By Sarah Schulz
sarah.schulz@theindependent.com

As employees of Midlands Contracting Inc. worked on the Second Street project in front of Walgreens near the Broadwell Avenue intersection Friday morning, two men walked across the store's parking lot to peer into the deep trench that had replaced the east bound lanes of Second Street. The men paused for a moment, pointed and shouted a few words to one another before heading inside.

A few minutes later, a woman with two small children pulled into the lot. The older child's eyes fixed on the backhoe as the driver pulled loads of sand out of the trench and deposited it near the west bound traffic lane.

Midlands employee John Theis of Kearney laughed as he acknowledged the big machines are a draw among adults and children alike.

"Kids love to watch," he said.

Theis knows how to drive several of the big pieces of equipment, including the backhoe, which was used earlier in the week. On Friday he was using a front-end loader to move dirt and mud away from the backhoes that were being used to lay storm sewer pipes. One of the backhoes was fitted with a thick strap and hook to be fixed around sections of pipe and lowered into the trench. Workers in a large metal box, which was open on the top and bottom, then moved the pipe into place.

The backhoe driver swung the boom and bucket around, in a quick but controlled manner, for another man to attach the pipe. The driver also used the bucket to scoot the metal box along the bottom of the trench as the crew moved west.

Theis said the project isn't the biggest one the crew has worked they laid pipe along a four-mile stretch in Colby, Kan., parts of which were 30 feet deep but it is one of the most challenging.

The crew has limited space to move the large equipment around in, parking is tight and traffic is passing by in close proximity to the job site. The workers also have to dig around any existing underground services, such as water and storm sewer lines, he said.

"It's time consuming," he said.

He added that, as a six-year employee, he's learned a lot about the equipment on the job. He also had such experience as a farmer for 30 years and while driving trucks of cattle down Second Street to the meat packing plant.

"I'm pretty good with big machines," he said.

The Midlands crew working near Walgreens on Friday were able to park their dump truck on Broadwell Avenue in a closed section of the road. However, a crew with the Vlach Excavating & Trucking has had to park their side-dumping semi on Second Street as they work to remove asphalt from the road, he said.

"They've had to," Theis said. "There's nowhere else to park."

Earlier in the week, a Vlach backhoe driver used the back of the bucket to bust up pavement before using the bucket to scoop up the pieces and drop them in the semi. The seemingly effortless moves caused the truck to shake on impact all while other vehicles passed by within feet.

Construction on the street widening project is expected to continue into November.