Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 1
Volume 8, No. 2
Winter 2013
COVER PHOTO—Mark Lebreton
in the CAT 374D L loads excavated
material into an articulated rear-dump
haul truck as part of a $12 million
project to extend the runway safety
area at the Charlottesville Albemarle
Airport in Virginia. Photo by Eric Clark.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 2
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
A message from Herb R. Sargent
In the wake of the 2012 elections, a sliver of optimism
In the wake of the 2012 elections, a few of the logjams
our company has faced are being broken, and as a result
there is room for a sliver of optimism … optimism that
was difficult to identify even three months ago.
a performance, over time, ought to also be considered?
A major election is often a significant economic
milestone, primarily because investors are keeping their
cards close to their vests due to the unpredictability of a
looming potential change in political/economic climate. In that respect, regardless of one’s political leanings, there
is always a sense of relief when an election is over and the
“rules” become clearer. After all the pundits have spoken,
the political ads run, and the victory celebrations held, it’s
time to be America again. I take great pride and find great
relief in that.
About three years ago, I told you that I wanted to focus
on the things we can control, and that I would be turning
the lamp up on the inside of the company. That has been
a thoroughly instructive process, and I invite you to ask
yourself: have I noticed this anywhere?
To me, the instruction here is we can all wake up the
morning after the election and, though every change
will have some form of rallying dissent, we will make it. Because as individuals, as generations, and as a populace,
we build each generation upon a history of hard-earned
achievement, of victory rooted out against the longest
odds. Though I believe we have many cultural countermovements to overcome, I also believe America will
forever represent that for which it was founded – life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Where we as individuals fall in this mega-machine is
almost impossible to perceive. The discernible impact of
a single individual on the world stage is reserved for those
few who have either earned it through high achievement
or tragic misdeed. We can’t, as individuals, influence how
the world turns, but we can and should have an influence
on our immediate surroundings. That is a gift to us,
and we should be proud stewards of that gift. Make a
difference….today. In the same way a million yards of
dirt can’t be moved until you move the first yard, cultural
changes cannot be made without the influence of the
individual.
It is your individual effort – coordinated in a way that
maximizes output for the greatest overall benefit – that
makes your community great, your country great…..your
company great.
Those efforts have a way of searching their way back
into the system, and the truth of the matter is that efforts
become self-fulfilling prophecies: if it costs us $X per
cubic yard to move earth (or crush rock, or lay pipe),
wouldn’t it make sense that we bid future projects at that
price? But …. BUT, if you prove to ut we can actually
perform at a lower cost, doesn’t it stand to reason that such
Lower cost = Lower bids = More work (usually).
Higher cost = Higher bids = Less work (usually).
We are tooling up. Not in terms of dull, yellow iron,
but in terms of a culture that demands safe and effective
execution of our work. Every company on the planet
has access to the same equipment we do. But no other
company on the planet has access to the same great people
we do. If I sound slightly more optimistic, here’s one of the
reasons. A major contributor to my slight movement
toward optimism is that the recent “fiscal cliff” talks have
resulted in at least one very positive note: the production
tax credits have been extended for wind projects whose
construction begins in 2013. This single change could
have dramatic impact on our company, but I’m not
willing to take anything to the bank just yet. Though
this truly is a positive development, my concern is that
this wind work will only begin to backfill the vacuum of
other work. In other words, there won’t be much else
out there (particularly in New England), so everyone will
be looking to the wind development work as a feeding
frenzy.
2012 was an incredibly challenging year: volume was
down, work was slow, layoffs were early. Through it all,
we were able to maintain profitability in an economy that
has taken down many, many companies. The good news
going forward it we do have a reasonable backlog, aided
most recently by the acquisition of the Portland CSO
project worth $9.6 million. We have a list of projects
we have identified that could mean a huge difference for
us in 2013, and we’ve adopted a dramatically different
approach to these projects to maximize our success on
their acquisition.
There will be an upturn, someday, though we don’t
know when that will be. But when it comes, we will be
ready, at the starting block, and it is my job to see to it we
are in Olympic shape to take on those opportunities.
Thank you for your individual effort in our collective
achievements.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
Harvey Kaherl places intermediate cover sand.
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 3
Jackie Morin checks grade with the rover.
Sargent completes gas collection piping job at Crossroads
Sargent Corporation has completed the
installation of gas collection piping on a
portion of Waste Management’s Crossroads Landfill in Norridgewock, ME, along
with the Phase 1 through 6 East Sideslope
Final Closure project.
Sargent was awarded the gas contract
first, and the permanent closure project
was awarded shortly thereafter. Work on
the gas project started early in June 2012;
the capping project started July 2. The two
projects were completed in mid-October.
Colby Currier was the operations manager for Sargent, and Peter Broberg was
the superintendent. Glenn Adams was the
project manager and filled in as superintendent while Peter was in Holderness for
several weeks.
Tim Blais and Eric Burgess were the
foremen, and Steve Perry was the estimator.
The project area was above an MSE
(mechanically stabilized earth) wall that
Sargent crews had constructed in 2005.
The crews had to move about 6,000 to
7,000 cubic yards of waste material to shape
the cap area to achieve design grades. Much
of the waste was graded to create drainage
swales, which break up the flow of runoff
and channel it into riprap downchutes.
After the waste material was graded,
the crews placed a 6” layer of intermediate cover sand, which also served as a gas
venting layer just below the liner.
The liner was installed by RTD of
Madison, ME, who was a subcontractor
to Waste Management. It included seven
acres each of a geosynthetic clay liner
(GCL, a layer of bentonite clay between
two layers of fabric), a 40 mil textured
geomembrane layer, and a drainage composite layer. Sargent crews placed a 12”
protective layer of sand on top of the liner,
followed by 6” of owner-supplied topsoil.
The project was the first permanent cap
at Crossroads without a 12” layer of clay directly below the liner system. As part of the
agreement to eliminate the clay layer, Waste
Management installed a leachate recirculation system. This piping system allows
leachate to be reintroduced to the waste via
existing gas collection pipes, where it will
accelerate decomposition of the waste.
Colby said clay has traditionally been
used as an impervious layer at both the top
and bottom of landfill cells—to prevent
leachate from leaking through the bottom,
and to prevent methane from escaping
through the cap.
However, as landfills settle, they degrade, and the clay layer in the cap is subject to bending and cracking. The geosynthetic liner is used because it is designed to
stretch and not tear as the landfill settles.
The leachate recirculation system included 700’ of 4” leachate recirculation
piping, which was installed in the intermediate cover layer (6” of sand) between the
liner and the waste material.
Leachate will continue to be hauled
off-site for treatment, but several times per
week tankers will load up and drive to the
top of the landfill and charge the recirculation system.
The gas collection project included installation of 3,200 linear feet of gas collection piping, both above and below the new
liner. This included 1,400 linear feet of 6”
perforated horizontal gas collection piping
in the waste layer, 800 linear feet of 12”
advantage surface collector piping—12”
wide and 1” thick—in the 6” sand layer below the liner, and 1,000 linear feet of 12”
and 14” header pipe above the liner.
Colby noted that about 85% of the project was on a 3:1 slope, and the protective
cover sand had to be pushed up the slope
and through the drainage swales.
He said the crews were blessed with
good weather for most of the project.
Norpine Landscape of Kingfield was the
seeding subcontractor.
On Track is published twice a year
for the employees of Sargent Corporation.
HERB SARGENT, President
DAVE WOLLSTADT, Editor
Comments, suggestions, story ideas or
address changes for ON TRACK should be
forwarded to:
Lynne Churchill
Sargent Corporation
P.O. Box 435, Stillwater, ME 04489
207-817-7557
e-mail: [email protected]
Sargent Corporation is an equal opportunity/
affirmative action/drug-free employer. Women
and minorities are encouraged to apply.
www.sargent-corp.com
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 4
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Infrastructure improvements completed on Margin St. in Orono
A series of infrastructure improvements at the intersection
of Margin Street and Island Avenue in Orono were completed
earlier this summer. Although it
was a smaller project, it had numerous challenges that Sargent
Corporation crews were faced
with to accomplish this project.
The $195,690 project included relocation of 8” and 10”
sanitary sewer, installation of
storm drain piping, relocation of
a 10” ductile iron water main,
and the installation of a 36”
HDPE pipe that was sliplined
through an existing rock box
culvert under the Maine Central
Railroad tracks in Orono.
Sargent crews had to
coordinate their work with the
Sargent Materials supplies lean concrete to fill the annular space between the new HDPE pipe and the
railroad personnel.
existing granite box culvert
A portion of the stormwater
work involved replacing an existing 3’x5’
able than a 34” pipe, which can be difficult
to Margin street throughout the duration of
rock box culvert with new 30” polyethto obtain.
the work. Sargent crews also coordinated
ylene pipe and sliplining an additional
The crews worked with E. J. Prescott to
this work with Nick DelMonaco of Olver
section of the rock drain box culvert with a
fuse the large diameter HDPE pipe together
Associates, the engineer on the project,
new 36” HDPE sliplining pipe.
and then utilized an excavator and some
to help address any concerns the Town of
The original plans called for a 34” pipe,
manufactured cable to pull the 36” HDPE
Orono might have with this detour.
but the crews investigated the box culvert
pipe through the existing rock drain box
In all, crews installed over 400 linand determined that a 36” pipe would fit in
culvert. Once on the other side, the 36” pipe
ear feet of sewer pipe, 40 linear feet of
the existing space. The 36” pipe, being a
was connected to a new catch basin in the
ductile iron waterline with two gate valves,
standard size, would be more readily availcenter of the road. The pipe run continued
roughly 150 linear feet of large diameter
storm drain piping, and 76 linear feet of
to the opposite side of
36” HDPE slip lined piping.
the road and terminated
Steve Raymond was the project superin an inlet surrounded
intendent, and Bill Hathaway and Ricky
by heavy rip rap. During
Clements were the foreman. Kevin Gordon
periods of rain the drainwas the operations manager, Craig Shorey
age pipe flows nearly
was the project manager, Mike Vining was
full.
the estimator, and Wanda Landry was the
Next, crews comfield cost manager.
pleted the remaining
The Town of Orono was responsible
storm drain installation
for milling the pavement and repaving the
and waterline relocaroadway after the Sargent crews completed
tion. After that, the
their work. The town also did its own finsewer in Margin Street
ish work, including loaming and seeding.
was replaced.
Kevin said a representative of the railroad
Ed Nason of Sunrise
worked with the crews to ensure that conMaterials allowed trafstruction could proceed without disrupting
fic to and from Margin
railroad operations. A train came through the
Street to detour through
project area twice a day, and the crews had to
the Sunrise Orono plant
post a crossing guard at those times.
yard, which helped
Kevin noted that Orono officials were
keep
crews
safe
and
alRick McKinley uses the 336 excavator to move the HDPE slippleased with results of the project.
lowed the public access
lining pipe into position for installation.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 5
Sargent crews complete 8-acre cell expansion at Juniper Ridge Landfill
Doug Barnes and his
crew had a busy summer
building the Juniper Ridge
Landfill Cell 8 project.
The project involved
construction of a new 8
acre HDPE-lined landfill
cell with drainage layers
and a new pump station
to move leachate to the
existing storage tank at the
northeast corner of the site.
The project required
50,000 cubic yards of
excavation, which began in
May. Part of the excavation
was placed in the east
berm using the CAT D8
dozer and the remainder
was loaded on off-road
haul trucks and used to
construct a laydown area
for the owner.
At the same time, crews
started screening 24,000
cubic yards of sand and
clearing of the clay borrow Sargent crews install the HDPE pump station sump conduit.
areas prior to excavating
26,000 cubic yards of clay for the barrier soil layer in the new cell.
Half of the sand was used for a 12” drainage layer on the
bottom of the cell. The other half was used for a leachate collection
layer above the liner system. The sand was screened at the Alton
Pit and imported as needed to the site.
The clay came from an on-site source located adjacent to the
proposed landfill cell. This was very beneficial to the project, as the
crews were able to use off-road haul trucks and bring it to the cell
quickly and efficiently.
As the project progressed through the summer months, J. Jones
Building Construction, N. S. Giles Foundations, and MC Electric
worked diligently on the new pump house to make sure it would be
operational by the September 30th cell completion date.
