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Salt & Pepper Project

3X Boost in Productivity

By Mike Martin

Salt & Pepper shot

Called the salt and pepper bridge because its towers look like spice shakers, the high-profile project requires some unique de- and reconstruction work. Tower in the background will be carefully dismantled and rebuilt. 

First completed in 1908 and rehabilitated in 1959, the Longfellow Bridge is an architecturally-distinguished structure that stretches about a half mile in length and features steel and granite construction. Joining Cambridge and Boston, the bridge carries cars and trucks, MBTA Red Line rail service, along with pedestrians and bicyclists. It’s also undergoing a $255 million, three-year rehab project that, while it is sure to have Boston drivers and commuters tied up in knots, offers plenty of challenges to contractors as well.

The span is often called the salt-and-pepper bridge because its unique towers look like salt and pepper shakers. And therein lies as least one of the challenges. The 106-year-old towers are being dismantled and must be rebuilt by replacing each stone in its original position, maintaining the design and character of the original tower.

ATS Equipment works with the joint-venture general contracting firm and some of the subcontractors on the project. Generators, light towers, boom lifts and scissors lifts rented from ATS are being used along the expanse of the upstream side of the bridge, while the downstream side continues handling traffic.
Contractors will complete the upstream side first, then move to the downstream side, working through six different phases before the project is complete.

While there’s probably little that can be referred to as “standard” on this project, considering every contractor agreed to work to maintain the bridge’s antique character, dismantling the towers might get listed high on a “how will we do that?” list.

cut stones

Tower stones are photographed, catalogued for their position in the structure, and numbered. The towers ill be rebuilt with each stone in its original place. 

Before starting, drawings were made and each of the 529 granite stones on the 58-foot tower was numbered, level by level. Before a stone is removed, it’s coded with the right number and photographed to show its condition and location. The contractors must cut the old mortar from between each stone, carefully remove it, and write the stone’s number on a surface that won’t be exposed when the tower is reconstructed. Any broken stones will be removed in pieces and the pieces kept together. This is important not just for historical reasons, but because the Rockport granite used in the bridge’s construction is no longer quarried. There are stones available from a bridge that was dismantled a few years ago, but the plan is to rebuild the towers putting each of the original stones back in place.

(If you get a chance, take a look at the website for more details on this project. If you have an interest in preserving unique architecture, and all the effort involved, you’ll enjoy taking a look at some of the project details here: http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/charlesriverbridges/LongfellowBridge.aspx)

Though ATS staff were delivering and picking up rented equipment and tools from the project, the network of customers the company has cultivated provided ATS with some interesting insight. “One of the subcontractors on the bridge was picking up some equipment from us. We were talking about the bridge and how things were working when he told me that the guys taking down the towers were not making the progress they wanted to,” explains John “J.C.” Connolly, Jr. “He thought we should go down there and take a look.”

Digging into the situation, they found that the specialists from United Stone and Site, the contractor dismantling and rebuilding the towers, were averaging two stones removed from the tower every day.

“It’s really a fascinating process,” says Stephen Connolly, referring to the cataloging and tagging efforts, “but taking that much time to remove each stone was costly.”

After visiting the bridge and watching the contractors work, the Connollys thought they might have a better solution. ATS Equipment sells and rents ICS concrete saws. Along with a product specialist from ICS, J.C. visited the bridge with one of their saws.

“The blade on the saw we could offer was five inches longer than the saw they were using. We talked with our customer about why we thought the saw would do a good job of cutting the stone cleanly, and help them cut more stone faster. We demonstrated the saw and decided to let them try it for a day. If it worked out, we’d be replacing the other equipment with ours. If it didn’t work, it wasn’t going to cost them anything to test it,” J.C. explains.

The first day with the new saw, workers cut and removed five stones. “They’re cutting six to eight stones every day now,” J.C. says.

Originally published in the July/August 2014 issue of Pro Contractor Rentals. Copyright 2014 Direct Business Media.

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