Today, the Société des parcs industriels Sorel-Tracy (SPIST) launched construction of the new Alstom manufacturing plant in the Ludger-Simard industrial park, with Sorel-Tracy mayor Réjean Dauplaise and Sylvain Simard, Richelieu member of the National Assembly in attendance.
This new plant, slated for completion next fall, supports Alstom Transport’s role in the C$1.2 billion contract between a Bombardier-Alstom Consortium and the Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) for the manufacture of 468 new metro cars. In accordance with STM requirements, each train must be made using 60 percent Canadian content. Alstom’s work at the new Sorel-Tracy site will be dedicated to assembling and integrating the trucks[1] for Montreal’s new subway cars. The truck assemblies include propulsion systems and the well-known wooden shoe braking system. Alstom’s local activities will create approximately 60 direct jobs and involve many area suppliers.
“Business activities are moving forward in accordance with the agreement between the Bombardier-Alstom Consortium and the Société de transport de Montréal regarding the manufacture and delivery of the first train, expected to be up and running in 2014,” declared Claude Lambert, ALSTOM Énergie & Transport Canada vice president and general manager. “With this new modern industrial building, Alstom finds itself in an excellent position to meet the operational and technical requirements of its North American customers, such as STM, by supplying them with state of the art public transportation equipment and technology.”
“For SPIST, this investment of over $5M is the culmination of a great deal of effort and fits in perfectly with the company’s economic development plan through the implementation of real estate projects. On a regional level, this project fills a unique, currently underdeveloped niche and will contribute to the diversification of the economic fabric,” emphasized Benoît Soucy, agency chairman.
Not to be outdone, Mayor Réjean Dauplaise stated, “The city of Sorel-Tracy firmly believes in this new industrial building’s potential, which is why city council did not hesitate to support this Société des parcs industriels Sorel-Tracy project last December. In fact, the city of Sorel-Tracy supported the Société des parcs by acting as guarantor for an amount of $3.2 M, a decision approved unanimously by council members.”
The 55,000 square foot plant, designed by its director, Jean-François Nadeau, engineer, and the architect Eric Champagne, will be a turnkey project, built by Construction Sorel. Marcel Fafard, engineer and project manager, will supervise construction.
In addition to the Sorel-Tracy site, Alstom’s facility in Montreal will supply traction, train monitoring, communication, passenger information and video-surveillance systems. In all, over 300 Alstom employees will have participated in the design, manufacture and implementation of the new STM subway cars over the 8-year term of the agreement.
