To New Maple Leaf - United Association (UA) · To New Maple Leaf Foods Project the quiet suburbs...

10 The UniTed AssociATion | UNION PLUMBERS, PIPEFITTERS, SPRINKLERFITTERS, STEAMFITTERS AND SERVICE TECHS

Top left to right are Local 787 Journeymen Tom Bailey, Ivan Belbeck and John Gidge. Bottomleft to right are Local 787 BM Andrew Tarr, CIMCO Manager Shannon Macor, CIMCO ProjectDirector Harold Cooper, CIMCO Construction Manager Ryan Orser and SR Tony Finelli.

Abbreviation Key:BM Business ManagerSR Special RepresentativeJ JourneymanAp ApprenticeLU Local Union

UA Journal March_2014:UA Journal Aug 2/26/14 6:57 AM 0

11| MARCH 2014journal

in

UA Members Are Key To New Maple Leaf Foods Project

the quiet suburbs around Hamilton,Ontario in Canada, one of the largest refrigeration projects ever undertaken by United Association members got underway in 2009. Now, the facility isabout to begin operation, and the UAteam involved in the project has everyreason to feel proud.The Maple Leaf Foods meat processing

facility at Red Hill Business Park is thelargest and most technologically advancedplant of its kind in Canada—and perhapsin the world. UA members with Locals787, 67, and 853, along with travelersfrom locals across Canada, performedoutstandingly on this project, accordingto Robert Kaminski, Director of Engi-neering for Maple Leaf Foods.

UA Journal March_2014:UA Journal Aug 2/26/14 6:58 AM Page 11

The UniTed AssociATion | UNION PLUMBERS, PIPEFITTERS, SPRINKLERFITTERS, STEAMFITTERS AND SERVICE TECHS12

“The quality of work from the weldsto the installation was excellent,” hesaid. “The UA always got the job donefor us, which is important because weare always changing the specs as we goalong. I think that in the end, no one isgoing to build a plant like this for ageneration.”Tony Finelli is the Special Represen-

tative for HVACR throughout Canada,and he attributes the success on thisproject to the fact that the UA is simplythe best.“The reason for the success on this

job is the skills of the workers on theproject,” he said. “All of them are firstrate, and the owners and contractor arevery happy with the professional atti-tude of the UA team.”UA members performed all the re-

frigeration, HVAC, plumbing, steamfit-ting and sprinklerfitting. Membersfrom Locals 787 (refrigeration), 67(plumbing and pipefitting), and 853(sprinklerfitting) were all on the job.“We have about 80 members work-

ing on the plant,” said Local 787 Busi-ness Manager Andrew Tarr. “MapleLeaf is very happy with the group onsite. We have a lot of good guys on thejobsite. They show up and do a goodday’s work for a good day’s pay.”Foreman John Gidge agrees. “The

reason this job is going so well is theUA and the training and skills theybring to the job. You’re getting good,quality mechanics to do the job. Infact, they do this all over the world;that’s how good they are.” Local 67members were also an important part

of this effort.“UA Local 67 is a proud industrial-

based membership, which includes acombination of plumbers, steamfitters,welders and metal trades,” says Local67 Business Manager Mark Ellerker.“Our membership has over 2,100members located on the southwest corner of Lake Ontario and includesthe Niagara Peninsula, Haldimand,Norfolk, Brant, Halton and HamiltonWentworth regions.”He notes that the local has had its

fair share of challenges with the de-industrialization of steel, paper andmanufacturing mills, which include therecent closure of the OPG Coal FiredPower Plant, Petro Canada Refineryand Hilton Works USS Steel Mill. Thelocal knew it had to diversify its focus

Brian and Jordan Funk, J, LU 67

Bob Lewis,J, LU 67



Moe Condell, J, LU 67 Brad Davidson, J, LU 67Jason Bates, J, LU 67John Setchell, J, LU 67

