www.hamil.com | HAMILTON HERALD 1April 2013

The

HamiltonHerald 04.2013

Hamilton crews are prov-ing excellent productiv-ity can go hand in hand with a rigorous safety program. As the Willamette River Bridge (WRB) project enters its final summer of major construction, productivity levels are at an all-time high and the project just surpassed 100,000 work hours with no injuries.

WRB Construction Manager Con O’Connor has nothing but praise for the team that is putting out its best effort at WRB. “I think the best part is the mix of experi-ence and young enthusiasm. We have 25 new hires – 15 of them

Hamilton’s I-5 Willamette River Bridge crew has completed more than 100,000 hours of work without a single injury. In celebration, Hamil-ton recently donated $10,000 to Northwest Youth Corps (NYC). As Con O’Connor explained, “Hamilton employees decided several years ago that when we

achievement. We are pleased our employees are going home safe every night and also pleased to help Northwest Youth Corps do the same with its students.”

Said NYC Executive Direc-tor Jeff Parker, “This event is a great example of two commu-nity partners collaborating to promote best practice in work-place safety as well as advancing positive youth development in the Northwest.”

from apprenticeship. They’re en-thusiastic. They have buy-in to the mission and are enthusiastic to learn from the more experienced

members of the team. Altogether there is a lot of excitement about making things happens,” Con explained.

reach a safety benchmark, giv-ing back to the community is an important way to celebrate the

Pictured here at the event are (from left) Brad Sullivan and Con O’Connor, Hamilton; Tanner Graham a senior at the NYC Outdoor High School and NYC Executive Director Jeff Parker.

The Hamilton contribution was awarded during a lunch celebration for the WRB crew at the newly renovated Northwest Youth Corps Center for Conservation Education in March.

Safety and Productivity:WRB Crew Proves You Can Have It All

Worker Safety Supports Youth Development

Above and Beyond for Safety!Tino Gutierrez, Eliseo Guerrero and Kyle Fritz are among the WRB crew members recently presented with the prestigious Hamilton Hammie Award for showing extra initiative in safety. Other WRB Hammie Award winners were Jack Young and Donnie Fradd.

Hamilton Nails Jobs in Alaska and Colorado

Riley Creek Bridge – located at the gateway to Denali National Park and also Alaska’s first CM/GC project (Construction Manager/General Contractor), replacement of the Riley Creek Bridge was recently awarded to Hamilton where we are already working with the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to plan for construction scheduled to begin in 2014.

In Colorado, Hamilton was awarded it’s first (of many!) jobs with a bridge replacement project over Ford Street on SH58 in Golden, CO (about 20 miles west of Denver). The new bridge is a 225’ long three span precast girder bridge using precast deck panels and stainless steel deck rebar. End bents are driven H-Pile with 60” drilled caissons (shafts) on the interior bents. Other notable work includes five MSE retaining walls, including one that is essentially a Design-Build by the contractor. Due to traffic restrictions, the work is broken up into stages where we will build the bridge and associated roadwork ½ at a time. Work will start later this Spring and wrap up in the Spring of 2014.

HAMILTON PEOPLE

HAMILTON HERALD | www.hamil.com2 April 2013

After more than 20 years in the cab, Hamilton Opera-tor John Kurz says he can rec-ognize who’s going to do well operating a crane. “They’ve got to have the right mentality; the ability to pay attention to their job and not be distracted,” he says is the most important trait. “You also need to have some math skills and an apprecia-tion for the responsibility of the job.” And John should know because he, along with Bob Klein, another 20+ year op-erator at Hamilton, has helped to identify and train all of the 17 operators now working at Hamilton—he’s also turned thumbs down on hundreds of others. “It’s true, I’ve worked with everyone here, “John says, “but truth of the matter is I’ve learned as much from them as I’ve taught them.”

Bob Klein, now working at Hamilton’s I-205 Airport Way job and a crane operator since 1982 says the thing he enjoys most about the job is the trust factor that builds up over time between the operator and the rest of the crew. As you watch the men systematically working the booms at each of Hamil-ton’s jobs sites, you begin to understand why trust is so criti-cal: the crane work is done on the basis of feel, experience, and the guidance of a rigger on the ground radioing or hand signaling directions to a “pick” the operator can’t even see half the time.

