Inside This IssueMessage from the CEO ......................................... 2The Ray Kroc Pool ................................................ 2Wyanett Bridge ...................................................... 3Route 2 Gets Civil Touch of Excellence ............. 4, 5Why Plan? ............................................................. 5Home Field Advantage .......................................... 6I-39 Bridge Rehab ................................................. 7Mechanical Achieves National Designation ........... 8Pe

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011 Success Stories - I-74 Twin Bridges

Civil has a long history of managing complex projects with tight schedules in difficult weather conditions. One of the most recent examples is the I-74 twin bridges over the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities, being performed by the Civil Structures Moline Group. This project involved removing and re-pouring the outside 3ft curbs and deck on the Bettendorf bound spans of the 3000 ft. plus structure. The project also involved over 6000 ft. of new bridge railings, patching and joint work, extensive work and painting at the plaza area, work inside the twin towers that support the suspension cables, various structural steel modifications under the bridge deck, and patching on the concrete piers over the water.

Due to the high traffic volume of this bridge (80,000+ vehicles per day) the project involved 4 stages of lane closures with specified calendar day durations for each stage totaling 119 days. The contract calls for penalty/incentive of $50,000 per calendar day. Under this contract, there are no excuses or extensions. While Civil has performed these high pressure projects in the past, this was the highest penalty/incentive we have ever seen in our history.

After being low bidder in January of 2011, the project team headed by Eric Loomis-Project Manager, and Terry Watts-General Supt., went to work scheduling and planning each phase of the work to insure they maximized every hour of the workday beat the schedule. It was apparent that we would have to work 2 shifts of 10-12 hours at 6 days per week minimum to beat the contract schedule. Detailed planning was done over the next two months to insure all materials, tools, equipment, and access to the work would be in place to accomplish this daunting task. Planning safety into the work was critical given the combination of crews, long hours, high traffic volumes, and working 80ft above the river.

When the project began in April, the team had a solid plan in place to maximize production with enough flexibility for

adapting to the unexpected. Foremen Barry Nelson and Curt Rumler led the demolition crews to remove and replace the deck. Foremen Nick Roe and Josh Wing led the carpenter crews forming and embedding metals for pouring back the deck. Foremen Don Goodrich, Greg Hoppe, and Kevin Hoppe led the ironworker crews to install the reinforcing, couplers, bridge railings, and structural repairs. John Russell, our Moline quality control tech, was on site to test concrete and do the QC functions. The 50 plus employees on the crews endured 100 degree days in June and July, as well as rain and winds, while not missing any days in order to get the job done. Because of everyone’s hard work, perseverance, planning, and sheer determination, they were able to complete every phase of the work significantly ahead of schedule. The Iowa Dept. of Transportation was extremely amazed and pleased with Civil’s performance for minimizing disruptions on this busy river crossing. In addition, Civil received very favorable press on the TV stations and local newspapers.

Thank you to everyone involved, and their families, for all the hard work and sacrifice for a job well done.

Thank you to all employees that donated two hours of pay to the united Way and it’s member agencies in September. employees donated $36,164 and the Helm group matched this amount for a total donation of $72,328.

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Wyanett Bridgeby Mike Chivario

Our 2010 and 2011 Bridge Project in Bureau County consisted of some unique tasks our crews had to overcome. These included working over a live railroad, canal and creek, moving a truss bridge a mile down the road, driving 7400 feet of piling, and placing 55,000 cy of embankment all within a short time span. The project team was led by Alan Tynan-Carpenter foreman, John Eversoll-Ironworker foreman, Jeff Paul-Laborer foreman, Doug Neely-Crane Operator and Mike Chiavario-Project Manager. The local unions involved were Ironworkers 444 and 111, Operators 150 and 649, Laborers 309 and 393 Cement Finishers 11 and Carpenters 166 and 195.

This 5.9 million dollar project consisted of building two box culvert extensions, removing a 400’ 6-span and a 110’ 3-span precast deck slab bridge, jacking and transporting a115’- 160,000 pound truss bridge a mile down the road, building a new 366’ 3-span plate girder bridge and two massive abutments for the relocation of the truss bridge along with subs placing 55,000 cy of borrow, new asphalt pavement, guardrail and painting of girders and the truss bridge.

The truss relocation was headed by John Eversoll. It consisted of building shoring towers up from our barges, which were placed in the canal below. These towers were approximately 25 feet tall. On top of the towers we ran an array of steel members and a track in which the bridge was slowly rolled from across the canal to a resting point 150’North. Using dual-axle dollies and our lowboy, we rolled the bridge around the corner and began the repairs on it. Utilizing this same set-up, we then moved the truss to its new location about a mile down the road and placed it on temporary piling bents next to the new proposed abutments. Currently we are building the abutments for this bridge. In November the truss will be picked up and set on its

new abutments and the deck will be poured.

