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. (more…)
