QUINCY — 100 guests attended the lunch hosted by the Cashman Family Foundation to support relief efforts for those facing the aftereffects of the earthquake in Haiti.
Jay Cashman and Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley were among those who attended the luncheon, which was held at Victory Point Restaurant in Marina Bay, Quincy. For more information on the Foundation, and their partners’ earthquake relief efforts, click here.
On Saturday, January 27, Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum presented a new video with overview of the Bradford Access Project and the latest information regarding engineering, design, and construction.
PROVINCETOWN – The Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association has announced that Jay Cashman, founder and chairman of Jay Cashman, Inc., and the Cashman Family Foundation, has donated $150,000 to help support the Bradford Access Project.
Work at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum began last month.
The initiative involves the construction of an inclined elevator that will help make specific areas more accessible for all, while facilitating tourism for the downtown business community.
“My family has deep ties to the Pilgrim Monument, dating back to its construction,” said Cashman.
“We are proud to support this community, the values it represents and help PMPM take this much needed step for their future.”
The Cashman family’s ties to the Pilgrim Monument date back to its beginning, as Cashman’s great uncle laid the cornerstone when construction began in 1907.
In addition, Jay Cashman, Inc. is also donating time and consultancy services to the Bradford Access Project.
By extending the Monument’s “front door” to Bradford Street, the project will enable an increased flow of foot traffic between the locations.
It is expected to not only enhance accessibility but also bring added support to Provincetown’s businesses and lasting economic benefits to the community.
The Bradford Access Project’s inclined elevator is being constructed primarily with local area companies, including Jay Cashman, Inc.
“With the team of local partners involved in the construction, whom the project will directly benefit, this initiative is all about community,” said K. David Weidner, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.
“We have the deepest gratitude to Mr. Cashman for his very generous donation of money, time and services. The Bradford Access Project will benefit this community for many years to come.”
The Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial Association, which oversees PMPM, is paying for the Bradford Access Project.
Construction will require no public funds and the inclined elevator will operate on land already owned by the association.
In addition to funding from The Cooperative Bank of Cape Cod, the project is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and MassDevelopment.
The Bradford Access Project is expected to be completed in early 2021.
For more information and updates about the project, click here.
The Cashman Family Foundation completed construction of a new bridge in Perches, Haiti. Tighe & Bond worked with the Foundation to help design the bridge. The Cashman Family Foundation is a charitable subsidiary of the Jay Cashman group of construction companies. The Foundation looks to partner with resource-constrained communities to build new bridges and roads. The work currently focuses on improvements in Haiti.
The rural town of Perches, Haiti, is located in the country’s northern highlands. The community is at a remote and isolated location, with about 20,000 residents who live in the town and many more in the surrounding area. Residents rely on an unpaved road to access facilities to the north, including a local hospital. But, access is impeded by the Rivière Cochon Gras. The road crosses the river at grade level, which is satisfactory during the dry season. But during the three or four rainy months, the crossing is frequently impassable. This poses a great hardship on town residents, who then lack reliable access to the north for health care at the hospital and other services.
Map of Perches, Haiti. Red arrow at site of new bridge
Overall, the area is economically distressed (even by Haitian standards), and it has experienced an exodus of young, able-bodied people. The Mayor estimated that around 2,500 people have left Perches in the last 5 years to seek work elsewhere (to the Dominican Republic, Port au Prince, Cap-Haitien, or the industrial park area around Caracol). It is envisioned that a new bridge and road improvements will result in increased local property values. The improved reliability of access will make it easier for residents to commute to the Caracol industrial park.
Liz Cherchia, of the Cashman Family Foundation, comments:
“Before construction of the bridge, Perches had earned a reputation in the region as a place not worth moving to or visiting because the river crossing made travel too unpredictable, and occasionally dangerous. There have been a few instances of drownings of people attempting to cross the river when it was flooded, and of medical emergencies that occurred in the town when the river was too high to cross. Aside from these tragedies, the most major cost to the community has been the loss of revenue and opportunity caused by the perception that the town is just too hard to get to. There are also always several days a year when children and teachers cannot make it from one side of the river to the other, and buyers and sellers cannot make it to the weekly market.”
