When O&G Industries won the bid for the I-91 Charter Oak Bridge Project — which included upgrading a six-mile section of Interstate 91 just outside of Hartford, Connecticut — they used the opportunity to grow their list of construction capabilities. No stranger to thinking outside the box, the company called …

The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) recognizes and celebrates Women in Construction Week (WIC Week) this year from March 3 to 9. In September of 1960, the first WIC Week was proclaimed in honor of NAWIC by Mayor A.F. Madison of Amarillo, Texas. NAWIC leadership officially moved its …

Many elements go into making a neighborhood a place people want to reside in, one element being the presence of green space, often lacking in inner cities. The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) recently completed Piers Park II, adding more green space to the East Boston neighborhood.

New Hampshire Construction Career Days (NHCCD) will be taking place once again on Thursday, September 26th and Friday, September 27th at the Hillsborough County Youth Center in New Boston, New Hampshire. 2023’s event hosted nearly 1,500 students, pushing the total number of students served to over 14,000 since the 2009 …

In November 2021, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure. President Joe Biden’s administration proposed this legislation to rebuild America’s roads, bridges, and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, ensure every American has access to high-speed internet, tackle …

While the economic downturn of 2008-2010 was tough on business as a whole, the attrition rate was particularly hard for the small business sector, which lost an estimated 1.8 million companies nationwide. Those that did manage to survive the Great Recession, did so mostly by cutting costs and staff. J. …

The Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, has recently completed a sewer expansion project in the Strawberry Hill Road section of town. The project, which began in September 2021, was the first significant construction project for the Town’s Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan (CWMP).

The CWMP is a town-wide, state approved, science-based plan …

As the world of snow and ice rapidly moves forward, towns and cities in New England work hard to find the right balance between safety and sustainable winter operations.
The town of Needham, Massachusetts, is no exception.

Assistant Director of Public Works/Operations Shane Mark has been heading up the challenge …

The Town of Litchfield, Maine, recently completed rehabilitating one of its busiest roads using full depth reclamation with injected asphalt emulsion (FDRWE), an in-place recycling method that incorporates existing pavement material as the base for a new roadway-wearing surface.

In general, the Federal Highway Administration regards full depth reclamation (FDR) …

Construction crews are making headway on the first of several major contracts to boost the capacity and safety of the F.E. Everett Turnpike (FEET). Alvin J. Coleman & Son Inc. recently passed the half-way mark on contract 13761D, which was awarded to the Conway, New Hampshire, contractor for a low …

National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) Maine Chapter 276 is excited to share that the second annual Maine Construction Career Days will take place on October 5th at Midcoast Excavation in West Bath, Maine. The event will be open to all public and private high school students accompanied by …

A $62 million design-build project on Interstate 691 in Connecticut aims to address roadway degradation, repair load-restricted bridges, and improve safety with new signage and guiderails.

“The goal of the project is to rehabilitate the highway and bridge structures along I-691 in Southington, Middlefield, Cheshire and Meriden, Connecticut,” says Steve …

Four state department of transportation (DOT) projects in Vermont, Connecticut, and Maine won regional awards in the 2023 America’s Transportation Awards competition, created by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The competition recognizes DOTs for making a difference in …

New Hampshire’s Construction Career Days (NHCCD) will be taking place once again on Thursday, September 28 and Friday, September 29 at the Hillsborough County Youth Center in New Boston, New Hampshire. With over 2,000 New Hampshire high school students already registered, and a waiting list started, it is expected that …

DEVELON announces its selection of top-performing dealers for 2022, with Equipment East LLC taking the top spot among more than 180 authorized DEVELON construction equipment dealers in North America. Equipment East earned recognition for its exceptional performance in sales, parts, and service in the Massachusetts and New Hampshire market.

"We …

Three vital bridges in Maine’s rural western region, having long outlived their 50-year design life, are being replaced under a single contract with Maine DOT.

Richmond, Maine contractor Wyman and Simpson won the bundled bridges contract with a bid of $14.5 million. All of the bridges are structurally deficient. …

The latest treatment to the indus toolkit is Paver-Placed Stabilized Full Depth Reclamation (PPSFDR). This unique and modern version of full depth reclamation allows the company to cater to clients across the full spectrum of the asphalt deterioration curve and provide a full range of support to road managers. Sometimes …

On Lake Champlain in northwest Vermont, a historic and vital drawbridge has been replaced with an all-new, modern structure, thanks to a five-year Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) project. The $74.5 million undertaking, funded with federal Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funds and state funds, included the building of a temporary …

One of New England’s largest wastewater treatment plants is undergoing $33 million in upgrades to help protect the Connecticut River, the region’s longest waterway.

