VOLUME 13 ISSUE 4
$5.99 JULY AUGUST 2024 SERVING CONTRACTING FIRMS AND THE ARIZONA COMMUNITY. . . THEN & NOW
PHOENIX’S ART MODERNE ENTRANCE: THE 17TH AVENUE UNDERPASS NAVAJO BRIDGE: THE ONLY IN-STATE AUTO ROUTE TO THE ARIZONA STRIP OLD TRAILS BRIDGE: LINKING ARIZONA AND CALIFORNIA ON ROUTE 66 HALSEY (H.L.) ROYDEN: THE “DEAN OF ARIZONA BRIDGE BUILDING” SALT RIVER MATERIALS GROUP CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF RECYCLING
Arizona’s Timeless Magazine
BOXER TURNED BRIDGE BUILDER: DON ANDERSON’S WESTERN CONSTRUCTORS
BROADENING TUCSON’S BROADWAY UNDERPASS: SUNDT’S CONCRETE SOLUTION HAYDON BRIDGES CAP CANAL IN BUCKEYE
GRANITE’S TUCSON 1-10 “BAT-FRIENDLY” PROJECT
CONSTRUCTION INNOVATIONS ARE HERE—ARE WE READY?
TRAFFIC FLOWS AS FNF REPLACES GILA RIVER BRIDGE
MCCARTHY EXPANDS MESA’S SIGNAL BUTTE WATER TREATMENT PLANT
“TELL US WHAT YOU NEED AND WE WILL WORK WITH YOU TO MAKE IT HAPPEN”
40
YEARS IN BUSINESS SINCE 1984
480-641-3500
BELLY DUMP-SUPER 16-END DUMP-LOW BOY SIDE DUMP-EXCAVATOR-LOADER-GRADER
12 14 17 41 47 48 54 58 62 66 70 74 78 82 86 90 94
CONTENTS Contributors - Brian Kassalen & Randa Randolph From The Editor: A Wobbly Bridge for Wobbly Legs in the Grand Canyon - Douglas Towne Construction Around Arizona: Projects • People • Practices Salt River Materials Group Celebrates 50 Years of Recycling Special Advertising Section Back When: Phoenix’s Dangling Pullman Attraction Billy Horner Broadening Tucson’s Broadway Underpass: Sundt’s Concrete Affair - Billy Horner The Art Moderne Entrance to Phoenix: The 17th Avenue Underpass - Douglas Towne Navajo Bridge: The Only In-State Auto Passage to the Arizona Strip - Douglas Towne Old Trails Bridge: Linking Arizona and California on Route 66 Mark Edelman From Boxing to Bridge Building: Don Anderson and Western Constructors - Billy Horner Saluting Arizona’s Builders: Halsey (H.L.) Royden Douglas Towne Old School Equipment - Pre-World War II Small Concrete Mixers - Billy Horner Building on the Past - 1940: U.S. Highway 60 Bridge Near Salome - Billy Horner Architect’s Perspective - Two Bridges Helped Unify Arizona Doug Sydnor, FAIA Digging Through the Archives: Page Thiers - Billy Horner Bid Results Advertising Index
Front Cover Onlooker watching the demolition of the Broadway Underpass, 1963. Article on page 48 Image Courtesy of Arizona Contractor & Community
TEN
JULY AUG 2024
PROUDLY CELEBRATING 10 YEARS IN BUSINESS! COMING SOON CONCRETE READY-MIX NEW LOCATION IN PEORIA! CURRENT LOCATIONS: Avondale Plant #17 & #18 SWC Southern & El Mirage 30 trucks (safely can deliver 250cy/hr.) Ross 10 yd. Batch Plant Con-E-Co LO PRO 12 yd. Batch Plant SWC Southern & El Mirage Available Products for FOB Sales: #57 Aggregate, 3/8” Chips and Clean Top Soil (Fill Dirt) Inert Landfill: Concrete, Rock, Dirt only. No trash, Organic or Petroleum Products
DISPATCH – 623-925-4743 LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED DIAMONDBACKMATERIALS.COM 11435 W. BUCKEYE RD SUITE #104-276 AVONDALE, AZ 85323 O (623) 925-8966 | F (623) 925-1072 E INFO@AZDBM.COM
Travis Williams - General Manager
Jim Latto - Business Development
Donavon Stewart - Operations Manager
Over 28 Years of experience in the Ready Mix Industry travis@azdbm.com | (602) 292-1224
Over 40 Years of Ready Mix and related Business Experience jim@azdbm.com | (602) 696-4139
Over 24 Years of experience in the Ready Mix Industry donavon@azdbm.com | (623) 271-5042
CONSOLIDATED ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTORS, INC. 1717 E RAIRDAN LANE
PHOENIX, ARIZONA, 85034
3816 W Lower Buckeye Rd. PO Box 19010 Phoenix, AZ 85005-9010
Reuter Equipment & Fabrication provides custom metal fabrication services. We have sixty years’ experience in the metal fabrication industry. Let our qualified personal bid and build your special job. This state of the art facility is equipped to fabricate numerous projects, i.e. conveyors, silos, metal forming, shearing, chassis, platforms, walkways, access ladders & machining.
