The Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority has awarded three contracts worth a combined total of $86 million for construction related to the final step in site preparation on the Canadian side of the Gordie Howe International Bridge.

Much of the work involves moving overhead power lines underground and connecting to new transmission towers.

Prysmian Cables and Systems Canada Ltd. will cover the cable and accessories, Valard Construction LP will relocate the transmission lines and Amico Infrastructures Inc. and Mid-South Contractors ULC will team up to deal with distribution line relocation.

“The second stage of preparatory works is another step in delivering Canadian and U.S. sites that are ready for construction to our eventual private-sector partner,” said Michael Cautillo, President and Chief Executive Officer of the WDBA. “The more work we complete now, the more quickly our partner will be able to begin construction after financial close.”

This is the second time Amico, based in Oldcastle, Ont., has won a multi-million dollar contract for work on the bridge.

In September 2015, the local company was awarded $59 million to construct a perimeter access road and for utility relocations and fill placement on the Canadian port of entry site.

With this new contract, Amico wokers have already begun helping move seven and a half kilometres of power lines underground, according to WDBA spokesperson Mark Butler.

“They’re digging the trenches, feeding them (cables) through and building the conduits that actually go into the trenches, so it’s a very precise job,” he said.

On Friday, WDBA chairman Dwight Duncan was talking tough about land acquisition for the span during the bridge authority’s Annual Public Meeting.

All Canadian land necessary for the crossing has already been purchased, according to Duncan, along with 60 per cent on the American side.

As for concerns that Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun might make it tough to pick up the remaining properties, Duncan said he was ready for a fight.

“We will win,” he said. “Bring it on.”

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More than 1,000 skilled trades workers will transform the Windsor Assembly Plant into an Alberta oil sands-like job site during a 14-week shutdown that starts in mid-February, union officials said Friday.

“I’ve worked at Chrysler shutdowns in the past,” said Karl Lovett, business manager at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “This is bigger than any project I’ve ever worked on at Chrysler in 20 years.”

Lovett estimated that more than 500 electricians will be needed to retool the plant for the next generation minivan, which is expected to begin full production in the first quarter of 2016.

“There will also be 400 millwrights on the job, plumbers, carpenters, sheet metal workers, painters,” said Lovett. “That would be the bulk of people in there.”

The automaker has, so far, refused to publicly disclose the size of its investment at the plant, but Chrysler Canada CEO Reid Bigland said Thursday the retooling was “significant.”

Unifor Local 444 president Dino Chiodo has said a major retooling would cost in the $1 billion to $1.5 billion range. Last month, the automaker announced it was using a 600-tonne crane to begin installation of 200 pieces of structural steel, which will form a new conveyor enclosure on the plant’s roof.

The new enclosure will accommodate the plant’s first skillet line that moves the vehicles along the line, adjusting the height to the desired level for workers.

Gary Hutcheson, corporate sales manager at W.S. Nicholls Construction Inc., in Cambridge, said his company will be involved in construction related to mechanical and electrical installations. “We are employing trades from the Windsor area — everything from pipefitters, iron workers, millwrights and electricians, ” said Hutcheson.

“Windsor sure needs this; these are good jobs,” he said. “We’ve worked with Chrysler before. This shows their commitment to Ontario and specifically to Windsor.”

John Salvatore, president of Mid South Contractors Ltd., in Windsor, said his company, alone will need about 300 electricians for the 14-week retooling. “We’re doing major body shop retooling as well as expansion work at the northwest side of the front of the building.

“It’s a big contract,” he said, adding that the 4.4-million-square foot facility will be “getting turned upside down for three months. Then, it has to start making cars again.”

The local economic impact of the retooling will be “huge,” added Salvatore. “Altogether, there will be more than 1,500 trades people with good, high paying jobs, working two-shifts, 10-hours a day, seven days a week.”

Lovett pegged electricians’ all-in hourly rate at $58.50, but those arriving from other regions won’t receive relocation pay. Lovett is busy trying to not only recruit enough electricians from Ontario and, if necessary, other parts of Canada, but securing affordable rates for hotel/motel accommodations and restaurant meals.

“I’ve been reaching out to hotels and restaurants trying to fix rates right now to make it affordable for these guys to come here and work,” said Lovett. “We want to provide them with a good wage and still go home with enough money for their families.”

The out-of-town workers need to be shielded from price gouging, he added. “When you have that kind of influx of workers, it’s like Fort McMurray, Alta. Prices go through the roof. What I try to do is talk to restaurants and hotels and work out a fixed rate.”

To recruit electricians, Lovett has been canvassing local unions in such areas as Windsor, Sarnia, London, Kitchener, and St. Catharines.

“They will call it trailer city,” he said of the construction site that will take over Windsor Assembly during the shutdown. “I’m guaranteeing over 1,000 skilled trades.”

The Chrysler retooling also is benefiting Michigan’s economy. Tony Rosati, CEO of Dearborn Mid-West Company, which has worked on such projects as the $1-billion retooling at Fiat Chrysler’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, won the bid to build and design the conveyer system for the Windsor plant’s body shop.

“The body shop, which is where sheet metal pieces are welded together, is getting a new conveyor system,” said Rosati.

The contract, he added, “is a good size. It’s going to be one of the bigger contracts for sure.”

Salvatore said his company will be involved in “major body shop retooling. It will be 80 per cent new,” he said.

