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“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.

Photo by City of Ottawa

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.