In George’s search for a new field, he found public works highway construction. The first project was Delaware St. Bridge over the Erie Canal in North Tonawanda/Tonawanda. It was a small job replacing the deck. The next project was Aldridge St. in Gowanda. This was a new alignment with structure over Cattaraugus Creek and about ¾ mile of new road construction. The dirt sub was Butch and Liz Ursetti and the asphalt sub was Vogtli Construction.
It was quite rare to see women on sites back then, and Liz left this 9-year-old awestruck. Yes, I grew up around the jobs, and my mother more than once washed my mouth out with brown soap for repeating what I heard at work, but if I ever mimicked Liz U., I would have had the frying pan across my face. When Liz went after one of her guys, the preacher a half-mile away in town would cringe.
The job was successful, which led to the next project; replacing Main Street bridge in the village of Gowanda (using the new Aldridge Street bridge as a detour). This project was built with precast post tension T beams. At the time there were no precasters, so other than some erosion blocks (18” x 19” x 9”) that were cast in our yard for a Cazenovia Creek job the year before, the beams were made on site. This was George’s first plunge into the big time on casting beds. Not long after that, the precast beam fabricators came into the industry.
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