News
These are all the posts that mention “News”
ECI Acquires Ditch Witch 4020 All Terrain Drill
ECI recently acquired a Ditch Witch 4020 All Terrain. The 4020 AT is a dual drill pipe system that allows efficient drilling in rock conditions and difficult soil conditions. The inner drill pipe drives a rock bit at up to 250 rpms and 2,000 ft-lb of torque while the outer drill pipe achieves up to 5,000 ft-lb of torque. The 4020 AT has a pull back force capability of 40,000 lb.
We currently have the 4020 working on a waterline project where it is drilling 6.5-inch-dia pilot holes ranging up to 800 feet long. We are supplementing the 4020 with our Ditch Witch JT100 for the backreaming and pullback operations.
The 4020 AT provides ECI with complete and competitive HDD capability in all types of soil conditions. ECI has variety of trenchless capabilities and equipment with a full line of directional drills ranging from our Ditch Witch 920 up to the JT100, pneumatic piercing and hammers ranging up to 24 inches, and auger/jacking boring rigs up to 42 inches.
ECI Completes 2,700-ft-long Horizontal Directional Bore
ECI overcame several technical difficulties to complete this bore, including:
- Steering in the very loose sands which consisted of geologically recent river delta deposits. This problem was particularly difficult when trying to drill out of the lake bottom where the sediments were particularly soft.
- Torsional flexibility of the drill rods at that great length. Over to two rotation of the rods before the head moved!
- Handling of the long and very flexible 4-inch-dia HDPE pipe on the water with wind and current drift.
- Connecting the pull head to drill pipe underwater – using subcontracted scuba divers.
This is the longest bore ever attempted/completed by ECI. Our previous longest bore was 2,550 linear feet on the CSX Railway in Worcester, Massachusetts with three 2-inch-diameter innerduct conduits.
kap
ECI Acquires a Mobile Volumetric Concrete Mixer
ECI recently purchased a Zimmerman volumetric mixer. The 10-cy portable concrete batch plant is now servicing our projects with ready-mix concrete product. We have dialed in several mix designs at a variety of strengths and additives. We can also produce flow fill and grout.
A significant advantage with a volumetric mixer is that the concrete ingredients (cement, water, sand, stone, and additives) are stored on the truck and are mixed only as needed at the time the concrete is needed. Therefore:
- The work can occur on any day at any time without a batch plant.
- The concrete will not “time out” from an extensive travel time or wait time on site. The concrete is batched fresh as it is needed.
- The concrete is mixed as needed so that shortages and overages are eliminated.
100-yr-old East Alburgh Swing Span Bridge Automated by ECI
Boaters as well as the railroad will experience benefits from the project.
The East Alburgh Swing Span is a 100-year-old movable swing span bridge which was upgraded and automated by Engineers Construction, Inc. of Williston, VT. The swing span is part of the East Alburgh Trestle, a 3,800-ft-long wood railroad trestle on Lake Champlain in northwestern, Vermont. The trestle is owned by the New England Central Railroad, a division of RailAmerica, and serves as a critical link between the Canadian National Railroad and the NECR. The swing span allows commercial, recreational, coast guard, and border patrol boats to pass through the trestle on their way to and from Missisquoi Bay.
Prior to automation, the bridge tender would be dispatched to manually open the swing span with a hand crank. The swing span automation involves the controls and mechanical equipment so that the railroad dispatcher can open and close the swing span remotely from St. Albans, Vermont. The approximately 3-minute opening process requires the automated release of the miter rails, retraction of the support wedges, and rotation of the 102-ft-long steel thru-girder bridge. The closing process is just the opposite. The automation is a complex system of navigation warning lights, horns, marine vessel messages, video cameras, timers, relay switches, limit switches, actuating motors, turning motors, braking mechanisms, alignment devices, verification sensors, submarine cables, backup power with automatic transfer switches, and other components. Boaters should be aware that the bridge will swing soon after the alarms sound and that all boats should stay clear.
During the navigation season (May 15 to October 15) the swing span will remain open for navigation (aligned with the navigation channel). The swing span will close (align with tracks) for train traffic and will return to the open position after a train passes. Outside of the navigation season, the swing span will remain aligned with the tracks and will be opened on an on-needed basis for boat traffic, as indicated on the electronic LED message sign.
The swing span automation was part of a $6M public/private partnership to upgrade the 100-year old trestle. The project funding included $4,853,568 from the Federal Railroad Administration and $1,139,178 from the New England Central Railroad.
ECI Becomes Dealer for Ideal Foundation Systems
ECI is pleased to announce that it recently became a dealer for the Ideal Foundation Systems, a manufacturer of helical piers and anchors. ECI has already installed nearly 900 similar helical pier units as part of our on-going solar tracker installation projects over the past 3 years. This new business arrangement provides ECI access to the Ideal product line and the larger helical pier and anchor market throughout the northeast.
