New England 25 December 11, 2019

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The Hoosac Mountain, a 16-mi.-long spur of Vermont’s Green Mountains. It ranges up to 2,400 ft. above sea level and is a terrific roadblock.

Too high and steep for horse-drawn wagons to cross, it see HOOSAC page 4

Boutin & Sons Construction, W.I. Clark Continue Special Long-Time Relationship The third generation of the Boutin family recently took the helm of Boutin & Sons Construction. But this time around, it’s a daughter who is running the show, following the death in January 2019 of Ray Boutin, second-generation president and father of Corrine Boutin.

The entire staff of Boutin & Sons Construction is very appreciative of LeeBoy and W.I. Clark Company’s thoughtfulness in honoring Ray Boutin.

Despite having worked at the company since she was 20 years old, the shoes Corrine was set to step into were pretty big ones, and the task at hand seemed daunting.

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I was nervous,” she said.

“I was afraid that people see BOUTIN page 14

Page 2 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

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Construction Equipment Guide • New England States Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 11, 2019 • Page 3

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Page 4 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

Cast Iron ‘Contraption’ Fails Early on During Project

With an estimated price tag of $2 million, the tunneling project was expected to eat up five years and millions of pounds of rock.

HOOSAC from page 1

required travelers and merchants to go around the south end of the range for passage. This was an expensive and time-consuming detour that frustrated everyone because their destination was just over there, less than 5 mi. away.

In response to this general grievance, the construction of a tunnel was proposed in

1819, possibly for a canal. The idea was shelved fairly quickly. In 1841, the scheme was taken down from the shelf and dusted off with the tunnel this time proposed as a way for railroad traffic to move east and west. With an estimated price tag of $2 million, the tunneling project was expected to eat up five years and millions of pounds of rock. (In the end, more than 2 million tons of

aggregate was excavated.)

Tunneling began in earnest in 1851.

Hopes for success were buoyed by the arrival of a huge device at the tunnel’s eastern terminus designed especially for the task: Charles Wilson’s patented stone-cutting machine. The cast-iron “contraption,” as some historians pejoratively describe it, was built in South Boston by Richard Munn &

Company. Weighing 75 tons, the revolutionary machine was set up for a trial run a few feet south of the actual tunnel entry point.

The machine was supposed to carve a ring 24 ft. in diameter, 13 in. wide and up to 8 ft. deep, whereupon it would be pulled back and black powder explosives implanted to see HOOSAC page 6

Construction Equipment Guide • New England States Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 11, 2019 • Page 5

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Page 6 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

Air Compressory Machines Used to Power Equipment

HOOSAC from page 4

loosen the material inside the ring. Then it would be moved forward and the process repeated. The mechanical stone-cutter reportedly was powered by a 100-hp steam engine.

Wilson’s contraption went to work and chewed its way into the mountainside for all of 10 ft. before failing. To be charitable, some historians claim it moved 12 ft. into the mountain before either becoming wedged there or falling apart — accounts differ. In any case, the device was stopped some 25,000 ft. short of completing a trip through the nearly 5-mi.wide mountain. The carcass of the dead machine remained in its hole for many years.

Hoosac Tunnel expert Chuck Cahoon was asked recently if the Wilson stone-cutting machine is on display today in some museum. “It is not,” he said. “About the time of the first World War, it was scrapped for its iron. It had more value as scrap than as a piece of history.”

Cahoon believes three machines of more or less the same design were constructed, Wilson’s being the first. While it was a spectacular failure, it deserves some credit for taking on a literally very hard task. The Hoosac Mountain’s east base is comprised of quartz and granite gneiss rock that defies easy penetration.

Sketch of Charles Wilson’s patented stone-cutting machine, an early attempt at developing a tunnel boring machine.

“It’s some of the hardest rock known,” Cahoon said, noting that the Hoosac is a remnant of mountains that once ranged far higher, monuments of sediment that over the eons were compressed hard and then harder still. “That stuff was packed over years and years and years.”

