VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5
$5.99 Sep-Oct 2020 Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community. . . Then & Now
B.L. Gustafson: Arizona’s prolific Road Builder McArthur’s Arizona Biltmore: the Jewel of the Desert Concrete Does Float: The U.S. Navy’s WWII Fleet Five Best Tech Opportunities for Construction Rushia Fellows, AIA: Courageous Community Leader
Arizona’s Timeless Magazine
The Inside Track On Central Phoenix’s Murphy Bridle Path
Porter & andy Womack: Brothers & Mid-Century Contractors
Solterra Materials: Solid as Granite
CHASSE Updates Valley Schools
Overlooked Environmental Hazard Halts $12 Million Project
Johnson Carlier Talks COVID-19
Ground Level Takes Down Terminal 2
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Contributors James Logan Abell, FAIA Alison Bailin Batz Mint chocolate Michael Bernstein chip ice cream Tom Harrison Jason Krankota Helton Brewing Co.’s Tom Pickrell Northeastern IPA New television with Doug Sydnor a wall bracket Two cases of Capo Creek Rose from Sonoma
Production Manager Laura Horner A hottub... coming fall 2020 laura@arizcc.com Publisher’s Representative Trail running Barry Warner shoes barry@arizcc.com In Memoriam Charles “Chuck” Runbeck 1928 - 2020 Advertising 602-931-0069 arizcc.com/advertise Subscriptions: Online at arizcc.com Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community… Then & Now Arizona Contractor & Community (ACC) magazine is published bi-monthly (Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec). ACC is a professional publication designed for the contracting industry, engineers, architects, equipment rentals, suppliers, and others interested in Arizona and its history. Content including text, photographs or illustrations may not be reproduced without the written permission from the publisher. The publisher does not assume responsibility for unsolicited submissions. ACC reserves the right to reject any editorial and advertising material and reserves the right to edit all submitted content material. Arizona Contractor & Community Copyright © 2020 All rights reserved.
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Contents 8 10
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“TELL US WHAT YOU NEED AND WE WILL WORK WITH YOU TO MAKE IT HAPPEN”
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YEARS IN BUSINESS SINCE 1984
480-641-3500 480-641-3500 480-641-3500
BELLY DUMP-SUPER 16-END DUMP-LOW BOY SIDE DUMP-EXCAVATOR-LOADER-GRADER
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Contributors - Michael Bernstein & Tom Pickrell From The Editor - Concrete Does Float Douglas Towne Construction Around Arizona: Projects • People • Practices Back When - Contractors Clean Up Douglas Towne B.L. Gustafson: Adept with Horses and Horsepower Douglas Towne Albert Chase McArthur’s Arizona Biltmore: The Jewel of the Desert - James Logan Abell, FAIA Porter “P.W.” Womack: Powerhouse Constructor in Phoenix - and Beyond - Tom Pickrell
Andy Womack: the Rodeo Clown Who Helped Build Phoenix - Tom Pickrell
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Building on the Past - 1948: Equestrian Promenade
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Architect’s Perspective - Rushia Glen Fellows, AIA: Courageous Community Leader - Doug Sydnor, FAIA
Digging Through the Archives - Joe Roybal William Horner
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Bid Results
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Advertising Index
Front Cover - A Valley Bank groundbreaking ceremony with bank president Walter Bimson sitting on the tractor and Porter Womack second from left, 1955. Inset - Ad for Andy Womack’s biggest subdivision, Stardust Skies. six
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Michael Bernstein Article on page 29
Tom Pickrell Articles on pages 42 & 46
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ike Bernstein has semi-retired from the environmental consulting industry after a 34-year career editing reports, performing Phase I Environmental Site Assessments, peer-reviewing other consultants’ Phase I reports, training young staff, and conducting asbestos building surveys. Understanding that he is only their temporary custodian, and mindful of his responsibility for having disturbed these natural treasures by removing them from their resting places, Mike hopes that the offer to donate his New Jersey fossil collection to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University will have been accepted by the time this issue of Arizona Contractor & Community is published. In 1985, he donated to the New Jersey State Museum the sea-turtle bones he found at the 1858 site of the world’s first dinosaur excavation in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Mike also hopes to become a dual national and spend some time in Berlin next year, pending approval of his application for German citizenship (Germany’s gesture of compensation for his mother’s flight in 1939 and the loss of her citizenship in 1941). Otherwise, Mike is still working part time, looking for local volunteer work, and frequently going out for breakfast. And to those Arizona retirees with age-related cataracts, Mike says that lens-replacement surgery instantly restored the clarity of his vision and his color perception. He highly recommends the surgery!
