Roadbuilding Construction Equipment at Work: Building the Interstate Highways Through New England's Green Mountains
Roadbuilding Construction Equipment at Work: Building the Interstate Highways Through New England's Green Mountains
ITEM E459
By Edgar A. Browning
This photo essay details the construction of the original Interstate Highway System in Vermont’s picturesque and largely rural mountainous region through the late 1950s to late ’70s. During this short time, contractor driven construction equipment innovation was remarkable: 2-1/2 cubic yard shovels were replaced with 4-8 yard shovels and then by massive wheel loaders up to 17 cubic yards; 15-22 ton rock trucks were upped to 50 tons; rudimentary spreading methods—with dump trucks using tailgate chains—were replaced with CMI Autogrades; and many contractors devised and built ingenious contraptions to increase production. The work attracted many large established road building firms from other States - Lane, Perini, Palazzi, L. G. Defelice, Green Construction from Des Moines, Iowa, as well as Cartier Construction, a division of McNamara from Montreal - seen here clearing and grubbing, pioneering, rock drilling, mucking peat bogs, and excavation sequences including trucks and shovels, loaders, pan scrapers, and a wheel excavator. The manufacturers of construction equipment constitute a virtual directory of the period; Caterpillar, Euclid, Allis-Chalmers, International, Dart, P&H, Bucyrus-Erie, Northwest, Lorain, Lima, Gradall, Barber-Greene, Blaw Knox, CMI, and more.
Softbound, 250 illustrations, 8.5”x11”, 126 pages
Where most of us live, while we enjoy four distinct weather phases, there is also a less-popular fifth—or “construction”—season. Edgar A. Browning took advantage of such a season to write 11 books devoted to Roadbuilding Construction Equipment at Work in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia, Connecticut, and Maine. This volume covers Vermont—aka the Green Mountain State. Browning provides a wonderful photographic guide to “the way it was” with a look back at the construction of Vermont’s interstate highway system (authorized in 1956) that includes a 10-year period between 1958 and 1968. All the photographs selected for the book were taken by Vermont Department of Highways photographer Don Wiedenmayer. The marvelous array of 250 black-and-white images showcases equipment busy doing what it was designed to do. Browning points out the “breathtaking evolution of heavy construction equipment used in road building.” For example, the average shovel size at the start of the industry was a mere 21/2 cubic yards with an increase to 17 for Dart by 1968. Rock truck capacity grew from 20 to 50 tons. Enjoyable eye candy includes Mack, International, Caterpillar, LeTourneau, Euclid, Allis-Chalmers, Marion, Lorain, Bucyrus-Erie, and Northwest equipment.
Book Review by Robert Gabrick