Would Wilson’s machine have succeeded had the rock been less dense? “I’m not sure,” Cahoon admitted. “It might have gone a little farther, but not a whole lot.” Three years after Wilson’s failure, another engineer-inventor, Herman Haupt, tried to surpass him with a machine of his own design. Alas, it is said to have penetrated a foot or less before

failing.

Cahoon became involved with the history of the tunnel in 1973, exactly one hundred years after the tunnel eventually was completed. “I wanted to put on a centennial celebration of the tunnel, and I’ve been at it ever since,” he said. His involvement is a chief reason the town of North Adams, near where the tunnel exits the east side of the mountain, is home to a downtown museum as well as a tunnel-history display at the nearby Heritage State Park Museum. “The tunnel is the number one item in town, so it is part of the history of North see HOOSAC page 8

Construction Equipment Guide • New England States Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 11, 2019 • Page 7

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2012 National NBT45, 127’ Boom, Ball, Tag Axle, Eaton Fuller Trans, Peterbilt 365, 380HP, 7487 Hours, 53,399 Miles, stk10519..................................................$309,500

2009 Link-Belt HTC-8690, 35’ to 58’ Fly, 60-Ton Block, 10-Ton Ball, 2 Winches, 39,500 lb. Ctwt., 6,775 hours, stk10497 ............................................................$429,500

2014 National 1300A, 110’ Boom, 44’ Jib, Block, Peterbilt 348, 350HP, stk7639..........................................$249,500

2013 Link-Belt RTC-8065II, 35’-58’ fly, 8.5 ton ball, 40ton block, auxiliary lifting sheave, 5417 hours, stk7694 .. ..........................................................................$389,500

Page 8 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

Hoosac Tunnel Cost Approximately 200 Lives to Build HOOSAC from page 6

Adams, too.”

The 76-year-old retired mechanical designer said he appreciates the technical aspects of the tunneling process. Although the project dismally failed to meet its original completion date and cost estimates — it ultimately consumed more than 20 years and $20 million — and cost the lives of about 200 laborers, it literally and figuratively broke new ground in the engineering and construction of tunnels.

The early unsuccessful attempt to build lumbering mechanical devices for tunneling wasn’t foolish in hindsight. It just took more than a hundred years of refinement in technology and metallurgy for the concept of a tunneling machine to evolve into a practical piece of equipment.

Today, tunnel boring machines can weigh 1,000 tons or more and stretch up to 500 ft. long. They even have their own widely recognized abbreviation — TBM. The massive machines can dig through rock and soil at a rate of up to 50 ft. or more a day and futurist Elon Musk’s The Boring Company is promising its next generation model will be able to tunnel 300 ft. in 24 hours.

A rare look at the air compressing machinery used to power workers’ equipment during the building of the Hoosac Tunnel.

The conversion to compressed air technology is credited with spurring development of the modern pneumatic tool industry.

Pioneering Project In any event, the employment of machines wasn’t the only tunneling innovation introduced in the Hoosac project, which at the time of its completion was the longest tunnel in North America and the second longest in the world. The project was pioneering in several respects, considering: • In the beginning, laborers hand-punched holes in the Hoosac tunnel for insertion of black powder charges.

They pounded star drills into the rock using sledgehammers. The physically demanding job eventually gave way to steam-powered drills. However, the steam drills weren’t used too long, because the farther the tunnelers went from the entrance, the less effective the hosed-in

In the beginning, laborers hand-punched holes in the Hoosac tunnel for insertion of black powder charges.

Workers inside the mountain work together to advance the progress of the Hoosac Tunnel.

steam was as a power source.

• So, tunneling engineers switched to compressed air to power their mechanical drills. With them, they punched deeper holes for insertion of black powder.

This conversion by Hoosac engineers to drills running off compressed air is credited with spurring development of the modern pneumatic tool industry.