Phone:602-437-4200 Fax: 602-437-0773 E-Mail: conorq@cedphx.com Website: www.cedphx.com
Est. 1994
REUTER EQUIPMENT & FABRICATION
GRADING/ PAVING CONCRETE UNDERGROUND UTILITIES
CONTACT US
11535 E. Germann Road, Chandler, AZ 85286 | 480.732.9238 www.dcscontracting.com
ARIZCC.COM
For Information Contact: Brent Reuter (623) 695-1204 • brentr@rec-reuter.com www.reuterequipment.com ARIZONA CONTRACTOR & COMMUNITY
EDITOR’S COLUMN
A WOBBLY BRIDGE FOR WOBBLY LEGS IN THE GRAND CANYON DOUGLAS TOWNE
T
his issue, we embark on a thrilling journey over the water and underneath the tracks, focusing on the state’s bridges and underpasses. For my column, I shine a spotlight on two unusual suspension bridges, the Black and Silver. Reaching them is an adventure, as they’re nestled deep in the Inner Gorge at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and span the majestic Colorado River. The 440-foot-long Black Bridge, completed in 1928, is 5 feet wide to accommodate mules and their riders. Just downstream, the narrower 500-foot-long Silver Bridge opened for hikers in the late 1960s. The latter also supports a pipeline supplying 500,000 gallons of water daily from the North Rim to the extensive facilities at Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim. Arriving at these bridges is no small feat. From the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, it’s a 6.5-mile hike on the South Kaibab Trail or an 8-mile jaunt on the Bright Angel Trail. If coming from the North Rim, be prepared for a whopping 14.2-mile trek. The temperature at the top of either Rim is often dramatically cooler than at the bottom of the mile-deep gorge, adding an extra challenge. My introduction to the Inner Gorge occurred in June 1985. Halfway through our two-week session, our University of Arizona Geography Field Camp had a day of fun. I decided to hike down to see the Colorado FOURTEEN
River and was joined by a classmate from Jordan, whom I vaguely knew. We headed down Bright Angel Trail and planned to return on the South Kaibab Trail. We should have done this in reverse order since the latter lacked shade and water. It was a glorious day in the Inner Gorge until we started back up the South Kaibab Trail. My little pea brain had assumed that my companion from the arid Middle East was accustomed to hiking long distances in hot weather. Not so much. The opentoed sandals he wore should have been a giveaway. The climb back up to the South Rim took a long time; we stopped to rest wherever a rock overhang provided shade. Fortunately, an instructor leading a small class down the trail recognized that my companion was a bit stressed and offered us extra water. Still, our progress was slow, temperatures were rising, and our water supply was nonexistent as we rested ohso-close to the Rim. A park ranger-led tour group came down and passed us. The
Images Courtesy of Author
last straggler, a middle-aged woman, carried a large Igloo jug and paused beside my thirsty friend sitting on a rock. My usually polite companion looked up to see this wet resource dangling in front of his face. Desperate, he ripped the water jug from her hands and opened the spout, letting the water cascade into his mouth. Then he sheepishly paused and asked if he might have a drink. Shocked, she merely nodded. He chugged some more, returned her jug, and she scampered down the trail to rejoin her group. For the rest of the field camp, this man thanked me for helping him make it out of the canyon. Above: Maureen Towne crosses Silver Bridge on the Colorado River, 2014. Below left: With Bob Hendry at Indian Garden, 1989. Below: My friend from Jordan at the Colorado River, 1985 Bottom left: Bob Hendry cooling himself in the Inner Gorge, 1989.