Once the truss was moved out of the way, our crews had 3 months to finish removing the structure and build the new bridge along with the dirt work and roadway. The new bridge has 2 piers and 2 abutments along with 3700’ of shell pile, 5 runs of 66” and 44” plate girders, 366’ of bridge deck and two approach slabs. Our crews performed all this work in 2.5 months.

In September we opened the CH8 bridge and began working where the truss bridge is to be relocated. We removed an existing 3-span precast pre-stressed deck slab bridge and are currently building the abutments. Each abutment has 42 hp14x89 pile and 181 cy of concrete. We anticipate opening this structure in mid-December.

I would like to extend my appreciation to all employees for their dedication to the success of this project as well as their attention to safety.

Above: Three span bridge in progress.

Above: Historical Truss Bridge is being transported to its new home.

Mechanical’s Latest Pool - The Ray Kroc Poolby Brian Statdfield

McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was the benefactor for the Salvation Army’s new aquatic center on the South side of Chicago. Project Manager Brian Statdfield and Foremen Ron Stuckwisch and Grady Alderman are completing the pools for Mechanical.

The most difficult work won’t be seen by the public. Underground, there are over 20,000 feet of PVC piping running between the pools and the m e c h a n i c a l room. In the m e c h a n i c a l

room, there is a state-of-the-art chemical control system, a UV disinfecting system, pumps, filters, and boilers.

The competition pool, leisure pool, and spa combine for a total of 320,000 gallons. On the pool deck, there will be waterslides, play features, and an overhead water curtain which will spray water on the swimmers. Ceramic tile will be placed throughout

the pool and deck surfaces. Mechanical is subcontracting out the concrete, excavation, and tile work.

The key to this successful project has been using a small crew that has pool experience. Unlike some other recent pools, this pool was not laid out in CAD. All of the underground pipe was field routed; but this could only be done with an experienced crew that understood the system. Coming out of the mechanical room, it is typical to have 30 pipe of various sizes and there is a real potential of crossing lines. Ron and Grady made sure each line was routed properly from beginning to end and maintained the owners schedule with their small crew.

Message from the CEOI want to offer congratulations to everyone that has worked hard to improve our safety performance the past few years. As many of you know, the construction industry measures safety costs by our Experience Modification Rating (EMR). An EMR of 1.0 is average and anything below 1.0 is better than average. I am proud to announce that this year our EMR is at 0.60, which is our best mark in the last seven years. Many private customers will not allow bidders to have an EMR of 1.0 or above and to be at 0.60 is outstanding. In addition to the Helm Group’s low EMR, our Lost Workday Incident Rate is at its lowest point in the last ten years.

I attribute our improving safety record to a changing attitude I see on projects. Even as recently as a few years ago, the attitude was, “Don’t get caught cutting corners with safety.” Now, we are moving toward a culture of “Plan and execute your work so that nobody gets hurt.” It is no coincidence that our safest projects

are our most profitable. Our top project managers and foremen have the best safety records because they know how to plan their work. When a good plan is created for each task and the crew understands the work method, schedule, and productivity goals, we work more safely. Similarly, when a project has accidents, it is usually an indication that there was no production plan for the task. If we don’t have the correct production tools, material, and equipment, we often don’t have the proper safety tools and equipment. If we don’t have daily safety huddles, we often don’t have daily production goal-setting. The change we have made the last few years is that more and more projects are planning for productivity and including safe work methods in their plans.

Thank you to everyone that continues to strive for zero accidents in our work.

Brian Helm, Helm Group CEO

2 Fall 2011

Above: Completed three span bridge carries traffic over the Hennepin Canal and the adjacent rail line.

Above: Kroc Pool in progressLeft: Underground piping coming into mechanical room

by John Schneider

As the July 30, 2010 IDOT letting results were published, there was an overwhelming joy that spread fast among the Civil Structures estimating staff because they knew they had just landed a major part of a $29 million dollar project as a joint venture partner with William Charles Construction Company in IDOT’s District 2. The project involved the full reconstruction of IL 2 (Byron to Oregon). This has been a long-awaited project for many and has gone through many environmental hurdles given the limited right-of-way and the close proximity to the Rock River. This scenic drive along the river was soon to see some much need improvements to safety in the form of wider lanes and shoulders, realigned roadway and vast amounts of new guardrail to protect the motorist. One item that played an integral part in making the widening feasible was the construction of 4 large retaining walls on the west side of the road as steep river bluffs were excavated back to account for the wider roadway. Civil Constructors would eventually execute the portion of the contract that involved the construction of four precast concrete soldier pile walls totaling more than 45,000 sf at a total cost of six million dollars and a 7’ x 12’ x 106’ cast in place box culvert.

