Sewickley Herald

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The Sewiekley Valley's Home-News Weekly
Vol.35.   No. 7.
SEWICKLEY, PA„ THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 1939
Price 5 Cents
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A part of the $150,000 worth of equipment being utilized by D. W.
Challis & Sons, Inc., in rebuilding a narrow dirt road into a boulevard.
The two upper pictures show two ways of grading, the conventional
style, in which a .large Diesel-powered shovel 'casts' dirt while two
Diesel caterpillar 'bulldozers' spread it. The improved method, shown
at top right, uses machines which cost $25,000 each, but scrape up, haul
and spread 12 cubic yards in one continuous operation.
Lower left; another view of the new 'carry-all' grader cutting a
'high spot' down to grade. The powerful Diesel engines are very economical. Lower right is an experimental dump truck with caterpillar
tread. Note the seat and steering wheel beside the engine, arranged in
such a way that the driver can face either toward the front or rear of
tho truck. The vertical dump'body can be also used to spread the load
after it is dumped.
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Local Contracting Firm Rushes Grading
On New Road
$150,000 worth of equipment and 75
men are rushing the grading of the first
section of McKnight Road for D. W.
Challis & Sons, Sowickloy, who woro
awarded the $329,730 contract in December, In exactly a month, 45,000
cubic yards of excavation has been
completed, of tho 190,000 yards estimated for the project; the remainder
must be 'done in three and a half months
and the whole job completed by July 8.
For the first time tho firm has practically all of its equipment on ono job
close to Sowickloy, and tho dirt is
really flying. There are, two brand new
'Carry-all' excavators drawn by Diesel-
powered tractors. Weighing 50,000
pounds empty, each of tho machines,
which cost $25,775 apiece, and are
equipped for night work, can scrape up,
haul and dump more than twelve cubic
yards of dirt in ono continuous operation. Except for digging through rock,
thoso machines, each operated by ono
man, roplaco a power shovel and several trucks and a bulldozer, formerly
required for tho same operation.
A new caterpillar dump truck, costing $7,500, is also being used on tho
road job on an experimental basis.' Tho
first ono built by tho manufacturer, it
has tho swiveled driver's scat beside
the engine, with dual controls, so that
the driver may face either front or
back of the truck, which operates equally well in either direction. Tho dump
body goes to a vertical position, and
the rear end is V-shaped, so that tho
load can be. spread, eliminating the necessity of a bulldozer. This truck, thus
tested for the manufacturer on this job,
has now been shipped back to the manufacturer who wants to tear it down to
find anything that might have gone
wrnng, and then it will bo shipped baek
to tho job.
Altogether thero are two power shovels, two carry-alls, threo rollers, three
bulldozers, a power grader, two air
compressors, a concrete mixer, and seven trucks, beside the caterpillar (lump
truck which has better traction due to
the caterpillar equipment on the rear
axlo. Most of the equipment has lights
for night work, which will bo. necessary
in warmer weather to complete the job
on schedule. There are also a number
of pieces of smaller equipment on tlw
job, and, of courso, none of tha coiicreto
laying machines, except for ono mixer,
is thero yet.
T-io ono mixer is pouring concrete for
tho first of the four box culverts, ranging  in  length  from  205   to  220  feet,
which will carry McKnight Run .under
the new road. The first of the culverts,
which will be 12 x 15 feet, was nearly
completed last Friday. Most of tho new
equipment is Diesel-powered, for economy of operation. Tho biggest motor
on the project uses an average oi' 20
gallons of fuel oil in an eight-hour day
with wide open throttle. Fuel oil costs
7 cents a gallon, on the job. For comparison, a four-year-old gasoline-operated shovel consumes 50 gallons of gasoline a day, at 14- cents a gallon.
This road will bo 80 feet wide, with
a 14-foot landscaped center strip and
four traffic Innos, each twelve foot wide.
It starts from the Babcock Boulevard
at 'Brookvillo' (where Covert's Barbecue is located), about a mile and a half
northwest of tho intersection of tho
Thompson Run Read. II. will continue
for one and n. half miles up tho valley
of MelOiight's Run to a black-top road,
State Highway route 02192, under the
present contract, Bids will be opened
iu March for another section of the
road, probably tho stretch from tho
State highway rout'.' to tho intersect ion
with Babcock Boulevard, near tho Oum-
bcrt School for Hirls. When liuit is
finished the new voad will bo a short
cut route from Millvale and the city to
North Park and other points on Bub-
cock Boulevard, relieving much of the
present heavy summer traffic on that
busy highway.
Later a third section will connect the
intersection   at   Brookville   with   Bast
Streot,  North  Side,  following  the   old
right   of  way  of  the  Harmony  Snort
Line  electric   tracks.   There  is  a  provision   in   the   Challis   contract   which
would  provide  for  an  overgradc  crossing of the Babcock Boulevard at the.
Brookville intersection, if State, county
and PWA engineers decide that one is
advisable  there.   The old trolley right
of way is high on the hillside and the
engineers have the choice of providing
an overhead crossing or of making a
deep cut for a crossing at grade. There
is $1,500,000 available for the new road,
of which the Public Works Administration is providing 45 per cent. Allegheny
County is sponsoring the project, which
is being undertaken to provide a moro
direct route from Pittsburgh to North
Park and other points.    Tho other alternative would  havo  been   to  widen
Babcock Boulevard, which would have
presented many difficulties since a traffic division strip would have to be provided, as well as another two lanes of
pavement,  and  tho  grade of  tho   old
road would not conform with tho now
construction.
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