THE WRIGHT TRACK SUMMER 2021 - Q3
EVERYDAY HEROES On Tuesday, August 17, flood waters from Tropical Depression Fred swept through Canton, NC, destroying the Chinquapin Bridge near the unincorporated community of Cruso. The North Carolina Department of Transportation assessed the damage after flood waters receded and realized that dozens of residents in the community were stranded across the banks of the river. Knowing that the bridge needed urgent emergency repairs, NCDOT called Wright Brothers to quickly fix the bridge and assist the stranded residents. In 40 hours they installed a footbridge, stabilized the damaged bridge, repaired it, and had it ready for traffic. The footbridge enabled those stranded across the river to cross during the reconstruction of the bridge, allowing them to reach muchneeded supplies. The full restoration of the bridge was completed by 9:30 on Saturday night, allowing emergency vehicles to cross a full day ahead of schedule.
To watch a video of NCDOT's Cameron Cochran discuss this repair in depth, visit: https://www.facebook.com/NCDOT/videos/35 6973396080758
COVID RESURGENCE BY STEPHEN WRIGHT As I write this article, I personally know more people suffering from COVID than any time since the virus came into our lives. Even more troubling is the fact the virus and its potential remedies have been weaponized by political ideology. It is so troubling when any “government official” speaks on COVID, I automatically assume there is a political agenda.
STEVE'S MESSAGE I BELIEVE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY MATTERS IN EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES. WE NEED TO USE ALL OF THE WEAPONS TO TRY AND REDUCE THE SPREAD OF THIS TERRIBLE VIRUS. THAT MEANS TESTING, QUARANTINING, SOCIAL DISTANCING, AND EVEN VACCINATION. . In Matthew 22:39, Jesus said the second Vaccines in general frighten many among greatest commandment is to “Love your us. When I was young tuberculosis, polio, neighbor as yourself”. In that passage we measles, and smallpox were all serious have to love ourselves first. How can we love threats. Today vaccines have all but ourselves if we are engaging in eradicated these diseases. I am vaccinated, unnecessarily risky behaviors? As it relates as are most of the leadership. I write this to COVID, taking a political position on a message to encourage you to consider science issue is not loving yourself. We have being vaccinated as it is now approved by a responsibility to “love” our families, our the FDA. No doubt people are contracting coworkers, and our neighbors. So please the virus after being vaccinated. However I quit thinking it wont happen to you, you and have seen several articles supporting the yours are above the common sense conclusion that those with the vaccine fare guidelines, get vaccinated, when you have better than those without when they symptoms quarantine, don’t send you kids contact it. to school sick or if they have been exposed to the virus. Quit denying the obvious. Please do your part to help us all get through this.
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CARING TEAM BY KELLY ROAN As you might know, The Caring Team and newly formed Ministry Team joined together to send Wright Brothers kids to camp this summer. Our original goal and budget was 12 kids and $5,000.00. The HR office sent out the information with paychecks on a Thursday and by the next morning, several of your colleagues had already emailed to show their interest in having their kids and grandkids participate.Here’s the good news, we didn’t turn a single child away! We were able to send or help send 18 children to different camps throughout the Southeast. Represented were Camp Cherokee just a half hour from the home office to elite soccer camps to several church camps in Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia and even a select ballet intensive. After all of that, we still left a few dollars on the table as our final total spent was $4,595.00. We definitely came in over the goal and under budget and are already looking forward to this project next summer – it’s true, we want to help send your child to camp!
The Caring Team Sent 18 Children to Different Camps Across the Southeast. We Couldn't Have Met This Goal Without YOU! This quarter we have funded 18 caring activities for a total of just over $36,000.00. This, of course, is made possible by the company match and our employees who believe in the mission and have joined with us to “Show the Love of Jesus through Caring.”
If you would like to join the effort and are not yet donating to the Caring Fund, please complete the form below and return to a Caring Leader, Kelly Roan (kroan@wbcc.com) or HR. The company matches your donation dollar for dollar to fund needs that make a positive impact in the lives around us. Are you ready to make a difference? Print Name
YES! I WOULD LIKE TO DONATE TO THE CARING FUND
Signature
I would like to commit $5/Week I would like to commit to $_____/Week
Employee #
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Contruction Contruction Update Update
Project proposals for the next month have been filed and ready for further
budgeting preparations. The Macon projects were constructed on an aggressive design-build schedule, with vertical clearances to be achieved by June 30, 2020. Pio Nono Avenue (SR 247/US41) over Norfolk Southern, above). JOB #01-0589
MACON-BIBB COUNTY DESIGN BUILD BRIDGES
Owner: GDOT
Final Construction of College Street over Norfolk Southern RRT design incorporated reclaimed brick from the original structure as decorative panels on the barrier walls. Other aesthetic elements included a brick paver slope, ornamental fencing, a special design bus station, and two display panels that describe the significance of the bridge and railroad in Macon.