In July, Sargent crews placed the clay for the liner in the cell,
Herb Sargent talks production with the crew during coffee break.
and RTD Enterprises installed the various layers of the liner
in conjunction with our crews,” Kevin said. “They ended up doing
system, starting with the geosynthetic clay liner (GCL), followed
some of the on-site drainage work away from the cell work.”
by an 80 mil HDPE liner, and finally the drainage geocomposite
Kevin added that the Sargent crews and the Casella crews,
that allows water to move to the leachate collection pipes and on to
through planning and good communication were able to complete
the pump house for dumping to the on-site leachate tank.
their individual scopes of work efficiently.
Throughout the project, foremen Scott Moon and Josh Taylor
In September, Leak Location Services came on-site to conduct an
worked with the on-site engineering representative, Paul Monroe
as-built survey to verify that there were no leaks in the liner system
of Sevee & Maher Engineers, to make sure that the project was
constructed in accordance with the plans and specifications.
from the construction process. The test was successful and the cell
Kevin said a unique aspect of the project was that the owner,
was turned over to the owner at the end of September.
Casella Waste Systems, wanted to perform some of the work
Kevin Gordon was the operations manager for Sargent Corp­
themselves.
oration, Craig Shorey was the project manager, and Wanda Landry
“They wanted to see what parts of the job their crews could do
was the field cost manager. Mike Thibodeau was the estimator.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 6
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Sargent crews complete $4 million runway expansion project
Crews from Sargent Corporation’s MidAtlantic Region have completed a $4 million
runway extension project at the Manassas
Regional Airport in Manassas, VA, about 30
miles southwest of Washington, DC.
The project involved extending the
runway by 500 feet, to 6,200 feet, to allow
larger jets to use the facility. It also included extending the taxiway and installation
of a new blast pad—a 200’x140’ paved
area at the end of the runway to ensure that
jet exhaust doesn’t cause grass fires.
The airport bills itself as Virginia’s largest regional executive airport. There are no
commercial flights, but the facility is used
by a large number of corporate and private
jets that serve a high-end clientele.
Work began in July. The crews had 150
calendar days to finish the job, which was
essentially complete on November 21. The
extended runway was opened for use on
November 18.
About 160,000 cubic yards of material
was needed to bring the site up to grade.
Of that, about 45,000 cubic yards was
on-site cut-to-fill excavated by Sargent
crews, and about 115,000 cubic yards was
imported from off-site by Strittmatter Inc.
of Manassas Park, VA.
The project also required approximately
4,000 linear feet of concrete V-ditch, which
was installed by Tavares Concrete of Lorton, VA.
Most of the imported material came
from a construction project in Tysons Corner, VA, just outside of Washington, where
Tavares Concrete pours the flat bottom
concrete V-ditches.
Branscome Paving crew starts paving the runway.
it was being excavated for a parking garage
with three levels below grade.
The moisture content of the material was
high, so it had to be dried on-site before
additional lifts of material could be placed,
in order to meet compaction and moisture
requirements for the fill. The fact that crews
couldn’t place dirt when it rained because
of the high moisture content made it even
more important to do as much work as
possible during good weather. That meant
many seven-day work weeks, because good
weather might come on a weekend.
Doug Morrison, Mid-Atlantic Regional
Manager, said another challenge was that
the material had to be trucked more than
20 miles through traffic on busy northern
Virginia highways.
“Often times, if there was an accident on
the highway, the trucks would stop hauling
that day because it wasn’t cost-effective for
them to spend most of the day stuck in traffic,” he said. “We never knew how many
truckloads of material would be delivered
on any given day because of traffic issues. That made planning difficult, and made it
difficult to stay on schedule.”
Doug added that the crews worked long
hours to take advantage of good weather
days so that the job could be completed on
time and the paving could be done before
cold weather.
“The dedication and hard work of the
crew certainly didn’t go unnoticed by Sargent Corporation, as well as by the airport
staff and the engineering firm,” he said.
In particular, the crews worked seven days
a week during a five-week period in October
and early November when threshold displacements were set out to shorten the runway to
4,700 feet to facilitate construction.
“That was a challenge,” said Doug. “We
had a substantial amount of work that had to
be completed during that time frame, and the
35-day period included Hurricane Sandy.”
Hurricane Sandy inundated the region. The
entire project site was flooded, except for the
runway and taxiway, and parts of it were up to
Aerial photo taken after completion of the project.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 7
at Manassas Regional Airport
Mike Lowery and Nate Huntington place P-209 aggregate.
six feet underwater. Topsoil and seeding that had been placed
on the site prior to Hurricane Sandy were washed away in
the floodwaters.
Because of the volume of work in Sargent’s Mid-Atlantic Region last summer, about 80% of the company’s workforce on the project was brought in from New England,
including superintendent Louie Hebert.
Foremen on the project were Michael Van Merlin,
who did the layout, and Bill Boetta, John Madigan, and
Tim Cray. Justin Porter was the project manager, and
Mike Thibodeau was the estimator.
Branscome Paving of Manassas was the paving subcontractor.
The owner was the City of Manassas, with Juan
Rivera as airport manager. RS&H was the engineer, with
Nicholas Patterson and Sean Corcoran.
Sargent Corp. operator fine grades the P-209 aggregate.
During Hurricane Sandy, the temporary bridge for the project was under water.
Above, debris is piled against the bridge in the aftermath of the storm.
Waste disposal ‘convenience center’ constructed in King George County, VA
Sargent Corporation crews have completed
construction of a waste disposal “convenience
center” in King George County, VA.
The project is a small transfer station
where county residents can put their household trash in dumpsters.
Work began in April 2012 and took
about eight weeks to complete.
The convenience center is owned by
King George County, VA. The dumpsters are periodically emptied at the King
George County Landfill, which is operated
by Waste Management.
The center is located on a new 2-acre
site. Sargent crews cleared the site,
stripped the topsoil, and excavated 3,000
cubic yards of material, which was used
for fill. The crews then placed a layer of
gravel and graded the site for two concrete
slabs and a small building that serves as a
guard shack and tenant’s office. Two trash
compactors are located on each slab.
The project also included a sedimenta-
The completed waste disposal convenience center.
tion pond and leach field.
Michael Van Merlin was the project
superintendant, and Justin Porter was the
project manager. John Madigan was the fore-
man, and Mike Thibodeau was the estimator.
Jason Baker Construction was the subcontractor for the concrete slab. The paving was done by Fredericksburg Alphalt.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 8
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Sargent crews working on $12 million project to extend runway
Sargent Corporation has begun work on
a $12 million project to extend the runway
safety area at the Charlottesville Albemarle
Airport in central Virginia by 600 feet.
The project is a successor to a runway
extension project that Sargent completed
at the airport in 2011, which added 800
feet to the airport’s 6,001-foot runway. It
also includes expanding and extending the
taxiway to match the earlier 800’ runway
extension.
The project will require 660,000 cubic
yards of fill material in the area beyond the
runway, taxiway, and blast pad. All of the
material, including 360,000 cubic yards of
dirty rock/soil and 300,000 cubic yards of
clean rock, will come from the owner’s on-site
borrow pit, which is adjacent to the fill area.
To move this amount of fill material, Sargent has rented a very large CAT 374D L excavator with a 5½-yard bucket, which is being
operated by Mark Lebreton. That machine
is working in tandem with a CAT 345D L
excavator operated by Brian Pinard, with five
40-ton articulated rear-dump haul trucks.
The contract requires that the fill material
be placed by a D8 or larger size bulldozer
and tracked numerous times to ensure proper
compaction. Sargent is using a CAT D8T,
which is being operated by Corrin Clark.
The project superintendent is Eric Clark,
Corrin’s son. Travis Ridky is the project
manager; the estimator was Mike Thibodeau.
Marc Denis is a foreman on the project.
Steve Monsen was the initial the layout en-
Corrin Clark levels a pile of clean rock with his CAT D8T dozer.
gineer; Scott Bartlett assumed these duties
in early December.
Sargent crews started work on the
project early in October 2012. The contract
allows 540 calendar days for completion,
but Doug Morrison, Mid-Atlantic Region
manager for Sargent, anticipates substantial completion by the end of 2013.
Doug says the combination of rock and
dirty rock is being used as fill material to
ensure good drainage.
Sargent crews are placing clean rock up
to a certain elevation, followed by a transition layer, and then putting the dirty rock/
Both excavators load articulated rear-dump haul trucks after blasting.
soil on top. When it rains, water percolates
down through the dirty rock and transition
layers. Then the clean rock layer underneath acts like an enormous French drain,
allowing the water to flow to an outlet
control structure and then to the stream.
“The engineers were concerned about
the stability of the safety area if it retained
water,” Doug said. “Essentially, they
wanted the water to flow right through.”
The clean rock material must include at
least 95% rock greater than 3/4”, with no
more than 5% soil, The dirty rock/soil material must have at least 70% rock greater
Superintendent Eric Clark oversees the fill
placement.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 9
safety area at Charlottesville Albemarle Airport
Mark Lebreton in the CAT 374D L (right) and Brian Pinard in the CAT 345D L (left) load excavation from the perimeter road.
than 3/4” and no more than 30% soil.
Doug says the principal challenges
came in the borrow pit.
The crews had to strip the dirty rock/
soil off the top of the borrow area to reach
the clean bedrock, which was used for
the first layer of fill. Instead of stockpiling
the dirty rock/soil in a temporary location,
it was placed in a wedge behind a future
retaining wall to minimize the amount of
stockpiling required and to allow the crews
to get to the clean rock sooner.
Getting clean rock that meets the specifications has also been a challenge.
“It’s difficult to get a product with only
5% passing through the 3/4” sieve by just
blasting alone, unless the overburden is
stripped off very, very well,” Doug says.
“We’re dealing with very seamy rock. It’s
been difficult, but as we progress across
the borrow pit, we’re getting into more
competent rock, which is helping.”
The project also includes a 1,200’ retaining wall, upwards of 28’ tall in places,
which will support a new taxiway that is
part of the project.
The wall was originally bid as a cast-inplace wall, but Doug says Sargent is currently
looking at value engineering ideas that would
change it to a segmental-block wall, which
would be anchored by layers of geogrid material extending back into the berm.
“We think this will result in substantial
savings to the owner,” he says.
The retaining wall will be built by a
subcontractor, but Sargent crews will do
all the backfilling and install the P-209 and
P-304 aggregates.
The owner is the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport Authority. The design engineer and the owner’s on-site representative
is Delta Airport Consultants.
Chemung Contracting Corp. of Mitchells, VA, is the paving subcontractor.
CAT 374D L excavator loads out blasted rock to be hauled to the fill.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 10
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Sargent completes site work for Bull Hill Wind project
Sargent Corporation has completed the site work for the Bull Hill
Wind project, a 19-tower wind farm
near Eastbrook, ME, about halfway
between Ellsworth and Aurora.
Sargent was a subcontractor to
Reed & Reed on the project. The
owner is First Wind, which owns
four other operational wind projects in Maine—Mars Hill, Rollins
(near Lincoln), and Stetson I and II
(near Danforth)—and the Sheffield
wind project in Vermont. Sargent
Corporation was the earthwork
subcontractor on all of them.
Clearing for the project began
Sargent crews backfill for electrical conduit.
in February. Normally, that’s a
difficult time to start a project in the Maine
Most of the excavated fill was a wet mawoods, but in this case, it allowed the
terial, and the crews needed decent weather
grubbing contractors to get much of their
to be able to work with it. Some of the
work done before the spring thaw. blasted ledge was utilized to allow the crews
Jim Conley, operations manager for
to gain initial access to the project site.
Sargent, said the company planned to halt
Even though the project site was on
operations during mud season (March and
high ground, much of it had a high water
April), but the spring of 2012 saw a spell
table, particularly in the spring, which
of really good weather early, so the crews
made the site work more challenging.
didn’t have to shut down and were able to
About 8,000 cubic yards of screened gravel
continue working on the project and get a
was purchased from a local source about six
jump start on the schedule.
miles from the project site.
Although the scheduled completion date
The project also required 83.5 acres of
for the project wasn’t until November 2012,
clearing, installation of 3,100 linear feet
Sargent crews completed the majority of
of culverts (plus one bottomless culvert)
their work by August, making it easier for
and 7,200 linear feet of foundation drain,
Reed & Reed to finish the project on time.
and excavation and backfill for pole boxes,
The project included construction of
transformers, and 42,400 linear feet of
3.5 miles of new 32’ wide road, upgrades
underground electrical conduit.
to 13 miles of existing roads to make them
Much of the underground electrical
adequate for transportation of the wind
conduit had to be installed along the existing
power components, and site preparation for
roads that Sargent crews had upgraded for
19 wind tower pads on Bull Hill and Heifer
the project. While the electrical trenches were
Hill in Eastbrook.
being excavated and backfilled, those sec The crews also had to deploy 6.4 miles
tions of the road were limited to one lane of
of silt fence or bark mulch berms as erotraffic. This required close coordination with
sion control measures.
