The CWMP is a town-wide, state approved, science-based plan to protect Barnstable's coastal waters, ponds, and drinking water by managing nutrient pollution from wastewater. CWMP’s in general are documents that provide community guidance while addressing wastewater challenges. CWMP’s are often town-wide plans that identify water resource and water quality issues, suggest well thought-out and efficient solutions to those issues, translates those solutions into the projects and recommends ways to fund and schedule those projects.
CC Construction – a family business based in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with a satellite office in South Dennis, Massachusetts – leads the $11.7 million contract.
“This is our 40th year in business,” said Vice President Brian Cooney. “We currently have 65 employees and cover the entire eastern side of Massachusetts. We specialize in the utility construction market for drainage, sewer, and water projects for cities and towns. We also do private and public development sitework projects to include assisted living facilities, healthcare, schools, public safety facilities, and commercial apartment buildings. We currently own over 150 pieces of heavy equipment.”
“Over the past 10 years, changes have been made in septic system design requirements, but it’s not making a big enough impact on groundwater contamination,” Cooney said. “This is the reason we constantly have closed beaches and ponds on the cape during the summer months. This project was the first in the Town of Barnstable’s 30-year plan to eliminate residential septic systems and provide its residents with sewer infrastructure. The improvement for residents and generations to come is far greater than the new road surface.”
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Once underway, the Barnstable Department of Public Works planned to build a gravity sewage collection system in the Craigville Beach Road, Strawberry Hill Road, Wequaquet Lane, Phinney’s Lane, and West Main Street area. Included in the project, was a sewage pump station on Strawberry Hill Road, sewage force mains on Craigville Beach Road and Strawberry Hill Road to Pine Street, and a Hyannis Water Company water main on Phinney’s Lane.
During the same construction timeline, Vineyard Wind – an offshore wind farm under construction in U.S. Federal Waters just south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket – was onsite installing a duct bank and associated utility relocations in the same area as part of their offshore wind energy project.
Part of the project description was for CC Construction to install their respective systems prior to the installation of the proposed Vineyard Wind electric duct bank and vaults within these roadways. Vineyard Wind would also be constructing new drainage and water improvements within the projected route. One challenge of the project according to Cooney, was for CC Construction to coordinate activities as to not conflict with the Vineyard Wind related construction.
“We had very complicated logistics planning,” Cooney said. “Multiple meetings per week confirming coordination and sequence were key to our success.”
“Dewatering is a constant challenge because each excavation presents different challenges,” Cooney said. “Due to the sandy nature of the soil when water is encountered it makes the trench/excavation area very unstable. It’s absolutely critical that the dewatering system we use maintains a safe excavation for our work. We used a well point dewatering system, which is a vacuum system running 24 hours per day. We installed the system and monitored the system ourselves during construction. The system consisted of over 200, 2-inch diameter plastic well points, two vacuum pumps, and a jet pump to install the well points. The well points were installed 22 feet deep. We can install around 30 to 40 well points per day.”
Cooney said the sewer expansion system project included approximately 5 miles or 22,000 linear feet of gravity and forcemain sewer pipe, ranging from 4-inches to 18-inches in diameter pipe sizes. Underground gravity and force main sewer installation included a 12-foot diameter pump station.
The depth of excavation had a range of 8 feet to 24 feet. On-site tri-axle trucking was handled by both CC Construction and subcontractor GFM Enterprises, Inc.
“Any time you are excavating close to 20 feet or greater in depth it’s a challenge,” Cooney said. “We use our brand-new Komatsu PC 650 Excavator and trench box systems to achieve these depths.”
Cooney said no ledge was encountered during the project, but the crushing and recycling of asphalt and other on-site materials did occur.
“The roadway was crushed and re-used as gravel base under the future roadway,” said Cooney. “We used a jaw and cone crusher at an off-site location to produce reclaimed pavement borrow gravel.”
During the project, other commonly used machines included the Komatsu PC 490 Excavator, Caterpillar 335F Excavator, and the Komatsu PC 390 Excavator.
As the project progressed, traffic management was handled by CC Construction but paid for by the town.
“Daily coordination and making sure you have all officers needed is key to being able to work in the road each day,” Cooney said.
Upon the completion of both projects, Vineyard Wind committed to resurfacing the disturbed roadways within the project area.
The job was completed in May 2023.
