By Pepper Parr
January 7, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
Walking onto a construction site before the sun is up is just a little eerie; the dump truck drivers standing in small groups, most of them smoking and shuffling their feet to keep warm, while they wait for the work day to begin. The sounds of all the heavy equipment aren’t hard yet. The sound of the GO trains in the background assures that there are people out there.
Dump trucks wait for the gates to open and the excavators to be loading soil into them.
Work will begin soon – but nothing really starts until the crane operator and his rigger are on the site. The construction site Superintendent is checking on everything, shouting at a driver to get his dump truck off the road while watching out of the corner of his eye for the two men that will bring life to a large sprawling site that will eventually house five towers that range from 18 to 22 storeys.
It is going to be another day on the Molinaro Paradigm on Fairview next to the Burlington GO line station. Right now, at what site Superintendent Rodger Parks calls Tower A of the project, they will be tearing down concrete forms, preparing new forms, overseeing the delivery of steel and making sure that the schedule is being met. “Just another normal day on the site” as far as Rodger is concerned. The weather has been particularly good and the top of the level two parking garage is close to completion.
When completed the Paradigm will consist of five towers that back onto the GO rail line.
As Tower A slowly rises, excavation for Tower B and Tower C gets done.
Tower A, which the marketing people call the West Tower is sold out – they are now selling Tower B.
The project will have three towers at the back of the site and two towers close to Fairview where the entrance will be a large circular driveway with a ramp into the underground garage. The plan is for the project to be fully completed in six years.
The steps are still covered in frost on the cold days and are slippy to the touch – this is not a place where you want to lose your grip or your footing.
Crane operator John Caronello gets his equipment together and prepares to walk into the underground garage that is still being built and climb on to the ladder that will take him 215 feet into the air where he will operate the crane that has a 230 foot boom for the next eight and a half hours.
He doesn’t talk very much to his rigger Ryan Vandermeer as they get out of the car; they will be talking to each other every minute of the day. Both men live in Guelph and drive to work in the same car.
A construction site where high rise buildings are going to be built doesn’t start work on any one day until the crane operator determines that he is going to be able to operate the crane – wind can at times can be too strong for the safe operation of the crane.
“There have been occasions when the fog was too thick for me to see the ground and my rigger wasn’t able to help me all that much – so we shut down the construction site” said Caronello.
The cabin where the crane operator works for a full day while not spacious is air conditioned and heated.
John has been in construction for 32 years – loves his job and has worked on buildings that reached 900 feet into the air. He did much of his work in Calgary where he was one of the crane operators on the Petro Canada building.
“I’ve worked on pretty close to 200 buildings” said John “and I’ve never lost a load.”
The tower that reaches 215 feet into the sky is anchored in 1.7 metres of concrete of concrete at the lowest level of the underground garage. The steel ladder steps are often covered with a thin film that is slippy to the hand and foot when it is cold. The crane operator moves very carefully as he climbs up that metal ladder. There is one rule on a construction – be careful, very careful and work safely. “In told that in the old days” said Caronello “that the rules were pretty lax – those days are over. I wear a harness up there that costs $1,100
Safety is an attitude that is put in place and enforced by the site Superintendent – and no one talks back to Roger Parks.
Caronello went up the ladder to his crane cabin when the sun was still rising – he came down at just after four pm taking each step carefully, deliberately – did his paperwork and got ready to drive home. With the parking levels close to completion – the work on the levels that will house offices and residential units will soon begin.
Caronello glances at the sky – gets a sense of what the weather might be tomorrow and heads home.
The sun has yet to set but the construction site is strangely quiet as a supervisor slides the metal gate shut and clicks the lock in place.
