The benefits of TJL construction project ripple across Maine

The economic benefits provided by the $16.5-million expansion project at The Jackson Laboratory will be felt in Hancock County for many years to come.

According to Gerald Crabtree, The Jackson Laboratory director of engineering and facilities maintenance, the research facility was already the second largest employer in the county before construction started last fall on the new laboratory wing. “About 560 people work here right now,” Crabtree said. “We figure on adding about 128 new jobs when the new laboratorys are occupied.

“Let me stress that these will be permanent, year-round jobs,” he said. “These are the types of jobs that are truly beneficial to the community.

Although many jobs will be filled by local people, The Jackson Laboratory will recruit some researchers from out of state. “It will be a nationwide search that the laboratory will conduct for top quality researchers,” Crabtree commented.

“Most of the people at that level do tend to live on the island. In fact, most of our staff live in the area, Hancock County, that is, Trenton, Hancock, Ellsworth, and elsewhere. A few people do commute from Bangor,” he said.

When laboratory trustees approved the new building, the laboratory took steps to ensure that Maine-based contractors could compete in the bidding. “We could’ve had the contract issued as one single contract,” Crabtree explained. “The cost would’ve required a bonding level that would’ve been difficult for many Maine contractors to obtain.

“To make the project more competitive for Maine contractors, we worked with Tishman (Construction Corp. of Maine) to break the job down into smaller pieces,” he said. “This way, the dollar value would be less, and Maine businesses could have a better opportunity to bid it.”

The construction contract was split into four sections:

The site work, which included excavating the site and building a foundation. The bid was awarded to E.L. Shea Inc. of Ellsworth;

The building structure (i.e., the structural steel, brick, granite, roof, and floors), the bid for which was awarded to Nickerson & O’Day Inc. of Brewer;

The mechanical, electrical, and plumbing components. Lappin Brothers Inc. of Malden, Mass., won this contract;

What Crabtree described as “the interior fitout, essentially where you go into an empty room that has just sheetrock and finish the interior.” The bid went to Nickerson & O’Day Inc.

According to Crabtree, most subcontractors were from Maine. Somne are based in Hancock County; many hired local tradespeople. “You go out on the job site, the people who live locally see their neighbors on the job,” Crabtree said.

“We’ve primarily been hiring local people,” said Jack Kelley of Nickerson & O’Day. “All of our subcontractors are State-of-Maine people. We were running on an average 15 to 20 people throughout the winter and still have 20-30 people there.

“Our men who are working on the site live in the Bangor area. They leave home at 4:30 or 5 in the morning, drive down there, put in a long day, and come home around 5 or 5:30. They’ve done a great job,” he said.

“This has been an excellent project to work on,” Kelley stated. “The cooperation between everyone involved has been very good. I applaud the effort to make the bidding process more accessible to Maine companies.”

“Everything was competitively bid, so everyone had a shot at it,” he said. “The philosophy is, and Dr. Paigen (The Jackson Laboratory director) feels strongly about this, that we are a large employer here in the county, and we feel a responsibility to see that the money for capital improvements is spent in the area.”

Another economic benefit to the region will be the supplies that the laboratory will require for its new facilities. After listing several Maine-based firms that supply chemicals and other material to The Jackson Laboratory, Crabtree noted that “we will buy locally. That could mean a supplier located in Portland or Bangor, but that benefits the whole state.

“And then there’s the spinoff from bringing world-renowned researchers to the laboratory for short periods. These people need a place to stay, and that’s often here on the island,” Crabtree said.

“The Jackson Laboratory plays a big economic role in Hancock County,” he said. “The area likes the laboratory because it is a year-round operation, and employment doesn’t fluctuate in the winter.”