August 2016

A Message from the President

As summer winds down, I wanted to take some time to reflect on another great season and give you a preview of things to come next year. First, I would like to again thank each of you for your part in helping us reach one million man hours since our last lost-time accident! We appreciate every individual's contribution to this goal and the safety culture that continues to develop here at C.A. Hull. While this milestone is something to be celebrated, our goal for the rest of this season is to keep focused on finishing each task and project safely. Your dedication to working safely has paid off, let's keep it up!

 

Already we have secured four projects and approximately 75,000 man hours of work for 2017. The biggest of these jobs is a design-build project on I-75 at the Square Lake Road interchange near Bloomfield Hills. In the coming months, we will begin the bidding season for next year's work. There are several significant projects to be let this fall, including a re-deck of the massive I-75 over the Rouge River bridges in Detroit, and a large bridge and paving project on US-23 between Ann Arbor and Brighton. Until then, work on I-75 and Square Lake Road will present us with some winter and early spring 2017 work.

 

Thank you for your hard work and dedication to C.A. Hull. Let's have a great rest of the season!

 

Sincerely,

Mike Malloure, President

 

Job Spotlight: Job 1086

Work on Evergreen Road over I-96 and the CSX Railroad began in early May with an estimated completion date of late October.  The $4.7 million two stage project is expected to include 24,400 man hours to complete. As the largest bridge hydro overlay C.A. Hull has done since the 8 Mile bridge over the Lodge Freeway in 1996, this project has presented some unique challenges.

The existing bridge railing was constructed in such an unusual way that MDOT designers required an uncommon and lengthy sidewalk removal process. To prevent the bridge railing from falling, each 10’ wide section of sidewalk on both sides of the bridge were removed in a careful sequence. Sidewalk sections were then poured back before removing bridge joints, light standards, and additional sidewalk sections. This process took plenty of coordination with subcontractors, including saw cutting the sidewalks and placing electrical conduits with couplers, and then tying re-steel back into those sections to place concrete with multiple wood bulk heads.

In pouring the deck back, the project crew was limited to one weekend per stage in which they could shut down Evergreen Road to complete the pours. A belt placer was used to position the overlay, which worked very well for this type of application as it could be moved alongside the closed lanes of the bridge.

The second stage of the project began on Tuesday, July 12^th. Although there were many complicated tasks involved with this project, the second stage has progressed much faster than the first stage. This is due to the fact that the team was able to get a good grasp on how to be most efficient and effective in the sidewalk, expansion joint, and barrier wall removal and pour-back processes. This efficiency allowed the team to save hundreds of man hours weekly, giving them plenty of momentum heading into the final months of the project. Although this has been a very challenging job with many complicated tasks, it is still anticipated to finish on (or even before) the deadline date, as the team was able to avoid a lot of the problems experienced during stage one. 
 

Some of the highlights of the bridge include:

•   Bridge Deck Clear Roadway 70’ x 1,347’ 

•   Deep Hydro Overlay - 9,720 Syds 

•  18 Bridge Joint Replacements - 1,960 lft, with 429 lft of sidewalk cover plates to be installed

• 53,000 sft of False Decking, which had to be completed with aerial lifts because of the bridge’s height

The project team consists of Superintendent Gary Bischer, Project Manager Randy Rossow, Project Engineer Jake Hall, and Estimator Andy O’Connor. Included in the crew are Carpenter Foremen Eric Briolat, Joe Paget, Jim Baut, and Scott Osentoski.  Laborer Foremen include Shane Smielewski, Mike Moss, and Javiar Araiza, along with several other great, hard-working employees that make up the team! 

Thanks to everyone for their hard work and for being safety-conscious throughout all of our projects.

 

 

 

Family Field Day: A Recap

Last Saturday C.A. Hull employees took some time to relax together in the sun at our first annual Family Field Day! Hosted at Lake Callis Recreation Complex in Davison, the event offered several fun activities for employees and their families, including a splash pad, swimming at the beach, field games, and volleyball. Guitarist Johnny Stevenson and musician Kaiden Rutterbush (son of employee Kris Rutterbush) also entertained the crowd with live music throughout the day. Thank you to everyone who came to enjoy a beautiful day at Lake Callis, and we look forward to seeing you next year! We hope you and your families had a great time.

  

Safety Spotlight

Hull Family,

In my almost four years with the company, we have come together as a team to reach some amazing safety milestones. When I first started here, we were averaging one to two lost-time accidents per month, and rarely worked 40,000 man hours between recordable injuries. Today, we are averaging over 120,000 man hours between recordable injuries, and have now worked over one million man hours since our last lost-time accident. These are incredible milestones to achieve, and they are a result of our hard work and dedication to working safely. We are now proving that we can deliver the best products safely, every day. Great job on achieving one million man hours without a lost-time accident, and let's keep it up! 

Here are some other recent safety updates:

• PTSA books have been distributed and are required to be used for each task performed at CAH.

• There are new nighttime PPE requirements for employees working around live traffic. The photo below shows the new required Class 3 safety pants, as well as the halo light the safety department is currently testing out for possible field applications. This new PPE will help make employees even more visible to motorists during night work.

• New wheel chalks for trailers have been purchased and will be distributed. If you are still without chalks for your trailers, please make a request.

• The Wednesday Safety Spotlight emails are required to be reviewed with crews on Wednesday mornings. New toolbox talks are currently being developed and will be shared in 2017. 

Thank you,

Paul Louzecky, Safety Director

Equipment Feature: Reporting Equipment Damage

With our summer season in full swing, and several ongoing jobs, we wanted to thank each crew for their willingness to share equipment when job schedules change. Not only does the sharing of crucial equipment help us reduce rental costs, it also fosters teamwork between jobs and crews. The frequent movement of equipment is a great reminder of the importance of submitting any needed repair requests in Build2Win before equipment leaves your job site. 

By documenting repair requests in a timely fashion, we can ensure all equipment is ready-to-go when it arrives on a new job. Mechanics are also more easily able to identify any issues when they arrive on-site when a repair request has been formally documented. Although texts or calls about an emergency repair request are appreciated, a description of the problem in Build2Win should always be included.

While it may be tempting to ignore a small problem while working, submitting repair requests when you notice issues the first time can prevent avoidable, costly damage. A small equipment issue may require that equipment be unavailable for a few days or weeks, but major damage could mean equipment is unavailable for the rest of the season. Documenting seemingly small damage issues before they become big problems can help us make sure that equipment is available and ready to be used when it is needed.

Thank you for helping us keep our tools working well, and for doing a great job sharing equipment!

 

Employee Anniversaries: January to August 2016

January 1: Curt Vogel, 20 years

March 9: Patrick Vinokurow, 15 years

March 13: Ralph Chamberlain, 20 years

April 26: Mike Calandra, 20 years

April 27: Gary Bischer, 20 years

April 29: Randy Rossow, 20 years

May 29: Curt Gengler, 15 years

June 4: Jamie Moore, 10 years

June 25: Mario Molina, 20 years

July 24: William Perez Jr., 10 years

August 8: Jorge Garcia Jr., 10 years

August 24: Barbryallen Spoelman, 10 years