Banister Pipelines has planted its feet firmly in the Lac La Biche region, and not just with the massive piece of Access pipeline they are building through the area.
For the next four months, over 600 Banister construction workers will call Lac La Biche home. The influx of workers is due to the contract Banister signed to complete a new 300-kilometre pipeline project that runs from Conklin, through the heart of Lac La Biche County, ending just outside Fort Saskatchewan.
“We’re happy to be back in Lac La Biche after being here in 2006, now we’re ready to get to work,” said Jeff Miller, a construction manager for Banister.
And the work has already begun, with Banister workers laying the ground plans and signs in order to hit the ground running come January. Part of preliminary prep work deals with clearing the land and getting the area ready for the pipeline.
“Right now we’ve begun the clearing process, gearing up for the first operations,” Miller said. “We’re hoping to start grading next week, all in an effort to really get going in January.”
According to Miller, there are 120 on-site workers that have already landed in Lac La Biche, and he believes that after the Christmas break it’ll take his workers three weeks to really ramp up the construction phase. The majority of the 600-plus work force will be on the ground running by mid-January, and Miller is hoping that he’ll have all the accommodations for his guys in place by mid-January.
“We’ve been really successful so far at getting private rooms for guys here,” he said. “Hopefully that is something that continues as more and more guys get here in January.”
Fortunately this time around the community there are two more hotels plus other new development to help with accommodations.
“We’re doing our best to get most of our supplies locally, and only look elsewhere for the really specialized equipment.”
Banister is hoping to gain enough traction to complete the first leg of construction this winter, focusing solely on the piece of pipeline beginning near Heart Lake and sweeping in through Lac La Biche and into the Buffalo Lake Metis settlement.
“We need to get this done in the winter while the ground is hard. Once the thaw hits and the frost leaves the ground we need to get the equipment out of the bush in a hurry,” Miller said.
Looking locally
With Banister needing to finish this leg of the project during the winter months to stay on schedule, Miller explained that using local workers to fill positions will be crucial during the busy months of January and February. And with his desk already receiving resumes daily, the response from Lac La Biche has greatly eased the tension with filling these vacant spots.
“It’s great to have this local support, we’re sitting OK for the moment, but I know come January we’re going to need to fill some spots, and we’re definitely looking at hiring locals to help get this job done,” he said.
“The town itself is a lot more built up as far as resources and supplies than it was when I was here in 2006,” he said.
