Through seven miles in Providence Township, the eastern A&S showed the Pennsylvania Railroad's determination to reshape the landscape for an optimum freight road. A gentle compound curve on paper became a canyon that bisected farms with gaping, unstable slopes, carried twelve new road bridges, and crossed another dozen streams. Seeking minimal grades for trains, the A&S found no naturally accommodating corridor through Providence, so the PRR cut one. The arduous section was likely deliberately assigned to the McManus Construction Company of Philadelphia, one of the nation's most experienced railroad contractors. Work extended westward from Quarryville, where an existing railroad branch from Lancaster brought in materials and massive steam shovels, while at least three temporary rail spurs supplied A&S work sites. In the cuts, temporary construction track moved along the deepening route and had to be constantly relaid to stay ahead of the track-bound shovel. McManus removed an estimated 1.3 million cubic yards of rock and earth in seven cuts as deep as ninety feet. Eight A&S section contracts for masonry and grading were awarded in the spring of 1903, though excavation more accurately described the work in Providence, and McManus was the first to begin. Compressed air drills sank pilot holes in rocky sections for dynamite blasting, and steam shovels and a crew of 300 men under McManus removed the debris in descending layers. Some of the excavated material formed the towering berm over what eventually became separate north and south bound tunnels for Route 272. Completion of the A&S in 1906 coincided with the mandatory retirement at age 70 of the PRR's notable Chief Engineer, William H. Brown, who was born in Little Britain Township and served the PRR for 44 years. During his 32 years as Chief, the PRR was physically transformed by a succession of engineering triumphs. Brown and McManus had concurrent careers and numerous joint projects with the PRR, and for the last twenty years of Brown's life the two were next-door neighbors in Philadelphia's Powelton Village.