News
News
ECI’s Safety Director, Stu King Retires
Stu King has retired from ECI after 20 years of service as our Safety Director. Stu’s effort has enabled ECI to become Vermont’s leading heavy civil contractor with extensive capabilities on complex projects. Stu has helped keep our workers safe against hazards such as traffic, deep excavations, live electrical substations, and various other conditions on heavy civil projects.
Stu expects to return to some part-time duty as a safety officer next construction season. In the meantime, he plans to enjoy his retirement with his wife Sheryl in Florida. We also expect to see Stu later this winter as he enjoys snowmobiling with this friends.
Stu is replaced by Matt Orszulak, ECI’s safety officer since 2010. Matt is a 2005 graduate of Safety Studies from Keene State College.
ECI Presents Technical Paper at AREMA in Chicago
ECI co-authored a case history paper entitled “East Alburgh Swing Span Automation: Modernizing a 100-year-old Movable Bridge.” The ECI authors included Ken Pidgeon, Ben MacKinney, and Gene Trombly. Our co-author was Mr. Bill Rhiel of the Genesee & Wyoming. The paper was presented by Ken Pidgeon at the 2014 Annual Conference of the American Railway Engineers and Maintenance-of-Way Association in Chicago. The paper is also published in the AREMA conference proceedings.
The East Alburgh swing span is located on the New England Central Railroad as it crosses over the waters of Lake Champlain. The case history paper presents ECI’s effort on this challenging and successful project.
ECI Interviewed by Addison Independent on Lake Champlain Natural Gas Pipeline Crossing
The proposed Phase II of the VGS Transmission Line Expansion will include a 4,000 linear foot crossing under Lake Champlain to serve the International Paper plant in Ticonderoga, NY. The pipeline will be installed by horizontal directional drilling methods. Ken Pidgeon (ECI), Jeff Nelson (consulting firm VHB), and Steve Wark (Vermont Gas spokesperson) were recently interviewed by Mr. John Flowers of the Addison County Independent.
The “Addy Indy” provided a very detailed explanation of the HDD process in the article:
http://www.addisonindependent.com/201409vermont-gas-defends-underwater-drilling-process
ECI Awarded VTrans Ryegate SPT CULV(10) Design-Build Contract
ECI is pleased to announce that it is the first Vermont Contractor to be awarded a VTrans Design-Build contract for the replacement of an existing culvert under the Route 5 and Washington County Railroad (WACR) embankments in East Ryegate, Vermont. We are teamed with Dubois & King (civil/structural/permitting engineer), EIV Technical Services (environmental), Boscardin Consulting (geotech), FRP Enterprises (public relations), and Greenman & Pederson (quality assurance manager). The design-build project is quite different than a traditional design-bid-build from the way its bid to the way the project is managed.
The culvert will replace an under-capacity failing culvert that conveys the water of the Mancheser Brook just prior to discharging into the Connecticut River. The work will involve deep excavations through Route 5 and WACR embankments, temporary bridges for the railroad and the highway, a new 32-ft-wide clear span concrete arch culvert with an open bottom, channel improvements, and restoration. The new structure will effectively be two separate arch culverts, one under each embankment, with an open section between.
This intensive 2-year project will involve a variety of ECI crews performing railroad, sheetpile installation, tiebacks, horizontal directional drilling, excavation, concrete, bridge, and paving construction.
ECI Completes HDD Rock Bore under Kennebec River
ECI recently completed an 850-ft-long pipeline crossing below the Kennebec River between Madison and Anson, Maine using horizontal directional drilling (HDD). The pipeline consists of a 12-inch-dia HDPE butt-fused pipe for the municipal water department. Over 700 feet of the bore was through bedrock. ECI used its Ditch Witch JT100 to drill the pilot hole using a DTH air hammer and ream out the hole in stages with roller-cone reamers and a Mincom DTH backreamer hammer.
ECI Nominated into Semi-Finalist for the ESGR Freedom Award
ECI is proud to announce that we have been selected as a semi-finalist for the Secretary of Defense Freedom Award from the ESGR (Employer Support of the Guard & Reserves). This nomination to the national Freedom Award is an advancement from the Vermont Patriotic Employer Award presented to ECI earlier this year.
The link below is to the press release on the ESGR website.
http://www.freedomaward.mil/TemplateDetailsView.aspx?TemplateID=5241&ModuleID=7
ECI Installs Solar Panels at Woodchuck Cider Brewery
ECI recently completed the installation of 26 solar trackers for All Earth Renewables and their customer, Woodchuck Hard Cider Company. Each tracker has a rated output of 5,640 watts. The Trackers are more efficient than fixed arrays because they “track” the sun across the sky to achieve the most direct sunlight for the optimum energy production.
ECI’s scope of work included installation of the helical foundations, installation of underground conduits, assembly of tracker framing, and installation of PV panels. ECI also supplies the helical foundations which were manufactured by Ideal Foundation Systems of Webster, NY.
The following Woodchuck Blog contains a detailed description of their project along with photos of construction and the completed work.
http://www.woodchuck.com/blog/new-woodchuck-orchard-harvests-the-sun/