The largest construction project in the United States has revitalized a city, its economy and its rental market.
A decade ago, the Boston rental market was a symbol of the Northeast - a region of boarded-up storefronts and shut-down factories where jobs and businesses were, literally and figuratively, heading south. The destination was the Sun Belt, where the weather was warm and tax incentives favored investment.
Until the Big Dig.
The Big Dig, officially known as the Central Artery/Tunnel Project, is the largest and most complex highway job in U.S. history and - according to its Web site, www.bigdig.com - larger in cost and scope than the Panama Canal or the Alaska Pipeline. The Dig consists of two primary elements. Part one is the extension of Interstate 90, the Massachusetts Turnpike, from its current finishing point south of downtown Boston underneath Boston Harbor to Logan Airport. Part two is the replacement of I-93, better known as the Central Artery, an elevated highway through downtown Boston, with a tunnel through the heart of the city.
The first major job was the construction of the Ted Williams Tunnel underneath the harbor. Although the tunnel was completed in December 1995, it is still open only to commercial traffic, pending construction of access roads on both sides of the tunnel. The Central Artery will be dismantled after the completion of a tunnel 120 feet below the surface of the city, below downtown and its network of subway lines.
Other major elements include four major highway interchanges; a two-bridge, 14-lane crossing of the Charles River on the northern edge of downtown Boston; the world's largest highway tunnel ventilation system; the world's most advanced electronic traffic management and incident response system; and 150 acres of new parks and open space, including 27 acres downtown where the Central Artery now stands.
The project's unique challenge has been keeping the city functioning during construction, with traffic seemingly redirected almost daily. The massive project ultimately will mean the excavation of 15 million cubic yards of dirt - enough to fill Foxboro Stadium, home of the New England Patriots football team, 15 times. The undertaking includes 109 construction contracts involving many of New England's biggest construction firms.
The Dig, scheduled for completion in 2004 (although participants figure it will last a few years longer), has dominated life in Boston - and created a windfall for Boston rental companies.
But that doesn't mean everybody should charge to Boston the same way hundreds of rental firms descended on Atlanta to capitalize on the building boom before the 1996 Olympics. For the most part, the projects started long ago, and companies that aren't already involved in the game are too late. Boston, despite its cosmopolitan image, is intensely provincial when it comes to doing business. Relationships are the key to success in a city where history, unlike in most of the United States, is measured in nearly four centuries. Rental relationships go back a long way, and although Boston is dominated by national chains such as United Rentals, National Equipment Services, NationsRent and Hertz Equipment Rental Corp., the construction contracts have been awarded to local firms for the most part.
And the management of the rental firms has deep roots in the local market. For example, United Rentals' main downtown yard is managed by Scott Healey, a Boston native and veteran of more than 20 years on the local rental scene. HERC's management team, led by manager Bill Simmons, is made up of area natives entrenched in the local market since the mid-1980s. NationsRent has extensive roots in the area: Frank and Brian Rich owned local rental companies Action Equipment and Logan Equipment for more than 20 years before selling to NationsRent, and its other major acquisition, Parker Danner, was a New England fixture for more than 60 years. Shaughnessy Crane Service, now owned by NES, has been involved in equipment-related businesses since 1916. And the oldest of them all, Marr Companies, which includes equipment, aerial and scaffolding divisions, has offered construction-related services since 1898. Even Boston Equipment, the relative newcomer established in 1988, was founded by industry veterans from Action Equipment, and recently formed aerial specialist Height fot Hire was founded by Shaughnessy relatives.
Business is booming in Boston, and those reaping the rewards - like the biblical brothers of Joseph and their seven years of fortune - are those who endured their seven years of famine from about 1987 through the early '90s. "I don't think there was a city hit harder than Boston," says Jim Heard, regional vice president for HERC. "It's like night and day. Now this is a vibrant, robust economy, and we see a lot of good things ahead of us."
Beyond the Big Dig will be spinoff projects - new buildings and roadways in the downtown area and waterfront-revitalization projects. A new stadium for the Patriots is on the drawing board for nearby Foxboro. Construction has just begun on a new downtown convention center, and efforts are gathering steam for the construction of a new baseball stadium to replace beloved but decaying Fenway Park, the oldest stadium in major-league baseball.
During recessions, most companies reign in their operations, retrench and cut back almost everything.
Shaughnessy Crane Service, now a division of Evanston, Ill.-based National Equipment Services, expanded. A South Boston-based company for 80 years, Shaughnessy saw the economy dip and lost no time spreading out to Auburn, N.H., and Springfield, Mass.
"We needed to get a bigger radius to be able to maintain our growth because we weren't going to be able to do it in the small core area where we were working," says Joe Conley, vice president of sales. "When the economy came back, we were able to keep running with it."
SCS has run with the Big Dig and other projects such as the FleetCenter, which replaced historic but crumbling Boston Garden as home of the basketball Celtics and hockey Bruins, and various road and bridge projects.
