December 14, 2009

BRADLEY FEHR

The crane at Jameson House is one of a handful of decorated cranes in downtown Vancouver this year.

Fewer decorated cranes light Santa’s way in downtown Vancouver

JEAN SORENSEN

correspondent

The downtown Vancouver skyline won’t be as festive this year, as fewer cranes will be decked out with Christmas cheer.

Construction companies, known for decorating their cranes in key construction sites, just don’t have as many cranes in the downtown core, after several years of a building frenzy.

Dominion Construction, Scott Construction, Bird Construction, PCL, Stuart Olson and others advised that they wouldn’t be decorating cranes this year.

Some crane rental companies said they have clients with projects finishing up and some that may start in the New Year.

However, the gap means a darker sky over Vancouver with Scrooge also casting a shadow in the form of restricted access to the city during the 2010 Winter Olympic period. Cranes will still be allowed in the downtown core during the Olympics, but companies are hanging back as there may be delays in getting the materials on site for the cranes to lift.

Street restrictions and limitations will start Jan. 1 and continue into March and some streets will be simply closed to traffic.

A month before Christmas, there was only one lonely construction crane bravely blinking out Christmas cheer.

“One on the skyline of Vancouver isn’t much,” said Tom DeWolf, operations manager for Dominion Construction.

One doesn’t need economists or the Conference Board of Canada to realize there’s not much industry action, he added.

In past years, Dominion has participated in decorating cranes at their construction sites, he said.

It was a collective effort.

“We paid for the lights,” he explained.

The electricians, sub-trades and crane crews – in true Christmas spirit - pitched in to string them.

This year only Ledcor, Bosa Properties, and ITC Construction Group have plans to light up their cranes in the downtown core.

Ledcor’s Noris Raycroft said that the lights would go up around mid-December at the company’s Three Harbor Green site at 227 Thurlow.

Connie Mair, construction co-ordinator for Bosa Properties, has two cranes that are expected to be lit up in early December. One is the Jameson House at 800 Hastings and the other on Burrard Street at the YMCA location.

“We have one site with a crane up and it looks like they are planning to put up lights,” reported ITC Construction Group’s Nina Dixon.

The ITC crane is located at 1400 Pender Street.

Those few decorated cranes this Yuletide season will carry on a tradition in the industry that goes back nearly 40 years in Vancouver. It started when a new crane company operator wanted to publicize his business.

“It was how I got known in town,” said Val Coupal of Coupal Climbing Cranes Ltd.

He was inspired one December night long ago to string up hundreds of lights to perk up the winter gloom.

“It was the best advertising that I ever made,” he said.

Those shimmering Christmas lights over the city drew not only industry attention, but also media and local residents.

He became known for staging Christmas lights on his cranes and local residents would even call in December asking when the lights could go up.

Other companies followed suit, lighting up their own cranes.

“It went big,” he said.

Friendly competitions occurred with the height of the rivalry about eight years ago, Coupal recalled.

There was a range of decorations, such as red and green lights, trees hoisted onto the top of the crane and Coupal was known for his galloping Santa sled, almost a landmark on the horizon.

“The one that spent the most money would usually win, “ said Coupal, adding that today it can cost up to $5,000 to string up lights.

“Right now there are not too many cranes left in time for Christmas. No one wants to start during those weeks around the Olympics, when they might not get access to the site,” he said.

Coupal said times have changed and construction companies or the project owner, rather the crane companies, are the driving force behind decorating.

Ryan Burton of Eagle West Cranes plans to decorate a crane in his Fraser Valley yard.

His crew is available to decorate cranes, but much of their effort is expected to centre on decorating trees around commercial areas.

However, lit up Christmas cranes are still seen across Canada and internationally.

Toronto even added a new twist last year when it featured the Dance of the Cranes with two city cranes bobbing, and weaving in time to music for 15 minutes on the hour during a winter festival event.

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