The final stage of modernizing CFB Esquimalt's massive Cape Breton Fleet Maintenance Facility could be worth as much as $187 million and is expected to produce plenty of high-paying jobs over the next five years.
The project will start in the spring and includes a mixed bag of seven work packages, including new building, deconstruction of existing buildings, fit-ups in new spaces and decontaminating sites - all to be carried out while regular operations continue at the maintenance facility and across the naval base.
The work is being tendered in parts, each valued at between $15 million and $40 million. It's getting started using a construction management team of partners EllisDon Corp. and Kinetic Construction.
The "total value could be as high as $187 million over five years," confirmed Rick Gudz, Esquimalt manager of operations for Defence Construction Canada, the Crown agency responsible for infrastructure for the Department of National Defence.
By the time the last phase is finished, the Department of National Defence said the overall cost for all stages could reach $607 million.
This fifth stage is the "pièce de résistance" in the project, said Greg Baynton, president of the Vancouver Island Construction Association. "It means jobs, jobs, jobs."
The fleet maintenance project has been decades in the making. In 1977, DND approved a development plan for the base. One aspect was bringing the fleet maintenance facility up to date. It is considered the "corner garage" for repairs and refits performed by a wide range of services, including electronics, mechanical work and fabrication on Canada's Pacific Fleet and its equipment.
Workers were operating out of more than 60 buildings spread around the base, most of which were antiquated.
To make the operation more efficient and to consolidate its operations, new larger modern buildings have gone up. Some rooms are shells and will have to be fitted out. The first phase was finished in 1998.
In this last stage, the construction management team was used because it was seen as the best way to generate solutions to handle the complex job of planning, arranging the sequence of work, and seeing it carried out - saving money and time, Gudz said.
EllisDon and Kinetic are operating as a joint venture on a fee basis, which is confidential, Gudz said.
David McFarlane, Ellis-Don vice-president and area manager in B.C., said both EllisDon and Kinetic have completed several projects for DND in the past "and we are keen on continuing our great relationship with them."
EllisDon and Kinetic are also currently partners on the Hillside shopping centre expansion.
Bill Gyles, Kinetic president and chief executive, said the complex project will create jobs locally "while yielding a terrific end-product for the base."
TIMESCOLONIST.COM
>> See our website for a list of construction projects at CFB Esquimalt in recent years