Reed & Reed and the other subcontractors to
Jim said the site work for Bull Hill, unensure that the trenching work didn’t cause
like most other wind projects, was primarundue delays for other aspects of the project.
ily an earth job.
Towards the end of the project, the
“We had less rock than previous wind
underground electrical became something
projects,” he said. “That presented us with
of a critical path item, but the crews comsome issues, particularly in wet conditions
pleted it within the allotted time frame.
and in early spring.”
Sargent crews also stripped 95,500 cubic
About 35,000 cubic yards of rock were
yards of topsoil and placed 20,600 cubic
blasted, compared to 144,900 cubic yards of
yards of topsoil and 53,400 yards of gravel.
earth excavation to fill. The rock was crushed
Chris Lynch was the project superintenon site and used either for gravel or access.
dent, Travis Fernald was the project manager,
and Dave Preble was the estimator.
Many foremen contributed
greatly to the project, but the primary foremen were Tim Herbold,
John Koch, Matt Tenan, and Matt
Chambers.
The clearing subcontractors
who got the project off to a fast
start were Supreme Industries
of Connecticut, who did part of
the clearing and all of the stump
grinding, and Elliot Jordan and
Sons of Eastbrook.
Other key subcontractors
were Drilling and Blasting Rock
Specialists of Gardiner, who did
the blasting. Sargent Materials
supplied the concrete for Reed & Reed.
The contract required Sargent to do the
preliminary site work for the O&M building and the substation for the project. The
company worked for the building contractor,
Blaine Casey, under a separate contract to
perform the site work for the O&M building. Although the project was only 18 miles
northeast of Ellsworth as the crow flies,
it was one of the most remote worksites
that Sargent crews have experienced in
recent years. Employees had to access the
project from Route 9, popularly known as
“the Airline,” and drive 10 miles on gravel
roads to reach the job site.
“It was something of a hardship for our
people to get to work on this project,” said
Jim. “Driving 20 miles on gravel roads to get
to work isn’t fun. I’d like to personally thank
all the people who drove their personal vehicles in there on logging roads every day.”
Jim noted that Sargent crews have worked
on projects that were further away from populations centers, such as the Kibby wind farm
(located near the Canadian border north of
Sugarloaf). However, employees who worked
at Kibby could park their vehicles in the office
yard, which was right off a paved highway.
Jim said Bull Hill was a fast track project, and that environmental concerns were
of utmost importance.
The project was under LURC jurisdiction, and a third-party monitor was on site
evaluating erosion issues on a daily basis.
“That part of the project went really
well,” Jim said. “There were no issues, no
citations, and no major concerns about site
preparation issues throughout the project.”
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Sargent Corporation
A vernal pool being excavated.
Page 11
A completed vernal pool.
Sargent crew creates 16 vernal pools at Granite Reliable Wind Farm
A small crew of Sargent Corporation employees led by foreman Eric Burgess created
16 vernal pools at Brookfield Renewable Energy’s Granite Reliable Wind Farm in Coos
County, NH, during August 2012.
Vernal pools are seasonal bodies of water which don’t have predatory fish populations but provide habitat for indicator
species, including spotted or blue spotted
salamanders, wood frogs, or fairy shrimp.
Construction of the vernal pools was a
requirement of the environmental permit
for the Granite wind project to offset the
removal of vernal pools impacted by earthwork operations. The 20’x20’ pools had
to be constructed at predetermined sites
selected by wetland scientists. Twelve of
the pools were at lower elevations; four
had to be above 2,700’ in elevation—on
the side of a mountain in an area that was
mostly ledge. All the pools had to be built
on Granite project property.
In addition to Eric, the crew included
Shawn Cass and Dana Cordwell.
The pool sites were in groups about a mile
off of existing gravel roads, so the crew had
to walk the excavator in using skidder roads
or winter haul roads. Once the excavator was
on site, they used a gator to shuttle people
and bring in the necessary supplies, such as
hay bales, wetland seed mix, erosion control
mats, and fuel. That way, they could minimize travel time of the excavator. The crew
also had to erect several temporary stream
crossings to reach the pool sites.
When the crew arrived at a site, they
would use the excavator to strip of all the
topsoil, excavate a shallow depression, and
use the excavated material to make a perimeter berm that would help the area hold water
and stay moist. Then they would replace the
existing topsoil and stabilize the area with
mulch and erosion control matting.
Ray Lobdell of Lobdell Associates Inc.
was the wetland scientist and inspector on
the project for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
Colby Currier was the operations manager, and Glenn Adams was the project
manager. Colby and Glenn teamed up to do
the estimating.
50x50 storage building completed at Granite Reliable Wind Farm
A Sargent crew in Coos County, NH,
overcame a late start to the construction
season and completed a new 50’x50’ storage building for Brookfield Renewable
Energy’s Granite Reliable Wind Farm.
Sargent Corporation was the general contractor for the project. Brookfield wanted to
start using the building in mid-December; it
was completed on December 19.
The new garage is a pre-engineered steel
building manufactured by Corle Buildings
of Pennsylvania. As a subcontractor for Sargent, Ray’s Electric of Berlin, NH, provided
a turn-key building package.
Work on the project started at the end of
September, about six weeks before paving
plants in Coos County were scheduled to
shut down for the winter. The paving for
the project was completed on November 6,
one day before the local plant closed.
To get to that point, the Sargent crew
first had to regrade about half an acre
adjacent to the existing O&M building,
place a 6” layer
of gravel, and
excavate and
backfill for the
footers and the
frost wall for
the new storage
building. The
crew also had
to demolish two
existing concrete pads next
to the O&M
Construx crew installs roofing on the storage building.
building and restrux, Inc. of Plymouth, NH; Central Pavplace them with larger ones. The crew also
ing of Jefferson, NH; and VR Concrete of
installed 400 linear feet of underdrain pipe
Colebrook, NH.
north of the building and completed the ex Colby Currier was the operations mancavation and backfill for site electrical and
ager for Sargent, Glenn Adams was the
communications conduits. Quick compleproject manager, and Dave Preble was the
tion of this work assured that paving would
estimator.
be completed on time.
Kendall Bickford was the project super In addition to Ray’s Electric, the major
subcontractors for the project were Conintendent.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 12
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Sargent crews led by Sean Milligan complete challenging sewer
Sargent Corporation crews led
by superintendent Sean Milligan
have completed a very challenging project replacing the sewer
line on Route 1 in downtown
Calais.
The crews had to deal with
heavy traffic on a major thoroughfare while ensuring access to
businesses along the route. The fact that the sewer was located in the middle of one of the
traffic lanes and not on the side
of the roadway meant that the
crews had to run one-way traffic
through the entire course of the
project.
Operations manager Jim Conley said the crews removed the
Greg Packard excavates for a sewer manhole underneath the traffic signals at the intersection of
old sewer as they were installing
North Street and Main Street in downtown Calais.
the new one. Sewer services had
to be maintained for residents and busiconsuming because it was a live sewer
New business and residential services
nesses, so the crews had to make connecinstallation.”
had to be installed and connected to the
tions as they went, and then disconnect the
The project ran through a very old secnew sewer. On one side of the street, the
services at a later date for testng.
tion of town, and many infrastructure imconnections were short, but they still had
“It was quite a process,” Jim said.
provements that the crew had to deal with
to cross the concrete and brick sidewalk,
“We’d go up a street taking out the old
weren’t well documented. As they were
which had to be removed and replaced. On
sewer and installing the new one, making
digging up the sewer line, they encounthe other side of the street, the connections
connections as we went. Then, after we
tered numerous pipe housing unknown
had to cross the active traffic lane, further
finished the run, we’d have to go back and
electrical, sewer, and water connections.
disrupting traffic on Route 1.
disconnect all the services and cap them,
The crews had to determine which pipes
Jim said the crews did an excellent
so we could perform the required tests on
were active and which ones were inactive,
job on a very challenging project which
required some long hours.
the new sewer. It was a lot more timeand then connect and repair active services.
“We couldn’t ask any more of the
crews,” he said. “Many nights they were
there until well after dark, because of the
need to maintain services and keep the
road open. Every night, they had to backfill
and open the road to traffic.”
The $759,000 project included installation of 955 linear feet of 15” sewer pipe,
1,105 linear feet of 8” sewer pipe, 609 linear feet of 6” service pipe, 337 linear feet
of 4” sewer pipe, and 12 manholes. About
40 business and residential services were
affected.
Jim said the crews encountered ledge
through about 50% of the project. They
elected to hoe-ram the ledge instead of
blasting it because of the proximity of
aging, existing buildings and underground
utilities. Ledge excavation totaled 315
cubic yards.
Jim said the project was completed on
time, and the owner, the City of Calais,
David Scott excavates for sewer service at the main intersection in downtown Calais.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 13
replacement project on Route 1 in downtown Calais
Sonny Merritt and Chad McPhail locate existing utilities
was very pleased.
“We received many compliments from
town officials,” he said. “They were extremely happy with the efforts of the crew,
particularly with traffic control and project
clean-up.”
Foremen on the job were Josh Boobar,
Josh Boobar’s crew leapfrogs trench boxes over existing utilities.
Scott Thibodeau, and Ken McIver. Travis
Fernald was the project manager and Dave
Preble was the estimator.
Project Flagging was the subontractor
for traffic control, and Lane Construction
was the paving subcontractor.
Work on the project began in July and
Trench line on Side Road in Pleasant Point ready for paving.
was completed in October.
Sargent crews will return to Calais in
the spring to adjust manhole frames and
covers for final paving, which will be done
by the Maine Department of Transportation.
Roger Stairs and Toby Rideout prep the trench line for pavement.
Sewer upgrade completed on Passamaquoddy Tribe’s Pleasant Point Reservation
A crew led by foreman Jake Harris completed a $190,000 sewer project on the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s Pleasant Point Reservation
during the first three weeks of August.
The project included installation of 573
linerar feet of new 8” sewer line on one
street, and 250 linear feet of 4” house services, and repaving the trenches. The crew
also installed three manholes.
Operations manager Jim Conley said
the project went very well and was completed on schedule and within budget.
Sean Milligan was the project superintendent, but Jake was able to do the project
with limited supervision, as Sean had a
couple of other project in the area.
Jim said Sean and Jake had to make
sure the crew worked efficiently, as any
scheduling or equipment errors would have
had a significant impact, because of the
small size of the project.
Travis Fernald was the project manager,
and Dave Preble was the estimator.
Janes W. Sewall Co. of Old Town was
the engineer for the Passamaquoddy tribe.
Lane Construction was the paving subcontractor for Sargent.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 14
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Sargent Materials supplies concrete for SW Harbor water tank
Sargent Materials was
the concrete supplier to
Natgun Corporation for a
new water tank that was
installed in Southwest
Harbor during September
and October 2012.
The tank was one of
four that were installed in
Maine last summer and
fall as part of a revolving loan program to help
smaller water districts
upgrade their systems. The tank will have a volume of 350,000 gallons
and will supplement an
existing 750,000 gallon
tank. The tanks were
precast on-site using mix Fred Thayer of Sargent Materials discharges concrete mix into a wall panel of a new 350,000-­gallon water tank
that was erected for the Town of Southwest Harbor by Natgun Corporation. The flooded tank bottom, which was
that is designed to have a
placed earlier in the day, can be seen in the foreground.
high early strength. All
tom, it was flooded with water for curing;
bridge projects). The slump and thorough
the panels for the walls and roof were cast
technically, it will be submerged for the
mixing were critical to ensure that the mix
within 2 weeks. remainder of the tank’s service life. didn’t slough down the sides of the tank
The precast wall panels were curved
After the tank bottom was placed and the
as it was applied. Each layer was applied
and used a ribbed metal skin as one side
precast panels erected, staging was placed
about 1” thick, and cables attached to the
of the form. A curved wooden screed was
within the tank to access joints and stabilize
tank base were pulled up and tensioned
used to form the top (inside of the tank). the structure until all the grout and shotcrete
to the roof to make a rigid structure as
Plastic sheeting was placed between each
was placed. The joints were then filled with
subsequent layers were applied. After the
precast panel as they were cast one on
a high-early-strength grout. The top of the
shotcrete layers were completed, a final
top of the other. The roof panels were
tank was capped in a layer of grout. layer of shotcrete was applied with a specast without a steel metal skin and only a
After the grout had set for several days,
cial synthetic fiber to prevent cracking of
plastic sheet was used between subsequent
panels. The tank bottom was placed with
a shotcrete mix was applied to the metal
the outer shell. After curing through the winter, the
a special high early mix that incorporated
skin sides, roughly 6” thick at the bottom
entire tank will be covered with a special
microfiber to prevent shrinkage, cracking,
tapering to 2” thick at the top. The shotpaint to seal the concrete surface. and potential leakage. Within an hour after
crete was delivered in a wet condition (as
the concrete was placed for the tank botopposed to dry mix shotcrete on MDOT
Sargent working on Phase 2 earthwork for new Hannaford in Turner
Sargent Corporation crews are working
on Phase 2 of the earthwork for the new
Hannaford supermarket in Turner, ME.
