Nerves of Steel, Tough as Iron: Tradespeople Behind New Brunswick's HELIX Say It's Hard Work

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NEW BRUNSWICK – Working as a member of the raising gang might be the hardest job among all the grueling and gritty jobs involved in the construction of the Health and Life Science Exchange (HELIX) project.

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It’s gotta be.

Look, these ironworkers are tethered to the structure, nine, 10, 11 floors up, waiting for a crane to ever-so-gently hoist a 1,000-pound beam up to their waiting hands.

The two connectors, two hook-on guys, a signalman and a foreman then work to guide each beam into place, and that’s how the skeleton of the building gets built.

Joe Patskanick, a shop steward wearing a highly visible orange shirt with a snag hole in the right sleeve and his standard-issue hard hat with faded stickers, including one that featured a crying baby and a big red line going across it, said this work is not for the faint of heart nor for those who don’t like heights.

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“The raising gang are the gentlemen who put up the steel,” he said. “It’s a lot on your plate. You’re on open iron. You’re up, whatever floor you’re on, working on open iron, putting in the steel. Raising gang is not an easy job.”

A vital one, though, as the ceremonial final piece of steel was raised into place Friday.

The topping off ceremony for the first of the project’s three structures that will tower over the New Brunswick skyline brought together several major players in the creation and construction of H1, as it is often referred to.

H1 will be home to the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the Rutgers Translational Research facility. It is envisioned as an ecosystem in which small start-ups in nascent technologies will be right down the hall from institutions of higher learning and corporations focused on bringing cutting-edge research to market.

Mayor Jim Cahill, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, New Jersey Economic Development Authority Chief Executive Officer Tim Sullivan, Middlesex County Commissioner Director Ron Rios and, of course, DEVCO President Chris Paladino were on hand Friday to mark a milestone in the most ambitious development project in the city’s history, costing roughly $750 million.

As they and other dignitaries spoke about how far the project has come and how Nokia will be moving 1,000 workers into the second phase of the project, about 100 union workers who had put down their slip joint pliers, rotary drills and miter saws gathered off to one side.

Among those most appreciative of the work being done by these carpenters, electricians, plumbers, fitters, duct work guys and others was Amy Murtha, the dean of Rutgers’ medical school.

“I drive down Easton Avenue every day on my way to work – I could go a different route but I don’t because I want to drive by what’s happening here,” she said. “I want to thank all the hard-working tradespeople who helped to bring our new medical facility ….”

She had to pause until the applause had subsided to finish her statement.

“I have watched it rise from nothing over these last several months and it’s just been a real joy,” Murtha added.

When the final speaker, developer Joseph Jingoli, had spoken, everyone assembled on this patch of craggy pavement at the base of H1 grabbed a Sharpie and signed the final beam, as is the custom. Assemblymen Kevin Egan and Joe Danielson signed right next to Paul Tebbetts, a sheet metal worker for Local 22.

Tebbetts just got his journeyman card about a year ago, after serving a long apprenticeship and navigating a labyrinth of certifications.

He said H1 and the aggressive schedule attached to the project has made it challenging.

“I’m getting a little older, so to move and contort sometimes in certain spaces and areas, it’s a little bit tough,” he said.

Plus, some of the duct work that he installs gets really heavy, so it’s no wonder Tebbetts said his left elbow seems to always be sore.

That’s when his buddy, Chris Stone, who has been doing this for 40 years, mentioned he had undergone rotator cuff surgery a while back.

Stone and Tebbetts posed for a few photos, but were eager to head back to the H1 site.

“You’re cutting into our lunch, you know,” Tebbetts said, half-jokingly.

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