Reed & Reed celebrates 75th anniversary in a big "bridge" way

Reed & Reed celebrated its 75th anniversary by submitting the award-winning bid to build a new $10 million bridge over the Kennebec River in Augusta, ME. Almost as if to put the final candle on its birthday cake, the company took delivery on a new 250-ton capacity Link-Belt LS-278H crawler crane.

The high level bridge is a five-span steel curved plate girder with a concrete deck design on a radius of 3000'. The girders are fabricated of high performance steel. It's 40% stronger and tougher (more resistant to cracks and weathers well). It will not be painted.

This new technology benefits the state by requiring less steel. As a result the bridge costs less to build and is easier to maintain. This is only the second project in the state to use this type of steel.

Reed & Reed, one of northern New England's foremost heavy civil contractors since 1928, has also been a long-term user of Link-Belt cranes. From the start, they established themselves as a leader in Maine's bridge construction industry. Over the years, they have steadily expanded their expertise. Today Reed & Reed offers a full range of general contracting services and have about 16 Link-Belt cranes in inventory.

Headquartered in Woolwich, Maine, with regional offices in the Caribbean, Reed & Reed now performs a wide range of commercial and industrial construction. Projects include highway and bridge construction, marine facilities, hydro facilities, heavy equipment contracting, industrial buildings, parking garages and environmental remediation.

Reed & Reed President Jackson Parker noted that this latest crane acquisition was part of a strategic move to further upgrade and improve one of the largest crane fleets in New England.

The new 250-ton Link-Belt LS 278H was shipped from the Link-Belt factory in Lexington, KY. The first of 11 truckloads began arriving at the Kennebec River Bridge project the first week of July. By late the following week, the delivery of Reed & Reed’s newest crane was complete. Erection commenced immediately; a few days later, the safety checks were complete, and the machine was put to work.

The company has purchased five new cranes in the past 3 years including new LS-138H II (80 tons) and LS-218H II (110 tons) crawler cranes in 2000, a new RTC-8050 50-ton rough terrain crane in 2001, a newly rebuilt LS-418A (110 tons) crawler in 2002 and the crown jewel of the fleet, the brand new LS-278H 250-ton crawler this year.

The crane will assist in construction of the new Kennebec River Bridge in Augusta, currently under construction and scheduled for a June 2004 completion. The Maine Department of Transportation awarded Reed & Reed the $10.8 million contract for the bridge in January 2003.

Several other barge mounted Link-Belt cranes, including an LS-518 and an LS-418, are working on the pier foundations. This includes sheetpile driving for cofferdam construction, excavation and concrete pours.

The new high level Augusta Third Bridge that carries Rte. 3 over the Kennebec River is 1105 feet long and 115 feet tall at its high point. The two abutments and four piers have a west to east downslope orientation. The poured-in-place concrete piers range from 75' to 66' high. Crane and bucket concrete placement was carried out using Link-Belt crawler cranes.

Each abutment has HP14 X 73 foundation piles in various lengths that were driven to refusal on bedrock. Pier #1 has HP14X89 piles, also driven to refusal. The other three piers have spread footers resting on bedrock. Pier 2 was excavated 30' deep, Pier 3 - 12' deep, and pier 4 - 10' deep.

"A principal reason for the purchase of the LS-278H crane was not particularly for its lifting ability, but for its reach. We have one girder that is 120' long, 7.5' high, weighs 60,000 pounds and must be set out 90 feet. There's also a lot of heavy hook work on this project. Our pier and abutment formwork requires a crane and operator with very sensitive controls. When our guys ask for a quarter or half an inch, that's exactly what they want," said Superintendent Greg Letourneau.

"That was the situation on this pier. We have to lower the form sections a half at a time once the carpenters give us the word. The first operation is simply to break the gang form loose from the concrete pier cap. Slow steady pressure is the answer here. It’s a matter of gently increasing the pressure; you don't want any jerky motion," said Operator Ralph Rogers.

"There are men working up there on scaffolding and you don't want to endanger them. Then we lowered the big panels with the single whip line and swung 180 degrees to put them down on the ground. At that point, I was working out at 118' radius from the centerpin. We're using regular lay wire rope rather than the non-twist variety because it gives us that little extra safety factor. Besides, we always have at least two tag lines on a lift like this. We don't take chances," added the LS-278H operator.

It was interesting to note that Rogers, a heavy equipment crane operator for years, has worked on three Reed & Reed Link-Belt cranes, including the LS-518 and an LS-218H. Seven years ago, he also taught Jean Marie Burmeister to operate the RTC-8050 that she runs today.

Another task for the new LS-278H is to place concrete for the middle three piers using a three cubic yard Gar-Bro concrete bucket. That's a weight of about 24,000 pounds when fully loaded. The crane will be operated from the land trestle during these procedures. The 278H has its work cut out for it since there are two concrete placements per shaft. Concrete will be supplied by Dragon Products Co. of Augusta.

"We literally had to pick up that 80' X 8' plate girder form for the pier cap a quarter inch at a time in order to strip it and lower it to the ground in two pieces. There was a lower soffit form underneath it and an angle under that that gave us a very limited space to let the jack down on the falsework in order to get that form out of there. We literally had a total of only half an inch to play with. The operator used our new Link-Belt LS-278H hydraulic crane to pick that 24,000 pound form up a quarter inch at a time. That allowed us to ease that form half out without damaging the new concrete. Then he could lower it down, back up, and repeat the process to extract the other form half. That's only the beginning. The operator using that crane is going to do that on three more piers for a total of six lifts," continued Superintendent Greg Letourneau.

"The major difference between the new LS-278H, of course, is that the 518 is a friction crane -- a great machine -- but a friction crane never the less. Our LS-278H is a state-of-the-art hydraulic machine. This crane is an operator's dream. I can sit in it all day and go home at night without feeling fatigued. Originally, the reason I went from the big 518 back to the 218H was that I had knee surgery and couldn't handle the legwork required on the old friction machines. With this new 250-ton Link-Belt with hydraulic controls, everything is done with an easy wrist motion. The cab is a dream, great visibility and easy access. And with the controls configured the way the Link-Belt engineers have done, it’s a smooth -- very smooth -- crane. When the guys up there ask for half an inch, I know that I can give them that with these hydraulics," concluded Ralph Rogers.

Chris Palmer, from Link-Belt distributor CRW Corp., said, "Reed & Reed keeps us on our toes on this job, supporting their LS-418, LS-518 and now the LS-278H. They are really great people to work with."