om Pickrell has deep Arizona roots through his paternal and maternal grandfathers, W.S. Pickrell and P.W. Womack, who grew up in Phoenix when Arizona was a territory. Stories told by his elders and his parents’ insistence that their children see the State’s treasures before venturing further kindled his interest in exploring Arizona. By chance, did you stay at the historic Hotel Morenci before it was demolished to expand the copper pit? A young Tom and his family did! He is known to walk excessively, having hiked across the Grand Canyon 10 times and summited Mount Rainer, Hood, and Whitney. Tom’s knees are now sore. Now, he is more avidly a photographer and can be seen walking or limping around in your town or on a trail, early in the morning, camera in hand, occasionally looking distracted by his surroundings. Images from his wanderings are at tompickrell.smugmug.com. Tom is a retired lawyer. He studied at the University of Arizona and the University of Leeds, England, and received his J.D. from Duke University. As general counsel for the Arizona School Boards Association and, later, Mesa Public Schools, he was involved in law and policy matters affecting public education for more than 30 years. He received the State Bar Association’s Public Lawyer Career Achievement Award in 2013.
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CONSTRUCTION & MAINTENANCE SERVICES » CRACK SEALING » SEALCOATING » ASPHALT REPAIRS » CHIP SEAL » MILLING/PULVERIZING
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A
s much fun as it is putting together Arizona Contractor & Community magazine every other month, sometimes it’s nice to take a break from the publication. Travel these days during the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge, but it wasn’t last fall when I sailed across Chesapeake Bay on a sailboat named Sirenian skippered by Mike Hollsten, an old friend from high school. Our initial crossing from Fort Monroe to Cape Charles on Virginia’s Eastern Shore was in what he termed “lumpy” waters, which at one point had me almost turning green. Sailing past mammoth container
From the editor: Concrete Does Float Douglas Towne ships, and with dolphins frolicking along- Shore to create a breakwater for the new side the boat, I mistakenly thought I was as ferry dock in 1949. The ferry initially linked far away from the magazine as I could be. Virginia Beach to Cape Charles starting in On the return voyage, Mike wondered the 1930s. The 85-minute trip across the if my wife and I would like to visit a former Chesapeake, however, was shortened by ferry terminus protected by some sunken 20 minutes with the new ferry terminus vessels that were constructed at Kiptopeke. Local lore sugwith an unusual shipbuilding These concrete ships gests the unusual vessels material: concrete. In a flash, as sites for clandesonce sailed the South doubled I was back into editor mode. tine parties back in the day. These vessels were built Pacific and participated The Kiptopeke ferry landduring World War II using in the D-Day invasion ing operated until the Chesferrocement, which used layapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel ers of wire and rebar mesh in concrete for opened in 1964. cohesion and to prevent cracks. The U.S. These concrete ships, which once Maritime Commission contracted for 24 sailed the South Pacific and participated in of these ships to transport supplies and the D-Day invasion, continue to be more troops, because of wartime steel short- than a fascinating historical footnote. Half ages. The vessels were named after con- submerged, they protect the beach at Kipcrete scientists and developers and built topeke State Park. Their slowly corroding by McClosky & Company in Tampa, Florida. hulls provide invaluable wildlife habitat for The shipyard quickly constructed the ships, shellfish and fish, and for birds such as corthough the process was labor-intensive. morants, gulls, osprey, and brown pelicans The vessels proved seaworthy, but high that nest among the plants that have operating costs and a sluggish 7-knot speed sprouted on their decks. Moreover, their influenced their relegation to surplus ingenuity proves concrete’s buoyancy, and after the war. also adds a little lift to our lives. Nine of the concrete ships Top: Concrete ships at Kiptopeke breakwater. were brought to Far left: Maureen Towne aboard the Sirenian, the Chesapeake being passed by the bulk carrier SBI Tango. and sunk in an Left: A bottlenose dolphin alongside the arc off Kiptopeke Sirenian. Below: Concrete ships at Kiptopeke on the Eastern
Images courtesy of Author
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Projects . PEOPLE . PRACTICES
CONSTRUCTION AROUND ARIZONA Projects
CONSTRUCTION AROUND ARIZONA
The 992 Caterpillar loader dumping part of the 30,000 yards of Terminal 2 concrete debris.
