On-Site received hundreds of stellar images of job sites across the country for its 2020 Canadian Construction Photo Contest — from the East Coast, to the Arctic, West Coast, and everywhere in between. Narrowing down the list was no simple task, but after raucous debate, we settled on the 11 finalists that follow.
Stay tuned, as we’ll be revealing this year’s winner from amongst these 11 images next week in our February issue!
These also weren’t the only shots that captivated us this year. Far from it. To offer a glimpse of even more 2020 job sites, we’ve compiled a series of other remarkable images we received from coast to coast to coast.
OUR 2020 FINALISTS
Click any of the shots to take a closer look
Company: Aecon-Flatiron-Dragados-EBC Partnership
Photographer: Riley Glazier
Location: Outside Fort St. John, B.C.
Date: November 2020
Depicting the night shift at the snowy Site C Clean Energy Project in northeast British Columbia, Riley Glazier, site services electrician-foreman for the AFDE Partnership, captured this shot of the sprawling job site. The AFDE construction team is responsible for building the generating station and spillways for the hydro megaproject outside Fort St. John. Construction on the dam began in 2015 and generators at the site are scheduled to begin producing enough energy to power roughly half a million homes starting in 2024.
Company: EllisDon
Photographer: Paul Casselman
Location: Toronto
Date: May 2020
Up to five rigs were simultaneously augering and placing concrete caissons at the three-building Block 8 development just east of Toronto’s Distillery District this May. This shot depicts a “regular” day of foundation work on the EllisDon site. Being built on an aggressive timeline, Block 8 will eventually house 770 rental units and is targeting a LEED Gold certification.
Company: Graham
Photographer: Michael Mahovlich/Metrolinx
Location: Toronto
Date: November 2020
A pair of excavators tear down the western half of the Bloor Street West rail bridge in Toronto in this Metrolinx photo, taken by Michael Mahovlich. The staged demolition and reconstruction of the bridge is one component of the Davenport Diamond Guideway project, which is itself part of Metrolinx’s GO Expansion program. Graham Construction is overseeing work on the logistically challenging job valued at $175 million.
Company: Ira McDonald Construction
Photographer: Andres Gomez
Location: Guelph, Ont.
Date: December 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic was an inescapable reality of 2020, both on and off the job site. Andres Gomez, a junior estimator with Ira McDonald as well as a hobbyist photographer, captured this compelling shot on the company’s ongoing project at the University of Guelph MacKinnon Building. Like other contractors, the firm has implemented a range of safety protocols such as a mandatory screening process and face coverings at enclosed sites.
Company: Kiewit
Photographer: Jeff Zegalski
Location: Outside Whatì, N.W.T.
Date: March 2020
Clearing the way for part of a new 97-kilometre road northwest of Yellowknife, this image from Peter Kiewit Sons depicts some of the challenging conditions on the Tlicho All-Season Road project. The new gravel road will replace a winter ice road across Marian Lake that connects Whatì to Highway 3. Construction on the remote P3 project will employ more than 230 workers at peak and greatly improve access to, as well as the cost of living in, several local communities.
Company: Metrolinx
Photographer: Matt Llewellyn
Location: Toronto
Date: November 2020
Armando Romeo, a concrete finisher working for Structform International, cleans up a few rough spots along the side of a walkway inside the new Union Station Bus Terminal (USBT). The terminal, which is integrated into the CIBC Square development in downtown Toronto, opened in December 2020 after roughly 2 1/2 years of construction.
Company: Nomodic
Photographer: Martin Knowles Photo/Media / Jason FA Cole, Take Off Photography
Location: Surrey, B.C.
Date: July 2020
Captured during the craning process on a modular construction project for BC Housing, this image depicts one of the 57 modules being secured in place at the Peterson Place Supportive Housing Complex. Built to support the crown agency’s Rapid Response to Homelessness initiative, Nomodic crews on the residential project faced steep challenges from a short timeline and a compact job site.
Company: Performance Builders
Photographer: Chris Ruiter/SitePartners
Location: Vancouver
Date: October 2020
A boom lift is craned over a new multi-unit residential project in southeast Vancouver. The five-storey Riverwalk development, built by Performance Builders, includes 109 apartments, two-thirds of which will cater to families. Developed by the Vancouver Affordable Housing Agency (VAHA), the project used woodframe construction.
Company: Pomerleau
Photographer: Pierre Seager
Location: Saint John, N.B.
Date: Summer 2020
A worker on a major expansion project at the Port of Saint John, N.B. The Pomerleau-EBC Marine Works Consortium has been tasked with building a longer, stronger pier that will expand the port’s shipping capacity. The project team must dredge approximately 325,000 cubic metres of seabed before floating eight large concrete caissons into place on the harbour floor.
Company: Priestly Demolition
Photographer: Concrete Pictures
Location: Ottawa
Date: October 2020
A top-down view of a complex bridge demolition project along Highway 417 in Ottawa. The shot from Priestly Demolition shows a series of excavators and support vehicles working to tear down the Nicholas Street Bridge at one of the highway’s busiest interchanges. The job lasted just 17 hours.
Company: Valard
Photographer: John Bak
Location: Edmonton
Date: June 2020
The stands at Commonwealth Stadium needed to stay empty through much of 2020, but fans’ cell phones will be showing full bars when they return. A Valard Telecom Wireless crew was perched — fall arrest harnesses and all — above the gold and green seating this summer in Edmonton to install new cellular infrastructure as part of a Telus project.
