Nearly everything at Greenfield Village is old.

That's the great selling point of Michigan's most renowned tourist attraction, which characterizes its collection of 300+ years of the nation's mechanical, cultural, and agricultural history as "the finest documentation anywhere of the American experience."

But the old age of the village's infrastructure is nothing to brag about. The village's roads and walkways, electrical service and natural gas, water and sewage lines are largely unchanged from when Henry Ford opened the village 74 years ago.

Now, a host of contractors and the building trades are carefully digging, drilling and cutting their way through and around the historical treasures in the Dearborn village, as part of a
$15 million effort to update much of the site's pavement and building foundations, and replace virtually all of its mechanical infrastructure.

The Greenfield Village Restoration Project led to the closure of the village in September 2002. It is expected to reopen in June.

"The infrastructure was just not set up to handle one-and-a-half million visitors every year," said Robert Hanna, director of facilities management for Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. "This is the first major infrastructure upgrade the village has ever had. We want it to be a noble project, something that will make this a better place for the next 100 years."

There are more than 300 building trades workers on the site. Walbridge-Aldinger is the general contractor for above-ground work, while the tasks below ground are being handled by a number of contractors, led by the AUC-Michigan Heavy Constructors Association.

Now a National Historic Landmark, Greenfield Village was never intended to be the beacon for visitors that it is today. Henry Ford collected the historic buildings out of fear that the story of how the nation was built would be lost to future generations. Greenfield Village opened in 1929, a few years before the adjacent Henry Ford Museum opened its doors.

Over the years, a number of historic buildings were acquired from their original locations, and rebuilt at the village, including the Wright Cycle Shop where the Wright Brothers built the first airplane, Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory, a one-room schoolhouse, and a slave quarters. Today there are 80 historic structures sitting on 88 acres.

A tremendous amount of planning went into the renovation project, to pack as much work as possible into the village's seasonal downtime. Some of the preliminary work included the use of ground-based radar, to minimize and underground surprises. Following are the main projects being tackled by the trades:

Sewer and water line replacement. The original four-inch sewer pipes have been barely adequate to handle the active bladders of visiting kids getting off school buses. The new environmentally friendly system will separate sewage from storm water and utilize larger diameter pipes. A retention pond will hold the storm water to be used for irrigation at the village.

Electrical. Thomas Edison, who visited the Henry Ford Musuem, was still alive when existing 480-volt electrical system was installed at the village. Now the village tells of how plugging in a slurpee machine recently knocked out power to a portion of the site for days.

Today Hanna said the electricians are installing a 13,200-volt system, with plenty of extra conduit underground for expansion. Electricians are also hiding electrical hubs in newly created basements below nine structures, including underneath the one-room McGuffey Schoolhouse.

Foundation work. Many of the buildings in the village were built on simple wooden foundations. Concrete foundations are being added where necessary.

Road work. In the past, antique cars, horses, buggies and people with strollers all shared the same road that ran through the village. All those modes of transportation didn't always mix well - so curbs and sidewalks are now being installed.

Heating. Few of the structures in the village were heated. Now, many of them will be, thanks to new natural gas lines that can handle higher pressures and forced air heating systems that will be inconspicuously installed. Hanna said heating the buildings may extend the visiting season at the village - but more importantly it should extend the life of the buildings and their contents with more consistent temperature and humidified environment.

Also being installed in selected areas are fiber optics, communications, new hydrants and supply lines, interior fire protection, and fire alarms.

The trades and their contractors have had to work through one of the coldest winters in the last decade, often below four-foot-deep frost lines, in an often-cramped environment with structures that simply weren't built for easy modification.

Through all that, Hanna said the surprises have been few and far between.

"The conditions haven't been the greatest and the site logistics have been difficult, but the workers out here have bought in to what we're doing and have been unbelievably good," he said. "They are respectful of the buildings and no one has cut corners. This has been the smoothest job I've been on in 30 years in the business."

As a gesture of appreciation, the village has sponsored free lunches for Hardhats once a month in an on-site cafeteria.

"I've been working out here since September 1999 at the Henry Ford museum, and I really like it here," said Ken Gardner, a Sprinkler Fitters Local 704 foreman for William Cook Fire Protection. He was working in the village's new gatehouse area. "I'm a big history buff and having the opportunity to work here is the only reason I haven't retired."

Groups that provided time, expertise, value engineering or cash include the AUC-Michigan Heavy Construction Association, The Michigan Laborers-Employers Cooperation & Education Trusts, the Operating Engineers Local 324 Labor-Management Education Committee, the Associated General Contractors of America, Greater Detroit Chapter, Inc. and many of its principal member organizations,

With the village essentially unchanged from the way it was in Henry Ford's day, it begs the question, what would Henry have thought about all the changes? Steve Hamp, president of Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, said he provided William Clay Ford, Sr. a tour to show him what was planned at the village.

Hamp said, "As he was leaving, I said 'What do you think?' He said, 'It's marvelous. It's of an enormous scale and enormous ambition. And this institution is deserving of that scale and ambition.'

"And the thing he said to me that I value most, 'My grandfather would have gotten this. My grandfather would have approved this. He would have been totally on board."

PROBING FOR WATER MAINS at the front of Greenfield Village is a task undertaken by Dan Hamilton of Operating Engineers Local 324.

BRICKLAYER Jim Lawrence of Local 1 and Muirhead Construction takes a chisel to a brick as he builds a column at the renovated entrance of Greenfield Village.