HIGHWAY/ROAD CONSTRUCTION

Since the early beginning, George's main focus was building roads. In the 1940's, the demand for access to uncut timber for the lumber and paper companies was an opportunity that George capitalized on.  He then went on to building the roads, railways and dams at the Steep Rock Mine in Atikokan. In 1962 George Armstrong Co. was awarded their first big contract with the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario to build the road from the Nickel Lake Highway East 12 miles which was the largest rock excavation job in Ontario of that time which included 580,000 cubic yards of rock excavation and a bridge over the CN Rail. The company continued to take on many large highway contracts for the Ontario Government for the next 30 years. The work included clearing, grubbing, stripping, drilling, rock and earth excavations, building of the road grade, ditching and culvert installations. Some of the contracts even included the building of bridge structures. As seen in the above photograph, one of the most challenging road building jobs that the company faced throughout the years was a section of the Kenora by-pass which entailed almost 190,000 m3 of rock excavation, major muskeg excavation and the construction of a bridge over the Winnipeg River spanning 400 ft.