Construction Around Arizona
Airborne Construction:
Water for Supai Village
O
restored post construction,” Crites says.
“Horseback or foot traffic is the norm for
the Supai people as there are no vehicles
in the village.” The wastewater project was
completed in 2010 and the arsenic removal
plant was recently finished.
The company has dredged the
Colorado River, restored Chevelon Creek
Bridge that is the state’s oldest Pony Truss
bridge (see Spring 2015 Arizona Contractor
& Community magazine, page 12), and
rebuilt State Route 88, also known as the
Apache Trail, from the top of Fish Creek Hill
down into the canyon below to look as it
did when it was constructed in 1910.
Images courtesy Technology Construction
vernight express is handy for shipping
parts but imagine flying in all the
construction equipment and supplies for
a major project. Technology Construction,
a general engineering company based in
Prescott, recently accomplished that for a
job in Supai Village located at the far west
end of the Grand Canyon.
The town has a store, cafe, lodge, and
museum and is noted for the nearby bluegreen waterfalls and camping facilities.
With a population of 200, Supai Village is
the most remote town in the lower U.S.,
as the nearest road is an eight-mile hike.
The town is the only place in the country
where mail is still carried out by mules.
Technology Construction built a
wastewater system and potable water
arsenic removal system enclosed in an
industrial building for the Havasupai Tribe
from 2010-2013. All construction materials
and equipment were brought in by
helicopter, including two earth scrapers
that were dismantled and reassembled.
Living quarters, hand tools, welders,
cement for concrete construction, building
block, an entire metal industrial building,
and many other items were flown in. “If
you didn't bring it in, you don't have it,”
laughs Ron Crites of Technology
Construction.
Crews worked 14-day shifts followed
by four off days out of the canyon. The firm
set up an onsite aggregate screening
operation in order to obtain rock and sand
for concrete. “With no roads in the village,
we moved construction materials on
temporary easement trails which were
Twenty six
Winter 2015