Cavaliere Industries, one of the most respected smaller contracting firms in Connecticut, has entered into two separate agreements to mill the towns around them over the next several years.
“We have two separate jobs. One as a subcontractor for general contractor All County Co. paving and sealing work, we will mill for permanent road repairs, and [to] supply the paver and paving crew for the larger repairs in Orange and Rockland [N.Y.] Counties,” said Lou Cavaliere, who runs his company with his brother, D.J. Cavaliere.
“The second project is directly for Rockland County Public Works,” added his brother, D.J. “It is a three-year contract in which we will supply milling services throughout the county on their own roads. The contract is an estimated 600,000 square yards.”
The Rockland, N.Y., County contract was through a public bidding process. The company already has begun road paving and sealing work to complete 2012.
“The All County work has had us in the towns of Tuxedo, Sloatsburg, Port Jervis [N.Y.], Middletown and Nyack,” said Lou Cavaliere. “In Rockland County, we will only supply milling services,” added his brother.
This All County sub milling and paving contract consists of trench and excavation repairs to asphalt roads throughout the county where new utilities were installed or pipe failures were repaired.
“There was a variety of equipment used during this process and it depended on the actual size and depth of the trench or patch. For the smaller work, we utilized a Wirtgen W500 milling machine for small patches or road crossings,” said D.J. Cavaliere. “On any areas that were larger, we used our Wirtgen W1000 milling machine that would occasionally mill up to eight inches in depth.
“The deeper mills required a three-lift process to install the new HMA as per the specs,” he added. “On the larger mill projects we used our Wirtgen W2100 mill with an 87-inch drum and our crews also were installing HMA directly behind the mill crew via the LeeBoy 8816 asphalt paver. There was approximately 10 miles of repairs performed with an average depth of three inches.”
A portion of this work also was performed in Port Jervis, N.Y., which borders the Pennsylvania line. In addition to the milling and paving, the specs also called for sweeping (Bobcat skid steer), tack coat (LeeBoy tack wagon) and hot joint crack sealing.
All finish roller work was performed by All County crews including the joint sealing, traffic control and trucking of materials. Cavaliere Industries and All County, under owner Robert “Chip” Chipperino, both contributed to the project.
During the paving season, the work is ongoing, the brothers added. “We expect to continue next season for All County,” said Lou Cavaliere.
Before that, Cavaliere must clear the snow off the roads they will eventually, patch, seal and pave. Like many smaller contractors (under 25 employees), the company has ongoing snow plowing contracts with neighboring municipalities, utilities and company lots.
“Cavaliere has been awarded the snow plowing for a local utility company facility for the next four years,” added Lou Cavaliere. “We also do [one] private electric generation plant snow plowing and maintenance.”
Primary Excavation
But the company will be doing much more than just clearing the white stuff for utility companies in another large county
“Cavaliere has been awarded a two-year contract with a utility company as their primary excavation contractor. We will cover three towns in Fairfield County [Conn.];Stamford, Greenwich and Darien,” added Lou Cavaliere.
The company’s second contract, milling for Rockland County, N.Y., was awarded in late September 2012 and had an original start date of Oct. 30. But Super Storm Sandy hit and has pushed the start of this project to spring of 2013.
“Here we will be providing a full milling service for the county. With milling, clean-up, traffic control, sweeping and trucking with disposal. We will be using a six-to-eight person crew, plus another six-to-10 trucks, depending on dump locations,” said D.J. Cavaliere. “Some of the work will be performed at night as well. In addition to the milling for Rockland County directly, many of the towns and hamlets ’piggyback’ off the county contract and we will provide the same service for these municipalities within the county.”
The work is ongoing and Cavaliere crews — headquartered at 226 Selleck St. — are constantly ready, especially during the kinds of storms that buried New York and Connecticut just after Christmas.
“The work is 24-hour, on-call, seven days a week,” said Lou. “Whatever is necessary for the service work, we will do. We have a two-man crew [ready], with additional men and crews if needed.”
Cavaliere performs all of their operations, projects and services themselves. The milling and paving work is led by D.J. Cavaliere.
“James Townsend will be the lead foreman for our milling work and has vast experience in paving as well,” said D.J. Cavaliere. “There is usually a six-man crew for milling work, and also paving. In addition to our forces, we also could have about six-to-10 trucking sub-contractors on any given day. With the milling work, we also hire an outside sweeping contractor.”
In its second new contract, utility work will be tackled by Lou Cavaliere, along with workers Buddy Frank, and the next generation of Cavalieres, sons Justin and Joseph. Utility crews begin with three men, growing to multiple crews of three to four men, to satisfy demands.
The Stamford-based Cavaliere Industries carries many special permits, including city and/or state road encroachment permits. Safety is critically handled and maintained. The company even exceeds federal standards in some cases.
“We ensure that our employees have an OSHA 10 card. We also have some personnel who have taken the Hazwoper24. We need to follow the standard regulations that are required by law, but we strive to have higher in-house standards,” added D.J. Cavaliere.
Six Decades, Three Generations
Cavaliere Industries has been a family invention for more than 57 years. Started in 1955 by Dominic Cavaliere Sr. and his brother and brother-in-law, the company just saw its third generation come on board to continue the tradition.
“The third [generation], Joseph, just finished at the University of Massachusetts and began employment full time in December 2012,” said Lou Cavaliere.
D.J., Lou, their children and their 17 employees are ably assisted by office manager/bookkeeping Maria Carlucci, and Lisa Melfi, who runs their parts department and logistics for heavy equipment moves and repair.
With complete heavy iron excavation, contracting, milling, paving road and site services too numerous to name, Cavaliere maintains a fleet of equipment to get to and master any highway challenge.
“Our three bay repair garage is run by Bill Ackerson and Anthony Rende. Bill has been with the company for 20-plus years and Anthony has been with us for more than five years,” said Lou Cavaliere. “They keep the fleet maintained and work-ready. They also fabricate our custom truck bodies for our specialty work.”
Part of that “specialty” work is to improve the neighborhood. Cavaliere Industries gives back very locally to support surrounding enterprises.
“We are involved with the Waterside Coalition, which is the neighborhood community group. Our office and yard is in a mixed-use zone of heavy industrial to single-family homes,” added Lou Cavaliere. “We attend meetings to try to improve the community and supply support for specialty-themed meetings, like small business loans or grants, real estate meetings, etc., to see what future projects might look into developing in the Waterside Area or what is available for sale or rent.”
For more information, visit www.cavaliereindustries.com.
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