If you have driven along busy Route 24 in Taunton and Raynham for the past year, you can’t help but notice the heavy iron and the pre-cast piles, and the large cranes surrounding both sides of the highway in a major roadway project that has become a landmark for passing commuters.
In October 2014, two Liebherr LR 1200 cranes were mobilized on the site, utilized by general contractor S& R Construction of Lowell, Mass., for approximately nine months.
According to MassDOT, the four-lane $17 million highway project, just south of Exit 13-A, will be completed in September. It requires the complete rehabilitation of the bridge that traverses the Taunton River, a major stretch of highway in and out of a large shopping area in Taunton.
The old bridge is not being replaced, but completely re-fabricated with more pre-fabrication concrete than S&R Corp. has ever assembled.
“The brutal winter stopped construction activities for approximately eight weeks, said Eric W. Jones, S&R construction division manager regarding replacing the heavily-traveled highway bridge.
Crews of men, varying from five to 20, are working multiple shifts, day and night.
Pre-Fab at Old Castle
It is the largest pre-fabricated bridge project that S&R has done, in this wave of the future to accelerate bridge replacements.
“Most of the new bridge components are fabricated off site and transported to the job site in order to provide a quicker turnaround time on the various phases of the project,” said Jones. “This project requires a high level of planning and engineering for traffic control, site coordination and precast installation methods.
“The structural steel is fabricated, coated, transported and assembled at the Oldcastle facility for casting the concrete deck onto sections of the steel framing; these are called prefabricated bridge units [PBUs]. The heaviest PBU’s weigh in excess of 200,000 pounds and require a special engineered plan for loading, transporting and unloading,” said Jones.
• Liddell Brothers Inc. — traffic management
• COSCO Inc. — guardrail/fencing
• M.O.N. Landscaping Inc. — erosion control/landscaping
• Pro Cut — saw cutting
• New England Building & Bridge Co. Inc. — concrete construction
• D. Clifford Construction Co. Inc. — asphalt paving
• Sealcoating Inc. — waterproofing
• Swank Construction Company LLC — cold planing/milling
• TMI Services Inc. — striping
• D&A Steel, Inc. — reinforcing installation
• Dagle Electrical Construction Corp. — electrical installations
The other bridge components that also are made in the Oldcastle facility in nearby Rehoboth, Mass., include precast wingwalls, precast pier caps, precast backwalls and precast approach slabs.
Such weight and precision requires expertise from many related construction fields, and S&R is employing an extensive array of sub-contractors on the multi-million project, relegated and authorized under MassDOT.
Subcontractors Include:
• Bay Crane Northeast — crane work and hauling PBUs, Smithfield, R.I.
Fabricators:
• Oldcastle Precast, Rehoboth, Mass. — precast concrete
• CANAM Bridges, Claremont, N.H. — metallized structural steel
Seven Phases
The full-depth roadway construction project includes drainage improvements with some 10,000 tons (9,071 t) of asphalt pavement. About 2,000 cu. yds. (1,529 cu m) of concrete will be used.
Jones said that special equipment is being employed. Bay Crane transported three of the nine PBUs that weighed 80 tons (72 t) each.
The rear of the transporter is a remote-controlled 6-axle dollie.
Jones said the first five phases, delayed by two months due to winter conditions, will take a total of 17 months. The final two phases (seven phases overall) should be completed in two subsequent months.
“This project is similar in complexity to other projects we have completed over the past five to 10 years, although this project has the most precast we have ever worked with,” said Jones.
Similar S&R bridge replacement projects include the $13.5 million work on Route 1A (High Road over the Parker River in Newbury, Mass., completed 17 months ahead of schedule).
The scope of the Newbury project was a complete demolition and replacement of the existing bridge. The substructure is cast in place concrete supported by large diameter drilled shafts. The superstructure is a NEBT 1800 frame with cast in place concrete bridge deck.
Other work included full depth reconstruction of the roadway, drainage, retaining walls, a temporary utility bridge and cofferdams. The project required approximately 1,968 ft. (600 m) of drilled shafts, 1,831 cu. yds. (1,400 cu m) of concrete, erection of 24 66-ton (60 t) NEBTs and the installation and removal of approximately 300 tons (272 t) of steel sheeting cofferdams.
Another recent S&R project was the replacement of a steel bridge over Route 28 (Broadway) and over Route 213 (Loop connector) in Methuen, Mass. This $9.8 million job was completed a year ahead of schedule in 2010.