As the project team from Civil began planning for this project, it became very clear that there were a lot of challenges that had to be overcome and it would take some creativity from everyone involved to make it happen. The project was scheduled to begin in April of 2011 and finish in December of 2012. As the lead partner, William Charles began immediately pushing for this project to be completed in one year instead of two. Civil then was tasked with meeting this objective plus finishing earlier than everyone else to accommodate the paving operations. With almost 370 drilled and 134 driven H- Soldier Pile to install, and almost 2500 precast wall

panels to set, it was unknown whether this schedule could be met. After studying the plans it became evident that if we could reduce the number of panels we could speed up the panel setting process along with reducing the amount of trucks that would need to be scheduled and unloaded. Through collaboration with our supplier Wieser Concrete Products in Portage, WI, we were able to increase the height measurements of the precast wall panels without disrupting the form liner pattern and therefore reduce the panel count by 68%. This meant the field crews would touch 1700 less panels. Another challenge that stood at the forefront of the project planning phase was how to deal with the temporary soil retention needed to protect the crews on the ground from the falling rock of the large back-slope adjacent to the wall construction. The steep back-slopes were up to 50 feet in height and consisted of very weathered rock. The only feasible method of slope protection for this situation was a rock fall protection system similar to what is used on mountain paths where falling rock is prevalent. We used a double twisted wire mesh fabric that was hung from the tree trunks at the top of the slope and draped down and anchored at the bottom. This system proved successful in catching many falling rocks that could have easily injured any of the crew members. Arik Toepfer, Jacob Cobb, Leigh Geddes, Terry Boomgarden, and Randall Boyer were instrumental in the installation of a majority of this system.

The process of determining the best method of pile installation and bracing began with Russ & Mike Thruman designing and fabricating multiple templates constructed out of wide flange beams and square steel tubing that would accommodate many different pile spacing and pile sizes weighing as much as 6,000 pounds each. These templates would prove to be the magic tool for the entire operation enabling the crews to place the soldier pile quickly on line, maintain the proper spacing and orientation, as well as the correct elevation through clamping the pile off to these templates. The tolerance of the pile placement was critical and in some cases was less than ½” in any direction so the precast panels would fit between the piling. To make things even more complex, three of the four walls were built on a curve to follow the roadway geometry.

Another complicated part of the soldier pile installation was the concrete placement around each pile below the local water table. The answer to this challenge was a 14 meter boom Mitsubishi truck-mounted concrete pump truck. The monthly rental and daily use of this pump truck allowed us to pump the drilled shaft concrete under water around each pile minimizing movement of each pile during the pour. This pump truck was small enough that it didn’t hinder jobsite access and was easy to clean out on a daily basis. We pumped over 1900 cy of concrete through this pump over the course of 5 months. Not having any trained operators on concrete pump trucks, we needed someone to step up and accept the challenge. (continued on next page)

Scenic Rte 2 Gets a Civil Touch of Excellence

Why Plan?by Shawn Meier

There are thousands of articles, books, and manuals extolling the virtues of planning in the business world, but why does it seem that every plan is prone to multiple changes and inevitable failure? The answer lies in what happens after the plan is created.

Imagine joining me on a nice flight from O’Hare Airport to Aruba for a week-long vacation. As we are sitting in a plane full of passengers we watch the pilot pull up to the plane in a car, get out and immediately walk up the stairs and into the cabin where he starts up the engines. He then announces over the PA system that it looks like we are headed to Aruba and he thinks that it is somewhere South and East, but he is not sure how long it will take to arrive as this is his first time flying out of the country in a plane this big. Do you think he has a good plan, is he prepared to safely fly us to our destination? Do you think we have a good probability for success?

When we plan for Safety we give our plans names like: Job Hazard Analysis, Pre-Task Planning, Task Hazard Analysis, and Pre-Job Checklists. All too often the plan is created because someone needs to check off an item on a form to verify that a plan was created, and that is where the plan dies. You have probably heard the statement “Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail”. But what do we do next after the plan is created?