Earlier this year, the Design-Build Team of Wright Brothers Construction and Neel-Schaffer, Inc. completed this design-build GDOT project to replace the bridges on Pio Nono Avenue and College Street over Norfolk Southern Railway. The original Pio Nono Avenue Bridge, built in 1976, and the original College Street Bridge – a historic structure at over 125 years in age – served as key connectors to state ports for rail freight. The replacements were necessary to provide adequate vertical clearance to accommodate doublestack rail cars on the Norfolk Southern Railway. The College Street viaduct was demolished to provide clearance by June 14, 2020 and was reopened to traffic on November 25, 2020.
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PIO NONO AVENUE The Pio Nono Avenue project consisted of the demolition and replacement of the existing bridge superstructure and reconstruction of the urban intersection with Roff Avenue. The vertical clearance was increased by building up the existing bent caps and utilizing a new cored slab superstructure. The existing roadway and signalized intersection were raised in the vicinity of the bridge in order to accommodate the new bridge elevation. An outage for the highvoltage power distribution lines was coordinated during the closure period so that Wright Brothers was able to complete the demolition and reconstruction without relocation of any overhead utilities.
Demolition, re-construction, and opening of the new Pio Nono Avenue bridge was completed in only 25 days using accelerated bridge construction methods and materials. The bridge was reopened to traffic on June 2, 2020.
COLLEGE STREET The College Street project required the complete demolition and replace ment of the existing historic brick arch structure over the Northern Southern Railway. Significant utility coordination occurred in order to raise the AT&T fiber optic line and keep it active throughout construction. To complete demolition of the arch, Norfolk Southern allowed only one 12 hour track outage, so significant prep work was completed prior to the outage period. In addition to the Railroad’s vertical clearance requirements, the horizontal clearance was increased to accommodate a second track line and crashwalls at each end of the bridge. Wright Brothers and Neel-Schaffer design a 35’ CIP wall that utilized tie-back anchors and soil nail walls to support the bridge end bents and meet the crashwall requirement.
JOB #01-0589
CONSTRUCTION
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MACON BIBB COUNTY, GA
AWARDS FOR THIS PROJECT “Category 9 - Design-Build” Award for the SR 247/Pio Nono Ave Bridge Replacement over Norfolk Southern RR in Macon, GA received at the Annual Georgia Partnership for Transportation Quality (GPTQ) Preconstruction Design Awards during the 26th Annual Georgia Transportation Summit held on March 30, 2021. The GPTQ Preconstruction Design Awards recognize engineering teams and firms for exemplary work, innovation and ingenuity in transportation and infrastructure projects across the state of Georgia.
“Quality of Life/Community Development, Small Project” Award from the Southern Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (SASHTO) as part of the annual America’s Transportation Awards (ATA) competition. Georgia DOT’s Macon-Bibb County DesignBuild Bridges project took top honors in the competition, tying for first place out of 80 projects nominated by 35 different state DOTs. The award was presented at the SASHTO annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. Congratulations to: Elvin Calvo Ethan Brown Jose Soto Chris Brown Cesar Villavazo Josh Reeser Darwin Rivas Hunter Pachman Jose Rosario Hunter Bates Andy Johnson Juan Estrada
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Contracting Contracting Cell 10B was recently certified by SDHEC and Republic plans to begin filling the cell with MSW this week. This Cell will give Project proposals for the next month the landfill almost two years of additional airspace.
have been filed and ready for further
U P Sbudgeting T A T E Lpreparations. ANDFILL CELL 10B In Enoree, South Carolina, Republic Services operates the Upstate Landfill that services the areas South of Greenville and Spartanburg and disposes of approximately 3,000 tons of waste per day. In February 2021, Wright Brothers Contracting was chosen to construct Cell 10B at the landfill. It is an 8.1 acre MSW landfill cell that included 182,000 CY of cut to fill, 1,305 LF of 8” HDPE leachate pipe installation, 3,000 LF haul road construction, and 1,200 LF of liner tie-in.
