Elie H. Homsi will never forget the first day that his brainchild, a pile-driving, girder-launching gantry system, went to work on a $192-million contract to build the Washington Bypass, a six-mile alternative route to Highway 17 in North Carolina. “Next to my children being born, it was the most exciting thing in my life,” says Homsi, since 2003 vice president of engineering services for Flatiron Construction Corp., Longmont, Co.
The pair of 592-ft-long, 750-ton trusses have been placing 120-ft-long segments and pushing out and driving piles as heavy as 40 tons and as deep as 80 ft through sands and clay. The design-build project, held by Flatiron and United Contractors Inc., Chester, S.C., now is 70% complete.