Helical piers and anchors are special fabricated steel products that are screwed into the ground to achieve vertical and lateral capacity. Sometimes grout is added to the process to provide additional skin friction in the soil. Helical anchors have been used in the utility industry for several decades to anchor guy wires for utility poles and towers. More recently, the helical piers have become a widely accepted deep foundation system suitable for nearly any type of structure. The low mobilization and installation costs for helical piers has made it economical for small and light-duty applications such as for home construction, solar racking, underpinning, and pedestrian bridges. Additionally, the potential for large capacity (up to 400 tons) makes helical piers an appropriate deep foundation for any structure where traditional driven or drilled piles are being considered.
For more information on helical piles please visit Ideal’s website: http://idealfoundationsystems.com/ or call ECI at 802-863-6389.
Some additional details are also available on our Helical Foundations webpage: https://www.engineersconstruction.com/services/helical-foundations/
Brattleboro Reformer Article on ECI’s Turtle Crossing Project
Check out the Brattleboro Reformer article and their YouTube video on the Turtle Crossing Project. ECI is constructing 15 openings below the New England Central Railroad tracks in Vernon, VT to allow the endangered spotted turtles to safely cross the tracks along their nesting area.
Link to Reformer Article:
ECI Wins AGC-VT Best Builder Award
Engineers Construction, Inc. won the 2011 AGC-VT Best Builder Award for the Irene Emergency Repairs to the Green Mountain Railway Bridge #114 in Chester, Vermont.
The project involved restoring railway service to the storm-damaged 112-ft-long thru-truss bridge over the Williams River. The Irene flooding had severely scoured around the abutments causing them to fail. This left the 248,000 lb bridge precariously listing with 3 of the 4 bearings unsupported. The only thing keeping the bridge from toppling into the river was the restraint from the jointed rail. ECI put the bridge back into service on September 14th, just 13 days after mobilizing to the project.
ECI is Recognized at Solar Farm Ceremony
The Vermont National Guard Renewable Energy Project was unveiled in a ceremony at the South Burlington Air Base on Saturday October 1. The event was attended by VIP Guests Senator Bernie Sanders, Adjunct General Michael Dubie, Base Commander Douglas Fick, and Ken Pidgeon of Engineers Construction, Inc.
The project involved a design/build solar farm that currently generates 1.6 mega watts (MW) of electricity with a future capacity of 2.2 MW. More details and photos of the project are included in the following link:
The ceremony was also attended by various local media:
ECI Repairs GMRR Bridge #114 in Chester, VT
ECI was hired to stabilize and repair this 113-year-old bridge over the Williams River in Chester, VT. The flood caused by tropical storm Irene left the 112-ft-long through truss on Green Mountain Railway listing about 25° and barely stable. When we arrived to assess the situation on the Tuesday following the storm, only two bearings (of four) were in contact with the ground and the east side of the bridge had dropped several feet. Fortunately, the superstructure had sustained no damage, except for the bearings. ECI’s scope of work was to first stabilize the bridge, secondly to repair the bridge to make it temporarily passable to train traffic within three weeks (with a goal of compressing the schedule to just 2 weeks), and thirdly to construct new permanent abutments for the bridge after train traffic was established on the temporary repairs.
ECI mobilized on Thursday September 1 (four days after Irene). The first couple of days was used to access the site, build a staging area, and construct crane pads. By Labor Day weekend, the bridge was again vertical and shored up to allow for us to rebuild the abutments. Over the next week, ECI stabilized the west abutment with concrete and shotcrete, built a new pile-supported bearing pedestal for the south east bearing, rebuilt the backwall and extended the west abutment, moved the bridge to its new temporary support, rebuilt the approaches, and installed new track. The first train crossed the bridge on at 1:30 pm on Wednesday September 14, only 13 days after ECI was hired to make the repair. The remaining task is to rebuild all new abutments.
Check out the slideshow: GMRR Bridge 114
ECI Absorbs Trenchless Technologies of NE
Effective on Monday August 29th, Trenchless Technologies of New England was formally absorbed into Engineers Construction.
ECI and Trenchless Technologies have worked together over the years on the variety of projects. Tom Loyer and his recently deceased brother Mike have been close friends of the company, and of many ECI employees from even further back.
The unfortunate passing of Mike left Tom with a strong desire to reach out to ECI and we were eager to accept Tom and his guys into our company. Tom is one of the leading steel casing contractors in New England and deserves his excellent reputation in the industry. Tom also brings with him the following employees:
- Tim Clark
- Mike Loyer (son of Mike)
Also worthy of mention, is that the Wilson Brothers (Randy & Hoss) of Integrity Welding are very close friends of the old Trenchless.