Construction Equipment Guide
470 Maryland Drive
Fort Washington, PA 19034
800-523-2200
Wed December 20, 2000 - Northeast Edition
After many years of debate, New Hampshire’s Nashua School District approved construction of a massive new high school for the city. The site is located on a lot of land that was originally earmarked for an upscale housing development and 15 homes were built before the city acquired the land for construction.
Gilbane Building Company of Nashua has been selected by the Nashua Joint Special School Building Committee to manage the construction of the 430,000-sq.-ft. high school. In addition, the existing Nashua High School will undergo an extensive renovation and expansion program also to be carried out by Gilbane. These facilities are being built to accommodate an increased student population, which is expected to reach 4,000 by 2004. Both schools will offer Nashua students state-of-the-art educational facilities. Total project cost is $135 million, which includes construction program cost of $98 million.
The principal subcontractor for excavation of the 75-acre site is AMSCO Inc. of Londonderry, NH, which, since its founding in 1987, has become one of the state’s leading site contractors with a fleet of 60 pieces of Caterpillar heavy equipment.
Sara Clark, AMSCO’s president and assistant site manager at the Nashua High School site said that crews are working with a fleet of 20 pieces of Caterpillar equipment. This includes twelve 416 backhoes, 14 various dozers (D-3s through D-8s), 20 excavators (both wheeled and tracked) and 10 loaders (mostly 936s through 980s).
As work began, crews realized that a minimal amount of blasting was required; far less than previously expected. In fact, said Clark, the ledge was fractured and brittle enough for crews to extract a substantial amount with the company’s Cat 342 excavator.
AMSCO also will build four baseball fields, eight tennis courts, a running track, a football field, a javelin pit and a jumping pit.
The company’s work started on Memorial Day weekend and it is anticipated that AMSCO’s portion of the work is expected to be complete in September 2002.