A Safety Plan is as only as good as the individuals executing the plan. It is important that everyone knows the details of the plan and what the goals of the company are; this is called the

Briefing. Every member of the crew needs to know what their individual responsibilities are to execute the plan. They need to have the training, materials, and tools to execute their portion of the plan. They need to understand that their lives depend on the flawless execution of the plan. Individuals rarely act alone and are invariably part of a team. A team requires leadership, direction, support and the resources to succeed. The goal of any Safety Plan is to achieve the results that are desired, but if the individuals who are tasked with executing the plan do not believe in the plan or have the tools and resources to flawlessly execute it, the plan will fail.

The challenge in completing a project with zero incidents is to make sure that everything and everyone is working together. The value of planning is to give everyone on the team the same goals and individual execution responsibilities. During the Briefing phase you will be able to make sure that everyone is on the same page, and has the same plan. The Brief is a rehearsal of the project, so that during the Execution phase everyone has already had a chance to build it safely in their mind. During the Execution phase everyone should have been well prepared to work the plan. Your leadership is used to guide the individuals along the lines of the plan, and to make sure that they have the resources available for flawless execution. When the project is complete, the Debriefing is used to analyze the success of the plan, and to create best practices that can be used on future planning. Don’t let the Safety Plan just sit in a drawer after it is written. Brief it, Execute it and Debrief it for success.

4 5Fall 2011

Above: Completed retaining wall along IL Rt 2 just south of Byron, IL

Clay Stringer, Mike Bacon, Gene Woodley and Becky Near all learned how to run this machine very well and significantly contributed to the overall production.

After all the dust settled and we looked back at the more than 3400 lineal feet of retaining wall that was built in four different locations, it was obvious that it was built by a company that believes not only in the commitment to the project schedule, but providing a good quality product for the owner. We not only beat the original schedule by one year, we also finished under budget. As special thanks goes out to Russ Thruman, Tim Powers, Gary Hillary, Robert Gayle, Jeff Johnson, Gene Wood-ley, Mike Bacon, Steve Tipton, Dewey Endress, Craig Pacey, Jason Downs and Curt Ihrig for their endless daily commitment to this project. When we first started it seemed like it would never end but thanks to your strong fortitude, you kept going even when the conditions became difficult. I would like to thank all the rest of the people that worked on this project for their hard work and dedication to safety.

Above: Civil crew pouring concrete in drilled shafts for Wall E soldier piling.

by Craig Williams

The old Freeport High School Football field had become an issue for our athletic departments. Existing drainage tiles were plugged and in need of repair, the irrigation system was not dependable, and the surface was very uneven. Those conditions actually led to Freeport canceling a Sectional Soccer tournament in 2009.

The community and school district rallied and Operation Home Field Advantage was born. The best solution to fix the deteriorating conditions on the existing field was to replace the grass field with an all weather playing surface. A product was chosen called Field Turf. It is used on many pro and college football fields, such as the NY Giants, Indianapolis Colts, Michigan Wolverines, and Northwestern Wildcats.

The school district awarded the project to Civil in March, but due to continuing athletic events on both the field and surrounding track, the project could not be started until the end of May and needed to be complete and ready for play by August 5th. This was the challenge that faced managers Todd Curry, Craig Williams and Curt Nelson.

The first step was to excavate the field to a very flat grade. The idea is not to have water run off a Field Turf field, but to maximize absorption within the field. Once excavated, we installed an extensive drainage system under the field to pipe the rain water away from the playing surface. Over 3,600 LF of 1” x 12” flat panel drain was placed that feeds into a perimeter collection line and carries the water offsite to the City storm sewer system.

The drainage system was then covered with a free-draining rock which was crushed in Conmat’s Dwyer quarry. Approximately 3,400 TN was trucked in and placed over the drainage system. Great care was taken during this operation to avoid displacing

or damaging the drain lines. This stone base was then graded to tight tolerances to produce a true and level surface. Once the machine-placed stone was completed, small deficiencies were then corrected by hand placement.

A concrete curb level with the running track surface was installed around the perimeter of the field prior to placing the aggregate material. This curb served as an anchor point for the turf installers to stretch and pin the new playing surface to.

The Field Turf subcontractor began installing and pinning the fabric during the 3rd week of July and took approximately 2 weeks from start to finish. The project was turned over to the High School on August 3rd, two days before the deadline.

by Kyle Nott

On the June 11, 2010 IDOT bid letting, William Charles Construction Company was the successful low bidder for a $30 million rehabilitation project of the I-39 Corridor through all of Lee County, IL.

