Peel Region takes a youthful approach to Queen Street East widening in Brampton, Ont.

Not only are they overseeing the largest single road contract project ever undertaken by Peel Region for their respective employers, Tyler Magee and Serguei Kabanov might be considered representatives of a new wave in construction, at least on the civil engineering side.

Magee is the site superintendent with Fermar Paving Ltd, the general contractor overseeing the two-year $32-million two-lane widening and reconstruction of a seven-kilometre section of Queen Street East in Brampton. Kabanov is Peel Region’s on-site contract administrator. The project started in August last year and is scheduled for completion this December.

While there has been considerable discussion and concern in the past few years about an aging construction workforce, both men are under 30. Magee is 26 and Kabanov is 28.

“I think that it is somewhat different to find two people under 30 responsible for managing a project. But we’re starting to see a generational change,” says Magee.

That observation is partially based on what is occurring at Fermar, where the average age of the management team is about 36, he says. As a teenager Magee helped his father install a septic tank, as well as building their house and a cottage. “I really enjoyed it.”

It was that experience that prompted him to enrol in the mechanical engineering program at McMaster University, later transferring to civil engineering.

During the summer months, he worked for Fermar and it was that connection and his education that helped get hired by the company after graduation in 2008. Only 23 at the time, he was the company’s youngest site superintendent.

“I had worked with the supervisors, so they knew me and what I could do,” says Magee, adding that he is still the company’s youngest site superintendent.

A native of Russia who immigrated to Canada with his parents when he was 17, Kabanov’s entry into construction was a little more circuitous. An unsuccessful application to enter the Royal Military College of Canada was the catalyst to join the 32 Combat Engineer Regiment, a reserve unit of the Canadian Military Engineers. He is still a member.

“I decided to pursue a career in engineering, but I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to go to university.”

Instead, he enrolled in Humber College’s three-year civil engineering program. High marks, coupled with a professor’s recommendation helped him secure a CAD operator/designer’s job with a consulting engineering firm after graduating in 2003.

“I would design intersection improvements and often would inspect them.”

As a considerable amount of the consultant’s assignments were for Peel Region, he became quite familiar with that municipality and in 2006 successfully applied for a position with the region.

He works in the engineering technical services department, which is responsible for inspections, material testing and surveying.

Despite their somewhat different backgrounds, the two men say their similar ages help contribute to a working relationship that is essential on a project that is as large, complex, and lengthy as the Queen Street expansion.

They’re not quite sure the relationship would be as smooth if there was a large generational divide.

“This is the largest project I’ve ever worked on. We’re here for two years. There are a lot of issues to deal with and we’re usually on site 11 to 12 hours a day,” says Magee.

In addition to Magee and Kabanov, most of their respective field staff are also under 30. Included in that list is Magee’s assistant and project co-ordinator, Redwan Safi.

The 24-year-old was hired almost immediately after graduating from the University of Toronto’s civil engineering program last year.

Almost all of his classmates also found work, although some pursued careers in the environmental or municipal sectors rather than construction, he says.

“This (the project) is great hands-on experience,” says Safi, who hopes eventually to climb the ranks to a project manager.

However, almost all of the subcontractors and trades people on the project are considerably older. For the most part that age difference hasn’t been a problem, says Magee. “Once (the trades) know you can do the job, they respect you.”

The age difference between supervisory staff and trades on the Queen Street expansion might spark the question of whether that project reflects the realities of the Ontario construction scene. Statistics suggest that it does.

Approximately 21 per cent of Ontario contractors and supervisors are under age 34, according to Statistics Canada’s 2009 labour force survey. Twenty nine per cent are in the 35 to 44 age bracket.

“Those figures are a reflection of the fact that it does take time and experience to assume a supervisory role,” says Katherine Jacobs, director of research and analysis, Ontario Construction Secretariat.

The Statistics Canada figures show that, on an overall basis, the under-34 age group constitutes about 40 per cent of the trades and construction labour force, she says.