Eric Olson
A writer and contributing editor for CEG since 2008, Eric Olson has worked in the business for more than 40 years.
Olson grew up in the small town of Lenoir, NC in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he began covering sports for the local newspaper at age 18. He continued to do that for several other dailies in the area while in college at Appalachian State University. Following his graduation, he moved on to gain experience at two other publications before becoming a real estate and special features writer and editor at the Winston-Salem Journal for 10 years. Since 1999 he has worked as a corporate media liaison and freelance writer, in addition to his time at CEG.
He and his wife, Tara, have been married for 33 years and are the parents of two grown and successful daughters. His hobbies include collecting history books, watching his beloved Green Bay Packers and caring for his three dogs and one cat.
Erlinger Is Heavy-Duty Resource for Major Construction Work
After joining what is today Russ Erlinger Crane Service in Lebanon, Ill., in 1988, Rich Hillesheim advanced through the company to later become its president and owner. Along the way, the firm's success continued to grow as it became well-regarded for its outstanding service in the greater St....
Raising I-95 in North Carolina's Coastal Plain
One small town getting hit by a pair of destructive floods in three years by powerful hurricanes is almost assuredly going to lead to expensive engineering countermeasures. That certainly has been the case the last few years in Lumberton, N.C., where Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018 each caused 1,000-year-floods along the city's Lumber River and inundated sections of Interstate 95, the United States' primary freeway on the East Coast, leading to its partial closure in the Tarheel State's Coastal Plain....
S.C.-Based Kuhn Equipment Celebrates 50 Anniversary
As Kuhn Equipment marks its 50th anniversary in 2024 as a supplier of used recycling, demolition and construction machines, it is worth noting that the company strategically evolved to find its perfect niche within the marketplace....
Rebuilding Process Begins Post-Helene
More than a week after the remnants of Hurricane Helene plowed ashore on Florida's Gulf Coast and drew a bead on Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, causing catastrophic damages and killing more than 200 people, the task of recovery and rebuilding is continuing apace....
Linder Industrial Machinery Expands Into Virginia Market
Linder Industrial Machinery Co. has built a strong reputation among its construction, mining, forestry, waste/recycling, material handling and agricultural customers for its equipment offerings and service reliability in the Southeastern United States during its 71 years in business....
Southwestern University's $120M Campus Building Campaign Well Under Way in Texas
Southwestern University rests within a beautiful, leafy campus in Georgetown, Texas, approximately 30 mi. north of Austin. The 183-year-old college, the oldest in the Lone Star State, is noted for its outstanding sciences, fine arts and music curricula, as well as its interdisciplinary and pre-professional programs....
Volvo Wheel Loaders Critical to Harrison Construction Co.
Any aggregates business that operates concrete plants, asphalt facilities and quarries can only be successful if it uses the best machines to move its heavy materials from one place to another. One such firm is Harrison Construction Co., with offices in Knoxville, Tenn., and Asheville, N.C., that not only supplies and delivers construction aggregates in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina but is itself a major paving contractor in the area....
R.R. Equipment Offers Komplet Crushers, Screens, Shredders
A line of small- to mid-size mobile crushers, screening plants and shredders distributed by N.J.-based Komplet America has recently been added to the inventory of R.R. Equipment Co. LLC, a South Carolina manufacturer and dealer of machines for the aggregates and processing industries....
Roto-Screen USA Looks to Build National Dealer Network
Sand Science Inc. , a Beaufort, S.C., supplier of screening, conveying, crushing and recycling equipment, is currently undergoing a major effort to expand the availability of the Roto-Screen portable trommel screening plant in the United States through the formation of Roto-Screen USA and the development of a full-service dealer network....
The Ironpeddlers Celebrates 50th Year in Business
As The Ironpeddlers, a Southeast equipment dealer, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2024, officers of the company, headquartered in Monroe, N.C., can easily identify the markers of its success. Being a family-run operation, a dedication to personal customer attention is one of its attributes, along with maintaining parts and service departments staffed by talented professionals, according to the company....
Newport Sand & Gravel Relies On Volvo Iron, ASCENDUM
Any company in the business of mining stone, and then processing it for use by landscapers and homeowners, is going to need the toughest, most dependable heavy equipment on the market. That is certainly true of Newport Sand and Gravel Inc....
WIC: James River Equipment's Destiny Johnson's — Determination to Be Best
Like any other successful young person in the construction equipment distribution industry, Destiny Johnson is making her mark via a single-minded determination to be the best at her job. Throughout her seven-year career working in the business, the past two with the Charlotte, N.C., branch of James River Equipment, Johnson has worked to learn everything there is to know about the machines she handles as an outside rental representative for the dealership....
