Can you dig it?

Industrial Heavy Equipment and Construction Technology students learn on-the-job while helping Schoharie H.S. with field project
Students in the Industrial Heavy Equipment Technology and Construction Technology programs at Career & Tech's Schoharie campus are learning on-the-job while helping Schoharie High School expand their athletic field. The students, led by teachers Kevin Simpson and Maryella Bell, are excavating a portion of a parking lot to extend the adjacent school athletic field. Just like in real life, the job has not been without its challenges, as students have had to work delicately to uncover buried pipe and other remnants of a former construction trailer that sat on the site.

"We are extending the soccer field by up to 20 feet in a project to benefit Schoharie Central Schools," explained Simpson, "The project involves many skills involving all three of our classes, including site planning and layout, surveying, measurement, landscaping and soil work, and use of equipment including a backhoe, skidsteer and bulldozer.

"We are happy to be able to work with Schoharie Central Schools as a way to gain real-life experience and application of classroom skills for our students," Simpson stressed.

On an overcast November day, Industrial Heavy Equipment Technology student Joe LiVecchi of Middleburgh (pictured above and below) operated the skidsteer  at the job site. "My goal is to land a good, steady job as an equipment operator," he related. "My dad owns a general contracting company, and I have helped him since I was young."

J. LiVecchi General Contracting offers services including excavating, poured foundations, concrete work, trucking, gravel, sand, topsoil and shale.

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