Since the company was established in 1983, Bremner Engineering and Construction Ltd. has enjoyed slow and steady growth that took it from a small operation in Canmore to a leading construction organization in the Bow Valley and beyond.
“We started out with a couple of pickup trucks, a few dollars in one pocket and a ton of enthusiasm and optimism in the other, and it went from there,” says Richard Bremner, founder of Bremner Engineering and Construction Ltd. (BECL).
With the 1988 Winter Olympic games approaching, Bremner set up shop in Canmore to take advantage of the opportunities to build out the Olympic venues. After securing a contract to work on the Canmore Nordic Centre in 1986, Bremner purchased his first used excavator, a beat-up dump truck and some used equipment that would allow him and his team to get the job done. After the Olympic work was completed, Bremner ventured into infrastructure projects for various municipalities throughout Alberta and contracts with Parks Canada, earning the company a reputation for quality workmanship and exceptional service along the way.
With each subsequent job, his team gained experience and fostered relationships with clients, all the while expanding and upgrading the fleet to facilitate larger jobs. Today, BECL has more than 120 pieces of equipment ranging from excavators and cranes to haul trucks of various configurations and a staff of around 50 to service its clients, many of whom date back to the early days of the company.
As a heavy civil construction contractor, BECL specializes in industrial, utility and municipal infrastructure construction on projects encompassing new construction, restorations and rehabilitations along with transportation, underground utilities, development and environmental upgrades. The BECL professionals provide quality work on underground and site utilities, excavation and earthworks, demolition, site remediation and a full scope of concrete construction and boasts expertise in clearing and grubbing, drainage, grading, underground utilities, structures and bridges, road and parking lot construction, trucking and hauling and aggregate material production.
“Our strengths are really our professionalism and versatility. Richard bids on jobs in the Bow Valley and I don’t think he says no to any kind of work, so we’ve gotten to learn new aspects of heavy civil work over the years. Whatever the work is, we are up to the challenge, and we go,” says Olivier Laroche, site superintendent for BECL.
That work has come from the company’s diverse client base that includes private developers and home builders, municipalities and governments, energy and mining companies, and construction companies. BECL has been involved in countless exciting and unique projects over the past 40 years, and its impressive portfolio includes twinning the Trans-Canada Highway, installation of underground utilities and surface works for numerous subdivisions, safeguarding highways and bridges from various flood events, restoring Canmore to pre-flood conditions in 2013, rehabilitating dams, repairing trails and designing and building water and wastewater systems.
BECL recently completed the much-lauded Banff Bear Street Shared Street project that transformed the commercial heart of Banff into a pedestrian-friendly walking roadway on the surface while upgrading the sewer and water systems as well as creating irrigation, drainage, and landscape systems underground. The company has long been active in the National Parks, including innovative design-build animal overpass projects along the Trans-Canada Highway to create safe crossing corridors for wildlife.
“We’ve been a part of some pretty distinctive projects that have garnered awards through the industry,” says Nathan Gates, project manager and estimator for BECL. “It’s been cool to see the different scopes of work and the challenges on each of these unique projects.”
The talented Bremner team is up to any challenge that their projects throw at them. With engineers, technologists, surveyors, foremen, carpenters, operators, drivers and labourers on staff, the skillset of BECL employees is comprehensive and varied. If a project happens to require something that falls outside their wheelhouse, Bremner has a group of trusted and tested subcontractors and consultants on standby who can fill those gaps to help get the job done.
The core team has been with the company for years and knows the business well so can present inventive, cost-effective solutions to clients. Most of the team started their careers as labourers and worked their way up each rung of the ladder into senior management roles.
“We strive to allow our staff to grow and build their careers and reward them with promotions in the company,” says Gates.
Bremner wants people to stay and be career employees, so he has created an environment that focuses on taking care of and developing staff. The company was built on a foundation of integrity and quality, and management works hard to attract people that share those same values. Employees are treated with respect and consideration at work, and they are expected to treat others, whether they are colleagues, clients or suppliers, in the same manner. It’s a relationship business, and clients know that if the team promises an outcome, every member of that team will do whatever it takes to deliver. The professional, collaborative culture brings out the best in people and pays off in spades with superior project outcomes that lead to word-of-mouth recommendations and repeat business spanning decades.
“There’s a sense of community and family at the company. It is one of the things that Richard has done a really good job of over the years. For everyone that is working here, it’s because of the culture Richard created around him,” says Garret Younghans, site superintendent for BECL. “He goes out of his way to take care of you and to take care of clients. He’s a man of his word and the company reflects that.”
Bremner Engineering and Construction Ltd. has taken great care of staff and clients throughout its 40-year history, and it has the same goal as it did when it first opened its doors in 1983: to be a trusted and respected partner to clients as they bring the best heavy civil construction services to the Bow Valley area. With that goal exceeded, Richard Bremner sees “bigger and better things” in store for BECL.
116 Boulder Crescent,
Canmore, AB T1W 1L3
(403) 678-2659
www.becl.ca