Nick Bickford, J, LU 853

Members of the Local 787 team of journeymen, from left: Norm Francis, Paul Murray,Andrew Tarr (BM), Jim Watson, and UA SR Tony Finelli



and lookat all sectorsof work opportu-nities including commercial, institu-tional, residential and light industrial. “In 2012, Local 67 found one of

those opportunities,” said BusinessManager Ellerker, when Maple LeafFoods came to Hamilton. Local 67’screw numbered more than 220 at peakmanpower. They installed more than340,000 linear feet of pipe, which in-cluded: storm drains, office and wel-fare area plumbing services, fixtures; a hydronic heating system, includingboilers, pumps, VAVs and radiation;process areas and sanitation areas;hose stations and equipment; odourcontrol systems; process ingredientpiping and connecting equipment, in-cluding tanks and pumps; a centralutility plant; air compressors, make-upair, exhaust fans, HVAC equipmentand gas-fired unit heaters.The Maple Leaf Foods meat process-

ing plant willprocess deli meatsand hot dogs inabout 500,000 squarefeet supported by6,500 tons of refrigera-

tion. CIMCO was the supplier of theengineered refrigeration systems forthe plant, which will cost nearly $500million when it’s complete this year.The facility is also designed to beLEED® Silver certified. The plant is thelargest industrial refrigeration projectin CIMCO’s 100-year history. It will ul-timately produce more than 400 differ-ent products, from pastrami to bolognaand more. It’s also the largest meat pro-cessing plant in North America, so it’sno wonder the members are proud tobe a part of this project. Meat will bedelivered in refrigerated trucks for pro-cessing, so keeping the product at theproper temperature is critical everystep of the way.The refrigeration capacity is so huge,

it has been described as being equal toseven blocks of ice, each the size of a747 jumbo jet, cranking out coolinghour after hour—or the combined ca-pacity used to cool 80 ice rinks or aircondition 4,200 homes. In other words,it’s a lot of refrigeration!The plant has 110 different rooms

that have to be cooled, many of themwith a wide range of temperatures. Forexample, some are cooled at 4 degreesCelsius, while others require minus17.8 degrees Celsius. The distance be-tween the Central Utility Plant (CUP)and the various rooms results in pres-sure drops that raise the coolant tem-perature as it travels from room toroom throughout the building. Thatmeans that the coolant itself must bepushed out through the building at atemperature of minus 20.5 degreesCelsius. In the compressor room, as well as

the CUP, UA members with Local 787fabricated and installed tanks, lines,

Murray Anderson, J, LU 853

Julie Fros, Ap, LU 67


Mike Franklin, J, LU 787, working for Trane


Rob Konkle, J, LU 853

David Aitken, J, LU 787, working for Trane

Warren Weaver, J, LU 787,working for CIMCO

The Modern Niagara Mechanical team of steamfitters and welders with Local 67

Bill Hickey, J, LU 787, CIMCO James Owen, J, LU 67

Keith Van Every, J, LU 67


Alicia Komejan, Ap, LU 67

Kevin Slattery, J, and Joseph Richard, J, LU 67


piping and equipment. The workforcepeaked at about 750 building tradesmembers at the height of construction.Given the goal of reaching LEED® certi-fication, one of the most critical andchallenging efforts was installing theNH3 system to deliver anhydrous am-monia for the massive cooling require-ment on the project. The indoor environment is critical in

terms of capacity, but energy efficiencywas also important to Maple LeafFoods. The CIMCO-designed controlsystem will analyze 22,000 data pointsevery second and automatically controlmore than 750 pumps, fans, compres-sors, and valves. Three hundred custom

