Whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, highways are a fact of life in America and will remain so for a long time to come. That being the case, building and maintaining our automotive byways will continue to be a huge business (and one, we might note, that’s not vulnerable to outsourcing). Just this year the stimulus provided $28 billion for construction work on roads and bridges, and in coming months the new transportation bill–estimated size: $450 billion–will fatten the pot even more.
But while most of us are familiar with the major players in other big industries, how many Americans can name even one company that builds roads? Well, to improve our national infrastructural literacy, here’s a primer on the 10 biggest highway builders in the US (based on revenue rankings from Engineering News Record). The revenue figures cited are specifically for road construction work, and many cases represent only a portion of a given company’s overall business.
This is the first of a series of “industry tours” we’ll be taking to look at who’s doing the work–and making the money–on America’s infrastructure.
10 - Clark Group – $305 million
Among this firm’s most notable projects were the design and construction of six high-capacity interchanges on Route 28 in northern Virginia and the $185 million project to improve one of Washington state’s major traffic bottlenecks by adding two HOV lanes on a busy stretch of I-5. 
Though it started out as a small excavating company in 1906, Clark is today one of the largest general contractors in the US. The Maryland company’s diverse operating divisions span from building high-tech laboratories to baseball stadiums.
9 - American Infrastructure – $315 million
In 2006, this heavy engineering and building materials supplier received an “Excellence in Construction Award” for its work on Maryland’s Route 43, which included building 3.8 miles of new four-lane divided highway. AI also completed the challenge of widening I-276 in Pennsylvania from four to six lanes to accommodate over 60,000 daily commuters and multiple freight and passenger rail carriers.
The company was founded in 1939 and is still own by the same family. It got some recent media attention as the recipient of the government’s first stimulus contract.
8 - New Enterprise Stone & Lime – $330 million
This construction materials supplier and road builder has completed many ambitious bypass projects, including one in Loysburg, PA.
The firm is headquartered in Pennsylvania and owned by the third and fourth generations of the Detwiler family, which founded it in 1924. It’s subsidiaries specialize in different activities ranging from operating limestone quarries to developing technology solutions for highways.
7 - Flatiron Construction Corp. – $340 million
Currently, this company is working on the 6.8-mile “Washington Bypass” highway project in North Carolina that involves building a bridge over the Pamlico-Tar River. For this, the company is using a new patent-pending construction technique that reduces environmental damage. Flatiron also proudly completed Orange County’s $803 million Eastern Transportation Corridor–a 25.4-mile limited-access toll road–below budget and more than a year ahead of schedule.
The company is headquartered in Denver and is wholly owned by the Netherlands-based Royal BAM Group, one of the largest construction firms in the world.
6 - Jacobs Engineering – $365 million
While this technical services firm gets most of its revenue from the energy sector, it also has extensive infrastructure operations. For example, it received a contract from the North Texas Tollway Authority to design a multi-level interchange in McKinney with an estimated cost of $200 million. Jacobs also signed a deal in January to provide engineering and environmental services for approximately 24 miles of roadway in Stanislaus County, CA.
The publicly-traded company has annual revenues exceeding $11 billion, more than 46,000 employees, and more than 160 offices in more than 20 countries.
5 - The Hubbard Group – $430 million
Last year, the company began work on the $89 million Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority 414 project, including new road work and bridge construction. It was also awarded a 6.3-mile, $102 million project in North Carolina which included the construction of a major interchange at I-85 and seven box culverts.
The Hubbard Group is a holding company comprised of two heavy construction firms in the southeastern United States: Hubbard Construction based in Florida and Blythe Construction in North Carolina. It is, in turn, part of Eurovia, a European developer of roads and highways.
4 - The Lane Construction Corp. – $770 million
One of Lane’s biggest current gigs is the reconstruction and widening of I-64, from an existing four lane divided highway to a six lane divided highway. The company is also the lead contractor for the reconstruction and upgrade of 2 miles of the existing Route 17 through Horseheads, NY into a new section of I-86.
The private firm, founded in 1890 and based in Connecticut, was a pioneer in using “macadamized pavements”–a predecessor to today’s asphalt–to build new roads in the northeast as they came into greater demand with the expanding use of the automobile.
3. Kiewit Corporation – $850 million
Among this company’s most notable projects are a $1.28 billion Colorado contract (the state’s largest ever) to improve I-25 and I-225 and the construction of the 91 Express Lanes in Orange Country, CA. The latter project is the world´s first fully automated toll road; it was built in a privately financed deal worth $126 million.
