1. w
78 ucononline.com Underground Construction October 2015
What would you do if your drink-
ing water was discolored and your
water system was more than 100
years old? That is the question resi-
dents in the Town of Scituate, MA,
were faced with when they voted
in favor of a $22 million water pipe
replacement project in November
2013. Today, work continues on
the three-year project to update a
portion of the century-old water
supply system.
The Town of Scituate is located
in Plymouth County and is home
to 18,133 residents, according to
2010 U.S. Census Bureau figures.
The town sits on the Massachu-
setts South Shore and is approxi-
mately 25 miles southeast of Bos-
ton. It was settled 385 years ago
and today retains much of the Irish
ancestry that settled in the area.
As with many other older cities
in the Northeast region, Scituate
faces infrastructure challenges,
namely old underground utilities
that need to be updated. Residents
were in favor of updating their
water pipe system to improve the
water quality and appearance.
According to the Public Works
Department, the old water pipes
were installed between 1901 and
1935, and are made of unlined cast
iron. In summer months, sedi-
ment from the iron pipes causes a
phenomenon referred to as “brown
water.”
Scituate residents voted to
replace a 24-mile portion of the
aged system with an increase in
water rates and water enterprise
revenues. According to the town
website, the water division is
responsible for 100 miles of water
distribution system, 250 fire hy-
drants and 7,200 water meters.
Weston and Sampson Engineers
Inc., an engineering firm from
Peabody, MA, was contracted by
the Scituate officials to review in-
formation about the underground
pipes and valves. The town asked
the firm to confirm which pipes
needed to be replaced and recom-
mend the order in which the work
should be done and prepare the
final bid package for the first
phase. The plan was for the work
to begin in spring 2014 and to be
spread over three years.
Phase 1A of the water main
replacement project included con-
struction of approximately 3,500
feet of new 12-inch and 11,900 feet
of new 8-inch ductile iron water
main in town streets and neighbor-
hoods. The work included installa-
tion of a temporary water main and
services, replacement of all water
services, installation of hydrants
and water main abandonment.
Year2
Following one of the worst winters
on record in the northeast,
When A Town Had Enough Of Its
Brown Water
construction crews were eager to
get back to work this spring.
Employees of R&D Site Develop-
ment, a construction company
based in Groveland, MA, were hired
to complete a $3 million portion of
the water main replacement project
in 2015. According to Public Works
Director Kevin Cafferty, residents
would still have water while the
work continued, although some
road detours would be required.
While a relatively young compa-
ny that started in 2005, co-own-
ers Bill Daley and Steve Reppucci
have built a solid reputation for
themselves in Massachusetts. “We
started our business by doing small
construction sites and small utility
projects,” Daley says. “That got big-
ger and bigger over the years. Now
we do tens of thousands of feet a
year with water and soil projects.”
With 13 dedicated employees,
the company works April through
December, weather permitting.
Jobs like the water main replace-
ment for the Town of Scituate are
a good fit for R&D Site Develop-
ment, which specializes in install-
ing utilities for local municipali-
ties throughout Massachusetts.
Altogether, the company owns 50
pieces of specialized equipment
to best match the job at hand. The
company works with commercial
clients, local airports and munici-
palities to complete a variety of
projects.
According to Daley, the R&D
Site Development portion of the
2015 water main project includes
30,000 feet of water mains, hy-
drants and services. He says work
began in early May and took about
18 weeks to complete their por-
tion. The Town of Scituate is leav-
ing the existing water mains in the
ground, and Daley says his com-
pany is laying a new corridor with
new pipe.
Limitedworkroom
Like a lot of other cities in the
northeast, streets are narrow and
do not provide much room for two-
way traffic and parking, let alone

2. 79ucononline.comOctober 2015 Underground Construction
construction projects. The town re-routed traffic
while Daley, Reppucci and their crew performed
their underground construction tasks. Daley
says they started with a four-foot-wide trench
cut through the asphalt road. A Doosan DX-
235LCR reduced tail swing excavator, purchased
earlier in 2015 from the local Doosan heavy
equipment dealer, Equipment East, was instru-
mental in efficiently excavating dirt from the
trench. The 25.4-metric-ton crawler excavator
has a maximum dig depth of 21 feet 10 inches,
and a maximum reach of 31 feet 7 inches.
With Reppucci seated inside the excavator
cab at the controls, he removed soil from the
trench and left the spoil pile next to it. One area
where R&D Site Development worked in 2015
was along First Parish Road and Maple Street,
where mature trees line both sides of the road.
Daley says his crew installed 12-inch pipe in the
trench with the help of the 166-net-horsepower
DX235LCR excavator and various buckets. The
reduced-tail-swing excavator was the perfect
size for the underground project. Daley says his
company purchased the excavator because of its
size and agility. It is 10 feet 5 inches wide, and
has a tail overhang of just 3 inches over the side.
“Most of our work is in the inner city of Bos-
ton and the surrounding areas, so we really need
a reduced-tail-swing excavator,” he says. “It is
easier for the operator to maneuver and it keeps
the machine looking better over time, too.
“Earlier on the project, we had two pipe sizes
going in the same trench,” Daley says. “We con-
nected the 36-inch trenching bucket to the
Doosan excavator and we were able to put in
two pipes. Then, we went back to one pipe and
we switched to the 24-inch trenching bucket,
eventually converting to the 18-inch trenching
bucket when we were installing smaller pipe.”
Quickchange
It was important for Daley and Reppucci to
change buckets to best match the digging
requirements and not over-dig. “The less dig-
ging, the better for us,” Daley notes. They can
easily switch back and forth between different
trenching buckets because they have a Doosan
hydraulic quick coupler installed on the DX-
235LCR crawler excavator. Reppucci can quickly
change his buckets without leaving his seat,
and each bucket comes standard with teeth to
dig through tough soil conditions. A quick cou-
pler control box in the excavator’s cab makes it
simple to activate the quick coupler to lock or
unlock the attachment connection mechanism.
Once Reppucci removed the soil from the
trench, a worker used an upright compactor to
compact the soil. Meanwhile, Reppucci rotated
the excavator’s house to access and lift a pipe,
turned the unit back to the trench and placed
the 1,000-pound pipe in the open trench. A
Bobcat S650 skid-steer loader with bucket back-
filled the trench with the spoil after the pipe
was put in place.
Work will continue in 2016 as the Town of
Scituate completes its three-year construction
project to replace 24 miles of water pipes,
hoping to improve water quality for decades
to come.
FORMOREINFORMATION
Doosan Equipment
(877) 613-7970, www.DoosanEquipment.com
Bobcat
(866) 823-7898, www.bobcat.com
R&D Site Development
(978) 374-4353,www.rdsitedevelopment.com