A construction team headed by AECOM is making significant changes to the existing Springfield Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility (SRWTF) that will not only bring the 46-year-old …

Rock solid and dependable, Maine Drilling & Blasting (MD&B) has served the construction industry well for more than 57 years, with its core values, a commitment to safety, and quality work. The company, with corporate headquarters in Gardiner, Maine, has expanded its Foundation Services Group, nearly tripling revenues for this …

The Association of General Contractors (AGC) and Construction Risk Partners recently honored this year’s best new and renovation construction projects with Build America Awards at the AGC Annual Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Build America Merit Awards were also presented to construction companies at the convention.

“These awards are designed …

After many years of community planning, citizens in Hinsdale, New Hampshire and Brattleboro, Vermont will finally get their wish – a new bridge replacement that will cross over the Connecticut River along New Hampshire Route 119.

Reed & Reed, Inc. of Woolwich, Maine, is the general contractor for the $61.2 …

WIC Week, or Women in Construction Week, celebrates and promotes the role of women in the construction industry. Officially, the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) held the first WIC Week in 1998 and it has grown and expanded each year since. Many NAWIC local chapters hold WIC Week …

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has awarded a $158 million Large Bridge Grant to a Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) project that will rehabilitate the northbound structure of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge between New London, and Groton, Connecticut. The grant is part of the …

Snow and ice – that is what winter is all about for most who work in the Department of Public Works in cities and towns across New England.

As time goes by and technology improves, cities and towns have to reinvent themselves to incorporate cutting edge winter operations. The town …

Boston’s third tallest building and the tallest residential tower in all of New England was recently announced as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s (CTBUH) winner in the Best Tall Building 200-299 Meters category. Located above the heart of the Christian Science Plaza, One Dalton is a …

The city of Newton, Massachusetts, a suburban community of 90,000 neighboring Boston, is testing the use of ultra-thin bonded wearing course to help protect its network of roadways.

“As a stand-alone treatment, the bonded wearing course is only 3/4-inch thick, but it’s durable, and it’s more economical than an alternative …

Replacing a disintegrating steel culvert as part of a transportation improvement project in Wilmington, Massachusetts, has presented novel challenges to contractor J. Tropeano Inc.

Headed by Louisa Tropeano-Tanner, President; and her daughter, Dailyn Sullivan, Senior Vice President, the Woman Business Enterprise won the job with a bid of …

Work is well underway on the $27 million Back Cove West storage conduit project set in this scenic, quiet, residential area of Portland, Maine. As work progresses, it is not unusual to hear the sounds or see the sights of a gantry crane hovering over a 70,000-pound precast concrete box. …

With air travel booming, the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) is getting busier by the day as many traveler’s head in the New Hampshire direction to avoid the crowds at Logan Airport in Boston.

Earlier this year, many major airlines increased capacity to and from the 1,500-acre MHT causing a 25 …

AP Services is redesigning a 23,134-square-foot space for Mount Wachusett Community College (MWCC) In Leominster, Massachusetts.

“MWCC has been a tenant here for 15 years. We put in a bid to increase the size from 20,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet,” said Michael Lanney, AP Services President and …

With women representing only 9.9 percent of building industry workers, Suffolk is addressing this gender gap through a partnership with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts (GSEMA). The Rebuild the Ratio initiative seeks to increase the percentage of women employed by Suffolk by 10 percentage points over 10 years by …

Counting down to 100 years, R.H. White has been a century old leader in the construction business. It all started back in 1923, when Ralph H. White founded the R.H. White Construction Company when he saw a need for a service that could install water and sewer piping in Worcester, …

New Hampshire’s Construction Career Days (NHCCD) makes its return on September 22 and 23, at the Hillsborough County Youth Center in New Boston, New Hampshire. It is expected that over 850 high school students will be in attendance per day from throughout the Granite State. In the first 90-minutes after …

Two Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT) projects won regional awards in the 2022 America’s Transportation Awards competition, sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The competition recognizes state DOTs for making a difference in their community, with each …

After a slow January 2022 start, site work on two warehouses in Wilmington, Massachusetts, is well underway.

“This is a complete ground up development of a vacant 28-acre parcel into two warehouse buildings and associated parking,” said Steve Souza, Project Manager for J. Masterson Construction of Danvers, Massachusetts.

The …

It is business as usual for McCarty Companies as a third project on Hartwell Street in West Boylston is well underway. As with many construction companies, COVID-19 presented a slow-down, but to McCarty the pandemic proved to be only a glitch.

