Custom-Made Canadian Machines Tame Central Artery Tunnels
When it finally wraps up in 2004, Boston's $14-billion Central Artery/Tunnel project will feature almost four miles of state-of-the-art tunnels. Helping with the lion's share of tunnel finish work is Arva Industries Inc., St Thomas, Ontario, Canada, which teamed with a local joint venture to custom design and build two new self-propelled work platforms that are now seeing heavy-duty action on a $170-million job.
"We had an aggressive schedule to finish over three miles of Interstate tunnel and we needed the ability to build the ceiling modules in the tunnel, then self-load, haul and erect in place," says Paul E. Buco, project manager for McCourt Obayashi JV, Boston. "There was nothing in the market to meet our needs but within two weeks of talking to Arva officials we had a functional design and a finished product in nine months."