The Cashman Family Foundation has assisted the town in providing construction services for a new highway bridge to cross the river. The superstructure consists of a prefabricated pony truss panel bridge, owned by the Foundation and donated to the site. The components were shipped from storage in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Perches for reassembly and bridge launching. Previous geotechnical exploration work was done by volunteers on behalf of Engineers Without Borders, and the Foundation worked with local officials to secure right-of-way access for a new bridge and connecting roadways. Tighe & Bond worked with the Foundation to contribute design services for new abutment walls and supports for the bridge. The abutments were designed as gravity retaining walls. During the spring, the engineering and construction team worked closely together to optimize the design and coordinate it with construction procedures. The project needed to consider local constraints such as available materials, equipment, and site conditions.
The walls were complete in July, 2019, and the bridge superstructure was launched across the river. The overall bridge was substantially complete by the end of July. Local Haitian engineers and constructors will complete grading of the approach roadways.
Of the project’s success, Jay Cashman notes:
“It’s been said that Lyndon Johnson‘s ‘Great Society’ and ‘War on Poverty’ created more poverty. One of the challenges in Haiti is finding good projects that help the people help themselves, without lining the pockets of third parties. Perches was a good project.”
August 14, 2019, Brian Brenner
A familiar stretch of steel from the South Shore has a new life in rural Haiti.
An 80-foot section of the temporary Fore River Bridge, which carried people over the river between North Weymouth and Quincy Point from 2002 until 2017, was reused this year in Perches, Haiti, where it now spans the Riviere Cochon Gras.
Quincy-based heavy construction and dredging firm Jay Cashman Inc. donated the bridge, technical staff and equipment through one of its charitable arms, the Cashman Family Foundation, the company announced Tuesday on Facebook.
The repurposed bridge could be a boon for Perches and its 11,000 residents.
“Before construction of the bridge, Perches had earned a reputation in the region as a place not worth moving to or visiting because the river crossing made travel too unpredictable, and occasionally dangerous,” Cashman Family Foundation project manager Liz Checheria said. “There have been a few instances of drownings of people attempting to cross the river when it was flooded, and of medical emergencies that occurred in the town when the river was too high to cross.”
By Sam Doran / State House News Service
Posted Aug 14, 2019 at 5:49 PMUpdated Aug 15, 2019 at 4:42 PM
A section of a temporary bridge that for more than a decade served thousands of drivers traveling between two South Shore communities has been re-purposed to help residents in another part of the world.
Construction and development company Jay Cashman Inc. announced in a post on Facebook last week that its charitable group, Cashman Family Foundation, successfully installed a roughly 80-foot portion of the former Fore River Bridge over a river in Perches, Haiti.
“Before construction of the bridge, Perches had earned a reputation in the region as a place not worth moving to or visiting because the river crossing made travel too unpredictable, and occasionally dangerous,” Liz Checheria, project manager for the Cashman Family Foundation, said in a statement about the bridge’s recent installation. “There have been a few instances of drownings of people attempting to cross the river when it was flooded, and of medical emergencies that occurred in the town when the river was too high to cross.”
With the structure now in place, the foundation hopes the bridge will provide residents of the region greater access to other parts of the country, and improve “the daily lives of those in the community.”
The bridge crosses over the Riviere Cochon Gras, according to Engineering News-Record, a website that covers construction industry news.
In 2002, the temporary Fore River Bridge was erected after the original bascule bridge, which opened in 1936, “was found to be badly deteriorated,” according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s project website.
The temporary bridge was used until 2017, when traffic over the brand-new Fore River Bridge — a steel, vertical-lift structure that carries Route 3A traffic between Quincy and Weymouth — officially opened to the public.
Jay Cashman Inc. was a subcontractor for the general contractor, White-Skanska-Koch, for the $272 million project, according Patrick Marvin, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.
“Their work involved demolishing the existing temporary Fore River Bridge,” Marvin said. “As is common on bridge replacement projects, the contractors are responsible for dismantling the existing bridge structure, removing the debris, and disposing or recycling materials.”