The project included excavation and
backfill for the building foundations,
excavation and backfill for the interior underground utilities, and fine-grading of the
gravel materials to prepare for the building
slab.
Operations manager Colby Currier said
Sargent was the earthwork contractor for
Phase 1, which included placing surcharge
material on the building site to compact the
underlying soils to the point where they
would support the weight of the building
without settling.
“We had to return last fall to take the
surcharge off the building site and place it in
the parking lot,” he said. “The timing of the
Phase 2 earthwork was a good fit for us.”
The crews started digging for the foundations on September 12. By mid-December, the perimeter foundation and interior
piers were 100% complete, and underground utilities were about 75% complete.
Colby said the Phase 2 work, which
includes finegrading for slabs and the
remained of the underslab utilities, should
be completed in January. Then the crews
will have to return in the spring to complete the remainder of Phase 1, including
drainage work, parking lot and leachfield
construction, paving, curbing, fencing, and
the installation of site furnishings.
The new supermarket is scheduled to
open around July 1. The general contractor for the building construction is Zachau
Construction of Freeport.
Katrina Morgan is the project superintendent for Sargent and Ian McCarthy is
the project manager. Dave Preble was the
estimator.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 15
Ron Ingersoll operates a CAT D6N dozer while Vicki Patchell operates a CAT CS63 Roller during clay placement at the ecomaine landfill project.
Sargents completes Phase 2 West Construction at the ecomaine landfill
The Phase 2 West Construction, a new
3.7-acre landfill cell, has been completed by
Sargent Corporation crews at the ecomaine
landfill in Scarborough. Work on the $1.6
million project began on July 17, 2012. It
was substantially complete on October 5.
Ecomaine, a consortium of 21 communities in the greater Portland area, operates
the landfill, which is located in Scarborough and South Portland.
Sargent crews had to excavate 17,000
cubic yards to get to base grade. Then they
placed 3,600 cubic yards of impervious borrow and a 9,500 cubic yard 12” layer of clay.
A 40-mil liner was placed on top of the
clay, followed by 12” of drainage sand that
included 3,000 linear feet of 6” leak detection piping.
On top of the leak detection layer was
a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL, a layer of
bentonite clay between two layers of fabric), a 60 mil primary liner, a geocomposite
layer, a second 12” layer of drainage sand
with a series of leachate collection pipes,
and 12” of ash. The leachate collection
sand and the ash provided two feet of material to protect the liner from being damaged by material deposited in the landfill.
The ash layer was ash that had been
taken from the existing landfill and processed to remove any large pieces of metal.
When Sargent constructed the previous
cell, the crews had to screen the ash before
using it as a protective cover. This year, the
ash had already been screened by a contractor working with ecomaine to mine the
old ash and recover the metal for recycling.
Operations Manager Colby Currier said
the crews had to do some modifications to
the existing cell and to the Phase 1 sump and
leachate transport line. The leachate transport
modifications included installing some valves
and modifying piping inside a leachate pump
house constructed by Sargent crews in 2006
and a new dual containment pipe out of the
pump house to an existing pump station.
Katrina Morgan was the project superintendent for Sargent, Ian McCarthy was the
project manager, and Dylan Michaud was
the foreman. Dave Preble was the estimator.
The design engineer was Sevee &
Maher. RTD of Madison, ME, was the
liner subcontractor for the project. Other
subcontractors were On Target of Portland,
who relocated some existing overhead
electrical lines; Moulison North Corp. of
Biddeford, who did other site electrical
work; P. A. Lyford of Gorham, seeding;
and Summit of Auburn, geotechnical materials testing.
Gas collection project, temporary cover completed at Bath landfill
Superintendent Doug Barnes and his crew
completed a six-week project to install 1,400
linear feet of methane gas collection pipe and
a one-acre temporary cap at the Bath landfill.
Work on the $209,000 project began on
September 9 and was completed October 18.
Operations manager Colby Currier
said the owner, the City of Bath, was very
happy with the job.
“The owner was concerned abut getting
the project done before cold weather,” he said.
“Doug had a small crew; they worked very
hard, wore many hats, and did a good job.”
The crew had to regrade approximately
one acre of the landfill and place 6” of sand
cover material, which was supplied by Ray
Labbe & Sons of Brunswick. After the
cover material was placed, RTD of Madison
placed a 40 mil liner as a temporary cover,
which was secured by sandbags and rope.
The regrading and installation of the gas
collection piping was done on a 3:1 slope. The slope also made it more challenging to
get the protective cover material in place.
“The top of the landfill was a very
unfriendly surface for dump trucks,” Colby
said. “When it was rainy and wet, the surface
was very slippery and slimy. Doug found an
area that he could improve a little bit using
some of the sand we brought in. The trucks
were able to get to the top of the slope and
dump; then the crews pushed the cover material each way as they went down over the
slope. That saved us from having to bring
the cover material in, unload it, reload it into
a rear-dump, and then haul it up the slope.
We didn’t have the budget to do that.”
Colby said the crew also had to work
closely with the Bath landfill crew to
eliminate conflicts. “They don’t take a lot of
waste at the landfill, but they were working
in the area adjacent to where we were working,” he said. “We had to coordinate our
efforts with the daily landfill activities.”
The project manager was Ian McCarthy,
the foreman was Scott Moon, and Mike
Vining was the estimator. Other Sargent employees on the project were Billy West, Dan
Whipple, Brendan Sargent, and Dana Leland.
The engineer for the project was Sevee
& Maher.
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Page 16
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
StoneAge Stone Works crews construct the main entrance walls.
Jim Lagasse, Rick McKinley, and Bob Page Jr. install a 60” RCP
pipe crossing in No Name Brook.
MaineGeneral Medical Center scheduled to open 6 months ahead of sched
When work began on the new MaineGeneral Medical Center building in north
Augusta in August 2011, Sargent Corporation was the first contractor on site.
Thanks in part to Sargent’s efforts, the
new medical center is scheduled to be substantially complete in September and open
to patients in November 2013, more than
six months ahead of schedule.
Jim Conley, operations manager for
Sargent, said the crews initially focused on
providing access to the site for other contractors, so concrete work could be started
in the fall of 2011.
“After we got them on site, we started
building our infrastructure, but with a
strong emphasis on supporting the building
trades,” Jim said.
Greg Denicola excavates for storm drain pipe.
Jim said the general contractors—Robins & Morton of Birmingham, AL, and
H. P. Cummings of Winthrop—took full
advantage of their ability to get their crews
and equipment on the site shortly after the
project started.
“They worked day and night through the
fall and winter,” he said. “They were able to
get the project up out of the ground—that’s
how they got ahead of schedule. We’ve
been told that we’re a big part of the reason
they were able to do that—we were able
to get them in early and keep them going
throughout the winter.”
Sargent crews also worked through the
winter of 2011-2012, excavating and backfilling foundations and installing underground utilities.
“There was a huge amount of interior
piping,” Jim said. “More than 20,000 linear
feet of trenching was required inside the
building, and some of those trenches had
four or five pipes.”
Good weather helped, as winter of
2011-2012 was relatively mild, but project
manager John Sturgeon said the attitude
of the crews and the general contractors
played a role.
“We just persevered,” John said. “We
keep working during the winter even when
conditions froze inside the building. We
weren’t as efficient as we would have been
during the summer construction season, but
we did it, and the general contractors were
willing to work with us to make it happen.”
“Good coordination and everybody’s
Tim Blais, Michael Grant and Dana Pelletier install the sub-surface storm
water filter system.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
Ron St. John, David Britton and Caryn Houghton crush Type A gravel base.
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 17
Tony Tozier, Leon King and Jason Millett install
granite monuments for survey.
dule, thanks in part to fast start by Sargent crews in fall-winter of 2011-2012
willingness to work together made us successful even during the hardship of the
winter,” said Jim.
The medical center project is located
near the new Exit 113 (Route 3) on I-95 a
75-acre site that it shares with the Harold
Alfond Cancer Center.
Sargent crews were responsible for
200,000 cubic yards of excavation to fill,
90,000 cubic yards of excavation that was
hauled offsite, 42,000 cubic yards of structural excavation, 83,000 cubic yards of granular
borrow, 40,000 cubic yards of Type D gravel,
and 22,000 cubic yards of Type A gravel.
Sargent was able to utilize a companyowned gravel resource about four miles
from the project site where the crews were
able to manufacture materials. Sargent
crushed or screened over 110,000 cubic
yards of aggregates for use as aggregate
gravels, structural fills, utility and drainage
bedding and backfilling.
“This was a big advantage in keeping
the project on track,” said Jim.
The project also included 42,000 linear
feet of outside piping for storm drains,
sewer, and water, two stream crossings
where Sargent had to install multi-plate
culverts to access the site, and a number of
retaining walls.
Dee Hobart was the project superintendent for Sargent. Many other Sargent
employees were involved as foremen and
crew members—too many to name them
all—but foremen Mark Wright and Adam
Tenan and field cost manager Kevin Burns
were on the project from the beginning
through the end of December 2012.
Sargent crews completed most of their
work by the end of 2012, and during the coming winter, Sargent’s primary involvement will
be snow removal. In the spring and summer,
the crews will do the final paving and cleanup.
The major subcontractors on site were
Pike Industries, paving; C. A. Newcomb,
guard rail and fencing; StoneAge Stone
Works, two bridge entrance retaining
walls; and Dirigo Slipform, curbing. Fine
Line Pavement Striping will do the striping
during the summer of 2013.
Erosion control was a particular challenge early in the project. The crews put up
silt fencing, but they also had to construct
numerous sedimentation ponds around the
site during the early stages of the project. The
site was adjacent to an existing brook, and
erosion control measures were important, as
most of the soil on the site was silty clay.
The erosion control plan was based on
runoff collecting in the ponds, where sediment would sink to the bottom, allowing
clean water to be discharged to the brook.
However, the silt in the silty clay soil stayed
suspended in the water and didn’t settle out.
When it rained, the ponds would overflow,
and silt could get into the stream and result
in potential environmental violations.
To prevent this from happening, the
(Please turn to page 29)
Aerial view of MaineGeneral Medical Center project in June 2012.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 18
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Sargent crews rebuild part of Brewer Shopping Center parking area
Sargent Corporation crews have rebuilt
a portion of the parking area in the Brewer
Shopping Center to allow Bangor Savings
Bank to move its ATM from the existing
drive-thru window, on the side of the building,
to a new island parallel to Wilson Street.
The project also included construction
of several other islands designed to help
control the traffic flow in that part of the
shopping center.
The project was done in two phases.
The first phase was to reconstruct and reconfigure a portion of the parking lot and
relocate the ATM island. The second phase
was to reconstruct the bank entrance, off
Wilson Street, and continued on through
the drive-thru canopy. In the first phase, the crews installed electrical conduit to the location of the new island
and then removed the asphalt and excavated
the old gravel and other material from the reconfigured parking area.
The crews placed 12” of sub-base gravel
and 6” of base gravel in the excavated area, and
then constructed the ATM island and several
Brian Loiselle excavates the conduit trench for Bangor Savings Bank’s new ATM.
traffic control islands, filling them with topsoil.