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Ontario is Canada’s leader in wind energy with almost 2,000MW – enough to power about 600,000 homes. Ontario has become one of North America’s most attractive markets for clean energy investment, creating new jobs and economic opportunities in local communities across the province.
Between now and 2018 wind energy is expected to:

• Create over 80,000 person years of employment [PYE represent one year of employment for one individual (i.e. 40 hours per week for 52 weeks)].
• Attract more than $16 billion in private sector
  investments.
• Supply over $8.5 billion in Ontario’s manufacturing, construction and service sectors.
• Provide more than $1.1 billion of revenue for communities and landowners in the form of taxes and lease payments over the 20-year lifespan of the projects.

Benefits for our Community

Comber Gosfield Wind Farm

During construction, the Comber Gosfield Wind Farm here in Essex County invested more than $80 million in Ontario, with over 90 per cent of expenditures within a 75 km radius. Most of equipment rentals, permanent materials, professional services, subcontractors and 99 per cent of the workforce required to build the wind farm came from less than an hour’s drive, resulting in a substantial boost to the local economy.

Comber Gosfield Wind will have many lasting benefits for Essex County communities

• Commissioned by Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners in 2010-2011, Comber Gosfield Wind is Canada’s largest wind farm, delivering enough electricity to power over 70,000 homes annually.
• A new operations and maintenance facility in Comber will have a staff of 15 new, permanent employees.
• Farmers and landowners hosting Comber Gosfield wind turbines are sharing $2 million in lease payments each year.
• The towns of Kingsville and Lakeshore are sharing $500,000 annually in tax payments and community improvement contributions.

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Created in 1991, Mid South Contractors ULC is an electrical contracting company based out of Windsor, Ontario, that was formed to facilitate the area’s commercial and industrial electrical needs. In 1995, Mid South was bought by Motor City Electric Co. (MCE), a large-scale North American electrical contractor.

As a subsidiary of MCE, Mid South has access to larger projects, innovative new technologies, and several electrical trade organizations and labor unions. MCE was founded in 1952 in Detroit, Michigan, and has since become one of the largest electrical contractors in the nation, operating within nine divisions: automotive and process, commercial, industrial, specialty industries, service and emergency, public works and steel, technologies, utilities and excavation. All of these services are available at each one of MCE seven subsidiaries, which are found in Florida, Michigan, Indiana, Texas and Nevada.

“We continue to evolve as a company, becoming even more accomplished in advanced technology, achieving greater diversity in our workforce and expanding our overall capabilities,” says Dale M. Wiecaorek, MCE’s president and CEO. “Our
integrated operations have grown to serve a wide spectrum of customers and customer needs, management lnterwoven in this growth are the long term relations hips we build with customers by helping them to achieve success.”

Inner Operations

A part of MCE’s growth , Mid South is focused primarily on the institutional, commercial and industrial markets. The firm employees 14 administrators, project managers and other full-time staff, but can have as many as 50 to 300 electrical laborers out in the field at one time. John Salvatore, Mid South’s current president, has been with the company since the 1990s, when he began as an electrician.

Salvatore says the company values using local, Ontario based subcontractors who haw proven their capability while remaining reasonably priced. “We work with the same group on a fairly frequent basis,” Salvatore explains. Such subcontracting companies prove handy on projects such as Mid South’s work at two water treatment plant projects, two schools, and the Chatham Capital Theater, which requires complex electrical wiring, The firm is also bidding aggressively on a new stimulus-funded hospitality project in Ontario.

As a result of its relationship with MCE, Mid South is developing an expertise in sustainable electrical design and energy efficiency. The firm has gained experience building facilities that use natural electricity and are LEED certified. Facilitating these projects, Mid South has gained membership in the Windsor Electrical Contractors Association, the Sarnia Electrical Contractors Association and the Electrical Contractors Association of Ontario.

“We’re excited about going into green construction; we are going to start a wind farm and we’ re putting up solar farms, too,” Salvatore adds.

Evolving Growth

During the time it was independently owned, Mid South began by installing automotive equipment and conveyors in large factories.. When it was acquired by MCE, the company broadened its s cope to include schools and universities, hotels, casinos and even more industrial facilities. By 2.000, Mid South had become one of the largest electrical contractors in Ontario.

Over the last decade, Mid South has worked on some of its largest projects, including an expansion project for the famous Caesars Windsor Hotel & Casino, where the firm did the electrical work for its 27-story luxury hotel and the 5,000-seat entertainment and convention center. During this time, the firm also worked with Chrysler to launch the Chrysler minivan complex in Windsor and the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger factory in Bramalea, Ontario.

When working on the Chrysler minivan plant, the firm completed the body shop tooling, trim/chassis final tooling. paint system tooling, an extensive installation of conveyor systems, the retrofit of old equipment and a complex data systems integration, coordinating more than 300 laborers. For the plant in Brampton, completed in 2005, the firm used 200 laborers to install large conveyor systems and new· electric machinery, remaining active over the span of three years.

These and other successful endeavors have shown the potential Mid South can continue to realize, drawing on the resources of Motor City Electric Co. and its own ingenuity. Salvatore says that during the next decade Mid South Contractors ULC will continue to refine its services in the automotive and institutional sectors, while expanding it s work in the commercial and hospitality markets. “We (want to be) all over the board with our projects,” Salvatore adds.

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