JULY AUG 2024
Above left: Maureen Towne and Tom Pickrell on the North Rim trail, 2014. Above right: Maureen and Douglas Towne upon reaching the South Rim, 2014. Below: Maureen Towne gazing at the North Rim the following day, 2014.
asked if my friend would be OK as they passed. I told Bob, for inspiration, that he had ladies from four continents cheering him on. We made it to the top and decades later, we still enjoy reminiscing about the escapade. My most recent adventure crossing the Silver Bridge was a one-day, 23-mile, Rimto-Rim trek with my wife and a group from the Phoenix Downtown YMCA in 2014. On a cool morning in early October, a busload of hikers descended from the North Rim before dawn using headlamps to follow the trail. Tom Pickrell, a friend and avid hiker, had invited us on the trip and vouched for our fitness. One especially memorable event was crossing Silver Bridge with a troop of Boy Scouts, who
jumped up and down on the suspension bridge to get it rocking and rolling. Twelve hours later, a few miles from the South Rim, serious fatigue set in. Fellow hikers were doing odd things, such as walking up restroom steps backward because it felt better on exhausted legs. We reached the top just before dark and checked in with Tom’s wife, Barbara, who handed me our motel key and an ice-cold beer that tasted incredible. But the trek continued as our motel room was on the second floor, and there was no elevator. After we struggled up the stairs and flopped on the bed, I reminded my wife of our dinner plans with fellow hikers. “I’m not leaving the room,” was her non-negotiable response. I left to bring back salad and pizza. The following day, we gazed across to the North Rim, awestruck at our journey.
My next adventure to the Inner Gorge was when my old UofA pal, Bob Hendry, visited Phoenix from New Jersey in 1989. We camped overnight in the Kaibab National Forest and hit the Bright Angel Trail early the next morning. Flying downhill, I asked Bob if he was OK. “Never felt better!” We crossed Silver Bridge, where we admired the Colorado River, and enjoyed lemonades at Phantom Ranch, where Bob called his grandmother on a pay phone. “Guess where I am? At the bottom of the Grand Canyon!” Bob’s exhilaration was absolute, but the return trip was brutal. The last few miles, he undertook what I would later describe as an agonizing “mortician’s stroll.” I walked ahead to encourage his progress. Hikers, usually women with exotic accents,
ARIZCC.COM
ARIZONA CONTRACTOR & COMMUNITY
WEESSTATBLRISHOEDC199L4LC S OA K IN T H E R E L AXAT I O N • PRECISION FINE GRADING • ABC PLACEMENT AND FINISHING • EARTHWORK , ALL PHASES • MATERIAL IMPORT/EXPORT HANDLING • DRAINAGE EXCAVATION • FULL TOPCON OR TRIMBLE CAPABILITIES CONTACT TAYLOR WESTHOFF
480-550-1815
PTWESTHOFF@WESTROCLLC.COM 10031 E. DYNAMITE BLVD SUITE 135 SCOTTSDALE, AZ 85262
PROUDLY SERVING ARIZONA! CONTACT US (602)817-6929
www.calportland.com
EXPECT MORE ... WE DELIVER!
®
castlehotsprings.com | 844.276.8052 | Morristown, Arizona
THIRTY TWO
JULY AUG 2024
CONSTRUCTION AROUND ARIZONA People
POWERSCREEN SHOWCASES EXPANDED MACHINERY LINEUP AT XPO24
“T
he Powerscreen XPO24 event was a resounding success, with numerous deals completed in person and many more expected in the upcoming weeks,” shares James Dodkins, group head of marketing for Molson Group. The three-day event, held from May 20-23, 2024, drew over 400 potential customers and showcased an extensive array of construction and demolition equipment. This event marked the Below: Tom O’Malley, Powerscreen Southern California sales representative, and Robin Powell, CEO and founder of Molson Group. Below middle: James Dodkins, group marketing manager for Molson Group, and Jordan Fontaine, a marketing professional for Powerscreen California.
third XPO showcase organized by the firm, with the previous two both held in Bristol, United Kingdom, further demonstrating their global reach and industry leadership. According to Dodkins, the event was deliberately structured to provide a relaxed and informal atmosphere devoid of a fixed timetable. This format allowed guests ample opportunity to network, explore the equipment lines, and interact with staff. Attendees hailed from various parts of the globe, converging to take part in the event. “Our primary goal was to build relationships that will help us be a better supplier to them in the future,” says Dodkins, underlining the company’s unwavering commitment to fostering long-term connections. Hosted at the Powerscreen of California Service Center in Dixon, California, the XPO24 featured a sprawling showcase
Above: Adam Barber, Powerscreen representative for Arizona, discussing machinery options with an attendee.
