FR

General Motors/Suzuki Automotive Plant

GM/Suzuki plant image

  • Client

    CAMI Automotive Inc., General Motors of Canada Ltd., and Suzuki Motor Corp of Japan

  • Area Office

    Ingersoll

  • Year Completed

    1989

  • Size

    2,100,000 sq. ft.

  • Sector

    Industrial

  • Sub-Sector

    Automotive

Highlights

• 2,100,000 square foot automotive plant
• The project was the largest design-build automotive plant in North America
• Completed on schedule and within the budget

The Story

The CAMI project, which was the largest design-build automotive plant in North America, was an extremely challenging contract. EllisDon was contracted to build a car assembly plant from scratch. Apart from the requirements of any large construction project, approximately 30% of the contract value was from mechanical, electrical and process installation. Effective coordination of these areas was crucial for meeting the performance and scheduling requirements of the contract.

Challenges & Solutions

The initial challenge was to provide a project that could meet the owner’s strict budget and schedule criteria. The EllisDon team produced a Guaranteed Maximum Price of $165 Million for the main 2,100,000 square foot automotive
plant and associated buildings. This became the basis for the design-build, lump sum contract awarded to EllisDon. In due course, additional contracts, including process installation, a central mechanical plant building, a tank farm,
a fire pump house, a waste treatment plant and an office building, took the total contract value to $500 Million.

Despite an extremely stringent construction schedule, which included the commissioning of all systems, EllisDon met the challenge and completed the project as scheduled and within budget.