COMPANY PROFILE
Strong and Steady
Trottier Piling enjoys staying small and dependable
By Jim Chliboyko
For Manitoba’s Joey Trottier, construction hasn’t just
been his own lifelong trade; it’s more like a family
birthright. Trottier, president of Trottier Piling, is a
fourth-generation, Winnipeg-based pile driver. He, his
father, his grandfather and his great-grandfather were all in
the business. In fact, his grandfather was even an inventor of
a collapsible rig, back in the 1960s.
“My grandpa invented a pile driver,” said Trottier. “I have
all the patent papers from the U.S. of the rig. I have one of the
rigs here, and that’s what my father started with … We don’t
use it; it’s going to become a decoration.”
Sure enough, Trottier eventually sent Piling Canada a
scan of blueprints, marked “D. E. Trottier” at the top, entitled
Mobile Collapsible Pile Driver, filed on Nov. 23, 1960. There’s
also a retro, faded Polaroid affixed to the papers; a photo
of the black and tomato-red rig in question sits in a bushy,
summery (and probably Floridian) compound, with a pickup
truck parked off to the side.
The aerial view of one of
Trottier Piling’s projects
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TROTTIER PILING
Ten Years of Piling Canada 65