March 28, 2007

Awards

Call for submissions for VRCA annual awards

Vancouver

The Lower Mainland construction industry is once again gearing up for its annual awards season.

The Vancouver Regional Construction Association will be holding its Awards of Excellence event November 1 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Requests for submissions have gone out with a deadline of June 10.

This marks the 19th year the ceremony has been held since being founded by a partnership between the VRCA and the Journal of Commerce, now part of Reed Construction Data.

Brian Martin, retired publisher of the Journal of Commerce and chairman of the awards program points out that last year’s event drew well over 100 entries.

“That,” he said, “is enormous compared to the handful of companies involved in the original event. From its very small beginnings it has grown to become by far and away the B.C. industry’s most prestigious awards program.”

General contractors entering the contest must be members of the VRCA. Trade contractors, however need not be members. They do, though, need to have worked on a project submitted by a general contractor member.

Awards are given in three general contractor categories: projects worth up to $10 million, between $10 million and $40 million and projects worth more than $40 million. Two trade contractor awards are given and are not broken out by dollar volume.

There are electrical contractor awards for jobs worth up to $2 million and those worth more than $2 million and mechanical contractor awards for projects over and under $3 million.

In each category three “silver awards” are given and the award winners are informed. Later at the awards ceremony one silver winner from each category is announced to be the “gold” overall winner.

In addition awards are given for particularly innovative construction projects or systems and for projects considered to be “landmark projects”.

WorksafeBC also sponsors safety awards for companies that have developed significant safety-related programs or equipment.

Although the VRCA membership draws from the Lower Mainland the projects entered cover a wide swath of geography.

Projects last year ranged from a health facility in Kamloops to a naval installation near Victoria to a suspension bridge in West Africa. The bridge went on to win an award for innovation. Most projects receive a personal inspection by members of the association’s project awards committee. In the case of very distant projects, such as the African bridge, video presentations are used.

Alan Webster, retired vice-president with Stuart Olson Construction, is chairman of the VRCA project review committee.

“Last year the number of entries hit 100, up from 77 the year before,” he said. “In addition the total value also jumped – from $518 million to $809 million. We expect to very quickly hit the $1 billion mark if we keep growing at this pace” said Webster.

The Vancouver Regional Construction Association is the largest regional construction association in British Columbia.

It represents both open shop and union firms in all sectors of the construction and design industries.

JOC NEWS SERVICE

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