Dirigo Slipform installed the granite
and concrete slip-form curbing around the
islands, Hopkins Landscaping planted the
trees and shrubs in the islands, and Well-
SARGENT MATERIALS AND CALAIS WALMART—Sargent Materials is supplying about
2,000 cubic yards of redi-mix concrete to Newman Concrete for a $10 million expansion
of the existing Walmart store in Calais, ME, into a Walmart Supercenter. Nick Goding,
East Machias Plant Manager for Sargent Materials, has been handling all the batching
duties, as well as delivery coordination with Newman Concrete. The project has been a
challenging one for Nick this winter due to very strict Walmart specifications on minimum
concrete temperature of 65 degrees F. He has had to heat water and steam aggregates
to extremes in order to meet the concrete temperature requirements, as the crews have
experienced concrete temperature drops of over 10 degrees during transit from Machias to
Calais. QC duties at the site have been performed by Bub Saunders and Ed Barnes.
man Paving placed the binder and surface
to complete the first phase. Once the first phase was complete, Sargent moved to the second phase, which involved removing the asphalt and excavating
the bank entrance and under the drive-thru
canopy. The crews then placed the gravel
layers, and Wellman Paving paved the area.
Curt Van Aken was the project superintendent, Kevin Gordon was operations
manager, and Jim Braley was the project
manager. Wanda Landry was the field cost
manager. Mike Vining estimated the project.
Kevin said the project was not a big
one, but it required a lot of coordination
and planning. He said the biggest challenge
was maintaining access to the businesses
adjacent to the bank, which included an
insurance agency, a Chinese restaurant and
a laundromat. “Everyone is used to driving through that
parking lot at a high rate of speed, trying
to get in or out of the shopping center,” he
said. “Curt and the crew did a really good
job of coordinating and working around all
the issues they had to deal with.”
Work on the project started in early
October. It was finished four weeks later in
early November.
The project included the export of 2,400
cubic yards of excavation and the placement of 1,300 cubic yards of sub-base
gravel and 650 cubic yards of base gravel.
The owner was Epstein Properties. The
engineer was Plymouth Engineering.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 19
Sargent crews excavated and backfilled for several hundred pre-cast and cast-in-place tower foundations, as well as building foundations.
Sargent doing excavation for build-out of Coopers Mills Substation
Sargent Corporation has
excavated and backfilled
more than 300 pre-cast tower
foundations, 69 cast-in-place
tower foundations, and
foundations for a Control
House building for Phase 2
of Central Maine Power’s
22-acre Coopers Mills
Substation in Windsor, ME.
Sargent was a subcon­
tractor to Cianbro, which
was the EPC (engineering,
procurement, and construc­
tion) contractor for Phase
2, construction of the
substation.
Sargent completed Phase
Aerial view of the Cooper Mills Substation, the largest substation site in New England.
1 of the project, which
cubic yards of “A” gravel, and placement
included site preparation and construction
and get an early start on Phase 2.
of 15,000 cubic yards of crushed stone
of a 3,000’ access road, ahead of schedule
Work on Phase 2 started on July 13 and
topping material.
last summer. While Sargent was finishing
will be completed in July 2013. Sargent
Tim LePage was the project superin­
Phase 1 in July, we were able to work with
was responsible for excavation and
tendent, and Alex Hardy and Jason Millett
Cianbro to allow them to mobilize on site
backfill for all the concrete foundations,
were the foremen.
underground
Jim Conley was the operations manager.
conduit, and
John Sturgeon negotiated the contract with
the electrical
Cianbro and was the project manager.
grid, and the
Jim noted that Tim accomplished the
final grading
job with a fairly small crew.
of the 22-acre
“They kept pace with Cianbro and
site.
stayed ahead of schedule,” he said. “It
The project
was a real team effort involving Tim,
included
the crew, and the Cianbro people on site.
32,000 cubic
There was extremely good communication.
yards of
The project went very smoothly from our
excavation,
standpoint.”
3,200 linear
Coopers Mills is the largest electrical
feet of conduit
substation site in New England. It was
trench boxes,
built as part of the Maine Power Reliability
13,000 feet
Program (MPRP), a $1.4 billion plan by
of grounding
Steve Renaud and Derek True removing a bolder from a foundation
CMP to upgrade the power grid in Maine.
grid, 36,000
location in the 315 yard.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 20
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Despite startup delay, Sargent crews complete reconstruction
Sargent Corporation has completed
most of a $5.1 million project to
reconstruct the General Aviation Apron at
Bangor International Airport.
The project was awarded in February, with
a scheduled start of April. However, due to
a FAA funding delay, the project did not start
until June. As a result, the Sargent crews were
two months behind schedule before they set
foot on the site, and they had to work extended
hours to get the work done in time to meet
cold-weather paving deadlines in November.
The crews began by installing new
aircraft tie downs outside the construction
limits. The planes were then relocated to
the new tie downs. This allowed General
Aviation to maintain operations and
reduced the disruption caused by con­
struction. Once this was completed, the
Richard Lawler places raw products into cold feed bins as trucks load under the stacker in
the background.
crews began the demolition phase, which
included removing the old tie downs,
hangar foundations and storm drain system.
With the existing infra­struc­
ture out of the way, Sargent
began full depth excavation
for the four concrete hard
stands, the trench drain, and the
reconstruction of a section of the
apron shoulder near Taxiway A. As the excavation progressed,
the crews began installing the
new storm drainage system
near Taxiway B and along the
reconstructed apron shoulder. Installing the storm drain was
very challenging as the installation
was deep, the soils were poor, and
Operator Art Morin mixes mortar for a manhole frame
several of the precast structures
installation.
Lane Construction crews pave the General Aviation Apron at Bangor International Airport.
had to be installed in very congested areas.
The existing gravels were salvaged and
stockpiled on-site for reuse. The company
brought in mixing bins from the Plymouth
quarry to mix the existing gravels with
imported crushed stone and sand to make
the P-154 subbase gravel. By re-using the
on-site materials, the crews were able to
minimize both the amount of material they
had to haul off site, as well as the amount
of material they had to import. Although
the total amount of re-usable material
wasn’t enough to complete the job, bringing in the cold feed bins still saved
the company both time and money.
Once the crews placed the Rapid
Drain (1-1/2” crushed stone) layer, P-154
subbase gravel, and the P-209 base gravel
in the areas of full depth reconstruction,
the bulk of Sargent’s work on the apron
was complete. Most of the remaining
work was performed by subcontractors. N. S. Giles Foundations formed
and poured the four 45’ x 90’ concrete
hardstands and constructed 815 linear feet
of cast-in-place concrete trench drains. Sargent Materials provided the concrete for
the hard stands and the trench drain.
In the areas that were not reconstructed,
Lane Construction milled the asphalt
pavement to meet the new design grades,
allowing for a minimum of 3” of new
asphalt to be placed over the milled surface. Sealcoating Inc. came in behind Lane
to seal the cracks in the milled pavement
surface. They ground out the cracks and
filled them with liquid asphalt. With the
cracks sealed, the apron was ready to be
paved. Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 21
of General Aviation Apron at Bangor International Airport
As with every job, the scheduling
was key to the success of the project. Scheduling the subcontractors was a
challenge, particularly the paving. Paving was the major component of
this project, and there was a lot of other
temperature-sensitive work that had to be
completed after the paving was completed. By the time the sealcoating was complete,
it was late in the season and Sargent had
concerns of whether all the pavement could
be placed before the temperatures got
colder than what the project specifications
allowed for. “Not only did we have the temperature
concerns,” said operations manager Kevin
Gordon “but Lane gets very busy later in
the summer, which is why we would have
preferred starting this job earlier. Lane
was challenged with not only meeting
our project demands, but with completing
all their MDOT work, before the state’s
October paving deadline.” Another challenge to the schedule was
that the design mix for airport pavement
is different from a highway or commercial
mix, requiring Lane to commit a silo
completely to the airport work, which
conflicted with the needs of their other
projects.
Consequently, Lane agreed to run a
night crew to keep the project on track. “They could pave elsewhere during the
day,” Kevin said. “Lane’s asphalt plant
could provide only so much asphalt at
one time, but if they ran a night shift, they
could keep up.” The paving, even with all its challenges,
was a success.
As part of the contract, Sargent crews
also had to make improvements to the
fuel truck parking area at the FBO (Fixed
Base Operation). They reconstructed a
portion of the parking area, reconfiguring
the drainage and added drainage features
to capture fuel in the event of a spill,
preventing it from reaching the airport
drainage system.
Kevin said the construction phase was
pretty much complete by the first week of
November. After that, the crew wrapped up
electrical work and a few incidental items. In the spring, Sargent crews will return
to take care of punch list items, Sealcoating
Inc. will return to slurry-coat the entire
area, and Fine Line Pavement Striping will
install the permanent pavement markings. Other subcontractors for the project
were Moulison North Corporation,
electrical; NICOM Coatings, saw-cut and
seal; and Allenfarm Fence Company, FAA
security fencing.
Sargent crews installed 102 aircraft
tie-downs, removed 26,400 cubic yards of
excavation, installed 1,200 lf of RCP storm
drain with 17 precast structures, placed
16,400 cubic yards of P-154 subbase gravel
and 6,000 cubic yards of P-209 base gravel. Lane placed 11,300 tons of hot mix asphalt.
The owner is the City of Bangor;
the engineers were John Hehir and
Jason Homiak of Jacobs Engineering,
New Hampshire. “The City and Jacobs
Engineering were very instrumental in the
success of the project,” said Kevin. “They
were sensitive to the project constraints
and were very proactive in resolving any
problems and dealing with unforeseen
conditions.”
The project superintendent was Steve
Raymond. Jim Braley was the project
manager and Dave Preble was the
estimator. Wanda Landry was the field
cost manger.
Kevin said the biggest challenge for
the project was the late start and the need
to get everyone on site working together. “A big part of that was the scheduling by
Steve and his foremen,” Kevin said. “They
developed a good schedule, and everybody
knew when they had to be in there. We
had to make sure that everyone hit the
ground running and had the material they
needed. For the most part, everything went
really well.”
Sargent crews backfill the trench drain.
Aerial view of General Aviation Apron project at Bangor International Airport.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 22
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Sargent, Army National Guard combine two projects into one
Sargent Corporation completed a $1.1
million project for the Army National
Guard over the summer. The project was
actually two projects combined into one—
reconstructing and reconfiguring a portion
of Taxiway B and reconstructing and enlarging the FMS #3 yard. By combining these projects, the Guard
was able to recycle the concrete, pavement
millings and excavation. Materials from
each project were used on the other, greatly reducing the amount of materials that
would otherwise have had to be imported
and purchased from off-site.
The Taxiway B work was broken into three
phases to minimize disruption of the Guard
and airport operations. The original taxiway
was concrete with Phase 1 and part of Phase 2
being overlayed with asphalt in recent years. The final product was a reconstructed, paved
taxiway reduced in width by 30’.
Lane Construction began the process by
milling an average of 2” of pavement off the
taxiway down to the original concrete. Some
of the millings were used for fill along the
widened taxiway shoulder, while the remainder was stockpiled at the FMS yard for later
use by the Maine Army National Guard.
Then, using a hoe-ram, Sargent crews
demolished the 15” thick concrete taxiway. The demolished concrete was loaded onto
trucks, stockpiled at the FMS site and was
later run through a crusher to produce
4,400 cubic yards of sub-base gravel for
the FMS yard.
As the concrete was removed in each phase,
the crew constructed the new taxiway using
6” of subbase gravel, 6” of base gravel, and 5”
of hot mix asphalt. Sargent crews placed the
Sargent crews crush concrete from Taxiway B, take out a box cut for the new yard, and
place crushed concrete subbase over fabric in the yard area.
The completed concrete apron at the Army National Guard’s FMS yard.
gravel; Lane Construction place the asphalt. Once the taxiway work was underway, other Sargent crews began the FMS yard work. Sargent Materials pumps concrete onto a conveyor as Newman Concrete places the first apron pour.
The existing FMS #3 yard was in rough
shape. A portion of the yard consisted of
a concrete apron from the Dow Air Force
Base days, with the remainder being a
combination of gravel and recycled asphalt
pavement (RAP). The final product was a
31,000 sf concrete apron along the front of
the shop with an enlarged paved yard.
On average, 24” of concrete, pavement,
RAP, gravel, and/or clay were excavated
from the yard to build subgrade. Once the
excavation was completed, the crews installed a small storm drainage system with
associated precast concrete structures, placed
16” of crushed concrete sub-base gravel (pulverized concrete from Taxiway B), and then
placed 6” of imported Type A gravel.
Once the gravels were all in place and
graded, Newman Concrete Services be-
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 23
to reconstruct Taxiway B and FMS #3 yard and parking area
Lane Corporation crews mill Taxiway B at Bangor International Airport.
gan constructing the new concrete apron. Newman completed the apron in six pours. Sargent Materials provided the concrete
for this project. With the concrete apron in
place, Lane Construction placed 5” of hot
mix asphalt over the remainder of the yard.