Some of the Big Dig projects are on a very large scale, and it takes a company with the resources and buying power of NES to participate. For example, now that most of the tunnel work is done, finishing jobs such as electrical wiring and mechanical and ventilation work is required, which calls for large quantities of aerial equipment. For one tunnel project, SCS provided more than 100 lifts, which had to be adapted to meet the unique requirements. SCS worked with the client and the manufacturers to modify the equipment. Other SCS branches are involved in big projects as well, such as providing more than 300 lifts for the construction of a mall in Providence, R.I.
SCS epitomizes the Boston way of doing business, which means building relationships over a long time. The Shaughnessy family has a long history of business relationships, as do its managers, including 15-year veteran Conley.
The company was founded in 1916 and included millwright, trucking and rigging businesses. SCS sold to NES in 1997 and now operates as a division of NES under the Shaughnessy Crane Service name. Steve Shaughnessy continued to operate SCS and since has become regional vice president of NES. His brother Jimmy is service manager for the crane and aerial division. His father, John "Jack" Shaughnessy, and brothers John Jr. and Michael co-own Shaughnessy & Ahern, the trucking, rigging and millwright business, which is still a top customer of SCS.
The company has branches in Worcester, Springfield and South-borough, Mass.; East Providence, R.I.; Auburn, N.H.; and New Haven, Conn. It handles Genie, Skyjack, JLG, Terex, USTC, Liebherr, Grove, Tennant and Alimak products.
United Rentals' downtown Boston branch covers a long city block in the heart of a busy commercial area. It is perfectly located on a bustling thoroughfare that lends itself to drive-in business, even though the contractor-oriented branch primarily operates through delivery.
Manager Scott Healey owned his own company, P.J.'s Rentals, for 19 years before selling it to United in 1998. United recruited him to manage its downtown branch. Its solid business is driven primarily by the Big Dig and, like NES, its major customers include Big Dig contractors that are among the biggest in Boston.
"Back in the late '80s and early '90s, [rental companies in Boston] really struggled," Healey says. "It wasn't much fun. But since 1994, each year has been a little better than the one before."
Healey points to a map of downtown Boston. "Once this tunnel is finished, the elevated Central Artery is coming down," he says. "There are 30 or 40 acres of prime land in downtown Boston that have to be redeveloped. A lot of it will be parkland, but there will be a lot of construction, too, because so many of the buildings alongside the artery aren't exactly high-rent because of all the traffic going by." When that traffic goes below ground, those buildings will be prime candidates for redevelopment.
United's mainstays in Boston include air compressors, air tools, large compaction equipment, forklifts, light towers, generators, skid-steer loaders, excavators and mini-excavators. Even though United has a separate aerial division in the Boston area, its downtown branch carries a substantial fleet of scissors and booms for customer convenience because of its proximity to Big Dig work. The downtown yard also does a lot of third-party repair, a service much valued by Boston contractors.
United's downtown Boston yard is among the most bustling locations in the industry. Standing in front of the building, one sees equipment coming in and out constantly. No sooner does a tractor-trailer arrive with new equipment than that equipment is loaded onto a United delivery vehicle to bring it to a customer. On this day, four large ride-on rollers arrive along with a shipment of boom lifts. Within an hour, two of the new pieces are on their way to a job site. United recently leased an additional facility for parts and equipment storage and maintenance, which Healey says will alleviate pressure on the downtown yard.
Healey says he enjoys working on a project viewed by many as a wonder of the construction world. "Engineering-wise, it really is a marvel," he says.
A marvel good for the rental business.
At the Hertz Equipment Rental Corp. branch in downtown Boston, the sales staff has a bulletin board devoted to the Big Dig.
"It's the biggest project around," salesman Billy Stec says. "We want to know what's going on."
Stec also regularly consults the project's Web site - www.bigdig.com - for news about the project as it develops. The staff follows developments carefully and regularly consults with contractors on the job to assess their needs. The staff knows how much the Big Dig has contributed to the revitalization of the market and the branch, which in recent years has ranked as one of HERC's top producers.
A wall full of plaques and awards in manager Bill Simmons' office attests to the branch's achievements. The awards hang on the Boston native's wall alongside an action photo of former Celtics basketball hero Larry Bird.
"This branch has received an award every year for the past half-dozen years," regional manager Jim Heard says. "Revenue awards, profit awards, all kinds of recognition. It's a reflection of the management team as well as the vibrant market."
"Times are good," Simmons adds. "The Big Dig has helped us, along with a lot of other major projects. We are doing a lot of big special events, like Ryder Cups and a lot of convention business."
Heard says: "Boston has really turned into a full-service city with a lot of different areas. We have a very diverse, wide base of customers - it's not just the construction area. The rental business in the '80s used to be just construction, but it's not that way today. The base of business is so much broader now. It continues to grow and diversify in this city."
HERC has a great location in downtown Boston, around the corner from United Rentals. It carries a wide-ranging inventory, including earth-moving equipment, air compressors, aerial equipment and off-road dumpsters, and does a thriving third-party repair business as well.
Like the teams at many other HERC facilities, Simmons and staff are preparing to offer more supplies and accessories to be more of a full-service outlet for contractors.
The HERC sales team, Stec and Rodney Heger, who has been with the branch for about 15 years, follows every aspect of the Big Dig and every associated project.
"They know the city like nobody knows it," Simmons says. "They have very long-standing relationships. They are a big part of what's going on here."