“The project was in the planning stages when the …

Maintenance might not be your favorite thing to do, but this minor inconvenience can help you avoid major headaches in the future. Good maintenance practices not only keep the machine running at peak performance, but they also minimize downtime from repairs that come from ignoring key maintenance requirements. Here are …

WINNIPEG, MB — Evolution Wheel is a manufacturer of heavy-duty skid steer tires. The EWRS-HS series solid skid steer tire is the hard surface version of the EWRS-AT series all-terrain tire. The solid EWRS-HS skid steer tire is ideal for surfaces like concrete or asphalt.

Evolution Wheel spends a lot …

It doesn’t matter how much aggregate is produced in a day if it is contaminated or not sized correctly. Though screen media is a minor cost when compared to larger equipment in a quarry or mine, it is a crucial part of any operation’s profit machine. One unexpected break and …

Contractor work crews recently upgraded a major section of bikeway on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, a historic tourist destination located about 30 miles south of Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.

More than 30 miles of asphalt-paved bike paths traverse the 45-square-mile island, serving not only as modes of transportation, but popular …

The global upheaval of the last few years has undoubtedly rocked the construction industry – and stories of labor shortages driven by COVID-19 abound. Add to that an aging workforce further stressed by current conditions, combined with a lack of skilled replacements, and the current struggle makes sense.

But beneath …

The needs of the project owner have always defined the parameters of a construction job, but all signs are pointing to owners playing a bigger role in the use of technology on their projects in the future, especially as we begin to see federal funds put to work on transportation …

While America’s transportation infrastructure continues to be one of the country’s greatest historical accomplishments, as well as the lifeblood of the American economy, the system itself continues to have serious challenges during the last two decades.

This is mainly due to the rise in traffic congestion which has ensnarled hundreds …

Most people in the construction industry will say that on any given work site, there is always an amount of waste that could have been avoided. Whether it be poorly handled materials, re-work, weather damage, or working from out of date documents, there are plenty of ways that humans can …

The Town of Westwood in southeastern Massachusetts recently “calmed” a sizeable portion of its vehicle traffic with a strong dose of polymer cement decorative surfacing.

Located 12 miles southwest of Boston, the community of 15,000 awarded a $2.5 million contract to P.J. Keating for the reconstruction of nearly 4 miles …

As droughts and growing population affect water security around the globe, desalination becomes an increasingly important option. In communities searching for sustainable, long-term solutions, new technology can increase the efficiency of water treatment efforts.

Initially developed in the late 1950s, reverse osmosis (RO) desalination evolved into the leading desalination process. …

Construction of Northeastern University’s new $300 million research building at the Boston campus has reached the halfway mark and is on schedule for a mid-summer 2023 finish by general contractor Suffolk Construction.

The 350,000-square-foot EXP building joins the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex (ISEC), a 234,000-square-foot building also built by …

JM Coull Inc. of Maynard, Massachusetts, has been recognized for its rapid expansion of a COVID-19 test kit manufacturing facility in Holliston, Massachusetts. The company received an Excellence in Construction Award (EIC) at the ABC Massachusetts annual EIC Awards evening, held November 17, 2021. EIC Awards recognize overall excellence in …

Many of the most famous structures of ancient times were constructed from a material we often think of us as modern. The workers who built them needed a material that could be shaped into blocks and other forms more easily than carving from stone. Finally, someone concocted a mixture of …

After several weeks of pandemic-induced delay in 2020 during construction of the new Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Water Treatment Plant, the three partners of the design-build-operate (DBO) contract completed the $57 million facility and had it producing purified water by July 2021.

AECOM, C.H. Nickerson, and SUEZ were selected …

More than $30 million in construction is underway in Ashland, Massachusetts, as contractors overhaul its downtown and reconstruct the section of a state highway that passes through the town. It was learned in a recent interview with local officials Michael Herbert, Town Manager, and Doug Small, Public Works Director, that …

The future is looking bright for the construction industry, with project pipelines full and the promise of infrastructure spending infusing the industry with confidence and optimism. But as we face another year of supply chain issues and crippling workforce shortages, it’s possible that our industry’s biggest challenge could be too …

An historic arched bridge in downtown Peterborough, New Hampshire, is being replaced by contractor Beck & Bellucci Inc. as part of a $6.6 million contract that includes reconstructing a lengthy section of U.S. Route 202.

Built in 1940, the Main Street Bridge replaced a two-span stone arch bridge destroyed by …

The town of West Warwick, located in Kent County in the center of Rhode Island, has launched a major renewal of its road network with a full spectrum of treatments designed to restore pavements to their original conditions. Rhode Island’s youngest town, situated on the western bank of the Pawtuxet …

Three gantry cranes up to 200 feet tall were recently shipped upright on a three month trip from Shanghai to Boston Harbor, where they were destined for Massport’s Conley Container Terminal.

