South of Boston, in Weymouth, MA, a 330-unit apartment complex spread over 29 acres (11.7 ha) is taking shape on a 52-acre (21 ha) parcel of land. Weymouth’s Rudy V. Pompeo Inc. has been doing all site excavation, related road construction and utilities at the development, which will be called Avalon Ledges Apartments. The project, which began in April 2001 and is scheduled for completion in Sept. 2002, is a massive undertaking. In all, 130,000 yd. (118,872 m) of rock will be blasted and crushed on site and will be used as backfill at a size of 1 to 4 in. minus. There are 30,000 yd. (27,432 m) of topsoil being screened and reused on site. When the job is completed it will also have included 25,000 yd. (22,860 m) of asphalt and 6 mi. (9.6 km) of utilities being laid. Ten apartment buildings are being constructed along with 10 garages and a large clubhouse. Also being built are two large swimming pools, three retention ponds and 30,000 sq. ft. (2787 sq m) of stone retaining walls. “This is a $6-million project for us and our biggest challenge is staying on track and on time. We need to get one building each month prepared and ready to go,” said Rudy V. Pompeo of Rudy V. Pompeo Inc. To accomplish this, the company is working 10-hours a day, 6-days a week and has all of its machines up and running. The rock conditions on site are very severe, according to Pompeo, and it has to do a considerable amount of blasting to break down the solid rock into usable and manageable pieces. Scheduling for the project is very tight. According to Rudy V. Pompeo, the company is currently well ahead of schedule and credits the Volvo equipment purchased from Woodco Machinery as partially responsible for the gains that it has made thus far. The company originally planned to have four excavators working on site, but currently has nine and nearly all of the equipment being used is Volvo equipment purchased from Woodco Machinery in Woburn, MA. Some of those pieces include: two Volvo EC-460 100,000-lb. (45,359 kg) excavators; a new Volvo EC-360 80,000-lb. (38,287 kg) excavator; an EC340 80,000-lb. excavator; an EC-290 60,000-lb. (27,215 kg) excavator; and EC-210 50,000-lb. (22,679 kg) excavator; several new A-30 30-ton (27 t) articulated Volvo trucks; a Volvo L-120 5.5-yd. loader and L-180 6.5-yd. loader; and an L-330 9.5-yd. loader with a rock bucket. “We’ve had considerable cost savings with our Volvo quick-coupling system. Every excavator on our site uses two to three different buckets or attachments, and with the quick-coupling system, we’re able to make the change-out in literally seconds,” said Pompeo. The Volvo quick-coupling system is a pin and wedge system. Pompeo has been achieving change-out times of 30 seconds and by using this quick-coupling system it is able to interchange its attachments. “Nearly all of our excavators can interchange attachments back and forth between each other because of the quick-coupling system,” said Pompeo. The company owns six Volvo loaders and Pompeo and his operators are grateful for that. “They [the operators] consistently say how comfortable these machines are and the fact that we have almost no breakdowns is incredible,” said Pompeo. “These loaders are so comfortable that our men can handle working 10-hour days, 6 days a week, which is what it’s taking to get this job done,” he added. The same reliability is evident to Pompeo from the Volvo trucks it has working on site. “The trucks that are on our site right now have operated flawlessly. I can honestly say that we haven’t even needed to replace a fan belt,” said Pompeo. Woodco Machinery provides Pompeo with same-day service, should there be a problem with a piece of machinery. If Pompeo is unable to get the machine up and running within a reasonable amount of time, it receives a replacement machine delivered to the site. “We really appreciate that kind of backup,” said Pompeo. Bob Rosa, sales representative of Woodco, schedules equipment service for Pompeo, orders parts when needed, and in a bind, will deliver equipment to the site. According to Pompeo, Rosa makes the package with Woodco and Volvo complete. “Bob checks in with us every day to make sure our needs haven’t changed and if our equipment is operating well. He takes care of every aspect of our needs,” said Pompeo. Pompeo’s father founded Rudy V. Pompeo Inc. 40 years ago. The company was originally conceived as a carpentry and remodeling company, but over the years has grown into handling light utility work, gradually making the jump into major and mass excavation work. The business currently has 85 employees and bill $10 to $12 million in work each year.This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.
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