Page 16 - BusinessWest May 13, 2024

40 YEARS OF CONSTRUCTION
Workforce Challenges Have Emerged over Time
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
When you’ve been building things for as long as Daniel O’Connell’s Sons (DOC) has, well ... some- times you enjoy the sequel.
Take, for example, the Montgomery-Rus- sell bridge on I-90 over the Westfield River. DOC is currently renovating it, a $46.9 mil- lion project that includes deck rehabilita- tion, lighting and drainage improvements, and a major steel component replacement.
It’s a return of sorts for Holyoke-based DOC, which built that bridge nearly 70 years ago.
“When you have situations like that, it’s kind of cool,” said Joubin Hassanein, the company’s president. “You look back at pho- tos of the people that were working on that original bridge, and to know that they’re kind of connected to you in some way is pretty awesome.”
With a 145-year history of major proj- ects, from Springfield’s Memorial Bridge to Rowe’s Wharf in Boston and that city’s Lev-
JOUBIN HASSANEIN
“We’re probably in the early stages of a very fast-changing scene within the construction industry. And I think it’s important for companies to be nimble enough to move with
that change.”
erett Circle Connector Bridge, the leaders at O’Connell’s can take a long view of what has changed in the construction industry, but Hassanein believes some of the bigger changes are still to come.
“Construction in general has been an industry that hasn’t seen a lot of change over the course of a long time — except for the period that we live in now,” he told Busi-
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