Mike Light was the superintendent for
Sargent. Kevin Gordon was operations
Sargent crews begin demolition and excavation of Taxiway B.
manager, Jim Braley was project manager,
and Wanda Landry was the field cost manager. Dave Preble estimated the project.
The owner was the Maine Army National Guard. The engineers were Jeremy
Caron and Mike Tupper of J. W. Sewall
Co. The owner’s representative was
Darlene Estabrook.
Kevin said crews had to coordinate closely with the National Guard personnel who
maintained operations while the construction
was taking place. “The Guard’s on-site personnel and Darlene were really great to work
with,” Kevin said. “They knew what we had
to do, and went out of their way to accommodate our work schedule.” Sargent crews complete 7-acre cap at Waste Management’s Turnkey Landfill
Sargent Corporation crews have completed a 7-acre cap at Waste Management’s
Turnkey Landfill in Rochester, NH. The
project was located directly above a MSE
(mechanically-stabilized earth) wall that
Sargent built almost 10 years ago.
Work on the capping project started in
May 2012 and was completed in August.
A total of 20,000 cubic yards of landfillprovided soils were brought in and graded
to achieve base design grades for the cap.
The crews then placed a 4” sub-base
layer, using 5,500 cubic yards of material.
In the process, they created two mid-slope
drainage swales totaling 2,800 linear feet,
designed to break up the flow of rainwater
runoff and channel it into riprap downchutes.
After the drainage swales were created,
the owner’s liner subcontractor placed a 40
mil geomembrane and drainage geocomposite over the subgrade. Sargent crews
then placed 13,400 cubic yards of on-site
soils in a 14” protective layer over the
liner, followed by a 4” layer (3,800 cubic
yards) of topsoil.
Sargent crews also installed about 7,000
linear feet of gas collection pipe in various
sizes, ranging from 2” to 18” in diameter.
Colby Currier,
operations manager for Sargent
Corp., said several
existing gas collection header pipes
had to be reconfigured to bring them
above the liner.
“The landfill
has miles of gas
collection piping,
and when it comes
time to install a
permanent cap,
Part of the newly-capped area at the Turnkey Landfill.
we add soil layers
and a synthetic liner system,” Colby said.
Matt Thibault was the project super“When this is done, they want the permaintendent, Glenn Adams was the project
nent gas collection pipes on top of the liner
manager, and Bobby Mann, Seth Watts,
system, so if they have to tie into another
and Chris McFarland were the foremen.
pipe or do some maintenance on the pipe,
Billy Ruff was the field engineer, and Mike
they don’t have to cut through the liner and
Vining was the estimator.
go down into the trash.”
The owner was Waste Management of
Colby noted that the entire project area
New Hampshire. The design engineer was
was on a 2.7:1 slope, so the protective
Sanborn Head, and the quality assurance
cover soil had to be dumped at the bottom
inspector was CEC of Raynham, Massaof the slope and pushed up by dozers. To
chusetts.
protect the liner, the size of the bulldozers
Laws Inc. of Lisbon was the hydroseedused to push the soil was limited.
ing and mulching subcontractor.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 24
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
‘Dig in for Health’ — Your Sargent Corporation Wellness Program
Shawn and LeeAnn Newton talk about
smoking, weight-loss challenges
Shawn: ‘I wanted to be around for a long time and be able to keep up with my son’
I started smoking when I was fourteen
years old. I was up to two packs a day
before I quit. Since the initial meeting I had
with Derek in 2007, we had talked about
me quitting smoking. I initially went to the
doctors and tried Wellbutrin. That medicine did not work for me. It made me very
irritable and I thought if I was going to be
that irritable, I would continue smoking.
Three to four months prior to New Year’s
Eve 2012 (the date I had set to quit) I began
telling myself every day that I was going to
quit smoking. To my surprise, even before
going out that evening to celebrate New
Year’s Eve with friends, I stopped smoking. Shortly after stopping, I realized I needed
something to help. I called Derek and he
sent me some Nicorette gum. I used that for
about three months.
Part of the reason I wanted, or rather,
needed to quit was that my father suffered
from COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease) from a lifetime of smoking. He ended
up being hooked up to oxygen twenty-four
hours a day. He eventually died from
complications of the COPD as well as other
health issues. I didn’t want to end up like
that and force my family to watch me deteriorate like he did. My son and wife also
helped me realized that I needed to quit. I
wanted to be around for a long time and be
able to keep up with my young son.
I am grateful that Sargent Corporation
has a wellness program and that Derek is
good to work with, as he keeps you thinking
about how to improve your health. He is
very easy to talk with. To have the program
available to me, as an employee, is an asset.
Thank you for the opportunity to share
my story and hopefully it will help someone
else quit. I celebrated my year of being tobacco-free on December 31, 2012. It hasn’t
been easy, but it has been worth it. And
although I have gained about ten pounds
(which is the next thing I will be working
on), I feel better than I have in years. LeeAnn: ‘Exercise in the morning before
your brain knows what you are doing’
At the end of April, 2012, I had a friend
suggest that four of us do a “Biggest Loser”
type challenge. With some reservations,
I decided to participate. It was only after
she said to me, “Don’t you have half an
hour to give to yourself?” A lot of things
ran through my head at that point, most
particularly, “Do I? Can’t I work on me for
30 minutes a day a couple times a week?” I
just figured if I didn’t I was being lazy. On
her suggestion as well, she had us take our
measurements and weigh ourselves every
two weeks. She also told us about a website
called www.myfitnesspal.com. We all decided we would do an eight
week challenge. So, beginning on May 3,
2012, we started our challenge. I started
using myfitnesspal to keep track of what I ate. The site would tell me how many calories I
should be eating based on my goals and how
much I wanted to lose each week. I bought
Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred (also on my
friend’s suggestion) and started it. It wasn’t
easy, but I made a commitment to at least try. Besides, there was a pedicure on the line for
the person who lost the most weight/inches. I won the first challenge. We then
decided to
do a second
challenge for
twelve weeks
and added three
more people. This time the
prize was for
a massage. I
won again. We
haven’t done
any more chalLeeAnn Newton before . . .
lenges, but the
four participants of the original challenge
continue to check in every two weeks. As of December 23, 2012, I have lost
34.8 pounds and 23.25 inches. I am still
working out at least four times a week. I
am not where I want to be yet, but I am
closer than when I started. I feel stronger
than I ever have and I am in better shape at
forty than I was in my twenties. I can see
progress in my ability to complete the DVD
video routine. I used to struggle through it,
but now I don’t have to take a mini-break.
If someone says they don’t have time,
. . . and after (with Shawn and son Jackson).
the 30 Day Shred is 20 minutes of circuit
training. It’s hard, but it’s only twenty
minutes. Somewhere I read a quote,
“Exercise in the morning before your brain
figures out what you’re doing.” This is so
true for me. I know that I will never get a
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 25
‘Dig in for Health’ — Your Sargent Corporation Wellness Program
HDHP/HSA Wellness Program Benchmark Contribution - May 2013
The high deductible health plan
(HDHP) with the accompanying health
savings account (HSA) is now the single
health benefit offered by Sargent Corporation. These insurance benefits are designed
to create a more wise health consumer and
allows the company to put more money
into the hands of the employees to pay for
health based costs rather than simply putting it towards health insurance premiums.
For employees to take full advantage of
the contributions, it requires participation
in the Dig in for Health wellness program.
Employees and spouses on the HDHP
receive a yearly contribution if they are
enrolled in the wellness program. They are
also eligible to qualify for an additional
yearly contribution if they maintain, or
make progress towards, a healthier lifestyle
Our Health Educator, Derek Hurst,
travels to job sites to meet with
employees. If you haven’t met with
Derek and would like to, contact him at
[email protected] or call
207-817-7511, today!
workout in after work with our busy schedules. However, in the morning, our son has
accepted this as part of his routine and let’s
me do it without too much interruption. Sometimes he even works out with me
with his little one pound weights (which
were mine when I started) or he’ll mimic
trainer Jillian and say “Come on Mom give
me one more, you can do it”. He is learning that exercise is important.
I am thankful to my friend for getting me started and my other myfitnesspal
Sargent Corporation’s Wellness Program
as measured by four speA message from Herb Sargent
cific health benchmarks.
The four benchmarks are: In the spring of 2007, Sargent Corporation instituted a
Wellness Program, which is intended to create positive
• Blood pressure
under 140/90.
change for both the company and its employees. Our top
• Total cholespriority is to help employees live a full and healthy life.
terol under 240 mg/
dL with HDL cholesterol above 40 mg/
able benchmarks. Sometimes, however,
dL for males and 50 mg/dL for females.
medication may be needed to assist a
• Body Mass Index (BMI) under 30
healthy lifestyle with getting blood presor waist circumference under 40 inches
sure and cholesterol into a healthy range.
for males and 35 inches for females.
Don’t forget, a third contribution is
• Being a non-smoker.
also made yearly. It works similarly to
These four benchmarks are often
the company’s 401k benefit – if you put
recognized as the most important factors
in money of your own, the company will
when determining an individual’s risk
match it (up to $400 per eligible memfor chronic disease by health authorities
ber). This contribution does not require
such as the American Heart Association,
participation in the wellness program.
United States Preventive Services Task
If you have any questions on the health
Force, American Diabetes Association,
benchmark contribution or would like to
and the Centers for Disease Control.
enroll in the wellness program, you can
An active lifestyle combined with
contact me by phone at 207-817-7511
eating a balanced, portion controlled diet
(work) or 207-491-9306 (cell), and by
has the biggest impact on these measuremail at [email protected].
buddies because they are such a great
source of support and motivation. I am
also thankful to my husband and son who
continue to support what I am doing. The
suggestion we weigh in and measure every
two weeks was a great one because now,
when I look back in my notebook, I see
how far I have actually come.
I continue to use myfitnesspal.com daily. I log in everything I eat or drink (the good,
bad, and the ugly). I stopped drinking
soda. I didn’t drink that much to begin
with, but it was empty calories. I rarely eat
fast food. It is amazing when you start to
actually keep track of what you are eating.
You become more accountable and careful with your choices. I wasn’t ignorant
about portion sizes, but in some instances
was completely unaware of a serving size
versus what I used to eat. A friend said to me that this is a lifelong
marathon, not a short distance race. Each
day we try to do better and sometimes we
slip, but tomorrow is a new day. Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 26
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Retiree Corner
Louis Dougherty, 11 years of service with Sargent Corporation
Louis Dougherty joined H. E. Sargent
in May 2001 when he was hired as an
excavator operator bringing nearly 30
years of heavy equipment experience with
him. This was his primary responsibility
throughout his time with us.
Lou’s first assignment with the company was at a school project in Newport,
Maine, where he worked under the direction of superintendent, Charlie Harris. He
moved from there to a Walmart project in
Newport. Louis tells us Charlie had encouraged him to apply to H. E. Sargent – a
decision he is happy he made. Over the years, during his time with us,
Louis worked primarily in the Bangor region; where he said there were “too many
projects to remember!” If necessary, however, he would travel outside that region,
which he did when he was assigned to
work on the Acadia National Park project. Operations manager Jim Conley, reports
Louis worked at the Acacia National Park
Project – a federal project – and was instrumental in the success of the project.
Often assigned to superintendent Scott
Blanchard’s projects, Scott tells us “I’ve
worked with Lou on many projects since 2001
and the first thing I noticed was his
high level of skill and “craftsmanship”. Lou also had a great working knowledge in the construction
industry, in particular road work. He excelled at clean-up where his
talents and creativity really shined. His dedication and commitment
to excellence always left a final
product that we at Sargent Corporation were proud of. Louis’ last
project with the company this past
construction season was again with
Scott at the Ellsworth Route 180
MDOT project.
Eric Gifford, Equipment Manager, says Louis also takes pride
in “his” excavator; always keeping it well-maintained and clean!
Faced with personal challenges,
the past couple of years have been
tough for Lou. After his wife,
Helen’s death, Louis felt blessed to
Louis Dougherty and cousin Allyson Dougherty
meet another special lady. Margaret
McKinney and Lou met through church where
home and “enjoying life”!
they became friends and worked together on
Thank you, Louis, for your dedication
many projects. He married Margaret on June
and hard work. We hope you enjoy your
30, 2012 and the newlyweds are relaxing at
retirement and we will miss you! Ron Ingersoll, 25 years
Ron Ingersoll
Ron Ingersoll joined H. E. Sargent
in August, 1987 and began a career that
lasted over 25 years. Ron began his career
working on the paving crew where he
worked for nearly 4 years. He worked
closely with the paving division supervisor
and others in that division.