of equipment from leading brands like Hyundai, Kobelco, Bell, BTA, FUCHS, and Rotobec. The unveiling of the Powerscreen Premiertrak 400X jaw crusher was a major highlight, accompanied by considerable interest in the expanded product range. Dodkins says, “There was a lot of ‘I didn’t know you guys did those lines’ going on.” Notable among the guests was Paul Campbell, who founded Powerscreen of California in 1986 and remained with the company until its acquisition by the Molson Group in April 2022. Now serving as an ambassador for the firm, Campbell, alongside other staff, dedicated weeks to meticulously preparing the facility for the event. This involved intricate tasks such as equipment
Images Courtesy of Arizona Contractor & Community
ARIZCC.COM
ARIZONA CONTRACTOR & COMMUNITY
THIRTY FOUR
JULY AUG 2024
CONSTRUCTION AROUND ARIZONA People Above middle: James Dodkins, group marketing manager for Molson Group, and Matt Gansser, director of distribution and national accounts, HD Hyundai. Below left: Kraig Trippel of Cutting Edge Excavating, Columbia Falls, Montana, is trying controls on a new Kobelco machine. Below right: Paul Campbell and Robin Powell.
relocation, heavy machinery transportation, and setting up tents and food vendors, showcasing the company’s unwavering commitment to providing a top-notch experience for its valued guests. The event’s agenda featured a range of captivating and interactive equipment demonstrations, including a thrilling competition where attendees vied to pop five balloons using a Kobelco Blade Runner excavator equipped with a BTA 160E hydraulic hammer. Moreover, spectators were
invited to participate in a tire-stacking challenge using a Fuchs MHL340, commonly employed in the recycling and scrap industry. During these challenges, Laura Horner, designer of Arizona Contractor & Community magazine, impressed the crowd by popping three balloons and stacking three tires, showcasing the hands-on and engaging nature of the XPO24. Powerscreen Community Champions made their presence felt at the event, raising funds for charities by selling customized cowboy hats at the Rancher Bar. Guests had the opportunity to purchase a hat for $150, with the Rancher Bar team offering personalized touches. Subsequently, guests voted for one of four charities to receive the funds. A total of $6,870 was raised, with the proceeds distributed among the charities based on the votes received.
Reflecting on the attendees’ enthusiasm, Dodkins remarked, “I think it was the total experience that shone through. By having people from across our businesses hands-on deliver every element, we provided a personal touch with real care and charm.” Dodkins said the event’s primary objective was to create a high-quality experience with their valued customers, establish their capabilities as a supplier, and build deeper personal relationships to help them be a better supplier in the future. “Feedback from guests all say that we certainly achieved this,” he says. “The next event will be bigger and better because those who have been will spread the word, and those who missed out won’t want to miss the next one!”
Images Courtesy of Arizona Contractor & Community
ARIZCC.COM
ARIZONA CONTRACTOR & COMMUNITY
602.282.4007 Marrsconstruction.com
Utilities Private / Municipal
Earth Work / Excavation
Paving
Marrsconstruction.com FORTY SIX
JULY AUG 2024
Back When
PHOENIX’S DANGLING PULLMAN ATTRACTION BILLY HORNER
I
n Territorial Arizona, having a railroad connection was vital to a city’s growth. Phoenix achieved this in 1887 when the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad connected to the Southern Pacific line at the town of Maricopa. But 15 years later, a southbound train traveling along these tracks created a horrific accident. In 1902, spring floodwaters on the Salt River unknowingly eroded the pylons supporting the railroad bridge that connected Tempe and Phoenix, a timber structure built in 1891. A few months later, on October 29, the bridge’s central span collapsed with a train hauling passengers and cattle from Phoenix. The locomotive, tender, and three freight cars plunged into the riverbed. According to The Arizona Republic, only one person and four cattle died. Another train from Mesa later arrived to pick up the stranded passengers, though two took temporary shelter at a nearby residence. A segment of the bridge remained upright with two Pullman passenger cars on
ARIZCC.COM
it, one damaged and dangling into space. The Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad took advantage of this spectacular sight to run a special train from Phoenix for those interested in viewing the accident’s remains. The two-hour excursion cost 50 cents. Although the accident destroyed the freight cars, the railroad repaired the locomotive and its tender. Remarkably, the original wooden bridge underwent repairs, and rail traffic was soon restored, according to the Tempe History Museum website. In 1905, the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad replaced the timber bridge with a steel structure. In 1910, the railroad merged with the Arizona Eastern Railroad, which built a sturdier reinforced steel-truss bridge with nine spans in 1912, the same year Arizona became a state. Locomotives still use it to cross the Salt River, but now it’s known as the Union Pacific Salt River Bridge.
Images Courtesy of Arizona Contractor
& Community
Below: Two passenger cars stranded on the Maricopa and Phoenix railroad line, 1902. Above: Advertisement to visit the wrecked Pullman cars on the Maricopa and Phoenix railroad line, 1902.
ARIZONA CONTRACTOR & COMMUNITY