The water is flowing smoothly again under the streets near Kodak in Rochester, NY. Working 12-hour days, Villager Construction, of Fairport, replaced 3,500 ft. (1,066 m) of concrete water pipe with new 36-in. (91.4 cm) diameter ductile iron piping. Monroe County Water Authority ordered the work after several breaks occurred along Lake Avenue.

“The most difficult part of the job was trying to work around Kodak’s utilities,” said Joe Venuti, president of Villager Construction. Kodak dominates the area with dozens of buildings and plants with each fed by its own separate energy and communications conduits. “In some spots, the original water pipe was 18 ft. underground.”

Villager Construction crews had a 30-day deadline to complete the just under $1-million project. The time available to work with the water shut off was limited; consequently Villager had to build a water bypass system to a temporary water facility.

In a section on Maplewood Drive off Lake Avenue near the river, a natural deposit of rock had to be broken up and bored through to allow for the new water pipe alignment. Villager Construction used a hoe-ram on a Mitsubishi 180 to break up the rock. A subcontractor was brought in with a Case boring auger to cut a 14-ft. (4.3 m) diameter hole, 30 ft. (9.1 m) long and 16 ft. (4.9 m) deep.

Villager Construction employed its own fleet of heavy equipment to do the job including a Cat 320 excavator, a Cat 315 excavator, a Cat 231 excavator, a Cat 120 excavator, a Cat D3 dozer, four Case backhoes with hoe pack and hi-rams, three CFM compressors and three 4-in. (10.1 cm) dry prime pumps. The company rented two Cat 345 excavators.

This story also appears on Crane Equipment Guide.

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