Kevin Taylor, J, LU 67

Kurt Bredow, J, LU 787, CIMCO

Milan Benak, J, LU 787, CIMCO

Frank Galvez, J, LU 67

UA Journal March_2014:UA Journal Aug 2/28/14 1:06 PM Page 16


control screens, four widescreen touchdisplays, and a central operator work-station are all present to aid in moni-toring plant operations. The CIMCOwork alone accounted for 10,000 man-hours to engineer and design the ther-mal system, and another 100,000man-hours (equal to one person work-ing full-time for 50 years) to build andweld the piping required to deliver theammonia used in the chilling process.In all, 25 kilometers of pipe were in-stalled, with related valves and fittings.The design as well as the on-site teammade extensive use of computer-as-sisted drawings to improve line ofsight, and make it easier for the crew to

coordinate the installations of the vari-ous systems throughout the plant. Scheduling was perhaps the biggest

challenge, according to Ryan Orser,CIMCO’s Regional Manager.The Maple Leaf project included the

installation of 32 hygienic air-handlingsystems on the roof, with extensive as-sociated piping, including 100 evapora-tors. The Central Utility Plant ismassive, and the systems throughoutthe plant are complex. Modern Niagaraprovided start-up in the boiler and mechanical rooms, with process air,ammonia piping, steam hot water,compressed air, domestic hot and coldwater, condensate piping and high-

pressure water. Mike Delray is theCommissioning Manager for ModernNiagara, and he said the UA makes hisjob easy.“I come in when a job is nearly

complete,” he said. “I assist in finishingthe job, with start-up and commission-ing of all the building systems. This is avery complicated building, but I alwaysget a big pat on the back because it alljust goes off, and everything is good—but the reality is the UA guys hand thejob to me on a silver platter. I just showup and press buttons.”Rob Kaminski of Maple Leaf Foods

noted that it is the complexity of thisplant that sets it apart, especially since

James Rawn, Ap, LU 787, CIMCO

Daryl Versnick, J, LU 67, CIMCO Cori Ingelhart , J, LU 67, CIMCO Steve Lomax, J, LU 527, CIMCO



Thomas Booth, J, LU 787 andAaron Hamilton, J, LU 67

Ryan McDonald, Ap, LU 787

The Local 787 team on the job for CIMCO


19journal

the plant will ultimately processfood for humans.“There will be round-the-

clock sanitation, and in fact, theplant will be fully sanitizedevery single day,” he said. The Hamilton meat process-

ing plant is just one part ofMaple Leaf ’s presence in thecity. The company’s CanadaBread facility, which opened in2011, is right next door.As the project winds down,

Maple Leaf is preparing forstart-up. The company esti-mates that about 670 workerswill be needed full-time at theplant, and the plant will add $2million a year to Hamilton’sproperty tax base. Given thestate-of-the-art technologyused in the plant, there is nodoubt that the skills of UAmembers in Local 787 will beneeded to keep it up and run-ning safely and efficiently. “It was a great project for us,”

said Local 787 Business Man-ager Andrew Tarr, “and I’mproud of every single memberfrom every local who workedon this job. We showed themhow to get it done!”“I’m proud of the contribu-

tion our sprinklerfitter mem-bers made to this project. Theirdedication is unparalleled when itcomes to protecting the health andsafety of the hundreds of people whowill work in this facility when it is com-pleted,” said Local 853 Business Man-ager Greg Mitchell. “This was a greatopportunity for us to demonstrate ourskills on one of the biggest projects in

Canada. Local 853 met that chal-lenge with skill and dedication. Welook forward to showing what wecan do on future projects as well.”Local 67 Business Manager Mark

Ellerker agrees.“UA Local 67 members have

worked collectively to meet all theircontractors’ building schedules andhave proven there is nothing that can’tbe accomplished through hard work,determination and cooperation,” hesaid, adding, “Be proud to be UA!”

Peter Mitges, J, LU 787

Barry Shrum, J,LU 787

Darrell Cleland, J,LU 67

Steve Arsenault, Ap, and

Ted Setchell, J, LU 787

| MARCH 2014

Bill Reid, J, LU 67,CIMCO


To New Maple Leaf - United Association (UA) · To New Maple Leaf Foods Project the quiet suburbs...

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