The ship carrying the 22-foot-wide ship-to-shore (STS) cranes arrived at the Port of Boston on June 22, 2021, and …

A busy but failing collector road in a small Connecticut town was given new life recently with the application of a traditional pavement preservation treatment modified with ground tire rubber.

Comer Contracting applied chip seal fortified with crumb rubber modifier (CRM) to Jackson Hill Road, an important thoroughfare passing through …

A 16-acre tract in Wilmington, Massachusetts, is rapidly changing shape as general contractor McCarty Companies develops the entire site and prepares to erect a one-acre pre-engineered metal building on one of its parcels.

The Wilmington project is a clear signal that for McCarty the construction downturn sparked by COVID-19 was …

A massive work trestle is being built to ease reconstruction of the I-89 Bridge over the Connecticut River between New Hampshire and Vermont.

Bow, New Hampshire, contractor R.S. Audley has a $43.8 million contract to reconstruct the bridge, which is actually two identical parallel structures built in 1966 to span …

A monumental free-standing wall is taking shape at a new development in Woburn, rising like a 50-foot sentinel between a natural mountain of rock and brand new housing for the eastern Massachusetts community.

The uniquely engineered concrete guardian is being constructed by Onyx Corporation of Acton, Massachusetts, as part of …

The Town of Arlington, Massachusetts – a community of 42,000 residents located a few miles from Boston – has significantly improved the health of its road network in just six years using pavement preservation techniques, according to Wayne Chouinard, P.E., the Town Engineer.

“By adding pavement preservation techniques such …

Construction crews are in the final stages of a $70 million transportation project in Middlebury, Vermont, that was designed to improve pedestrian and vehicular safety and increase freight train capacity on the state’s essential western railroad corridor.

The massive Middlebury bridge and rail project is being managed by the state’s …

Jewett Construction Co. is managing the challenging transformation of an outdated but spacious Wilmington, Massachusetts, warehouse into a modern storage facility. The Raymond, New Hampshire, general contractor has been working closely with subcontractor J Masterson Construction of Danvers, Massachusetts, to renovate the 411,733-square-foot, single-story masonry building plus mezzanine and the …

Maine contractor, Reed & Reed Inc., recently moved and installed a 4 million-pound replacement for a New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) bridge carrying the White Mountain Highway over the Bearcamp River in Ossipee.

The Woolwich contractor has a $16.9 million contract with NHDOT for Project 14749 to replace …

The $2.3 billion extension of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) Green Line recently passed an important milestone, according to MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak.

While touring the construction site in mid-November 2020, Poftak indicated that more than half of the work necessary to add 4.7 miles to …

Multi phases, limited work space and copious traffic complicate efforts of R.M. Piper Inc. crews as they replace a deteriorating 65-year-old bridge in Conway, New Hampshire.

“This has been one of our more demanding projects,” said John Bousquet, Project Manager and Vice President of the Plymouth, New Hampshire, company. …

The town of Woodstock, nestled in the often-called “Quiet Corner” of northeastern Connecticut, is bustling with construction activity as it undergoes a late summer/fall asphalt pavement program.

More than a half-dozen contractors are sealing, grinding, spraying, paving, and generally changing the look of more than 235,000 square yards of asphalt …

Two of Massachusetts’ oldest towns are employing a new, fundamentally different pavement preservation treatment. Settled around 1640, the historic towns of Lexington and Milton, famous for waging the first battle of the American Revolutionary War, and drawing up the Suffolk Resolves archetype of the Declaration of Independence, respectively, have added …

The construction of a new culvert to help alleviate chronic flooding in downtown Meriden, Connecticut, involves the installation of twin large-diameter pipe only a few feet beneath live Amtrak railroad tracks.

Empire Paving Inc. (EPI) of North Haven, Connecticut, has a $2.9 million contract with the City to build the …

One of Vermont’s oldest bridges is being replaced after comprehensive engineering studies concluded it could not be repaired and brought up to today’s standards. Built in 1928 during the presidential term of Vermont-native Calvin Coolidge, the historic structure carries VT 12 over Gilead Brook in Bethel. The contractor, A.L. St. …

New Hampshire’s largest electric utility is upgrading two aging facilities in Nashua as part of a 10-year, $1 billion investment to improve the state’s electric distribution system.

Eversource Energy’s latest projects in the Granite State’s second largest city (population 90,000) involve renovating the company’s Work Center on Amherst Street, (AWC), …

One of New England’s oldest building construction companies recently completed a brand new headquarters in Billerica, Massachusetts, for one of the region’s largest earthmoving companies. Beverly, Massachusetts-based Connolly Brothers, a family-owned general contractor established in 1880, designed and built the 60,000-square-foot state-of-the art facility for W. L. French, …