Expressway construction workers moving massive amounts of dirt
Almost every night as area residents are nestled in their homes, a crew of several hundred fire up light stands and gas up their excavation machines to begin working through the night. Nearly every morning, when most residents are busy getting their children off to school or heading off to work, hundreds of construction workers already are hunkered down, working in what is the dream of many young boys: a giant, muddy sandbox.
Cutting though the heart of Fayette County like a giant cornfield furrow, the Mon-Fayette Expressway link from Brownsville to Uniontown is beginning to take shape as crews continue to reshape the land to make way for the long-awaited toll road.
Richard McElhaney, safety manager for TCMS-Maguire, oversees safety on the project.
“It is a huge project but it is a fun job,” McElhaney said.
TCMS-Maguire is a joint venture of Trumbull Corp. based in West Mifflin and Maguire Group Inc. based in Massachusetts.
The 9.2-mile section of the road is divided into five separate projects that each are contracted to a different company.
On any given day, between 400 and 500 construction workers plow and dig and blast the road extension into place, working to form the next phase of the expressway.
The link is expected to be completed in late 2008, according to McElhaney, and will cost an estimated $183 million to finish.
As his pickup rolled through the snow and bounded over the jagged, frozen mud recently, McElhaney’s cell phone beeped.
McElhaney flipped open the phone and quickly discussed a proposal for some aspect of the project, promising to shoot the person on the line an e-mail before the day was through.
At his office in North Union Township, McElhaney and about two-dozen construction experts have the project mapped on the walls, with graphs and charts hung on racks like a military war room.
“We try to stay on top of everything,” McElhaney said, noting he and six other safety specialists work to oversee safety for the entire leg of the highway.
About one mile into the project from the Uniontown side, a man bundled against blowing snow stood in a lean-to and directed traffic, most of it massive Caterpillar equipment lumbering on the makeshift dirt roads that snake through the expansive construction site like varicose veins.
Above him, a tattered sign reading “Merry Christmas” still was visible in the whiteout.
The equipment – more than 125 pieces of the biggest construction machinery in the world – appeared to plod around the project like modern-day dinosaurs, with the booms of the backhoes whipping dirt and the dump trucks cresting hills.
The largest trucks on the site are 777 Caterpillars, with a hauling capacity of more than 100 tons – more than five times the hauling capacity of a tri-axle – and powered by more than 1,000 horsepower in a V-12 engine.
While dozens of backhoes are used to move dirt for the project, the entire construction site is anchored by two 5130 Caterpillars, capable of scooping more than 20 tons in a single bucket.
Chuck Melvin, 60, of Graysville said he operated a backhoe first at the age of 12 and never has looked back.
Maneuvering the massive 5130 Cat, Melvin talked about the simple reality of the job he has worked at for more than four decades.
“I guess I just like moving dirt,” Melvin said laughing, as the glass room perched high on the machine, a room he spends each day encased in, swiveled to the right. “But I am just about done. I am ready to retire.”
Elsewhere on the project, dozens of green trucks smeared in grease rattled around the massive machines, stopping every so often and examining the equipment.
McElhaney said each contractor has its own fleet of mechanics and men roving the site, troubleshooting and fueling the equipment.
The mottos of the contractors are “No long hauls” and “Get it done,” according to McElhaney, who said the shorter the distance to move the earth, the faster a project can take shape.
Another aspect of the project is blasting away stubborn rock formations and stony areas too difficult for the machines to break or move.
Workers drill about 100 holes about 10 feet apart in the area to be blasted and then run a line filled with gunpowder into each hole. Crews then load the holes with “anfo,” a mixture of fertilizer and diesel fuel, before covering them over with gravel. The gunpowder line is then run about 700 feet away and a triggerman uses an ignition switch to initiate the blast.
Seismographs are set up at the nearest homes to register the amount of movement caused by the explosion.
The effect of the explosion is fast and far-reaching, with the ground that had been packed solid less than one second before waffling and swelling from the internal explosion.
In the center of the furrow cleared for the highway, McElhaney maneuvered his pickup around a brick house, the front porch leading into the dirt.
He said the home was taken by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission for the project but has been left standing to be used as an office space for the crews.
McElhaney said concrete batch plants would be constructed at the site once substantial concrete pours are needed to build the bridges and sections of highway.
A single contractor working on the project can move 25,000 tons of dirt in a 24-hour period, McElhaney said.
Wayne Fitzwater of Deep Creek, Md., who was driving one of the massive 777 dump trucks, said he has been moving dirt for most of his adult life and now is the envy of his young son.
“I tell my friends it is the best job in the world because every day I get to drive off road and play in the mud,” Fitzwater said.
He said most of the workers on the site live close enough to commute to the job, working four, 10-hour days.
And while McElhaney and the other workers said they are focused on getting the extension completed, nearly all had a wry smile when talking about their job and the daily routine of playing in the mud.
“This is just like playing in the back yard, only on a much bigger scale,” site inspector Phil Giordano said over the clatter of a passing D-8 Caterpillar earthmover. “Every day, it changes and you always have something new to do.”