JOB #02-0307
Construction of Cell 10B began in mid-March 2021 with Corey Steed as the Superintendent of the site.To meet production and schedule, two spreads were mobilized onsite to excavate the 182,000 CY in two months. This allowed for clay placement to begin in mid-May and HDPE liner deployment to start the first of June. Several unexpected rock pinnacles were encountered during excavation.Despite the hurdle, Corey and his crew did an excellent job keeping this project ahead of schedule throughout the entire construction process. And in doing so, his crew and Wright Brothers has earned high praise from the Republic Staff and Management.
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IInnd duussttrriiaall The Industrial brand, like much of the nations, has faced new challenges. With hard work, and the help of the Lord, we will continue to meet these head-on and exceed our goals.
COATINGS UPDATE The coatings division recently started a citywide fire hydrant project for Cleveland Utilities, that involves almost 1,100 fire hydrants throughout the city and county. There are over 3,000 hydrants in the Cleveland Utilities water system that extends to the county line in many directions. This is a multiyear project. We have also completed over 40 smaller to medium sized coatings projects since January of this year. We were selected to manage an electrical outage at Beiersdorf in Cleveland that stopped the plant’s production, due to burnt and severed underground electrical supply. With the help of Southern Industrial Services, this Roofing and coatings at Olin, led by Tom project was completed in a week with Graham, has completed several roofing restoration of 17,000-volt service back to the projects. They are currently leading a plant. large coatings project at the Charleston, TN facility.
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Training Training SIMULATOR BY CHRIS REVAMP CALANDRINO To better meet the needs of the business, Training & Development has been hard at work revamping the Equipment Simulator Trailer to provide a better learning environment. Prior to the modification, the trailer provided simulated operator equipment training/assessments for the dozer, truck and excavator. With our business continuing to evolve, we needed to create a more versatile learning environment when training on job sites. In addition to providing simulated seat time, which along with actual hands-on learning are the best methods, the simulator will now also provide access to live streaming videos on a variety of topics. This will provide a great visual of the "how" and "why" specific tasks. We now cover many of the facets of the business while also providing equipment simulator training as intended.
New & Improved Our sim trailer has been gutted, rewired, painted and cleaned up for better presentation for YOU - our most valued assets! Better Tech We have more space to instruct from and the system is linked to the network to provide live video streams and presentations. We can now show videos to an operator about Site grading, Calculating Slope ratios, Site Safety Leadership Training Having live streaming videos opens up the scope of training to management level. Foremen and above can now view content on "Conflict Management" or "How to Effectively Lead Crews."
Want to schedule the simulator at your jobsite? Contact Chris Calandrino ccalandrino@wbcci.com 423-421-3501
Special thanks to Mario Nunez and Will Ollis for making it happen.
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Safety Safety Spotlight Spotlight
Project proposals for the next month have been filed and ready for further budgeting preparations. Cody Jett shares the success story of the VEST CI Team's revamp of the Weekly Safety Meeting.
SAFETY FOCUS: COMPLACENCY What is complacency and how does it affect work sites? When you begin to work on “auto-pilot” mode and stop paying attention to what you are doing, that can lead to taking short cuts and taking risks.
Stop. Plan for your safety. Don't drop your guard.
When working on routine, repetitive tasks, or driving to familiar sites, you can become very comfortable and you go on “auto-pilot." All too often you do not realize how complacent you have become until you have a near miss or close call. Complacency causes a sense of numbness to hazards, so one becomes used to things being done the same way. You become unaware of the hazards in your surroundings. Take time to take these steps against complacency:
Think. Are you using all safety equipment and are you using it correctly?
Act Safely. Commit to the safe and proper way of doing the job.
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safety culture initiative
VALUES • EQUALITY• SOLUTIONS • TOGETHER
SAFETY SPOTLIGHT
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ISSUE Q321
Bryson Riddle Receives the Excellence Coin for his heroic actions which promoted safety on the jobsite.
Steve Wright presents Turner Touchstone with the Excellence Coin for his work promoting a safe environment on the jobsite.
The conference room. One wall features the tongue-in-groove wood feature.
SAFETY SPOTLIGHT
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ISSUE Q321
Intern Ross Ledford returned to work with us again this year and we were so proud to have him back in the Paving Division. Ross is a senior at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, working toward a degree in Construction Science.