Employee-owned Kiewit has built more than 1,800 transportation projects in the past 15 years, totaling more than $23 billion in contract revenue–this includes more lane-miles in interstate, highways, and bridges than any other contractor.
2. The Walsh Group Ltd. – $1.1 billion
Walsh is taking the lead on the $500 million reconstruction of Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago and recently completed a design-build project on Indiana’s I-65 highway.
The Illinois-based company, still family owned, has practiced general building construction since its founding in 1898. It provides services through its subsidiaries, Walsh Construction and Archer Western Contractors.
1 - Granite Construction – $1.2 billion
This firm is building the controversial Maryland Intercounty Connector and and has signed a deal to do improvement work on I-64 in St. Louis. Each deal of these deals is worth more than $400 million dollars.
The California company touts its history of building the first roads through Yosemite National Park as well as major segments of the federal interstate highway system.
Eduardo Hernandez, the author of this piece, is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he wrote his thesis on infrastructure policy. He is the founder of the reference site Wikinfrastructure.info.
Top photo; Lower photos: Texas Transporation Institute
June 1st, 2009 at 3:00 pm
No surprise here, “The New 64″ in St Louis, noting like witnessing auto-centrism gone wild. MoDOT: “Construction to rebuild… began in March 2007. All lanes… will remain closed until December 2009.”
June 1st, 2009 at 3:34 pm
We at the Infrastructurist were pleasantly surprised over the weekend to see that the MoDOT has started following us on Twitter.
Certainly the winds in this country are blowing against auto centrism. And that’s a very good thing. The best way to speed these changes along is to have an intelligent and inclusive national conversation about the major issues we face in rethinking how the country is organized.
-Jebediah
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:10 am
Hmm, how about Fluor, who is building the HOT Lanes in Northern Virginia and Skanska who is building the I-95 interchanges between the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and the Mixing Bowl, also in Northern Virginia. I was surprised to not see their names on the list, but perhaps I have the criteria wrong.
June 2nd, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Sorry, but I think you’ve mixed apples with oranges. As a corraborating source, I’d recommend you check ENR. For example, Jacobs doesn’t “build” highways. They design / manage them.
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:52 pm
How can I-64 in NC be widened from 4 to 6 lanes if I-64 does not go to NC at all?
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Thanks for raising the question.
I’ll let Eduardo, the author, weigh in. But he tells me both Fluor and Skanska came in outside the top 10 — at least in this particular year. This is 2007 revenue, if memory servers — is that right, Eduardo?
-Jebediah
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Mark,
Editorial snafu. Thanks for pointing it out.
-Jebediah
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:39 pm
@ General Schematic:
- Fluor derives the majority of its revenue from Oil & Gas operations. In the ENR Ranking used for this report, they come up in 21st place with revenues of $194.6 million, while Skanska USA is #17 with $236.3 million.
@ Skeptical:
- The source used was ENR’s Top US Contractor Ranking for the Transportation sector, and the subsector was Highways. We used the term “Builders” (or could have also used “Contractors”) to encapsulate activities which ultimately lead to highway creation, such as design, procurement, engineering, management, etc… For example, New Enterprise Stone & Lime mostly supplies materials for highways projects, while Jacobs mostly focuses on design and management as you well put… But they all come together to build highways.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:41 pm
@ Jeb
It’s 2008 rankings based on supplemental market revenue data from 2007.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
@ Mark
Check out the project profile on Lane’s page, http://www.laneconstruct.com/construction/projectprofiles.aspx .
June 9th, 2009 at 7:27 am
I hope Your idea and working style should be milestone for other…
June 9th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Kind of old news but …Longmont, CO - Following the announcement on September 25, 2007 regarding the takeover of U.S. civil engineering company Flatiron Construction, the involved parties have now reached financial close. German-based construction services provider HOCHTIEF acquired Flatiron Construction Corp. from Dutch company Royal BAM Group today for $240 million.
June 12th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Great article! Keep up the great work!
June 17th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Kiewit, once coined the “colosuss of roads” has built more highway miles than any other contractor in the US. These figures don’t take into accout bridge building, which accounted for almost 2 billion dollars of Kiewits 2007 revenue…shouldnt highway bridge building be counted with highway building??
June 17th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Forgot to add, there was also a billion dollar job in BC, Canada that Kiewit completed in 2007 in prep for the Olympics, I know this wouldn’t count towards “American” infrastructure, but that seems to put the Kiewit group at around $4 billion in road projects in 2007.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:02 am
[...] a list of the 10 largest highway construction contractors in the U.S. The list is reproduced from The Infrastructurist, a blog that follows infrastructure development and transportation [...]