One project can sometimes make or break things.
Leon Friesen, the founder, president and CEO at Westridge Construction, found this to be the case in the 1990s when his burgeoning company was trying to ride out a historic economic slowdown in Saskatchewan.
“When I founded Westridge, what I wanted to do was get more involved in some of the bridge, dam and civil work that the company I was with before wasn’t involved in. Things got tough in Saskatchewan. The economy dropped down and not a lot of work was happening.”
Friesen said many of the province’s major players fled to other markets with better conditions but he was determined to stay.
“They decided they couldn’t make a go of it here and pulled out,” said Friesen. “We kept slugging away as a young company determined to survive.”
When the Island Falls Dam Restoration project came out for tender from SaskPower, there was another Saskatchewan-based construction company involved in markets similar to Westridge called Gabriel Construction. After both companies met, they decided that the project was too large for either to do alone and teamed up for a bid. Friesen said the companies spent a great deal of time pursuing the project and were eventually awarded it.
Westridge managed the project while Gabriel agreed to add people to project team and deal with the accounting.
“This was a three-year restoration project in a tough market,” siad Friesen. “It was definitely a very key project for surviving through a tough market time.”
Part of the team’s bid included a guarantee that 60 per cent of workers would be local but the project ended up averaging 85 per cent.
The project was in a remote area of northern Saskatchewan on the Churchill River. The team had to buy used equipment, including a portable concrete plant, skid steers, concrete pumps, backhoes and more and get them to the site. They also had to work closely with consultants and hire experienced crews to ensure the quality of the concrete met requirements.
The timber cofferdam bulkheads were shuffled along the upstream side of the dam as restoration work proceeded. Crews had to hammer away at concrete, reform it and recast it.
Friesen explained one of the major issues was accessing the dam. Different pieces of equipment had to be designed and built specifically for that purpose. This was part of the brainstorming that was done prior to tender. Crews also had to carefully control water levels and even utilize dive teams to access certain parts of the dam.
“There were lots of different challenges, but if I didn’t enjoy challenges I wouldn’t be in construction and Westridge wouldn’t be in this type of market,” said Friesen.
Despite the complex project, the team was able to gain a significant amount of experience and hit their margins. They even were able to negotiate several more years of work with SaskPower.
“It would be a very high risk project today,” said Friesen. “When I look at the margin in the ‘90s I’d say we were taking a significant risk, but we hit the margins we bid at. We certainly were very fortunate to have been able to secure that project and see success and survive.”
He explained today Westridge is a very diversified company that does a variety of work in the relatively small market of Saskatchewan.
“Being successful in Saskatchewan to me means being diversified,” he said, noting the company has worked on offices, warehouses, schools, churches, community centres, water treatment plants, sewage pumping stations, bridges, dams and more.
He added the province has come a long way as well. He said the government has become far more supportive of the private sector and its economy has diversified.
“Create an environment where industry wants to participate in the economy, where inventors want to invest their money,” said Friesen. “When that type of climate is created it spawns construction.”
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