ECI – Engineers Construction

trestle

These are all the posts that mention “trestle”

ECI Safety Focus of the Week: Incident Response

Our newly revised Safety Program Manual contains a section on Incident Response:

Safety Program Summary part 4

ECI Releases New “Safety Program Manual”

ECI recently released a new version of its Corporate Safety Manual.  Unlike past versions focused on safety compliance, this new version is appropriately named the “ECI Safety Program Manual” to reflect ECI’s view of creating a safe workplace through a holistic approach that focuses on leadership and corporate culture.

As summarized by Kenneth Pidgeon, PE, president of ECI:

“ECI strives to maintain a corporate culture of safe work practices to protect our workers, the public, and the environment.” 

The highlights of the Safety Program Manual include:

  • Leadership
  • Technical training
  • Professional behavior
  • Project planning
  • Risk Assessment
  • Standardized safety practices
  • Strong communication, documentation, and attention to details.

 

Please check out our document:      ECI – Safety Program Manual V2.0

 

 

ECI Presents at ACEC-VTrans Transportation Technical Workshop

ECI’s Ken Pidgeon, PE  gave a technical presentation entitled “Use of the Design-Build Process to Develop an Alternative Technical Concept” at the 2017 ACEC-VTrans Transportation Technical Workshop held on the snowy blizzard day of March 15th in Waterbury, VT.
The presentation highlighted the VTrans design-build Ryegate Culvert project recently completed by ECI.   The $15.248M project involved a new 2-segment alignment of a 32-ft-span “culvert” to convey the waters of the Manchester Brook to the Connecticut River in East Ryegate, VT.  Construction involved excavations of up to 70 feet deep through the Washington County Railroad (WACR) and US Route 5 highway embankments with temporary pre-engineered bridges to maintain traffic on these important transportation arteries.  ECI proposed the Alternative Technical Concept (ATC) involving the 2-segment alignment rather than the single structure provided in the Base Technical Concept (BTC).  This was the first ATC approved and constructed on a VTrans Design-Build Project.  The ATC  shows the technical and innovative capability of ECI to provide a quality and cost effective solution to challenging projects.
The ACEC is the American Council of Engineering Companies which is a trade organization representing consulting engineers.  About 70 engineers and VTrans officials attended the day-long workshop held at the tail end of the blizzard.  The event was held at the ZenBarn  in Waterbury Center.  The presentation qualified for NY professional development credits for the engineers in attendence.

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.