• Eventually, construction teams substituted nitroglycerin for black powder. That, too, was pioneering. see HOOSAC page 16

Diagram of the Hoosac Mountain, complete with east-west entry points for the tunnel as well as vertical shaft openings for ventilation and alignment.

Construction Equipment Guide • New England States Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 11, 2019 • Page 9

Construction Equipment Guide • New England States Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 11, 2019 • Page 11

Page 10 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

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Page 12 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

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Page 14 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

Third-Generation Family Paving Company Thrives in Conn.

BOUTIN from page 1

consistently lay down a good mat that will keep our customers satisfied,” Corrine said. “Our whole operation relies upon the performance of a single paver — if that paver goes down, we are essentially out of business, so we never keep a paver long enough to take that risk.”

On top of everything else that Corrine had to deal with the first year of running the family business on her own, 2019 was the year to replace the paver.

“There was never really any question of what paver we would be purchasing,” she said. “For as long as I have been in the business, we have only run LeeBoy pavers. We have always purchased new pavers and for the previous two, The W.I. Clark Company was our local dealer and Greg Hurlburt our sales representative.”

Hurlburt had known Ray Boutin well and had admired his work for a long time. Growing up, Hurlburt’s grandfather had been a competitor of Ray’s and had to reluctantly admit that Ray and his crew was one of the few in the area that could lay down a mat that was consistently as smooth as his grandfather’s.

would not have confidence in my abilities, and I had all winter for that to get into my head. The reality is that the way my dad brought me up, I had no option to give up and once the spring season came and we started our projects, it became very evident that everything was going to be okay. However, it would not have been possible without the support of my employees, who were behind me 100 percent of the way.”

Boutin & Sons Construction was founded in 1955

by Corrine’s grandfather, Gerry Boutin. Gerry started out making masonry blocks and building blocks progressed into building septic systems. The suburbs of the Hartford area were growing rapidly, and Gerry was quite involved in working in some of the rapidly expanding developments. One of the local Jim Harkins (R), LeeBoy territory manager, presents Corrine Boutin developers suggested that it might be a really good a photograph of the Lee family with her paver at the LeeBoy factory. idea if they expanded their business into residential paving. Gerry took the advice and eventually he and his son, Ray, found themselves transitioning their company into focusing exclusively on the paving trade.

Over the years, Boutin & Sons Construction developed the reputation of being the premier paving contractor in the Hartford area.

“Around here if you see a 20-year-old driveway that still looks pretty good, it’s a good bet that it was built by Boutin & Sons,” said Greg Hurlburt of The W.I. Clark Company. “They have a reputation for getting it right the first time and on the rare occasion that they do not get it right they immediately come back and fix it.”

Today, the company has seven men on its paving crew, with some of them having been on board for 40-plus years.

A part of the philosophy that has been the stock and trade of Boutin & Sons Construction has been a commitment to keeping its pavers well-maintained and Posing with the LeeBoy 8515E paver at the factory in North Carolina before it shipped (L-R) are Keith Lee, Tommy Weese, Eric replacing them about every three years.

“A properly maintained paver is going to Lee and Mike Lee.

Greg Hurlburt, W.I. Clark Company sales representative, provides training on the features of the new LeeBoy 8515E.

A Special Tribute Hurlburt wanted to do something special with the new paver when it came time for the order to be placed, in honor and memory of Ray Boutin. Hurlburt took the idea to Jim Harkins, his factory representative with LeeBoy, and Harkins, in turn, took the idea to his bosses at LeeBoy. All were receptive to the idea: a memorial plaque that would be mounted on the side of the new LeeBoy 8515E as it was being assembled at LeeBoy’s facility in Charlotte, N.C. Hurlburt presented this idea to Corrine, who was greatly moved by the thoughtfulness of the gesture, and on Nov. 12, 2019, see BOUTIN page 18

On the day it was delivered, the new 8515E paver heads off to its first job site.

