Virtually every customer invited attended the Equipment & Technology Showcase hosted by H.O. Penn Machinery Co., Inc. and SITECH Metro Northeast, LLC on April 8, at the IUOE Local 478 Training Center in Meriden, Conn.
Clients were able to see, feel and demonstrate the latest advancements in guidance technology on a number of Caterpillar machines that H.O. Penn and its affiliate SITECH have to offer.
Over some 13 acres, operators learned about the ever-changing improvements in machine control technology in a fun, family-friendly environment where practice was encouraged for hours in the field.
Experts were on hand to answer questions while day-long demonstrations were held, videos displayed, software controls highlighted, centered around a marvelous catered luncheon.
Sales representative Jeff Dobosz helped operators work the controls on the newest guidance equipment offered by Caterpillar for its 323 excavator, including Cat Grade2D automatics.
“The automatics control the boom height and the bucket angle,” said Dobosz. “It upgrades to 3D. You can set and go.”
SITECH offers Cat Accugrade and Trimble brand technology solutions.
“We sell the technology that goes in the machine; the computer in the cab,” added Dobosz. “We are showing our customers what is available; basically, it's going to save time, fuel and materials. There are just a lot of ways to save money on construction by making the machines more efficient.”
Joe Parks, regional sales manager of H.O. Penn, echoed Dobosz.
“The operator can program how deeply he wants to dig and what slope he wants,” said Parks. “This technology enables the machine to not over dig or raise the boom over a set height to avoid overhead obstructions.”
You don't need GPS with this technology, Parks added. “The D5 dozer with their version of grade assist and slope assist on board, straight from the factory doesn't use GPS,” he said. “It allows a good operator to work faster and makes a novice operator an expert operator.”
The all-day demos took place on the ground of the Local Union 478 training facility where apprentices earn their stripes on the heavy iron in a rigorous and rewarding four-year training program.
“We invited all of our contractors and operators here today. We opened it up to any contractor in the state — Tilcon, Manafort Brothers, Garrity Asphalt, A & J Paving, and many others,” said Alan Bergstrom, training director. “Everyone from smaller guys to the largest players in the state.”
The technology is changing rapidly, added Bergstrom, and contractors have to keep up.
“It changes so rapidly. Back in the day, it was three to five years to see technology change; now, it's three to six months,” he added. “We need to get this to our members, they need to see it, to run it. Localize this on a scale that is manageable. We hope to do this [field demonstration] on a yearly basis.”
While the real iron was operating in six fields simultaneously, Ed Levandoski, software support specialist of SITECH, demonstrated the newest software for machine control, Trimble Earthworks and Site Positioning Systems SCS900. The simulations were virtual reality in the cab but at a practice station.
“All the equipment here will give you the line, grade, location and slope,” said Levandoski, manning the levers as if controlling a video game.
John Daddona, the apprentice coordinator of Local 478, found the day immensely rewarding for his young charges. He trains young operators who leave their apprenticeships for full company positions, once they have accrued many hours over several years.“What this does for us, is to help these apprentices see what is coming out in tech. If we can get them introduced to this equipment, it gives them a heads up on entering the industry,” said Daddona.
For more information, visit hopenn.com and sitech-metronortheast.com.
New team heading up renovation of downtown Bridgeport buildings
BRIDGEPORT — In preparation for the recent NCAA women’s basketball tournament, which drew thousands to the Webster Bank Arena over the course of several days in March, city officials hung up banners in the downtown and South End welcoming the teams.
They also reminded developers of the unsightly, still undeveloped portions of Downtown North, one of the gateways into the city, to keep the properties as “tidy” as possible.
“They’re definitely holding us accountable for the appearance of the site,” said Mark Reed, a New York City developer who last year partnered with fellow New York developer Patrick Normoyle to take over workd on the dilapidated Jayson-Newfield buildings.
While the buildings across the street and next door are in varying stages of redevelopment, little progress is visible at one of the worst eyesores in Downtown North, where construction led to the closure of the eastern section of Golden Hill Street at Main Street.
Normoyle said they have been preparing the site for construction while taking care of abatement issues and design work since they joined forces with the original developer Eric Anderson, of Urban Green, in 2015. “To date, roughly $3.5 million worth of work has already been completed on the buildings,” he said.
For exterior and interior renovations to take place, however, Reed and Normoyle said they have to first close on $18 million in financing with KeyBank for help funding the $28.5 million project.
“They unfortunately got caught up in a merger of First Niagara Bank and KeyBank,” said Thomas Gill, Bridgeport’s economic development director. When KeyBank was taking over First Niagara, they had to do their own vetting of that bank’s loan for the project.
“There has been some delay because of that,” Reed acknowledged. He said KeyBank officials have been good partners and they expect to close on the financing in coming weeks.
Reed and Normoyle took over the project last year when Anderson, whose company worked on the former Arcade and Citytrust building redevelopments, walked away from it.
“He said he had too many competing interests in his pipeline so we agreed to take it over for him,” said Reed, who is a principal in Alembic Community Development, which has worked on numerous affordable housing projects and historic renovations, including the conversion of a 1916 elementary school building known as Myrtle Banks in New Orleans.
He said he is working as an individual, not with Alembic, on the Jayson-Newfield project. Normoyle, of Excelsior Housing Group, is also working as an individual. He said he recently completed a project in the Hudson Valley that was similar to the Jayson-Newfield project and is bringing the same contractors to Bridgeport.
“I’ve done many gut rehabs of old buildings, some historic, some not so historic,” Normoyle said. “I think everything downtown Bridgeport has going on right now is very promising.”
The duo is working under a limited liability company called Block 912 JV.
