With five excavators, a new concrete processing plant, and numerous support resources in place at the Pontiac GFL Recycling Facility project, Robert Clancy Contracting is undertaking their largest job to date, and they are crushing it… literally.
“We are crushing a lot of concrete for sure, the rest is just good old-fashioned hard work,” said Robert Clancy, owner, and operator of Robert Clancy Contracting. “I am fortunate to have a great team in place to ensure that we continue to operate safely but at peak capacity. It has been a bit of a challenge, but one I am confident we will rise to the occasion. This is an important project for us and one we are very committed to finishing on time and on budget.”
Steven Sattler, project manager for Robert Clancy Contracting, is excited about the prospect of taking on larger projects such as the GFL Recycling Facility in Pontiac represents. The GFL project required them to purchase a concrete processing plant and a larger higher capacity excavator, in addition to a large portion of the company’s resources. It is growth that the company has been working towards for several years. He admits during a global pandemic it was hard to look at exactly where the company was heading but in light of the increasing demand for contractors the investment in their fleet and staff is worth it.
“We have known for awhile that this is the direction we were heading when it came to expanding the scope and breadth of services and projects we can bid on here at Clancy Contracting,” said Sattler. “This has been cautiously approached, but there are always certain risks you assume in this line of work. This project will be a test and strong indication of our ability to do this kind of work at this size and scope. We are capable and more than qualified—now is our chance to show it.”
With the enormous amount of demolition the project required, Clancy invested in a new concrete processing plant and large capacity excavator to provide clean fill and base while reducing the amount of waste and refuse material that needs to be hauled away. With the cost of fuel and logistics of hauling out waste and in fresh fill material, it seemed prudent if not necessary to Clancy that it was time to make this investment.
“I have to admit I love having that processing plant as part of our fleet,” said Clancy. “It gives us much more flexibility to be competitive in our bid process in addition to the positives of recycling aggregate on site for reuse in the project we are conducting. This has been something I was looking to add, now that we have it, we need to make the most use of it. There are challenges in processing your own fill—separating the enormous amount of rebar and steel used in older projects like this takes time, but by providing your own material on time and recycling the steel you offset most if not all the cost to run it.”
The Pontiac GFL project is slated for completion this fall and Clancy is expecting it to be phase one of a much larger and expanded recycling facility for GFL in Pontiac. He sees them as being a much larger player in the market moving forward competing with the “big boys” much like Robert Clancy Contracting is.