2021 SUMMER INTERNS Wright Brothers understands the importance of teaching and training the workforce of the future. To show our dedication, WBC has developed a comprehensive Internship Program for high school and college students who are interested in our industry. This year we had three interns return to WB for the summer (featured on this page). This year it was tough recruiting interns due to COVID-19, many schools did not even host career fairs on their campuses. Despite this, we were proud to educate these ten incredible interns.
Jaden McCullough/Industrial Cleveland, TN University of Huntsville-Alabama Mechanical Engineering Class of 2023
Tanner Triplett/Paving Signal Mountain, TN University of Alabama-Huntsville Aerospace Engineering Class of 2023 13
Thundur Roberts/Construction (611) Whitwell, TN University of Tennessee, Chattanooga Engineering Management Class of 2021 Toren Beck/Contracting (305) Cleveland, TN University of Tennessee, Chattanooga Civil Engineering Class of 2022
Riley Calandrino/Marketing Cleveland, TN Tennessee Wesleyan University Marketing Class of 2021
Jonah Hetrick/Construction (595) Brentwood, TN Western Carolina University Construction Management Class of 2022
Jared Spradlin/Construction (611) Chickamauga, GA University of Tennessee, Chattanooga Engineering Technology/ Construction Management Class of 2022
Elliot Wells/Construction (595) Waynesville, NC Western Carolina University Construction Science Class of 2024
Joelee Fugate/Estimating Cleveland, TN University of Alabama - Huntsville Civil Engineering Class of 2022 14
Mrs. Anne Wright (r), pictured here with her daughter Teresa. Mrs. Wright was a founding member of the incredible company we know today, she will be terribly missed.
IN MEMORIAM Anne Wright, 88, one of the founders of Wright Brothers, passed away peacefully from this earth the evening of August 26, 2021, at her daughter's, Teresa Gale, home here in Charleston. She was a vital part of this company and has worked in almost every classification. In the early years, she would move from job to job with James and escort the equipment all over the south. She had some great stories about very narrow bridges and very large pieces of equipment getting over them. There are rumors, that at times she even painted some of the construction signs. She worked at State Farm for several years when Wright Brothers started to help pay the bills of the company and feed the founders till it could be self-sufficient. She also worked in the office and for many years did the payroll and would keep up with any benefits. Most would describe Anne as a sweet, gentle, compassionate, southern Christian lady. She will be greatly missed here on earth, but we know Heaven was happy to welcome her home.
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CHAPLAIN'S CHAPLAIN'S CORNER CORNER BY CHAPLAIN DONNIE JENKINS
RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW A few months ago while on the job site, I met
CHAPLAIN DONNIE 1-877-322-2427 EXT 5016 DJENKINS@CHAPLAIN.ORG I shared with him that in order for a person to turn his hopelessness into hopefulness he needs to commit his life to Christ. God cannot fully reveal His purpose and plan to a person until he is willing to commit his life to Him.
a young man and his friend from another company as they were taking break at the site. I introduced myself and shared with them my role at Wright Brothers. They didn't know what a chaplain was. So I explained the function of my role, and told them if I could
"Would you like to commit your life to Christ?" I asked him.
be of assistance, they were free to pull me aside to talk anytime when I’m site.
He looked taken aback, but I loved his response to my question. “You mean, right here, right now?”
Within a couple of weeks, one of the gentleman approached me. He shared with me how he felt as though his life had no purpose, and how it wasn't going anywhere. He asked me if I might have some insight into this anguish he was feeling. I asked him what role God played in his life? He answered that he '"knew about the Lord, but that he didn't really know Him personally."
Right here. Right now. In that moment, that young man devoted his life to Christ. It only took an open conversation to make him realize what he was looking for. By accepting Jesus in his heart, he found his purpose and his life was no longer wayward.
"IN ORDER FOR A PERSON TO TURN HIS HOPELESSNESS INTO HOPEFULNESS HE NEEDS TO COMMIT HIS LIFE TO CHRIST."
S E N D Y O U R C V A N D P O R T F O L I1O 5 S TO CAREERS@JENKINS.COM 15
We love our Wright Brothers annual picnic, and this year would have been extra special because of our 60th Anniversary. However, we love our Wright Brothers family, and all of its members, much more. Because we care about the health and wellbeing of everyone, and due to the rise in the number of cases of COVID-19 among all age groups in recent weeks, we feel we must cancel our September picnic, at least for now. Hopefully, this will only be for a little while, and we'll all be able to be together soon.
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