Gaines North Carolina Team Completes Project in Record Time ‘Another Happy Customer’
Right in the middle of a record rainfall year, Gaines and Company’s North Carolina team sure made their turnkey site development customer happy.
“This was our client’s first project in North Carolina,” said George Grammer, Gaines and Company’s VP of the Raleigh, North Carolina division. “They said this is one of the fastest projects from start to occupancy that they’ve had.”
Even with Durham County’s third wettest spring on record and rigid COVID-19 jobsite restrictions, Grammer, Jim Stafford, Grading Superintendent and Darren Martiano, Utility Superintendent had solutions for every challenge without delay.
For this industrial development project adjacent to Research Triangle Park (RTP), Gaines and Company site work contractors started out with clearing, erosion control, earthwork, before advancing to underground utility construction, curb, stone and asphalt. Then building pads, parking areas and roadways were paved all the while with safe traffic control on busy Miami Boulevard and TW Alexander Drive.
First, high moisture and clay ground conditions were solved with soil stabilizing, a big step to getting parking lots and roads paved. Next, working in tandem with building construction posed a second hurdle. “It was a coordination effort,” Stafford says. Maneuvering around cranes and building operations, both projects remained on track. “We were able to function together at a pretty good steam.”
COVID meant social distancing, always wearing masks and tracking down inspectors. “Keeping up communication with all the Durham inspectors, just trying to coordinate due to COVID, it was that much more challenging,” says Martiano. “With the city, county and DOT inspectors, their offices are closed, they’re working remotely or they wouldn’t be there sometimes,” he says. “That would be my job, to coordinate everything.”
Bore & jack equipment and trench protection for underground utility construction at Gaines and Company’s Durham, NC total site development project.
Construction site development was in the RDU area of the triangle. ”There is a tremendous amount of existing utilities that we had to work around, including gas and electric,” Martiano says. In all, Gaines underground utility contractors successfully contended with six different utilities and four different fiber optic companies. “That was a challenge for us.”
How did they install waterlines underneath South Miami Boulevard? Trenchless excavation. “We had three bore and jacks for the water system,” says Stafford. “We had to bore and push a sleeve under South Miami in lieu of open excavation.”
Excavators, off road trucks and Gaines’ new Hydrema specialty equipment were key players in the dirt. Hydrema dump trucks turn at 90 degrees and dump-load to the side with low ground pressure and balloon tires for minimal earthwork ground damage, a cost-effective plus for customers. “A lot of times we use it on Miami Blvd. where we’re digging up the asphalt down the middle,” says Martiano. “It’s so small and low you can go safely out into traffic, no problem.”
Gaines and Company is a full service site development company with over 60 years of experience specializing in underground utilities, grading, excavating, erosion controls and road work in Maryland, North Carolina, Delaware and Washington D.C.
