Imagine houses, trees, sidewalks, fractured clay, sticky clay and glacial till. Add to that the challenge of keeping a road lane open while boring a 48 in. (122 cm) pipe underneath. These and many other challenges are what Kandey Company Inc. out of West Seneca, N.Y. is facing while completing the first of the multiphase Parker-Fries Project.
The Parker-Fries Project is a major construction project in Tonawanda, New York. The project started in the summer of 2010 and will continue over the next 18 to 24 months. It will replace more than 11,000 ft. (3,353 m) of aging and deteriorating sanitary sewer system line. The old sewer line has been a source of contention between the town of Tonawanda and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, due in part to the unfortunate instances in which the overflow has entered the storm water system, eventually ending up in nearby waterways.
The Kandey Company was awarded the $26.4 million dollar Parker-Fries Project in June 2010. Originally, the project was going to be done with an H-pile system, but the concern over the width required by that style of shoring had Kandey Company searching for alternatives. The project was designed to be in the street while keeping one lane open, but Kandey did not want to deal with the added expense of open cutting and replacing a double lane street.
“I was on another slide rail job for Kandey and I was talking about the utility panel guide [UPG] system,” said Leo Shaw, western New York northern Pennsylvania representative of Mabey Bridge and Shore, a trench shoring and shielding distributor of Pro-Tec Equipment.
“That foreman mentioned that Bill Duncan [foreman of the Parker-Fries Project] was looking for a system through which to run utilities. I drove straight to the job trailer and explained the Pro-Tec Equipment Slide Rail System and the UPG’s to him.”
The Pro-Tec Equipment utility panel guide system is part of the slide rail shoring system, which is a modular, dig and push shoring system. The Pro-Tec slide rail shoring system is installed from the top down and removed from the bottom up, minimizing the size of excavations, soil disturbances, and restoration time and cost. The installation is done with low vibration, providing soil support for excavations, adjacent structures and existing utilities. The UPG allows those existing utilities to enter and exit the excavation site and also provide a means for boring operations to take place in a safe and shored excavation.
At Pro-Tec Equipment Joshua Thorne, slide rail manager, and the C.A.D.D. department quickly created a design that met the needs of Kandey and Mabey Bridge.
“My initial thoughts were to try and pursue a high clearance arch system,” recalled Thorne, “but after talking with Leo, and flying out to the site, I knew that the UPG system was the system that could get the project done.”
“The biggest concern that I had,” remarked Bill Duncan, “was with the active lines being where they were. Doing this job with H-pile would have been difficult, with the extra width that would have been needed.”
“Installing the [slide rail] system took some time to get used to,” said Bobby Walter, site support of Kandey Company, “but after talking with the site consultant that Pro-Tec Equipment sent out, things went together nicely.”
The Slide Rail System that Mabey Bridge and Shore is providing Kandey Company consists of a bore pit that measures 12.5 ft. wide by 46 ft. long by 24 ft. to 28 ft. (3.8 by 14 by 7.3 to 8.5 m) in depth, which is to be installed and removed six separate times, and a receiving pit that measures 16 ft. wide by 16 ft. long by 24 ft. to 28 ft. (4.8 by 4.8 by 7.3 to 8.5 m) in depth, which is to be installed and removed two separate times.
Shaw added, “Without the great partnership between Mabey Bridge and Pro-Tec Equipment, a large job like this doesn’t happen. It is a pleasure knowing that Pro-Tec Equipment is there when we need them.”
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