Gateway to the Skies for 58 Years Comes Down at Sky Harbor
T
he jet age arrived in Phoenix in 1962 with the opening of Terminal 2 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. However, the 330,000-square-foot terminal with 19 gates hasn’t kept up with advances in flight transportation and closed on February 4, 2020. Demolishing the terminal was a project handled by The Ground Level Co., a arizcc.com
family-owned and operated firm based in Mesa. The midcentury structure, however, didn’t come down without a struggle. “The concrete apron surrounding the terminal proved difficult because some areas were extremely strong and thick,” says Lincoln Johansen, Ground Level supervisor. “Others were soft and easily broken up.” Johansen explained that the hard areas were sections that were replaced over the years. The area had been excavated and had slurry poured in to stabilize the soft soil. “The concrete was poured on
top of this slurry even thicker than before.” “We were able to crush the concrete by dropping 10,000-pound steel shafts with Caterpillar 385 excavators,” he adds. “Once broken, the concrete was piled up with excavators. The 992 Caterpillar loader would scoop and transfer to the designated area for crushing and recycling.” According to Johansen, the 992 has several rebuilds of all its components and is still going strong at 55,000 hours. “The 992 is a beast, and we purchased it as a retired mining machine,” he says. “It’s not one that Arizona Contractor & Community
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CONSTRUCTION AROUND ARIZONA Projects
Images courtesy of Redrock Industrial Photography
L
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Top left: Layne operating the 992 loader moving asphalt millings. Top right: Cat 385 excavator removing concrete debris at Terminal 2. Below: A T-Panel prestressed concrete roof girder, later installed at Terminal 2, was cast at the Arizona Sand & Rock Co. plant at Seventh St. and the Salt River, and transported by the Reliance Truck Co., 1961. Right: The Phoenix created for Terminal 2 by Paul Coze, 1962. Image courtesy of Arizona Contractor & Community
ayne Johansen and his wife, Margaret, started The Ground Level Co. with only a dump truck and a single cat 225 excavator in Salt Lake City in 1980. Layne deduced that running the excavator made better money and sold the dump truck. He quickly grew his skillset with this machine and prospered until a recession in the late 1980s. His next job was in Arizona, excavating foundations for the I-10 freeway in Phoenix, just east the I-17 stack. The 300 support columns were all dug out first by Layne with this excavator to install drilled shafts. After 20 years of using 225, Layne expanded his fleet and business, including having his sons, Lincoln and Casidy, join him in the business. The company now has 19 CAT excavators ranging from 5130 to 300.9, five semi-trucks, multiple trailers, transport trailers to move equipment, and two loaders. But the 992 loader remains Layne’s favorite piece of machinery. “It’s a feather in his cap every time he gets to run it, as the machine reminds him of where his company is now compared to his humble beginning of a single excavator for decades,” Lincoln says. At age 68, Layne still is focused on his business, working with his employees. “He is a champion of this industry, and everyone that knows him knows they will get 100 percent no matter what,” Lincoln says.
stout. Terminal 2 was renovated many times over the years, so during the demo, there were multiple different buildings,” Johansen says. “The original concrete building was built around with heavy steel beams to bridge over and expand on top of.” Ground Level was a sub-contractor to BCS Enterprises, Inc of Mesa, which was a sub-contractor to Kiewit Western Co. of Phoenix. “BCS has played a big part in Ground Level’s success over the years, and we still work with them today,” Johansen says. But not all was lost in the demolition of Terminal 2. The Paul Coze mural “The Phoenix” was removed for relocation to the Rental Car Center.
Image courtesy of Sky Harbor
gets out to jobs too much, but it makes all the difference when it does.” On the Terminal 2 project, Ground Level used the 992 loader to move and pile up more than 30,000 yards of the concrete apron and 10,000 yards of asphalt millings. The loader accomplished this feat in only three-weeks time. “The 992 loader is an amazing piece of machinery that can still perform and will continue to do so as long as we own it, Johansen says. “It is a personal favorite of Layne’s [the company owner and father of Lincoln] and admittedly was purchased somewhat out of passion. He loves running it.” Besides the concrete apron, the building’s original skeletal structure was also
Ground Level Spotlight: Layne Johansen
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