After his time on the paving crew, Ron
worked as a field mechanic for Philip Lander; working on projects in New England
from Vermont to New York and back home
to Maine. He also worked on the crusher
with John Soule and Dave Britton before
becoming a heavy equipment operator – the
position he held with the company during
the remainder of his career. Ron has operated all of the various pieces of equipment
the company owned from loader, backhoe,
dozer; he even operated rear dump on the
Kibby Wind Farm project. Ron’s area of expertise, however, is
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Page 27
Retiree Corner
Louie Hebert, 41 years of service with Sargent Corporation
Louie Hebert joined H. E. Sargent on
January 21, 1971. He was interviewed and
hired, and was asked to report to the AltonArgyle I-95 Northbound Lane project as a
laborer with the expectation he would be
assigned as a foreman in the spring; so it
began – a career spanning 40 years. In early 1973, Louie was assigned
to Maine Department of Transportation
(MDOT) projects around the state including projects in Knox, Lewiston and returning to work on Interstate 95 – this time in
Topsham.
The following year marked the arrival
of Dale Jellison, an estimator many of
you may remember. Louie was assigned
to work directly with Dale, assisting him
as needed. Later that same year, Louie
became the company’s Natural Resources
Coordinator, responsible for locating and
cataloging gravel sources for the projects
the company was bidding.
Assuming the responsibilities of Project Superintendent in 1976, Louie’s commitment to the company remained strong
Louie Hebert
and he was assigned his first project as
work began on a two-year Army Corps
of Engineers project in Fort Kent, Maine
(this is in Aroostook County where Louie
We wish you all a happy retirement!
of service with Sargent Corporation
operating the bulldozer. He operated all
sizes of dozer over the years. While working under the direction of superintendent,
Chris Lynch, Ron reports to his knowledge, he operated the first D10 in Maine on
the very first wind farm project in Maine at
Mars Hill in 2006. “It was a great job and
a great project to work on – what a team”!
In recent years Ron worked frequently
with superintendent, Katrina Morgan; including the wind farm project at Record Hill and
his last projects during the 2012 construction
season were also with Katrina at Scarborough’s ecomaine project and at the Hannaford projects in Turner. She describes Ron
as an intense and productive operator when
in the cab of his equipment. He is a go-getter
and an employee respected and looked up to
by his peers. Outside of the cab, he is really
fun to be around and a great story teller.
Since the construction season ended, Ron
spent as much time as he could in the woods
hunting. As of this writing, however, he was
not successful in getting a deer, but he was
going to keep trying until the season ended. Ron and his wife, Kathy; proud parents
of three children, are looking forward to retirement; he has worked hard over the years
and now they plan to sit back, have time
to themselves and enjoy life! They like to
camp and have bought a camper, which they
hope to take on the road traveling through
the State of Maine with their 4 grandsons;
6 year olds McCann and Braden, 4 year old
Blaze, and Bronx who is just 20 months old.
Ron thoroughly enjoyed his years with
this company, but it is now time to sit back
and enjoy the fruits of his labor! We wish
him much happiness in retirement. Thank you, Ron, for your hard work
and your loyal, dedicated service to the
company. We will miss you!
was born and raised). After the project in
Fort Kent concluded, Louie was assigned
to and worked on many smaller projects
in the capacity of Project Superintendent. In 1987, the company bid and was
awarded their first ever superfund project;
a landfill project in Winthrop, Maine and
Louie was assigned to supervise. This
was followed by another Army Corps of
Engineers project; a breakwater project in
Jonesport. Over the next several years,
Louie continued in his role as superintendent, and was assigned to several projects
both large and small; including a five-year
project at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire. There were many other projects over the
years, too many to recount, and all memorable to Louie where he met and worked
closely with other Sargent co-workers
over his long career! Willing to take on a new opportunity
and ready to do what was asked of him,
Louie assumed the role of Operations
Manager for the Northern New England
Division in 1996, transitioning into the
position of Operations Manager for the
Southern New England Division; a position he held until 2006. That year, with
the closing of the southern division, Louie
returned to the Stillwater office as a Project
Manager.
Always up for any challenge, in the
summer of 2012, Louie accepted a temporary duty assignment in the Mid-Atlantic
division at the Manassas Airport project,
which he completed. He then decided it
was time to retire.
Louie found his work over the years
to be highly satisfying and rewarding and
affording him a sense of accomplishment. Going the extra mile was never a question
to Louie and he encouraged others to take
that extra step with him. The people he has
encountered ~ too numerous to count ~ did
the same thing day in and day out – that
is culture; the Sargent culture; work hard,
encourage others to do the same, finding
personal satisfaction and pride along the
way; building the reputation we are all
proud to have today.
(Please turn to next page)
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 28
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
Sargent Corporation Benefits Update
Roth option added to Sargent
Corporation’s 401(k) Retirement Plan
In early October, the 401(k) Committee met with representatives from Fidelity to review plan performance, look at the
funds offered and discuss any necessary or beneficial changes
to the plan. During this meeting we discussed the potential benefits
of offering a Roth option in addition to the traditional option
within the 401(k) Retirement Plan. After consideration the
decision was made to add this feature to the retirement plan
with an effective date of January 1, 2013. While this option
may not be right for everyone it was decided the plan would
be strengthened by adding the Roth. Unlike a traditional, pretax 401(k), the Roth 401(k) allows
you to contribute after-tax dollars, but then at some point in
the future withdraw tax-free dollars from your account when
you retire.* Below are some of the potential benefits of contributing
some portion of your retirement saving to a Roth 401(k).
How the Roth 401(k) compares with a traditional, pretax
401(k)…
Just as with a traditional, pretax 401(k):
• You elect how much of your salary you wish to contribute;
• Your contributions to a Roth 401(k) and traditional, pretax 401(k) cannot exceed IRS limits;
• Your contribution is based on your eligible compensation.
Unlike a traditional, pretax 401(k), the Roth 401(k) allows
you to withdraw your money tax free when you retire.* But it
will also require you to make after-tax contributions now.
Who might benefit from a Roth 401(k)?
A Roth 401(k) could be a good option for:
• Younger employees who have a longer retirement horizon and more time to accumulate tax-free earnings;
• Employees who fall into a tax bracket where they pay at
* In the event of either retirement or termination, your earnings
can be withdrawn tax free as long as it has been five tax years
since your first Roth 401(k) contribution and you are at least
59½ years old. In the event of death, beneficiaries may be
able to receive distributions tax free if the deceased started
making Roth contributions more than five tax years prior to
the distribution. In the event of disability, your earnings can be
withdrawn tax free if it has been five tax years from your first
Roth 401(k) contribution.
Louie Hebert retirement
(Continued from preceding page)
Retiring at the end of 2012, after an
amazing and memorable 40 years of service with the company, Louie and his wife,
Ray are headed to Florida where they purchased a winter home. They plan to stay
low marginal tax rates or no income tax at all;
• Highly compensated individuals who aren’t eligible for
Roth IRAs, but who want a pool of tax-free money to draw on
in retirement;
• Employees who want to leave tax-free money to their
heirs.
The following link offers a brief 9-minute tutorial to learn
more about this new contribution option available through the
401(k) Retirement Plan. The link is: http://www.brainshark.
com/­fidelityemg/roth401k.
As with past years, you may elect to defer between 1%
and 70% of your gross taxable wages to the plan. Unlike the
traditional 401(k), the Roth 401(k) contributions will not be
withdrawn from your paycheck pre-tax. For 2013, the IRS
has set the maximum annual deferral limit at $17,500 – this is
combined contributions from both the traditional 401(k) and
Roth 401(k) deduction. The company will continue to contribute a 50% match on your 401(k) contributions up to 6% of
your pay. This match is on pre-tax traditional contributions,
after-tax Roth contributions or a combination of the two up to
6% of you pay. As a reminder to those of you who are over
50, the IRS allows you to contribute up to an additional $5,500
in “catch-up” contibutions.
We recommend that you do research on the Roth 401(k) option prior to electing this as a way you want to help fund your
retirement income. Doing so will help ensure the Roth option
is right for you. You may also want to contact a tax professional for specific advice on you individual situation. Sargent Corporation’s 401(k) Retirement
Plan - Contacting Fidelity
Below are three different ways to get in contact with Fidelity, where you can find educational material, receive investment advice or make changes to your retirement plan. • By phone: 1-800-835-5097. (8 am to midnight EST)
• On the internet at www.401k.com. (Early in 2013, Fidelity is upgrading its website to provide additional resources and
functionality for participants).
• Visit a Fidelity Investor Center.
* * *
If there are any specific topics you think would be beneficial
for future ON TRACK articles or for the start-up meetings,
please contact Lynne Churchill, Karen Littlefield, or Jason
Frederick and we will try to include them as we go forward.
until spring enjoying warm weather surrounded by their children and their spouses
and their grandchildren together with many
friends returning to Maine in the spring –
let’s hope they bring some warmth with
them when they return to New England!
Louie is excited about the next chapter
in his life. He wants everyone to know
how thankful he is for the opportunity to
work along side some wonderful people
over the years – people he is proud to call
his friends; people he will miss seeing on a
regular basis!
Thank you, Louie, for your loyalty,
dedication and hard work! Know you will
be missed!
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Sargent Corporation
Page 29
The Herb Sargent Way
‘Job well done’ at Charlottesville
Albemarle Airport
As we close out our Runway 21 Extension
Ph IB project, I wanted to take this opportunity
to express
our sincere
appreciation
for a job
well done
by the
Sargent team at Charlottesville Albemarle Airport.
Sargent’s diligence and focus has not only
resulted in smooth construction; it has had a
tremendous and positive impact on our airport
operations and overall Runway 21 program.
Specifically:
• Your willingness to hold very competitive bid prices allowed us to capitalize on surplus funding and complete a significant amount
of additional work earlier than programmed,
saving us both time and money. In addition,
the work completed was a critical path item in
our program; its early completion means more
runway length earlier for our users.
• Your creative suggestion to split Work
Area 2 was a win-win proposal. You were able
to complete critical work earlier, and we were
able to reduce the impact and duration of runway
restrictions to our users and airlines. We also
benefited from early completion of this work.
• When we were successful in securing a
new air carrier to the airport, your team showed
their can-do spirit and fast forwarded work in a
critical milestone for an early finish. This allowed
us to re-open the runway early and avoid any
impact to the new service launch date. Your team
did this voluntarily, with no requirement to do so.
• Your working through the winter months
allowed us to avoid two programmed winter
shutdowns. Combined with your completion of
the project well ahead of schedule, we are now
able to advance our next phase of construction
by an entire calendar year.
Sargent has impressed not only me, but our
staff at all levels, from security, to operations, to
maintenance. Your entire team has managed the
project with efficiency and laser focus. To say
that our staff has been impressed with Sargent’s
diligence and work ethic would be an understatement. You have far exceeded our expectations.
Please share our sentiments with your entire
team, all of who have made this project a true
success. We look forward to seeing you back at
our airport on a future project.
— William D. Pahuta
Interim Executive Director
Great work on BIA project
I wanted to reach out to you now that the
general aviation ramp rehab project is complete.
I wanted to pass along my sincere appreciation
to you and crew for their great work on this
project. I have heard all good things about your
personnel during this project! Thanks again for
the great work on this big project!
—Anthony P. Caruso Jr., CM.
Bangor International Airport
UMaine says thanks for gift to
Construction Management fund
Thank you so much for your recent generous
gift to the University of Maine for the Construction Management Technology Educational Excellence Fund.
Dean Dana
Humphrey and
I are so grateful
to you for designating your gift to this notable
engineering technology program.
I am continually impressed by the education
and training that our UMaine engineering students receive to prepare them for the workforce.
Support and mentorship from companies like
Sargent Corporation are exceptionally valuable
to our students, and ultimately help to advance
the quality of Maine’s construction industry.
Thank you for your commitment to excellence
at Maine’s pre-eminent public research university.
We sincerely appreciate your ongoing support.
