The role of Weyburn’s Souris Valley Industries in the construction of the new Mosaic Stadium in Regina was outlined to the Weyburn Rotary Club at their luncheon meeting on March 30.
Operations manager Tanya Dubois gave the update, and later provided a tour of the Souris Valley facility to interested Rotary members. Dubois noted that the company was started in 1977, and was purchased by the Bell family in 2005, moving to their current manufacturing facility in 2009-10. A major expansion took place in 2013, and the following year, the company added the dry-cast concrete area to make concrete pipes.
When the opportunity arose to supply precast concrete pieces for the Mosaic Stadium, the company added a whole line to handle the specialized product, and they obtained certification with the national precast organization to enable them to be a supplier for the major project.
Dubois noted the company went from five employees and 5,000 square feet to 35 employees working in 42,000 square feet, supplying customers in Saskatchewan, Northern Alberta and Northern Manitoba.
Currently, Souris Valley Industries supplies precast concrete bridges to RMs, and are exclusively supplying manholes to the City of Regina. The contract to supply precast concrete to the Mosaic Stadium project was originally awarded to a Saskatoon company, but that contract was opened again by the main contractor, PCL. Souris Valley applied to be the supplier, winning the lucrative contract at a time with other work orders had slowed down, partly because of the slowdown in the oil industry. Dubois noted the technology required for the precast pieces for the Mosaic Stadium had not been used by Souris Valley before, but “we’re always up for a challenge.”
To prepare, the Bell family attended courses in Florida on the technology and techniques used, such as prestressing the steel cables used as strengtheners in the concrete.
The family members visited companies in the States to see how it was done. “To get the paperwork for the certification, we were told it would take six months to do, and we did it in three months. It was a matter of being persistent,” said Dubois, noting they got help from many quarters, including an instructor from Winnipeg, along with assistance from Swayze’s.
“It was a real team effort. We had a lot of help from everybody. When we found out we got the contract, I got the first call while I was at a Red Wings game, so it was very exciting,” she said, adding they had to keep the news about the contract quiet until they officially had the certification in hand to allow them to supply the concrete.
Altogether, Souris Valley Industries produced 1,129 bleachers and 460 walls for Mosaic, plus six stairs to augment work that was to be supplied by another company, with a total of 52,000 man-hours of labour put into the production of these items. An additional challenge during the period of supplying this work is that there was no storage space at Mosaic, so basically the pieces had to be loaded up in the yard at Weyburn and trucked to the stadium, and then lifted into place.
“We got to tour the stadium as it was being built,” said Dubois, noting she was able to arrange the tours as the work went so staff could see the progress of their work.
In addition to her work at Souris Valley Industries, she is involved in Weyburn’s roller derby team, the Strait Jackettes, for which her roller derby name is “Pistol Whipper”.
“It’s a big passion for me,” said Dubois. “We work hard, practising four times a week. It’s a great stress reliever … they’re a great group of women.”
The team practices either at the Curling Rink or the Sports Arena, but are using Haig School right now until the rinks are available.
She noted some of the team members have been named to Team Saskatchewan. This year there will only be one home game, held in September, with a number of away games on the schedule.
