When Frank Schwenzer signed on to help to construct Ottawa’s light rail transit system, he had no idea it would cost him everything he cared about.

There were no red flags to suggest it would be any different from the tunnels his company Hardrock Concrete had worked on before, spraying concrete — known as shotcrete — to line underground passageways like the Confederation Line tunnel that runs between Lyon, Parliament and Rideau Stations.

Based on their $4.7-million subcontract, Schwenzer and his crew of 40 workers expected to shoot 50 to 100 cubic metres of concrete daily and finish the job in seven months, tops. It would be another major infrastructure project Schwenzer, 58, could add to the résumé of the business he spent two decades building, from a two-man show with $500 in his pocket to a thriving Toronto construction company with 26 employees.

Confederation Line builder Rideau Transit Group and its general contractor, OLRT Constructors, were backed by some of the biggest names in the industry: EllisDon, SNC-Lavalin and ACS Group.

“I did my homework. They seemed to be straight-up, honest corporations,” said Schwenzer. “The scope of work was very crystal clear … All my employees were very well-trained.

“I was very, very, very comfortable doing it.”

As Schwenzer tells it, that feeling was gone before long. First off, Hardrock’s planned February 2016 start date was pushed back more than half a year.

Once on the work site, his crew was only managing to shoot a fraction of their projected daily shotcrete output the majority of the time — and they were getting paid by the cubic metre. Schwenzer blames delays, inexperienced management and disorganization that had nothing to do with his people.

“I’ve worked for a lot of tunnel companies in my life, and I’ve never worked for a company so bad, so mismanaged.”

One example: Schwenzer said he’d be directed to one of the underground LRT stations and told it was ready for shotcrete. He’d mobilize his crew and they’d move the necessary materials and equipment through the tunnel — a task that would take several days.

“The minute we get there, they’re not ready. And we’re sitting there for three weeks, with nowhere to go.”

Another example: showing up at a work site, finding tonnes of garbage in the way, and being forced to clear it themselves. Or, wading through three feet of mud while spraying concrete.

According to Schwenzer, conditions were so poor that his crew felt uneasy working without him present. This newspaper spoke with multiple employees who corroborated Schwenzer’s account of the dysfunctional work site experience.

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