The scope of the project was a complete demolition and replacement of the existing bridge. The substructure was cast in place concrete spread footings with abutments and one center pier. The superstructure is a steel frame with cast in place concrete bridge deck. Highway work included full-depth reconstruction of the roadway, drainage, mse walls, temporary bridges, traffic signals and landscaping.
The project required approximately 130,795 cu. yds. (100,000 cu m) of excavation and embankment construction as well as 1,831 cu. yds. (1,400 cu m) of concrete construction.
Every Possible Service
S&R Corporation is a successful, well-respected Massachusetts company that has completed virtually every kind of construction project the industry requires.
Brothers Steven and Roger Ploof founded S&R Corporation in 1987. The company started as a small demolition business with single and multi-family dwellings as well as small commercial buildings.
During S&R’s early years, Steven and Roger worked full time in the field, operating equipment, driving trucks and laboring in addition to working part time in the office to establish the business.
By the mid-1990s, S&R had grown significantly and had served as prime contractor on many public projects. That growth brought changes in the roles of the company’s two principals. Steven’s full-time focus turned to managing projects and business development. Roger worked full time on managing the company’s resources and executing the projects.
In 1998, the desire to continue steady growth and to diversify manifested itself in S&R’s construction division. The new division’s growth mirrored that of the company’s demolition division and what started with small civil projects quickly expanded to include multi-million-dollar transportation contracts with S&R as the prime contractor.
Headquartered in Lowell, Mass., S&R Corporation is a successful general contractor specializing in demolition, construction and environmental services for clients in both the public and private sectors. The majority of the company’s work is acquired through competitive bids, negotiated contracts and emergency work.
Resources and expertise within S&R have grown significantly since 1987, as has their strong relationships outside the company with specialty subcontractors, engineers and material suppliers. Collectively, these resources extend and reinforce the capabilities of S&R to meet the needs of nearly any project from concept through completion.
Roger Ploof provides management over all of the field and project operations. It is under his leadership that all labor, equipment and material resources are managed. He also works closely with the project operations team, formulating strategies and innovative methods in order to execute some more complicated and challenging endeavors.
Roger oversees a vast breadth of activities and it is his example of careful thought, thorough planning, calculated execution and meticulous attention to detail that has been the guiding force behind S&R’s many successes.
Roger also works with his brother Steven on planning the company’s future growth.
The breadth of the company’s complete services is being employed on the Route 24 bridge project in Taunton/Raynham.
These services include, but are not limited to: Full-service heavy civil and transportation construction experience including bridge projects, site work, roads, highways and marine construction.
“Through some of our more prominent construction projects, S&R has faced the unique challenges associated with working over live roadways, marine traffic and railroad service as well as over canals and rivers,” said Jones. “The bridges in our portfolio have required various types of construction, including heavy pile driving, drilled shafts, cast in place concrete, pre-cast concrete, structural steel and heavy timber.”
Some of S&R’s more unique and noteworthy civil construction achievements include: Tunnel construction, restoration of historic structures and dredging navigable waterways.
As the original focus of S&R Corporation, demolition work continues to hold a prominent place among the company’s specialties. “Through the past 20 years in the demolition industry, we’ve expanded and refined our expertise and dramatically broadened our scope. Today, the company excels at all aspects of demolition projects in a variety of sizes and complexities, including marine work, high-rise buildings and more,” said Jones.
In addition to the demolition of numerous complicated structures including water towers, smoke stacks and bridges, S&R’s knowledgeable team has safely and proficiently provided complete demolition services for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) project sites, industrial plants, and various commercial institutional sites.
“Our onsite services, proactive planning methods and reliance on cutting edge technology invariably contribute to time efficient and cost-effective management of demolition projects throughout New England and beyond,” said Roger Ploof.
In response to increasingly stringent EPA regulations, environmental expertise is now more often an integral component of large-scale construction and demolition projects. S&R Corporation’s environmental team has extensive training and experience for the disposition of all regulated hazardous materials as well as removal of asbestos and lead. “This level of knowledge is necessary to expertly address our clients’ hazardous materials handling and environmental response needs,” added Ploof.
S&R has the ability to self-perform a broad range of environmental services such as asbestos abatement, soil remediation and other hazardous materials handling, while ensuring continuity and superior project management on the job.
“Our commitment to developing innovative options for disposal of hazardous and ACM materials, or the recycling or reuse of a wide spectrum of waste streams, often leads to significant cost and time savings for our clients,” said the company spokesperson.
Today's top stories