Construction Equipment Guide • New England States Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 11, 2019 • Page 15

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Page 16 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

Workers Cut Through ‘Some of the Hardest Rock’ Known HOOSAC from page 8

Such use of nitro is considered a first for a civil engineering project. The project’s resident engineer also introduced electrical firing of nitro.

According to Cahoon, the majority of the tunnel’s length was created after engineers switched to pneumatic power and nitroglycerin. “When the Hoosac tunnelers started, they didn’t have the machinery or the knowhow to do it, so they sort of invented things on the spot, tried new things and it kept getting better and better.”

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Tunnel Innovations Keep Coming Tunneling proceeded simultaneously at the east and west entrances into Hoosac Mountain. This dual penetration expedited the work but created a problem: What assurance was there that the separate tunnels would come together in the middle? Global positioning systems and laser alignment tools were not even dreamt of in the 1850s.

To align his tunneling teams, civil engineer Thomas Doane devised a system where survey towers were built upon consecutive high points atop the Hoosac. The towers were perfectly aligned with the tunnel route far below. An engineer using a surveyor’s transit would sight to a colleague at the entrance of the tunnel, who in turn would transfer the reading to a plumb bob hanging from the tunnel ceiling. The sightings were checked repeatedly.

If this was not the first instance of longdistance alignment, it certainly was a Herculean application of the principle. In the end, the tunneling crews came within 9/16 of an inch of joining the tunnel walls perfectly.

Nine-sixteenths of an inch! Cahoon says the feat compares favorably to shooting at a dime 2.5 miles away and hitting it.

To more efficiently carve out the tunnel, work crews instituted what they called a “center cut” system. The steam-powered and then pneumatic drills would sink a line of horizontal holes about six feet apart in the face of the tunnel. A set of vertical holes would connect the end of each horizontal line. All the holes veered toward the center of this holing. The ensuing nitroglycerin blast would create a pie-shaped void in the center of the face. Subsequent explosions collapsed material into the center cut void, speeding the process.

Midway between the two tunnel ends, Hoosac engineers sank a shaft more than 1,000 ft. to the grade level of the tunnel. The hole was 14 ft. wide and 27 ft. long, a massive and dangerous undertaking. The shaft

eventually would ventilate the tunnel. More immediately, two plumb lines were suspended in it to transfer the mountain-top alignment of the tunnel to the tunnel level far below. Eventually a dome was built above the tunnel bottom and 25 ft. of fill was dumped to eventually protect tracks from falling rocks and water. Two small ventilation shafts circumvented the dome of dirt and entered the tunnel from the sides.

A similar but shorter vertical shaft was sunk near the west end of the tunnel to help crews work through rubbly stone. Each vertical shaft also let crews work outward on the tunnel toward incoming work crews, thus multiplying the digging effort and hastening the work. Cahoon said that as far as he knows, this was the first instance of multiface tunneling.

The historic construction of the Hoosac Tunnel once was a subject of national conversation and the talk of the world’s foremost engineers. It was considered a remarkable accomplishment, albeit a long-drawnout and deadly one. That comes with pioneering, too. “But the story is kind of being lost now, even here where the tunnel is on the town seal,” Cahoon stated. “As time goes on, it becomes less and less known.”

The tunneling feat still is appreciated by people who understand the challenges overcome in accomplishing it. Cahoon tells of an inspector from the U.S. Bureau of Mines who visited a quarry in Adams a few miles away, heard about the Hoosac Tunnel and drove over to the museum. After examining the literature and perusing the exhibits, the man told Cahoon that he had worked on many tunnels under the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. In one case, a tunnel somewhat longer than Hoosac’s had been constructed using the latest navigational techniques and technologies. The result? His crew missed the target by 18 in. The Hoosac civil engineers’ 9/16 of an in. error certainly holds up well after all these years.

