A Bucyrus-Erie 38-B shovel loads a Euclid belly dump on the Broadalbin job on Aug. 8, 1948.

Arute Brothers Inc. of New Britain, Conn. used a Bucyrus-Erie 54-B shovel to load rocky excavations into a fleet of Euclid FD-91 15 ton rear dump trucks. The highway construction took place between Broadalbin and East Galway, N.Y., on May 20, 1948. Jack Arute and his brother Frank incorporated Arute Bros. in 1927 after operating a trucking firm for approximately 10 years.

The 1947-1948 U.S. Route 20 project was, at the time, the largest ever undertaken by Arute Bros. The 12.69 mi. (20.42 km) long reconstruction and relocation project was awarded for $2,655,000. The project contained 1.3 million cu. yds. (993,921 cu m) of excavation. Arute used Bucyrus-Erie 54-B, 51-B, 48-B, 38-B and 20-B shovels along with a 1.5 cu. yd. (1.14 cu m) Osgood shovel. The shovels loaded fleets of Mack 10 wheelers and Euclid belly dumps. Eight Cat D8s with LeTourneau pull-pans handled some of the earthwork.

The contractor set what was believed to be a one day concrete paving record on June 1, 1948, by placing a total of 5,779 lin. ft. (1,761 m) of 8 in. (20 cm) thick 12 ft. (3.6 m) wide pavement. Arute averaged between 5,200 to 5,800 ft. (1,585 to 1,768 m) each day on the four lane divided highway.

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