Kenny Lange, an operator at the I-84 Sandy River Bridge, repeats a message that all the operators keep at top of mind, “You have to be good at what

you do because people can die if you’re not!”

It’s a huge responsibility the operators take very seriously – as does Hamilton. In addition to national crane certification, Hamilton also requires a second and more rigorous Hamilton certification. And that takes the story back to John Kurz. “You can get a national certification card without ever putting your butt in the seat of a crane,” he marvels, “at Hamilton we make sure they actually have hands-on experience.”

FOCUS on HAMILTON OPERATORSHamilton’s Operators: They Gotta Be Good!

The “Gurus” — John Kurz (left) and Bob Klein have helped select and train Hamilton’s 17 operators. Bob’s most challenging job? The pile work at the Port of Vancouver job just recently completed. “Booms were meant to go straight up and down – not sideways,“ he said, explaining what made driving the 100 truckloads of piles so complicated. John Kurz’ favorite job? “Klamath Falls! I spent two years out on a barge where it was just me, a BBQ and a Blue Room. That was perfect.”

Kasey Lebechuck — Kasey came to Hamilton in 2006. He grew up in Roseburg where he first experi-enced working around big equip-ment at Roseburg Lumber Co. The Willamette River seems to keep drawing Kasey back – for ten+ years he worked a crane barge on a Wil-lamette River dredging operation, spent time at Portland Shipyard and then to Hamilton where he re-cently helped to finish up the Port of Vancouver job. His favorite and most challenging Hamilton project has been Pioneer Mountain.

40,000 Hours of Experience — (left to right) Ken Lange, Pat Sharp and Shawn Bunch now working at the I-84 Sandy River Bridge have logged in an impressive total of 40,000 operator hours between them. All agree the work at Sandy last year involving two-crane picks of plate girder weighing in at over 128,000 lbs. was some of the most demanding and technical they’ve experienced.

WRB Operator PersonalsHere’s a few things you might not know!Todd Burnette — was a medic in the Navy. Two years ago he took time off to build a sea wall for the Iraqi Navy.Denver Hylemon — this father of two boys used to be a bull rider – but quit rodeoing about 10 years ago.Sheldon Gilliam — says his favorite job was the Gold Beach Bridge. Most important trait of a good operator? Sheldon says it’s someone who can stay “calm and collected”.Dan Marcum — spent six months working in Alaska and loved it!

Todd

Denver

Sheldon

Dan

www.hamil.com | HAMILTON HERALD 3April 2013

It’s that time of year—the flowers are blooming, the days are getting warmer, and Hamilton is mobilizing its considerable work-force and resources to begin the 2013 work season. In addition to the planned completion of the WRB northbound structure and the I-84 Sandy River westbound bridge this summer, Hamilton will begin work on three new projects:

• I-205 Airport Way – this project adds a right-turn lane from Westbound Airport Way to Northbound I-205 in Portland. Work involves extending an existing post-tensioned box girder bridge over Airport Way, constructing several new retaining walls, building new sign structures and the installation of 3,300 ft. of CIP wall facing. Work continues into fall of 2014.

• Westmoreland Fish Passage Phase II – This is the second phase of a bridge replacement

and extensive stream and environmental restoration project in Southeast Portland’s Westmoreland Park. The focus of this project managed by the US Army Corp of Engineers is the restoration of Crystal Springs Creek from its existing condition as a series of stagnant ponds, back to a free flow-ing natural channel

• UPRR Harrisburg Truss – Removal and replacement of an existing 900 ft. steel truss across the Willamette River near Harrisburg.

In addition to this new work, the final punch list items are marking the wrap up of work at several other projects: the Port of Vancouver West Vancouver Freight Access project, the Seward Highway Bridges in Alaska; and the guard rail and cathodic protection work at Mc-Cullough Bridge in North Bend where we’ve been working for almost six years.