Freeport Civil Structures was awarded the bridge rehab subcontract. Civil’s subcontract consisted of hydroscarification of the top ½” of the bridge deck surface using high pressure water blasting, removal and replacement of all beam bearings, and expansion joint ends; then pouring back a microsilica overlay on the bridge decks and new approaches on each end of each bridge.

There were a total of 8 bridges, 4 northbound and 4 southbound, that needed rehab. The work was done in 2 stages, essentially working on half of the bridge while traffic was still on the other half. Originally, the bridge rehab was to be performed in the 2010 construction season. Due to material fabrication times, we were able to hold the project over until the 2011 construction season, but the bridge portion of the project still had to be performed in the same amount of time as the previous year…3 months.

Normally, that would be tough schedule to meet, but it was compounded by the fact that three of the northbound bridges and consequently, three of the southbound bridges were all within a few thousand feet of each other and all protected by one single line of barrier wall. That meant that the only way to get to the middle bridge was to cross one of the outer ones. No doubt this project was going to require a lot of coordination to be able to pull it off.

Just when we thought we had a good plan of attack, we ran into extra unsound concrete, which really threw a wrench into all the planning we had done and we had to go back to the drawing board. Fortunately, we were granted a time extension due to the extra work, but in order to bring the project in on time, we would still need to construct at a sprinters pace.

In usual Civil fashion, that is exactly what happened! The project was led by Labor Foreman Brian Schiess, Iron Worker foreman Doug Diddens, and Carpenter Foreman Bob Dixon. Not only did each of the gentlemen run their crews efficiently with each other, there were also numerous other contractors which had to occupy the same territory as us.

There were quite a few different faces that worked on this project, and all of them put in some long hours of exhausting work to be able to pull it off. The resident engineer for IDOT made the comment once that “When Civil shows up, they’re like a bunch of barn flies…They’re everywhere!” And that is what it took to be able to get that amount of work done in that short of a timeframe. Over 100 different concrete pours were made on the project, which obviously equates to multiple pours per day. The typical day on the I-39 project would consist of Civil coming to an area, the Laborers would demo in a day or less, the next day the Carpenters would form, the Ironworkers would install rebar, which was followed up with an afternoon concrete pour. This happened in multiple locations throughout the project each day.

My hat is off to everyone that had a part in the project that was completed with such amazing speed while maintaining Civil’s high standard of quality, and above all, the project was performed with a perfect safety record! Zero accidents!

Home Field Advantage I-39 Bridge Rehab

6 7Fall 2011

Above: Civil crew hand finishing micro-silica overlay Above: Crew preparing to cover the new concrete to aid in its curing and protect it from damage.

Photos: Bottom left photo shows field in progress. Two photos below show completed field turf project.

P.O. Box 7502283 US 20 BR EFreeport, IL 61032

Mechanical Achieves National DesignationThe Mechanical Service Contractors of America (MSCA) announced that Mechanical Incorporated has been awarded the MSCA GreenStar designation, which recognizes MSCA STAR qualified contractors who have met stringent guidelines for environmental responsibility throughout their companies. MSCA is the nation’s leading trade association for air conditioning, heating and refrigeration contractors with over 1,400 members across the United States and Canada.

MSCA GreenStar was created by MSCA to recognize mechanical service contractors who have developed the skills and expertise necessary to deliver energy-efficient, cost-effective indoor environmental solutions to their customers.

According to Barbara Dolim, MSCA Executive Director, MSCA GreenStar helps MSCA members demonstrate their commitment to environmental stewardship. “By attaining MSCA GreenStar status, Mechanical Incorporated has demonstrated their dedication to environmental issues by promoting sustainability throughout their entire organization and delivering the very best environmental solutions to their customers. We congratulate Mechanical Incorporated as a leader in sustainable service.”

To qualify for MSCA GreenStar, a contractor must first qualify as an MSCA STAR contractor. MSCA STAR is a qualification program recognizing contractors that meet or exceed rigorous operating and training standards set by MSCA. To achieve MSCA GreenStar status, an MSCA STAR contractor must meet the following criteria:

• Employ at least one LEED® Accredited Professional

• Be a member of the USGBC, either with a local chapter or the national organization

• Verify that at least 25 percent of its total employees have participated in a green training or education program

• Demonstrate that they promote environmental responsibility by offering specific sustainable services and recommending green procedures and equipment

• Establish an internal commitment to green by attaining LEED certification, of any type, for their building, or by developing an internal “green policy”

• Have participated as part of a project team with a LEED EB or LEED NC registered project within the past three years

GreenStar applications are reviewed and approved by a third-party independent company. There are only 41 MSCA GreenStars in the Country.