Independence Awarded Earthwork and Utilities Contract for New State-of-the-Art Medical Mall Facility

This winter's work in the Pittsburgh region brought a new site development project in the construction of the Wexford Medical Mall. The new medical facility will be state of the art and a new asset to the Wexford region, located Northwest of Pittsburgh near the intersection of I-76 and I-79. Independence Excavating was selected for the earthwork contract by Astorino Development, partnering with Oxford Development and Highmark Medical for the project.

The first challenge of this project was the timing. With an aggressive start to the project, Astorino needed a building pad in March 2013 to start structural foundations. Independence worked through the winter elements and wet conditions to present the table-top stone pad one week early.

The second challenge to this project was the fact that all material excavated required to be hauled off-site. Working diligently with local officials, erosion control inspectors, owners representatives and our trucking partners, our field managers orchestrated a clock-work operation to export round after round of soil through the snow. The next challenge was on the dump end, requiring management of multiple receiving facilities and haul routes to get the dirt safely and efficiently to its final resting place.

Another obstacle on the site, that was included in our contract called for the remediation of Pyrite concerns beneath the building pad. For this work, our crews installed a series of protection measures including clay capping for portions of the building, encapsulation of utilities, and undercut and protection of the future structure from the underlying pyritic soils and rock. All of this work was required to be integral with the earthwork operations in order to have the remediation completed with the completion of the building pad.

As the weather broke this spring, Independence crews have started a second package for the Astorino team. We were awarded the site utility package to provide the infrastructure to operate the building through construction and after opening. The utility installation is also through the pyritic soils and across the entire site, requiring close coordination with structural and follow-on trades.

We are very happy that our Pittsburgh Branch landed this opportunity to team with Astorino, Oxford and Highmark. We look forward to completing our work and setting the pace for a successful project. We greatly appreciate the hard work and dedication of our crews, field management, support staff, key subcontractors and suppliers.