Hamilton Mobilizing for Construction Season

Dave Weiland . . . . . . . . . .40Brad Sullivan . . . . . . . . . .35Scott Williams . . . . . . . . . .34Dave Place. . . . . . . . . . . .33Wendy Cobarrubia . . . . . . .27Dave Weddle . . . . . . . . . .22Bob Orem . . . . . . . . . . . .20Jaime Amaral . . . . . . . . . .19Randy Burg . . . . . . . . . . .19Ron Woods . . . . . . . . . . .18Bryan Cloe. . . . . . . . . . . .18Wendell Snook . . . . . . . . .18Jeff Firth . . . . . . . . . . . . .18Eric Hill. . . . . . . . . . . . . .17Neal Spoon . . . . . . . . . . .15Frank Alvis . . . . . . . . . . . .14Con O’Connor . . . . . . . . . .14Bob Hirte . . . . . . . . . . . .13Kathleen Smith . . . . . . . . .13Robert Walker. . . . . . . . . .13Bruce Ellingsen . . . . . . . . .11Shawn Bunch . . . . . . . . . .11Chris VanderPloeg . . . . . . .11Phil Cross . . . . . . . . . . . .10Cleve Clark. . . . . . . . . . . .10Rich Dugan . . . . . . . . . . . 9Mike Fisk . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Fort Flores . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Doug Ginter . . . . . . . . . . . 9Mike Sheeley . . . . . . . . . . 9Joe Hampton . . . . . . . . . . 8Pete Sundberg . . . . . . . . . 8Dennis Campbell . . . . . . . . 8Greg Kent . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Donald Fradd . . . . . . . . . . 8Stacey Fradd . . . . . . . . . . 8Ben Moen . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Brian Allison. . . . . . . . . . . 7Pete Flockoi . . . . . . . . . . . 7Aaron Standeford . . . . . . . . 7Brandon Young . . . . . . . . . 7Andres Juarez . . . . . . . . . . 6Steve Brown. . . . . . . . . . . 6Rich Carden . . . . . . . . . . . 6Terry Jorgensen . . . . . . . . . 6Steve Vaughn . . . . . . . . . . 6Levi Niemann . . . . . . . . . . 6Darryl Klippenstein . . . . . . . 6Colin Quinn . . . . . . . . . . . 6Claude White . . . . . . . . . . 5Pat Sharp . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Randy Reynolds . . . . . . . . . 4Aaron Leone. . . . . . . . . . . 4Steve Luke . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Traci Mayham . . . . . . . . . . 4Pat Prescott . . . . . . . . . . . 4Miles Wendlandt . . . . . . . . 4John Szymik . . . . . . . . . . . 4Jeff Putnam . . . . . . . . . . . 3Bryan Copley . . . . . . . . . . 3Kody Fritz . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Kyle Fritz . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Veril Humbert . . . . . . . . . . 3Ron Mcallister. . . . . . . . . . 3Dan Marcum . . . . . . . . . . 3Juan Cervantes . . . . . . . . . 3Carl Anderson . . . . . . . . . . 3Denver Hylemon . . . . . . . . 2Craig Almont . . . . . . . . . . 2Reid Highberger. . . . . . . . . 2Linda Scronce-Johnson . . . . . 1Mike Moen . . . . . . . . . . . 1Bobby Parker . . . . . . . . . . 1Ron Bennett . . . . . . . . . . . 1Pat McLauchlin . . . . . . . . . 1Dave Halstead. . . . . . . . . . 1Ron Roth. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Michael Daniel . . . . . . . . . 1Jason Willard . . . . . . . . . . 1Jeff Fierro . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Kurt Klages . . . . . . . . . . . 1Michell Mendes. . . . . . . . . 1Tim Murphy . . . . . . . . . . . 1Dave Shaver . . . . . . . . . . . 1Jaime Uribe . . . . . . . . . . . 1Mark Sitz . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Angela Willis . . . . . . . . . . 1Donya Hetterscheid. . . . . . . 1

Oct/Nov/Dec Anniversaries

Hey, haven’t I seen that bridge somewhere before? Those of you with kids studying for their Oregon driver’s license in 2013 may recognize the bridge on the front cover of the Oregon DMV Driver’s Manual: It is none other than the Mill Creek Bridge which Hamilton crews renovated last year. The historic bridge crosses the North Fork of the Rogue River in Southern Oregon outside of Prospect, Oregon – one of the most beautiful and dangerous stretches of white water to be found in the country.

