The Waltz & Reece Construction Company was a construction company that operated in the first quarter of the 20th century, best known for its work on the Lackawanna Cut-off in New Jersey.

The original partners were P.L. Reece and J.B. Waltz.[1] In 1899, they put a lien on the Yellowstone Park railway company to recover $5,293.47 owed to them for work on the railroad.[2]

The partners incorporated the company in Billings, Montana, on May 28, 1902.

Between 1908 and 1911, the company built the section of the Lackawanna Cut-off that ran from mileposts 48.2 to 50.2, working occasionally by torchlight to keep the massive project on schedule.[3] Dubbed Section 2, the stretch included the Waltz & Reece Cut, the deepest cut on the 28.5-mile (45.9 km) project. The cut required the removal of 822,400 cubic yards of fill material by blasting with dynamite and other methods.[4]

In 1912, the company moved its headquarters from Stanhope and Netcong, New Jersey, to Nicholson, Pennsylvania.[5] Reece and Waltz, both engineers, worked on piers 5 and 6 of the Tunkhannock Viaduct, the largest concrete structure in the world when completed in 1915.[6]

In 1917, the company purchased the year-old Lackawanna Cutlery Company of Nicholson. The officers at the time were Reece, president, of Billings; Waltz, vice president, of Nicholson; G.M. Sipley, secretary and treasurer, of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania; and R.H. Linton, general superintendent, of Nicholson.[7]

Waltz died in 1919, Reece in 1930. Both are buried in the Nicholson Cemetery.[8]

References

  1. ↑ The Pacific Reporter. West Publishing Company. 1903.
  2. ↑ "General State News". The Billings Gazette. February 21, 1899. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Lackawanna Cutoff Still an Engineering Marvel". TAPinto. Retrieved 2017-11-11.
  4. ↑ Taber, Thomas Townsend; Taber, Thomas Townsend III (1980). The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the Twentieth Century 1, p. 35. Muncy, PA: Privately printed. ISBN 0-9603398-2-5.
  5. ↑ Contractor. McGraw Publishing Company. 1912.
  6. ↑ "Nicholson Bridge / Tunkhannock (Creek) Viaduct 100th Anniversary Celebration Archived Page – Nicholson Heritage Association". www.nicholsonheritage.org. Retrieved 2017-11-11.
  7. ↑ The American Cutler, Official Organ of the Cutlery Industry: A Monthly Publication Devoted to the American Cutlery Trade ... 1917.
  8. ↑ Baker, Robert L. (September 6, 2015). "Local History: Nicholson Bridge still captures admirers". Scranton Times-Tribune. Retrieved November 10, 2017.


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