Bill Coleman, deputy director of planning and economic development for Bridgeport, said when Reed and Normoyle came on board the project, which Anderson won in a bid several years ago, the city did its own vetting of their previous projects and qualifications. They took an immediate liking to Reed’s vision, Coleman said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Stamford developer promises South Norwalk hotel in 2018
The developer of the SoNo Residence Inn by Marriott predicted the hotel holding its grand opening in a year’s time, during a Thursday ceremony marking the commencement of foundation work on the South Norwalk project.
Flagged under Marriott’s Residence Inn brand as an extended-stay hotel, the project has had an elongated development timeline under Stamford-based F.D. Rich, dating back a decade. On Thursday, CEO Tom Rich was able to look out across the bustling activity of workers as they put down a foundation for a building that will eventually rise eight floors, with a rooftop terrace overlooking Norwalk Harbor and Long Island Sound.
It is F.D. Rich’s second major undertaking of late in South Norwalk, after the completion of the SoNo Pearl apartment building on Washington Street that is now leasing. Norwalk-based Beinfield Architecture designed the hotel, with M&T Bank financing the project.
“This project has been a long time coming for sure,” Rich said Thursday, looking across at construction crews on South Main Street. “Through the ups and downs of the economy and plan changes, it’s good to finally get started.”
Foundation work has proceeded even as SoNo Collection developer GGP scotched plans for its own hotel at the upscale mall planned for 2019 in South Norwalk. Excluding hotels adopting new brands, the SoNo Residence Inn by Marriott would mark the city’s first new facility since Hotel Zero Degrees opened in 2013.
“I can’t think of the last time that we had a hotel in the South Norwalk area,” said Mayor Harry Rilling. “This is a wonderful, wonderful location for the Residence Inn by Marriott; right down the street from the railroad station, right next to the police department — right in the heart of South Norwalk.”
As an extended-stay hotel, Residence Inn by Marriott draws patrons in part for its kitchen galleys that allow families and businesspeople to cut the cost of trips by avoiding eating out. But SoNo’s swath of restaurants expect the hotel’s guests to generate plenty of tabs in their own venues, giving Washington Street and its environs a boost.
“The hospitality industry is an important industry to the fabric of this city,” said Tim Sheehan, executive director of the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency. “It creates a sense of place and vibrancy for both the visitor and resident alike. Bringing (projects) into development is much easier said than done.”
It is Marriott’s second Norwalk hotel after a Courtyard by Marriott, with construction stalled on a Residence Inn in downtown Stamford following the bankruptcy of a developer.
Marriott is still in the process of sorting through the hotel assets it picked up in its 2016 acquisition of Stamford-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, including how to handle competing brands in overlapping segments like Residence Inn by Marriott and Starwood’s own Element extended-stay hotels. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
US productivity posts sharpest fall in a year
WASHINGTON >> The productivity of American workers fell in the first quarter by the sharpest amount in a year, while labor costs increased.
The Labor Department says productivity declined at an annual rate of 0.6 percent in the January-March quarter after rising at a 1.8 percent rate in the fourth quarter. It was the biggest decline since a 0.7 percent rate of decline in the first quarter of last year.Labor costs rose at a 3 percent rate, up from a 1.3 percent rate of increase in the fourth quarter.Productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, has been weak through most of the current recovery. Many analysts believe it is the biggest economic challenge facing the country, but there is no consensus on the cause of the slowdown.
High school contractor holds safety demonstration for students in Meriden
MERIDEN — O&G Industries, the contractor responsible for Platt High School’s renovations, gave students a safety harness demonstration Thursday.
Project superintendent Steve Baranello led the demonstration, which involved pulling a partially harnessed life-size dummy off a roof, to demonstrate the dangers that construction workers face if they don’t take proper safety precautions.
“We found that a lot of construction workers are complacent about their full protection, equipment and their safety when working at heights,” Baranello said.
It’s common for workers not to tie harnesses correctly, he said. When working from heights, workers are asked to use proper equipment and tie their harness to a base that withstands up to 5,000 pounds of force.
If workers don’t use harnesses correctly they can risk injury or death.
The demonstration is one of many the company is conducting across the state as part of National Construction Safety Week.
Platt college and career coordinator Abby Marcantonio said the demonstration was a culmination of the school’s $111.8 million renovation project, which began in 2013. Officials hope to complete the project by the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.
“Every year, they just provide more and more opportunities to cover all aspects of construction,” she said.
Marcantonio believed the students grasped the safety concepts.
“The relationship they’ve built with them, they really get intrigued to learn more and more with them every session,” Marcantonio said.
Platt student Paul Serio said he learned the importance of using a harness correctly.
“General safety everywhere you are is always good,” he said.
Marcantonio said the completion of the project is bittersweet.
“O&G has been tremendous,” she said. “We’re sad to see them go. It’s been a great experience.”
WALLINGFORD — The Route 150 railroad underpass in Yalesville will be closed to traffic for two 10-day periods in May and June due to construction of a second railroad track.
The bridge underpass will be closed from May 15 to May 25 and from May 31 through early June, according to John Bernick, assistant rail administrator for the state Department of Transportation. The road will be open May 26 through May 30 for Memorial Day Weekend traffic.
The underpass was closed in the fall while crews completed one side of the double track. The second side will be finished this spring.
Double track is being constructed to accommodate the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield commuter rail line. Service is expected to begin in January.
New concrete sections atop the bridge will support both tracks and spread the weight across the arch, Bernick said. The top of the arch is not wide enough to accommodate two tracks with modern design standards.
“This allows the historic arch to continue supporting the railroad without a major rebuild,” Bernick said. “This should be the last time we have to close Route 150 under the arch.”
During the first phase of the project, the road will be closed so vehicles can haul away excavated soil from one side of the arch. In the second phase, a crane will install new concrete sections of the bridge.
The underpass allows for one alternating lane of traffic.