Canam Completes Buy Of Nearby Jewell Site
Claremont — Steel fabricator Canam Bridges on River Road has completed purchase of the nearby building owned by Jewell Transport, which is moving its trucking facility about a half-mile south this spring to a new building now under construction in the Syd Clarke Industrial Park.
Canam General Manager Robert Richard said last week the purchase of the 70,000-square-foot Jewell building, which is on a parcel that borders Canam’s property, will ease a space crunch that has developed with the company’s contracts. Canam fabricates steel girders for bridges and Jewell Transport handles the trucking of the girder.
Richard said the plan is to use the Jewell building to store finished goods. Canam had already been using some of Jewell’s property for storage. Asked if Canam could renovate the building to expand is manufacturing operation, Richard said, “it is too soon to say.”
“In the short-term, we will ready the site for storing bridge components,” Richard said. “We have a lot of work, about a two-year backlog, which is a lot of steel.”
Richard said the company is now working on the contract for the new Tappan Zee Bridge of over the Hudson River in New York and is finishing work for the Whittier Bridge over the Merrimack River on Interstate 95 north of Boston. Additionally, the company has a contract for the new Champlain Bridge being built over the St. Lawrence River in Quebec.
“We have about a quarter of the steel portion of the contract,” Richard said.
“It is (25 percent of) $180 million, and that is just for the steel.”
The length of the bridge is about nine miles
A propane tank farm is located on River Road between the Jewell parcel and Canam’s but it does not extend the full length of the property line. Behind the large propane tanks, a portion of Canam’s property abuts the roughly 16 acres where Jewell has been located since it bought the vacant building in 2004.
Richard said the company would mostly likely cut a road to connect the two properties and could at some point use the rail spur that is used to deliver propane.
Last year, Canam made modifications to its existing plant when it built an 18,000 square foot addition on the back of the main building to expand the painting shop across the entire building.
The company continues to seek workers with a sign advertising job openings for fitters and welders sitting near the road at the company’s River Road entrance.
According to property records, Canam bought the property from Jewell for $550,000. The building was constructed in 1980 and was first occupied by Temple Eastex Inc., a manufacturer of fiber board.
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Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
