Heavy Construction for Branford, CT & the Surrounding Areas

OVERVIEW

From transportation to utility providers, and other commercial clients, Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman provides a wide range of heavy construction, underpinning construction, utility rigging and millwrighting services to assist with infrastructure used by the public, governmental institutions, local businesses, and other industrial corporations. Our company has the capability to undertake projects including bridge rigging, highway construction, and roadway construction. Our pile driving contractor has also worked on projects including the construction of foundations for power plants, utility substations, electrical substations, and more.

Through extensive experience and personal attention, Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman offers talent, diversified disciplines of construction, and a sizeable inventory of professional-grade utility rigging and construction equipment. We’ve worked with both independent engineers and in-house licensed engineering construction services to complete projects for clients across Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, including the Branford, CT; Bridgeport, CT; Hartford, CT; New Haven, CT; Milford, CT; Providence, RI; Narragansett, RI; Worchester, MA; and Springfield, MA; areas.

Complementing the company's in-the-field heavy construction experience, Blakeslee's engineered study of construction methods creates the unique ability to provide sole-source responsibility and an organized approach to the sequencing and methods of construction. This combination allows for precise scheduling and cost control, and quick response to clients' requests for estimates and alternative construction methods. It's how Blakeslee gets the job done. Call us today!

Take a look at recent projects we’ve completed including bridge construction, rehabilitation, and replacement. We're proud to be able to serve clients throughout the Branford, CT; Bridgeport, CT; Hartford, CT; New Haven, CT; Milford, CT; Providence, RI; Narragansett, RI; Worchester, MA; and Springfield, MA; areas.

Series of Heavy Construction Projects

PROJECTS


Penstock Replacement
Rocky River Hydroelectric Station
New Milford, CT

BAC removed the existing 15' diameter wood stave penstock (that Blakeslee installed 50 years ago) at the Rocky River Hydroelectric Station in New Milford, CT and replaced it with a 10' ID fiberglass penstock with steel connections to existing pipe. The existing steel pipe is 15 feet in diameter. The new fiberglass penstock is 870 feet long. A new wetland area was established to replace the wet area under the existing leaking wood pipe.


Children’s Hospital Sitework
Yale-New Haven Hospital
New Haven, CT

BAC was awarded the Sitework package for the construction of the Children's Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Our pile driving contractor built a system of soldier piles and lagging for earth support as we excavated for the deep foundation of the children's hospital.

Underpinning construction and earth support of the existing hospital were necessary before excavating for the deeper foundations of the new building. BAC underpinned some of the existing building and brought in specialists to stabilize the soil in other areas. Soilcrete and chemical grouting were used.


Jefferson Bridge Rehabilitation
River Street
Milford, CT

For this bridge construction project, BAC supported and separated the stone façade from the bridge arches in order to rebuild the arches. BAC designed and fabricated a boom to fit the backhoe, to reach through the stone façade and install the new steel arch supports. The arches were formed and poured in place.


Repowering Project
GenConn
Middletown & Devon, CT

As a subcontractor on this project, BAC installed over 2,000 steel H-piles at these two project sites. The Devon site required 50-foot order length piles driven in one piece using BAC cranes and diesel hammers. The Middletown site required 110-foot-long piles, which were driven to 50 feet with BAC's ABI Mobilram, field spliced and driven to refusal with diesel hammers. BAC also installed drainage and other civil work for both the GC and the owner of these two sites.


State Street Railroad Station
ConnDOT
New Haven, CT

ConnDOT built the State Street Railroad Station in preparation for the construction of the new I-91/I-95 interchange and the construction of the new bridge over the Quinnipiac River, the New Haven Harbor Crossing Project. The intent was to alleviate traffic congestion by encouraging the use of the trains for commuting. Working with the train schedule, BAC constructed a new commuter platform between two existing tracks, street-side vehicle access, and a 110-foot-long steel truss pedestrian bridge over three live tracks. Of course, the station needed to be ADA-compliant and an elevator was installed for those who need it to access the pedestrian bridge. To expedite the project, BAC redesigned the platform foundations from spread footings to mini-piles. The street access abutment was built on steel piling. The project required significant coordination with the DOT's architect, the City of New Haven, and the railroad.


Metro-North Railroad Bridge
ConnDOT
Bethel, CT

This bridge construction project involved the removal and installation of a single span, single track railroad bridge. In a single weekend outage, the entire superstructure was lowered using Goldhofer trailers and carted away, abutments were modified, and a new superstructure was set in place. The existing and the new superstructures were handled as single assemblies. The backwall and bridge seats of the abutments were removed and rebuilt. Work started at midnight on Friday and the new bridge was re-opened Monday morning, as scheduled.


Barbour Hill Substation
Northeast Utilities
South Windsor, CT

As part of a design-build team led by E/Pro Engineering & Environmental Consulting, BAC performed the civil portion of the upgrade of this station from a 115 kV to a 115 kV/345kV station. BAC joined the team early in the design phase and provided valuable input for the bus supports, tower foundations, and related work. BAC improved the construction schedule by widespread use of precast foundations. When the design changed, some of the large new foundations needed to be relocated. Rather than demolishing and rebuilding the foundations, BAC suggested excavating around the foundations and our riggers moved them, which saved time and money. The final project included installing 225 precast bus support foundations, 5' diameter caissons for dead-end towers, constructing 6000 lf of concrete-encased duct banks, four transformer pads with containment, 20 cast-in-place pads for circuit breakers, a control building foundation, removing and disposing of 40,000 cy of contaminated earth and importing and placing 40,000 cy of fill, and other sitework. The precast foundations were set to tolerances within 0.01 foot in x-y-z locations.


Emergency Bridge Replacement
ConnDOT
Stonington & Groton, CT

Flood waters took out the existing bridge on Route 184, a heavily-traveled alternate route to I-95. The replacement bridge is an integrated H-pile—deck—rigid frame construction that required no footings. The concrete in the abutments and deck was placed in one pour and encased the ends of the prestressed beams. The design increased the flow area significantly.

The first two photos show the setting of the prestressed beam and the third photo shows the existing condition at the start of the bridge construction project.

SERVICES

REPRESENTATIVE CLIENTS

  • ADP Marshall
  • Amtrak
  • Aquarion Water Company
  • AT&T
  • Barton Malow Company
  • Black & Veatch
  • Bridgeport Port Authority
  • Buckingham Routh Company
  • Burns & McDonnell
  • Cianbro
  • City of New Haven, CT
  • Connecticut Department of Transportation
  • Connecticut Light and Power
  • Connecticut-American Water Company
  • CYRO Industries
  • Dimeo Construction Company
  • E/Pro Engineering & Environmental Consulting
  • FirstLight Power Resources
  • GeoDesign, Inc.
  • Gilbane Building Company
  • LaRosa Construction
  • M.J. Electric
  • McPhee Electric
  • Metro-North Railroad
  • National Grid
  • Northeast Utilities Systems
  • NRG Energy, Inc.
  • Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc.
  • Power Engineers
  • Providence & Worcester Railroad Company
  • PSE&G (Pennsylvania Service Electric & Gas)
  • SBC/SNET
  • Shaw Stone & Webster
  • South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority
  • The United Illuminating Company
  • Town of Branford, CT
  • Town of Darien, CT
  • Town of Milford, CT
  • TPA Design Group
  • Turner Construction Company
  • United States Surgical div. of TYCO Healthcare
  • Wisvest Connecticut, LLC
  • Woodard & Curran
  • Yale-New Haven Hospital