Btons Prfabriqus A Hit With Yankees

Fans attending the home opener at New York’s Yankee Stadium in March 2009 are not likely to recognize Qubec’s role in building the new facility. Most

Fans attending the home opener at New York’s Yankee Stadium in March 2009 are not likely to recognize Qu»bec’s role in building the new facility. Most of the stadium’s concrete components will have been supplied by B»tons Pr»fabriqu»s Du Lac Inc. (BPDL), which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. The seat sections and various architectural components constitute the company’s largest-ever contract. Total project outlay is estimated at $1 billion, including $680 million for the stadium and $320 million for surrounding infrastructure.

BPDL Vice President Robert Bouchard asserts, Whatever is made of concrete for the stadium project will be manufactured in Alma [architectural elements] and Beauce [structural components]. We anticipate that the contract will entail more than 1,600 trips by our trailer trucks between Qu»bec and the Big Apple, representing some 200,000 man-hours. Looking back even 10 years, he adds, obtaining this kind of contract would have been impossible, because BPDL had not yet acquired the expertise or the reputation to tackle it. Since it first entered the field in 1976, constructing concrete foundations for arenas, the company has grown from 12 employees to more than 400, including 300 in Qu»bec and 100 in SaŸ Paulo, Brazil.

Today, the producer is fully equipped to undertake a project of Yankee Stadium magnitude: as evidence, company officials cite the architectural work BPDL performed on such previous jobs as Logan Airport, Harvard University, Burlington Airport, Boston’s Burroughs Wharf condominium, and Suffolk University. Overall, the company has shipped product for projects in 10 Northeastern states, including Vermont, Washington D.C., Maine, Massachusetts., Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. That track record, BPDL contends, was instrumental in gaining the Yankee Stadium contract.

WHY BPDL?

Bouchard credits several factors for BPDL’s impressive showing in the Northeast market, which accounted in 2006 for about 80 percent of the company’s sales: a determination to enter the market; quality of work and finished product; and, growing expertise developed with each completed project. Further explaining BPDL’s ability to compete with American precasters on their own turf, he adds, Innovation is key, both on our part and that of our suppliers. In Alma, for example, we have three production plants and two subplants for molds and anchoring; and, they are the most modern plants in the industry. We are self-sufficient in our supplies: we do the galvanizing of all metal parts in our products, and our quality controls are very high. These business practices are important to the general contractors and the architects who choose to work with us.