several occasions and now boasting a production line 700-feet long. One of Supermétal's more notable recent projects was successfully installing 12 massive steel nodes at Level 3 of the 141 Bay Street Tower at CIBC Square in Toronto (a 130,065-square-metre office building designed to LEED Platinum standards). The nodes range from 18 to 40 metric tons, and the largest steel enti- ties required an engineered lift procedure involving two cranes. The composition of the nodes themselves are noteworthy: they are an innovative steel casting from Cast Connex and furnished with a 203 millimetre (mm) and 254 mm stacked plate system on the protruding stubs and base. The installation was such that the nodes receive diagonal columns that tie back to the concrete core at level 7, which then receive the loads from the 48 tower floors above. The tower connects to the one-acre overbuild park area, spanning over the rail system and the previously completed 81 Bay Street tower. Finally, while the structural steel market is very much oriented towards mass production on behalf of big projects, Steeltec Industries Ltd. is an example of a spe- cialist benefitting from a variety of construction projects. Steeltec manufacturers one-off or prototypes, as well as production line welding and on-site construction. Using precision welding techniques, Steeltec repairs equipment and machinery to like-new conditions or modify to customer specifications. But the most obvious examples of its creativity are in facilities such as a structural play- ground enclosure for Burger King, massive stylized metal fish that adorn Town Centre Park in Coquitlam, and especially the exposed structural framework for Milking Parlour in White Rock that is almost arachnid in appearance. A P H OTO G R A P H Y CO U RT E S Y B EN S O N S T EEL Donlands Station, Toronto, ON The JP Corporate Group had its inception 50 years ago as JP Welding, a small trailer repair & welding shop. In the past 5 decades, JP Metal Masters has grown into one of BC's top structural & miscellaneous steel fabricators & erectors. In 1997, we created JP Drafting to provide our clients with complete drafting & fabrication services. 50 YEARS & STEEEEL ~ ROLLIN'! 20090 Stewart Crescent, Maple Ridge, BC, V2X OT4 604-465-8933 | info@jpmetalmasters.com jpmetalmasters.com JP Metal Masters.indd 1 JP Metal Masters.indd 1 2023-02-28 12:49 PM 2023-02-28 12:49 PM