The old bridge was fully removed by last summer, he said.
According to the Facebook post about the project, Jay Cashman, Inc., donated the bridge, technical staff, and equipment to put the crossing in place in Haiti. Additional donations came from Sterling Equipment, and French Equipment. The bridge’s design was done by Tighe and Bond, said the post, which has been shared hundreds of times on social media.
Jay Cashman, founder and chairman of Jay Cashman Inc., said in a telephone interview that he thought donating the section of bridge could make a difference for the Haitian community, and jumped at the chance to be of service.
“We thought this was a good project that we could go and help out,” said Cashman, who visited Haiti during the bridge construction. “We think by all accounts that it has been a success.”
He said a second project using other old sections of the temporary bridge — one that is admittedly a bit more complicated — is currently in the works.
By Steve Annear Globe Staff,August 19, 2019, 1:09 p.m.
The Cashman Family Foundation completed construction of a new bridge in Perches, Haiti. Tighe & Bond worked with the Foundation to help design the bridge. The Cashman Family Foundation is a charitable subsidiary of the Jay Cashman group of construction companies. The Foundation looks to partner with resource-constrained communities to build new bridges and roads. The work currently focuses on improvements in Haiti.
The rural town of Perches, Haiti, is located in the country’s northern highlands. The community is at a remote and isolated location, with about 20,000 residents who live in the town and many more in the surrounding area. Residents rely on an unpaved road to access facilities to the north, including a local hospital. But, access is impeded by the Rivière Cochon Gras. The road crosses the river at grade level, which is satisfactory during the dry season. But during the three or four rainy months, the crossing is frequently impassable. This poses a great hardship on town residents, who then lack reliable access to the north for health care at the hospital and other services.
Map of Perches, Haiti. Red arrow at site of new bridge
Overall, the area is economically distressed (even by Haitian standards), and it has experienced an exodus of young, able-bodied people. The Mayor estimated that around 2,500 people have left Perches in the last 5 years to seek work elsewhere (to the Dominican Republic, Port au Prince, Cap-Haitien, or the industrial park area around Caracol). It is envisioned that a new bridge and road improvements will result in increased local property values. The improved reliability of access will make it easier for residents to commute to the Caracol industrial park.
Liz Cherchia, of the Cashman Family Foundation, comments:
“Before construction of the bridge, Perches had earned a reputation in the region as a place not worth moving to or visiting because the river crossing made travel too unpredictable, and occasionally dangerous. There have been a few instances of drownings of people attempting to cross the river when it was flooded, and of medical emergencies that occurred in the town when the river was too high to cross. Aside from these tragedies, the most major cost to the community has been the loss of revenue and opportunity caused by the perception that the town is just too hard to get to. There are also always several days a year when children and teachers cannot make it from one side of the river to the other, and buyers and sellers cannot make it to the weekly market.”
The Cashman Family Foundation has assisted the town in providing construction services for a new highway bridge to cross the river. The superstructure consists of a prefabricated pony truss panel bridge, owned by the Foundation and donated to the site. The components were shipped from storage in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Perches for reassembly and bridge launching. Previous geotechnical exploration work was done by volunteers on behalf of Engineers Without Borders, and the Foundation worked with local officials to secure right-of-way access for a new bridge and connecting roadways. Tighe & Bond worked with the Foundation to contribute design services for new abutment walls and supports for the bridge. The abutments were designed as gravity retaining walls. During the spring, the engineering and construction team worked closely together to optimize the design and coordinate it with construction procedures. The project needed to consider local constraints such as available materials, equipment, and site conditions.
The walls were complete in July, 2019, and the bridge superstructure was launched across the river. The overall bridge was substantially complete by the end of July. Local Haitian engineers and constructors will complete grading of the approach roadways.
Of the project’s success, Jay Cashman notes:
“It’s been said that Lyndon Johnson‘s ‘Great Society’ and ‘War on Poverty’ created more poverty. One of the challenges in Haiti is finding good projects that help the people help themselves, without lining the pockets of third parties. Perches was a good project.”
August 14, 2019, Brian Brenner
