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and Photo By DEBORAH A. MILESSome motorists traveling westbound on I-890 near Michigan Avenue in Schenectady have noticed a right-lane closure, construction vehicles, but no workers.
Bruce Samson (pictured), a civil engineer 1 with the state Department of Transportation, will tell you his crew is working, but 35 feet below ground.
What most people don’t know is the underground work — a massive drainage project — is taking place in a 1,800-foot tunnel, an undertaking that even this PEF member would hardly call typical.
The project carries a price tag of $2 million for a total makeover of the 57-year-old iron cave.
Inside the beast
“The metal pipes are rotting out,” Samson said, as he sloshed through about six inches of water.
He knows where leaks have sprung from rocks hitting the inside by forceful rushes of water. He describes the project as the culvert using up its life, and getting a new soul.
The reincarnation of the culvert isn’t easy. When it was initially built, 10 years before I-890, crews could work above ground, with open air around them.
“This originally was an old creek, and the culvert was in place before they built the highway,” Samson said.
This time, workers from Delaney Construction, whose work Samson inspects, are challenged by having to repair and reconstruct the dark and leaky tunnel from the inside.
“Everything has to be carried in. It’s done one piece at a time,” Samson said. “There’s no magic door to bring in the materials. It’s labor-intensive work.
“There is little ventilation inside, so running a gas-powered engine to haul things would only cause dangerous fumes.”
The crew is installing a new liner plate, which will decrease the diameter of the culvert. Then they will grout the annular space and pave the floor.
The targeted completion date is November 2008.
Samson said, “Hopefully, it will help hold I-890,” which sustained sinkholes as a result of the antiquated culvert.
As a DOT inspector, Samson’s role is to make sure the job is done right and to curb any failure that could cost people’s lives.
Safety first
Working underground heightens safety concerns. Before entering, workers must sign in, wear a hard hat with a flash light attached, safety glasses, a safety vest, gloves, fishing waders and rubber boots.
A guard is posted at each of the two tunnel entrances, who keeps tabs of how many people are in the hole and where they are located. The workers carry sophisticated two-way radios and a gas monitor.
Upon exiting, the waders and boots are rinsed with a chlorine solution and the gloves are discarded. Hands must be washed to avoid any contamination.
Samson, who oversees and inspects the project along with input from PEF member and DOT engineer-in-charge Craig Beauchaine, said Delaney Construction has an excellent safety program.
By any other name
At times, the water level can reach seven feet, almost touching the light bulbs strung along the top of the tunnel. The men who work in the sunless environment call one area “a rain forest.”
Whatever the crew nicknames the long catacomb, Samson said, “This is a behind-the-scenes project. A lot of people complain they don’t see any work being done. Maybe now they’ll realize another life is being built under the Electric City.