Along with our usual winter time maintenance and snow removal, Crooker has been staying busy this winter on a variety of projects.

EJP Laydown Area

The Crooker Construction team is hard at work in Gardiner building a laydown area for Everett J. Prescott, a water, sewer, drain and gas material supplier. Crooker has been working with the design team and General Contractor over the past year to budget and value engineer the project to help bring the owner’s thoughts for a facility expansion to reality. Over the next two months 60,000 cubic yards of earth will be moved to level the site and make way for five acres of new paved area. Large excavators are digging material and loading trucks one after the other to move the clay and large cobbles that are on site. Dump trucks are hauling subbase gravel from our stockpiles in both Topsham and Brunswick to keep up with demand. The project is slated for pavement once the plant opens this Spring and should be completed by early/mid-summer. The Crooker team is overcoming adversity by constantly battling cold temperatures, snow and everything else that comes with the harsh Maine winter. Hats off to our crew for their hard work and dedication!

Underwood Road Drainage Improvements

Crooker wrapped up the majority of the work associated with the Underwood Drainage Improvements in Falmouth during December and January. A challenging project to say the least, Crooker had to battle limited access and close quarters to reshape the existing slopes, install a stone revetment mattress for scour protection and stabilize the drainage outfall that leads into Casco Bay. By use of our GPS equipped excavator, the work was able to be completed without the use of any stakes to achieve grades. Once complete, Crooker was able to move on to the second phase of the project, which included installing 48” storm drainage, manholes and catch basins, over 20’ deep! This was all completed adjacent to existing houses, garages and trees, so Crooker utilized a slide rail system to shore the excavation and install the infrastructure. Great job by all to complete a difficult task in harsh conditions.

Mt. Ararat High School

Crooker has been busy this winter working on phase III of the Mt. Ararat High School project in Topsham. Now that the existing school is complete (Crooker started this project in 2018), the initial high school has been demolished. Crooker was tasked with removing the foundations and slabs of the old school to make way for the new track and field facility. Large amounts of asbestos material was found on the initial foundation, so careful work had to be completed to separate this material from the clean concrete we removed and crushed for future gravel production. Now that the slab demo is complete, Crooker is moving onto sub-grading (over 10,000 CY of material to be moved) and installing utilities associated with the future track and field facility to be opened this summer.

L.L. Bean Corporate Headquarters

Crooker has been steady with continuation on the L.L. Bean Corporate Headquarters project located in Freeport. This project involves remodeling/repurposing existing warehouse space into future office space for L.L. Bean employees. We have been busy working on foundation demo, water line relocation, storm drainage, site electrical and prepping for a future Fitness Terrace that will provide employees with an outdoor space to exercise. Crooker is now moving onto the interior courtyard, which will be a nature center for all employees to look at throughout the workday, even from the inside.

All this on top of continued work at Bath Iron Works, water main breaks, and miscellaneous repairs, has made for a very busy winter!