Construction History

Henry Avenue Bridge

Oxford Engineering Company was founded by Julian T. Canuso, Jr., P.E. The Canuso family has a long history of providing both Engineering and Construction Services in the Philadelphia area dating back to the 1920’s. The bridge construction depicted below came from a collection of photographs taken during the construction of the Henry Avenue Bridge. The bridge spans Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Creek and was built by F.A. Canuso & Sons in 1930.

Warrior Ridge Dam

Five years prior to the creation of Oxford Engineering Company, Julian T. Canuso, Jr. served as dedicated Project Manager and Project Engineer for the reconstruction of a 3 megawatt Hydroelectric Power Plant located on the Juniata River in Warrior Ridge, Pennsylvania.  The total budget for reconstruction was 5.3 million dollars.  In-house design included flashboards, timber stop-logs, electric substation and hydraulic and electric turbine operators.  The plant was successfully brought on line in December of 1985 substantially under budget.  Turbine operation was fully automated and could be monitored and controlled via computer from a remote location.  Design work was submitted to the Morris Knudsen Engineering Firm for approval to fulfill financial requirements.  Mr. Canuso’s unique flashboard design increased the limits of financing for the project by allowing an overall increase in annual power output.  A patent search was undertaken based upon the unique flashboard design.  Unfortunately something similar was patented a few years earlier.

RCA Corporation Air Conditioning Retrofit

Mr. Canuso served as dedicated Project Manager and Project Engineer for a 2 million dollar design-build air conditioning retrofit for the former Government and Aerospace Division of the RCA Corporation.  In-house design included pump room, piping, cooling tower, air handling units and ductwork layouts.  The project also entailed the design of air conditioning systems for specialized top security raised floor computer rooms.  Field Engineering included the coordination and placement of two cooling towers on the roof of the building using a 365 ton hydraulic crane.