In Cahoon’s opinion, it was all worth it — the years of labor, millions of dollars spent and even the lives lost. “It provided the incentive for all the inventing and pioneering work that occurred, and the tunnel still is being used today,” he said.

Not only is it still being used, it’s being enlarged. The ceiling of the tunnel currently allows 20-ft.-high auto carriers to rumble through. Government funding is being sought to grind off the ceiling so that it is 22.5 ft. above the tracks, which will allow double-stack container cars to use the tunnel.

The Hoosac Tunnel story isn’t complete yet.  CEG

Construction Equipment Guide • New England States Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 11, 2019 • Page 17

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Page 18 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

NEW ENGLAND SUPPLEMENT ADVERTISER INDEX

Able Tool & Equipment Earns Wacker Neuson Sales Award

ARGUS INDUSTRIAL COMPANY.................................... 1 ASTRO CRANE.............................................................. 12 BARRY EQUIPMENT CO. INC....................................... 17 BULLETIN BOARD..........................................................12 CHADWICK-BAROSS INC..............................................20 DOOSAN NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND...................... 13 EQUIPMENT EAST........................................................ 1,5 FAY & WRIGHT EXCAVATING INC................................ 12 FOLEY INC - WORCESTER............................................ 1 GORILLA HAMMERS........................................................1 H O PENN MACHINERY CO INC.................................... 9 HOLIDAY CENTER SPREAD.................................... 10,11 J R VINAGRO CORPORATION........................................1 M G EQUIPMENT............................................................ 1 MUSTANG MFG.............................................................. 16 R J POIRIER HEAVY EQUIPMENT................................12 ROGERS BROTHERS CORPORATION........................ 19 SUMMIT SUPPLY LLC...................................................... 1 T-QUIP SALES & RENTAL INC...................................... 15 THE N.I.C.E. COMPANY................................................ 15 THE W. I. CLARK COMPANY.......................................... 2 TYLER EQUIPMENT CORPORATION............................ 3 WOODS CRW CORP........................................................7 The Advertisers Index is printed as a free editorial service to our advertisers and readership. Construction Equipment Guide is not responsible for errors or omissions.

Able Tool & Equipment, distributor of construction equipment in Connecticut and Massachusetts, received Wacker Neuson’s compact equipment sales award at the North American Dealer Meeting. (L-R) are Alexander Greschner, chief sales officer, Wacker Neuson; Jared Filo, independent accounts manager, Wacker Neuson; Derek Bauer, owner, Able Tool & Equipment; and Martin Lehner, chief executive officer, Wacker Neuson.

“This award is a testament to a lot of hard work from our employees and it helps to have some really super customers. Wacker Neuson has had an aggressive growth plan and we’ve certainly benefitted from their strong brand and successes in the field,” Bauer said.

W.I. Clark Honors Company Founder With Special Plaque BOUTIN from page 14

the new LeeBoy 8515E was delivered to Boutin & Sons Construction Company prepped and ready to go to work.

Harkins and Hurlburt were both present to not only give the paving crew a quick update on new features of the 8515E model that they were not familiar with, but also to present Corrine with a photograph of the Lee family posing with her paver as it came off the assembly line.

The founding family of A plaque honoring the memory of Ray Boutin is LeeBoy had taken a personal mounted on the LeeBoy 8515E paver. interest in the Boutin story Company gives us tremendous support. To and wanted to express their appreciation.

“This was a very special day for all of us see this level of caring and compassion from at Boutin & Sons,” Corrine said. “Buying both The W.I. Clark Company and LeeBoy LeeBoy pavers has always been an easy takes it to a whole new level. All of us at decision for us. There is no other paver in its Boutin & Sons express a great big thank you size category that even comes close to their to everyone who was involved in honoring quality and technology, and The W.I. Clark my dad with this special paver.” 

Construction Equipment Guide • New England States Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • December 11, 2019 • Page 19

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Page 20 • December 11, 2019 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • New England States Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide

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