In New Castle, DE, work is being done at the frequently congested interchange of Routes 295 and 13. When completed, motorists travelling to and from the Delaware Memorial Bridge will have Daisy Construction to thank as they get to where they're going much more easily.

To help reduce this congestion, Daisy Construction, based in New Castle, DE, will reconstruct several ramps, build a new bridge, and rehabilitate two other spans at a pricetag of $12 million. The job began this past May and is scheduled for completion in May of 2003.

According to Leonard Iacono, president of Daisy Construction, the job has a very aggressive schedule, given the way the project must be carried out in phasing. "The project does not allow us any time to be lackadaisical," he said. "It's a very congested project because you're confined to a relatively small area in spite of the job being on a large scale."

In fact, there's a bonus incentive on one of the phases. "There's one part of the job that we must complete within 45 calendar days and if we get it done within that time, we're afforded a $100,000 bonus. During this phase, we'll have to shut down a travel lane on the turnpike and detour traffic, so the incentive is to get it open as quickly as possible," said Iacono.

Within the next 60 to 90 days, Daisy will demolish an existing bridge by using a breaker mounted on its Komatsu hydraulic excavator. Iacono expects it to take approximately 30 days to complete this portion of the job.

But the real challenge, Iacono added, will be the construction of the new bridge. "We're doing preparatory work right now, and we're constructing a bypass road in order to build the new bridge and tear down the existing bridge. The key to this entire job will be when we construct the bypass road and get started on the bridge construction. That will allow us to attack more items on the project than we're currently dealing with, but we can't do that until a certain amount of work that precedes this gets done," he said.

The work that must get done involves milling off the existing hot mix pavement so that it can be utilized as a substitute for stone base, underneath the new asphalt.

For this portion of the project, Daisy is using a Wirtgen W2000 that it purchased late last winter from CC&T, based in Folcroft, PA. The W2000 features an 84-in. (213 cm) width drum, a flexible cutter system and 565-hp (762.7 kW) engine. And because of the tight time constraints, the W2000 is proving invaluable, according to Iacono.

Iacono explained that Daisy needed an upgrade from its Wirtgen 1900 because of the magnitude of this project. "Without a doubt the W2000 has increased our productivity. And the flexible cutter system gives us the ability to change drums and the higher horsepower is also advantageous. It's just a great machine," he said.

Since the mid-90s, Daisy has been doing business with CC&T. In fact, Iacono purchased Daisy's first 1900 from the company.

"Both Mike Chenet [CC&T's president] and Andy Pennington [CC&T sales representative] respond very well to our needs, regardless of what they may be. Whether it's service-related, price-related or we need technical information, dealer support, parts, supplies, they're very responsive. I can't think of one negative thing to say about CC&T. They're just fantastic."

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