Looking Back at an Air Force Base Runway Expansion in the 1950s

George M. Brewster & Son Inc. of Bogota, N.J., held a $16.7 million contract to build an 11,000 ft. (3,353 m) long runway at the Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, N.Y. The project contained 8 million cu. yds. (6 million cu m) of excavation handled by three BV loader spreads and fourteen scrapers. The earthmoving operations were undertaken 20 hrs. a day, 6 days a week. At peak production Brewster's men and equipment moved 50,000 cu. yds. (38, 227 cu m) of dirt a day during 1957.