— Paul Ferguson, President
University of Maine
Fast start by Sargent crews puts hospital project ahead of schedule
(Continued from page 17)
crews had to keep the ponds empty. Whenever it rained—daytime, nights, or weekends—tractor trailer units were brought
in, and water was pumped from the ponds
into the tankers for disposal offsite, so the
ponds wouldn’t overflow. In all, the crews
pumped nearly 14 million gallons of water
from the runoff to the collection ponds.
The project, with an overall value of
$322 million, is one of largest that Sargent
crews have worked on in recent years. At
peak times, as many as 600 people were
working on the project. For Sargent, the
peak employment was about 60.
The project was also exceptional in the
amount of advance planning that went into
it. The two general contractors and a selected list of pre-qualified vendors started
meeting about two years before Sargent
crews started opening up the site.
Sargent was selected to be on the IPD
(integrated project delivery) team, which
held monthly meetings to review drawings
and estimate costs related to the project.
“It gave us an opportunity to review
conceptual drawings and offer value engineering ideas,” said Jim.
John said an IPD project is similar to design-build, but more sophisticated. In addition to the owner, the architect, and the constructor, the people who are going to work in
the facility—the end-users and everyone in
between—are involved in the design.
The process includes a needs study and
an operations study so that everyone concerned can look at innovations that might
improve the project. Then the team constantly compares needs vs. cost vs. budget.
Before the job even started, mock hospital
rooms were constructed so hospital personnel
could look at them, agree on the optimum
size and shape, and make suggestions.
In addition, every subcontractor was
involved in the design for their part of
the construction. From Sargent, estima-
tor Mike Vining and superintendent Dee
Hobart were both involved in various planning sessions. Mike was instrumental in
the preliminary work in value engineering,
while Dee worked with the team in reviewing, estimating, and scheduling the work.
Jim, who has been a Sargent employee
for 41 years and an operations manager for
17 years, said the project is the best managed building project that he’s ever been
associated with.
“It’s very unusual to see a building job
managed that well, especially a project that
large,” he said. “It’s a credit to the general
contractors.”
He said Robins & Morton is a very
large contractor who specializes in building hospitals all over the country, while H.
P. Cummings is a Maine contractor who
has built a number of hospitals in Maine.
Sargent has worked with Cummings in
the past. Most of the subcontractors were
from Maine.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 30
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2013
The Herb Sargent Way
Sargent’s tradition of volunteerism featured on United Way website
Sargent Corporation was one of the
first businesses featured on the United Way
of Eastern Maine website and Facebook
Page in a new series called “United Way
of Eastern Maine Presents.” Sargent was
featured for the company’s tradition of volunteerism. The text of the article follows:
* * *
Today we have a special post for all
of our readers – we were able to get an
in-depth look at the volunteerism of one
of Maine’s greatest companies, Sargent
Corporation. We want to thank Sargent
Corporation for their continued support in
the community, and a special thanks goes
out to Lynne Churchill for taking time out
of her busy schedule to answer our volunteerism questions. Enjoy!
Why does Sargent Corp. like to focus
on volunteerism?
We are a company of individuals who
share an uncommon drive to participate in
the community. Many of our nearly 400
employee workforce volunteer in their
communities; from coaching ball teams to
walking in their local Relay for Life to volunteering for the Boy Scouts of America
and many other volunteer opportunities;
donating company time and resources
to build an entire athletic facility —supporting the towns we live in and serve is
something we all believe in.
Our founder, Herbert E. Sargent, believed in giving back to the communities
where we live and work and we continue
that strong tradition of giving back today.
What does Sargent Corp. do for volunteerism in Eastern Maine?
One large area of Sargent Corporation’s volunteerism is to the United Way of
Eastern Maine. We have employees who
have served in various capacities over the
years from Board Members to Loaned Executives to involvement on the Allocation
Committee and Finance Committee; our
employees are proud and pleased to serve
this worthwhile organization.
In the United Way’s 2010-2011 Annual
Report, Sargent is named in the United
Way of Eastern Maine’s Campaign Honor
Sargent Corporation United Way
Volunteers prepare to walk for the annual
United Way kickoff at Bass Park in Bangor
Roll. Out of the 50 top companies from
that year’s campaign, Sargent ranked No. 4,
below only Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Hannaford Supermarkets and Bank of
America — all much larger companies! We
are very proud of this recognition.
A team effort involving the Old Town
Recreation Department, the United Way of
Eastern Maine, Sargent Corporation and
a host of volunteers from the community
including students from the University of
Maine’s Construction Management Technology program, students from the Heavy
Equipment Operator program at United
Technologies Center in Bangor, Dirigo
Slipform and other community partners
such as Bangor Savings Bank resulted in
the construction of the first Born Learning
Trail north of Portland. The half-milelong trail loops around the Herbert Sargent
Community Center and is designed to
provide fun and interactive learning opportunities for children, their parents, grandparents and other caregivers.
In recognition of this support, we have
been honored with several awards from
the United Way; two Community Fund
Awards one in 2008 and another in 2011;
a Campaign Chair Award; the Irene Gray
Award for Outstanding Campaign Volunteers, and most recently the Silver Award
for outstanding service to the people of our
community.
Even in a challenging economy, the
loyal, dedicated and hard-working employees of Sargent Corporation and its affiliate,
Sargent Materials, prove their incredible
University of Maine Construction Manage­
ment Technology Students hold some of
the signs that were installed along the
Born Learning Trail at the Herbert Sargent
Community Center in Old Town. Many of
the students from this program work with
Sargent Corporation during the summers
of their college career and after graduating,
many become regular, full-time employees.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
ON TRACK Winter 2013
Sargent Corporation
Page 31
The Herb Sargent Way
generosity every year donating generously to the Sargent United Way employee
campaign; trying to exceed the prior year’s
campaign and successfully attaining that
goal. This speaks volumes to their commitment to giving back and helping those
less fortunate. At last count, twenty-one of
our employees give at the leader’s Circle
level (more than $1,000 or more annually).
The spirit of giving that infuses the
organization doesn’t stop with hands-on
participation and volunteerism. The Sargent team routinely donates more annually for the United Way of Eastern Maine
Campaign than companies many times
its size. They know when you contribute
to the United Way, you join other caring
people to strengthen and improve the lives
of those in your community.
In an effort to make the holidays
brighter for local children, Sargent has an
annual toy drive at our Holiday party each
year. This voluntary toy drive benefits the
Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots. Thanks to
the generosity of our employees, approximately 150 toys are donated each year in
the name of our hard-working employees.
In 2007, Sargent Corporation was
awarded the Bangor Region Chamber of
Commerce Business of the Year award
“For over 50 years of business success,
community service and commitment to
the economic and cultural vitality of the
Greater Bangor Area”.
Many employees represent Sargent
Corporation in our industry on boards
of organizations such as Maine Better
Transportation Association and Associated
General Contractors of Maine. We also
have employees serving on boards in other
organizations and also on the boards of
educational facilities in the region.
Who at Sargent Corp. feels strongly
and advocates for volunteerism?
The Sargent Corporation team – beginning with our owner, Herb Sargent, to our
management team, and all the employees
throughout the entire company are committed to giving back to the community. We do
this in memory of and to carry on Herbert E.
Sargent’s legacy of caring and giving.
“He achieves success who lives well,
laughs often and loves much… who leaves
the world better than he finds it; always
looking for the best in others and gives
them the best he has!”
When does Sargent Corp. usually
carry out their volunteer work?
Every year since the 1926 inception of H.
E. Sargent; Sargent and Sargent’s beginning in
1992 and Sargent Corporation’s birth in 2005,
Sargent Corporation’s spirit of giving and
volunteerism is ongoing each and every day.
Looking forward, where do you see
Sargent Corp. going with volunteerism?
Sargent Corporation and its employees
will continue their rich history of giving
and volunteering to the communities where
we live and work for years to come.
SARGENT PARTICIPATES IN TOUCH-A-TRUCK FAIR—Low bed driver Rickie Waning and
layout surveyor Pete Parizo brought a Sargent Corporation CAT D8T dozer to the Cole Land
Transportation Museum on Saturday, August 11, for Camp CaPella’s second annual Touch-ATruck Fair. Youngsters were able to climb up on both the dozer and the low-bed truck, sit in the
cab, and get a close-up look at the vehicles. The fair included police, fire and rescue vehicles,
tractor-trailers, construction vehicles, tow trucks, and military vehicles, as well as the Kool Bus,
food, face painting, a bounce house, and free admission to the museum. Proceeds from the
event enabled children with disabilities to attend Camp Capella on Phillips Lake in Dedham.
129 toys delivered to Marine Corps ‘Toys for Tots’ campaign
Thanks to your generosity, 129 toys
were delivered to the Marine Corps’ Toys
for Tots campaign on behalf of the employees of Sargent Corporation and Sargent
Materials during the recent holiday season. The toys were collected at the holiday
gatherings in New England on Nov. 17 and
in the Mid-Atlantic on Dec. 8. They were
delivered by the Marines to local children
in need in both areas.
Your kindness and generosity made the
holidays brighter for many! In the spirit of giving, the beautiful centerpieces and boxwood trees from the New
England party were donated to Cancer
Care of Maine to help brighten the spirit of
patients there!
A special “thank you” to Dennis Bernard, who collected the toys after the MidAtlantic party and delivered them to a drop
spot in Ashland for Toys for Tots!
American Red Cross
blood drive nets 24 pints
A total of 26 Sargent Corporation employees participated in the American Red
Cross Blood Services blood drive October
19 in Stillwater, resulting in 24 units of
blood. Each pint of blood can help save up
to three lives.
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime
Page 32
Sargent Corporation
ON TRACK
Winter 2011-12
P.O. Box 435, Stillwater, ME 04489
Presorted
First Class
Mail
Permit #76
Bangor, ME
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Visit our website at www.sargent-corp.com
Sargent crews replace Route 27 culvert 46 hours after road closure
Two Sargent crews
working in 12-hour shifts
around the clock completed
the emergency replacement
of a culvert on Route 27 in
Pittston on July 2, just 46
hours after the road was
closed for repairs.
The crews finished the
job 26½ hours ahead of
schedule and earned the
company a bonus payment
of $250 an hour, or $6,550.
The repairs were needed
on an emergency basis because the culvert was in the
process of failing and the
road was starting to cave in.
The culvert was located
about 20 feet deep in a
guardrail section of the
roadway. The new culvert
Rick McKinley and Curt Van Aken install the final section of 48” RCP under the watchful eye of MDOT.
would be a 60” reinforced
concrete pipe (RCP) supplied by the Maine
• If the road was open prior to the 4
ard, Jr, Earic West, Gene Randall, Derek
Department of Transportation (MDOT).
p.m. July 3 deadline, the contractor would
True, and Sonny Merritt.
The contractor had to remove the existreceive a bonus payment of $250 hour.
The crews mobilized at the site on
ing guardrail, excavate, remove the exist • If the road remained closed after
Friday, June 29, starting at 6 p.m. Using
ing culvert, install the new culvert, backfill,
the 4 p.m. July 3 deadline, the contractor
flaggers to control traffic, they were able to
replace the guardrail, and pave, with all the
would pay a penalty of $600 per hour.
remove the guard rails, start clearing, set up
work done on an accelerated schedule
Because the project was scheduled over
control, and get all the equipment on site.
The emergency project was put out to
a weekend with two 12-hour shifts, the
“When the road was closed [at 6 p.m.
bid by the MDOT on June 25, and bids
company asked for volunteers.
on Saturday], the crew was able to start
were opened at noon on June 26, with Sar Superintendent T. J. Langerak was
digging immediately,” said operations
gent as the apparent low bidder with a bid
foreman for the day crew, which included
manager Jim Conley. “It was a real team
of $75,000. The contract was signed on
Curt Van Aken, Rick McKinley, Matt
effort. When we made out our schedule,
June 27, with the following specifications:
Hatch, Josh Dillingham, Dana Leland, Pat
our goal was to finish by 4 p.m. on July 2,
• Route 27 would be closed at 6 p.m.
Knaide, Josh Messier, Brendan Sargent, Jeff
a day ahead of the DOT deadline. We beat
on Saturday, June 30, and the MDOT would
Blodgett, Ron St.John, and Adam Williams.
that by 2½ hours.”
set up a detour for the traveling public.
Superintendent Sean Milligan was fore Jim added that the DOT resident en • Repairs had to be completed on or
man for the night crew, which included
gineer “was extremely pleased and imbefore 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 3.
John Koch, Greg Packard, Sr, Greg Packpressed with what we did.”
Excellence for Generations . . . Safety for a Lifetime