Associated General Contractors of Maine Hands Out Annual Build Maine Awards

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The Associated General Contractors of Maine recently honored four in-state construction companies with Build Maine Awards for major projects built during 2011. Nearly 250 people attended the awards ceremony that highlights the best of Maine construction projects.

The Build Maine Awards are presented each year in conjunction with the annual Construction Expo of Maine held at the Augusta Civic Center. Contractors submit their projects in various building categories like highways, bridges, public utilities, industrial and municipal. The winners are selected based on how well they address the following criteria: contribution to the community; innovation in construction techniques; meeting the challenge of a difficult job; environmental sensitivity; responsiveness to client needs; and workplace safety. The Build Maine Awards program featured videos of the winning projects, which can be viewed online at www.agcmaine.org.

In handing out the awards AGC Chief Executive Officer John O’Dea noted that "construction in Maine is a $5 billion a year industry." He added that "the construction industry represents 10 percent of the state’s GDP and employs 24,000 people per year."

Cianbro Corporation of Pittsfield led the field this year with two first-place awards. The first award was for the construction of a new three-story, 38,000 sq. ft. offshore wind laboratory built for the University of Maine. Designed by WBRC Architects – Engineers of Bangor, the facility offers unique testing capabilities for offshore wind blades, anchors and towers as well as for other industrial uses that require testing of vary large pieces of equipment.

The second Cianbro award was in the Industrial Category. It was for the rebuilding and extension of a dry dock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. The extension is approximately 90 ft. wide, 50 ft. long and 40 ft. tall. It required 850 cu. yds. of concrete and 126 tons on reinforcing steel. The new dry dock can now handle ships nearly 600 feet long with beam heights of more than 80 ft.

The Penobscot Company of Rockport won a first-place award for their restoration work on three lighthouses on remote islands off the coast of Maine. The project was complicated by the fact that Matinicus Rock, Petit Manan and Libby Island are all sea-bird nesting colonies. Work could only take place before May 1 or after Sept. 1 each year when sea conditions are higher and more dangerous thereby making access to the islands more difficult.

David Nazaroff is the owner of the Penobscot Company, and he is also the current President of AGC Maine. The award marked the first time in many years that the AGC President was also the winner of a Build Maine Award.

Wyman & Simpson of Richmond took the top award in the Bridge Division for construction of the first bridge in the world to use multiple-spans of hybrid composite beams. There are only two other bridges using this new technology, but they are both single-span bridges.

The new Knickerbocker Bridge in Boothbay crosses the Back River and serves as the main access point to the mainland for the communities of Hodgdon and Barters Islands. The 540-ft. long bridge uses eight composite spans ranging from 60 to 70 feet in length. The beams were constructed by Harbor Technologies of Brunswick.

The final award went to the Ted Berry Company of Livermore for a sewer line replacement for the Warren Sanitary District. The firm used static pipe bursting technology to replace 1,600 feet of an active sewer line that carries 30,000 gallons of flow each day to the District’s treatment plant. The pipe bursting technology inserts the new pipe into the path of the old pipe underground without digging a lengthy trench. To keep the plant operational an above ground bypass pipe was used during the course of the project.