🔒South Paris contractor nets national utility project award

Mark Bancroft, president of Bancroft Contracting Corp. in South Paris, is used to dealing with surprises on a construction site. But “surprise” was taken to a new level during his company's work on the Penobscot River Restoration Project's hydropower facilities. Both Hurricane Sandy and slowpoke federal permitting shredded the original timeline, but the company was still able to deliver the first two phases of the project on time. Its performance captured the attention of the Associated General Contractors of America, which earlier this month awarded Bancroft Contracting its Alliant Build America Award for best new utility infrastructure project.

Bancroft, who founded the company in 1976, said the $21 million hydropower project has been the company's largest to date. It involved building two new power houses to replace old structures on the Stillwater and Penobscot rivers, constructing intake and tailrace structures, gates, penstock forebays and other work.

The project was borne of an unusual collaboration between environmentalists and power generators who agreed to take down two aging dams to restore a free-flowing river passage for salmon and other migratory species, while simultaneously building two new power houses to enhance hydropower generation on the rivers. Bancroft Contracting finished the new power houses in Stillwater and Orono, which have been generating hydropower since last fall. There's a month remaining to finish work on a fish passage at Orono and to complete a fish elevator — a much more complicated contraption than the common fish ladder — at Milford. But Bancroft feels confident they'll make the deadline, despite the prolonged snow cover that has hobbled construction this winter. He and several co-workers did get a short reprieve from winter's grip to travel to Las Vegas and accept the AGC award.

Mainebiz chatted with him just after his return. The following is an edited transcript.

Mainebiz: What was it about the hydropower project that impressed the AGC judges most?

MB: [Because of a delay in federal permitting], 18 months of work had to be completed in 12. We had expected to start work in the summer, when the river flows were at their lowest. But the delays pushed the start of the work into late fall, right into Hurricane Sandy and winter weather. The conditions were just horrible. We were drilling, blasting, excavating — we had hundreds of yards of ledge to get through to build the power houses' foundations.

MB: How did you do that?

MB: We worked long days and long weeks. We put up light towers so we could work during the shortest days of the year. The concrete crews worked 24 hours. It really came down to the crew. They deserve all the credit.

MB: How big a crew was it?

MB: In excess of 65 people. With the subcontractors, we probably maxed out at 80 people.

MB: I know the AGC recognized 19 companies overall out of an applicant pool of 92. What was the competition like for this award?

MB: Pretty intense. We were up against large, national contractors that work on projects in the hundreds of millions each year. So getting the recognition was pretty special. I felt humbled to be part of it.

MB: Can you tell me more about the fish elevator? The AGC says that portion of the project alone is $8 million. Is it really an elevator?

MB: It's very elaborate. Basically, we're building an elevator that the fish will swim into, which requires an incredibly complex concrete formwork to make the elevator safe for the fish and to direct them where to go. [Once transported by the elevator], they continue swimming to an area where they are counted and sorted [before moving] up river. It is a work of art.