See It. Say It. Fix It. Remember!

North Bend Mayor Says Thanks to Hamilton!“On behalf of the City of North Bend, I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the staff at Hamilton Construction Company for the participation in our downtown streetscape project.

The recently completed City of North Bend Streetscape project was afforded an impressive historic touch with the addition of a number pieces of the old McCullough Bridge made available to the City by the Hamilton Construction Company. It goes without saying that without your company’s assistance the streetscape project would have been just another sidewalk replacement…”

Sincerely, Rick Wetherell, Mayor City of North Bend

Fab Shop Builds BoatsThis new boat which was just completed by the fab shop is 8’ wide x 18’ long with a 110 HP Yamaha Engine. Boat is presently at the Yaquina jobsite. Dave Weiland says the crew hopes to make a second

boat. “We need to make a few modifications but the boat rides and handles really well,” Weiland said.

Hamilton Admin Moving to CoburgDave Weiland and John Benham can remember when Hamilton administrative offices moved to the current location at Springfield from Eugene back in the mid 1970’s. Says John Benham, HCo started out with three phone lines and Harry Hamilton picking up mail from the main Eugene post office every morning on his way to work. After more than 35 years, Hamilton has outgrown the space that was affectionately dubbed the “Green Dome”. This summer, admin staff will be moving to the former Pape Group offices located at the Coburg exit off of I-5. The new offices will allow better communication among staff that is now spread out among a cluster of job trailers. The fab and yard crews will move into the main Springfield office and the job trailers will be removed.

BRIEFS

PARTNER’S MESSAGE

2213 S “F” StreetP.O. Box 659Springfield, OR 97477

Inside This Issue:

Safety and Productivity 1, 3Hamilton Operators 2Briefs 3Partner’s Message 4

Reflecting on 2012 has brought many highlights to mind. First and foremost: we built bridges in three different states other than Oregon this year—Alaska, Idaho and Utah. The transition from working mostly in Oregon for the last decade has been successful due to the diligence of our workforce to grow, not shrink, this company and move forward into these dif-ferent areas.

Second highlight is our rail di-vision which actually developed six of the 12 projects we were awarded in 2012—50% of the projects—remarkable. There is a great future in rail.

Third, is Bridge Access Spe-cialties completing its first profitable year along with pur-chasing the third truck. This is because of their performance and owners wanting us to come

back and perform more work. Congratulations to this team who actually worked on the other side of the Mississippi River this year and in more states than I can list.

Fourth is American Con-crete Cutting moving into the Portland, OR market, not that we haven’t been there before, but now we are focused with an office, tools and a truck based in Portland.

Fifth has to do with safety, we have made great strides in 2012. Our field crews were challenged more than ever this year to change the safety culture in which they work every day and they have performed exceptionally.

2013 is proving to be an ex-ceptional year. We recently picked up the largest rail job in our history for Union Pacific Railroad in Harrisburg, OR and it appears there is more signifi-

cant rail work coming up for bid in Oregon and other states.

As I am writing this, the notice came from our estimators that we were successful on a bid in Colorado, our first. Congratu-lations to the estimating team. There are many other projects they are looking at to continue our flow of work there.

We now have two new projects in Alaska which means the 2014 backlog has started and there are other projects the estimating team is looking at to continue this flow.

Plus the market in Oregon is picking up, there is more to bid today than we’ve seen in a long time.

On the safety side we are now midway through our seventh month in our safety year with two injuries. Although two inju-ries are two too many, this is a

first for our company and every-one has agreed the goal of zero for the rest of the year is attain-able, an exceptional year so far.

There are many exciting things happening at Hamilton Construction, more than I can write about. It is great to see this team work together and achieve whatever it sets out to do; I can’t say this enough.

Let’s have a great safe year.

Brad Sullivan