HARCO Prospers With Help From ASCENDUM, Volvo CE
Opening a business as a 21-year-old is a daunting prospect for anyone. In the case of Jeffrey Hardin, he had plenty of help in getting his company started and continued to build it through hard work and sheer determination....
Georgia's Dustcom Limited Perseveres to Become Prosperous
When the Great Recession swept across the United States in 2008, it destroyed or damaged countless businesses in its wake. Construction companies, too, were not immune to economic disaster, no matter the size of their operations....
Firm's Turnkey Op Helps Bring People to S.C.'s Low Country
The counties and towns in South Carolina's far-southern tip are well established as wonderful places to build new homes. The trend began decades ago with the development of many of the state's coastal communities just north of Savannah, Ga., headlined by Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County, renowned around the world as a top vacation and residential destination....
Tennessee's Pugmill Systems LLC Expands Its Product Offerings to Include Concrete Plants
Since the mid-1980s, Duane Allen and his team have been designing and manufacturing pugmill mixers and related equipment for Pugmill Systems LLC in Columbia, Tenn., south of Nashville. Allen's son, Jared, who has been involved in the family business for 16 years, is the elder Allen's partner and has served as the company's general manager for the past few years....
ASCENDUM Machinery Opens New Savannah, Ga., Facility
When the folks at ASCENDUM Machinery realized a few years ago that their Pooler, Ga., location no longer met the company's needs, they began looking around for a more suitable location — one that was not only larger and more modern but also was easier for customers to get to....
ASCENDUM to Compete in Global Volvo Technician Event
ASCENDUM Machinery, a Huntersville, N.C.-based Volvo Construction Equipment dealer, located just north of Charlotte, boasts a roster of friendly, well-trained professionals working throughout the company's multiple branches across the two Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and North Dakota....
Georgia Contractor Grows With Help From Hills Machinery, Hitachi
With the construction of a $7.6 billion Hyundai electric vehicle and battery production plant now under way near Savannah, Ga., its top-tier component suppliers have also begun to look for both manufacturing and warehouse space to support the automaker's effort....
Anaconda's Investment in U.S. Results in Strong Growth
Over the span of just 15 years, Anaconda Equipment has grown to become a respected manufacturer of material handling products in the industry. With its headquarters and global manufacturing facility based in Northern Ireland, the mecca of material equipment, Anaconda has been in the American marketplace since 2009....
Portion of North Carolina's I-42 Reaches Last Year of Work
A relatively short but critical bypass of U.S. Highway 70 around the small community of Havelock, in southeastern North Carolina, is now in its last year of construction after the state's Department of Transportation (NCDOT) commissioned the project in 2019....
Charlotte's Airport Adds $1B Fourth Parallel Runway
Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) in North Carolina's largest city is embarking on yet another in a long series of infrastructure projects designed to address its capacity and meet future demand while enhancing its operational efficiency....
CR Lutzke Golf Provides Courses With Tailored Services
All successful large-scale building or renovation projects are the result of a hand-in-glove pairing of the contractor and a reliable equipment dealer. That includes relatively smaller efforts such as a golf course refurbishment, where the company making the upgrades needs very specific machines to perform the often-heavy work without damaging the course itself....
Hills Machinery Honors Top Product Support Professionals
In early summer, Hills Machinery, distributor of construction, environmental and agricultural equipment in the Southeast, held a series of awards banquets at its 12 branch locations to celebrate the achievements of its top product support professionals....
SITECH Horizon: New Professional Services Offering
Many contractors across the country have embraced the technological advances available in construction equipment over the past several years. SITECH Horizon, a company under the Weisiger Group, has become a one-stop shop for advanced Trimble construction technology solutions in western North Carolina....
Takeuchi US to Soon Make Full Lineup of CTLs at S.C. Plant
After almost six decades as one of Japan's foremost makers of construction machinery, Takeuchi Manufacturing Co. Ltd. is recognized worldwide for its production of compact machines such as mini-excavators and track loaders....
Small Biz Grows to Become Master Distributor of Morooka
In recent years, the demand among contractors for more compact construction equipment has increased dramatically in the United States, with no signs of slowing down. The Morooka MST-2500VDLAs part of that market expansion, builders and machine operators also have discovered how well a line of smaller, more maneuverable rubber-track carriers can bring more efficiency to their job sites, while also combining better traction with a high load capacity....
Western N.C.'s Valley Precast Supplies MagnumStone to Region
Since he was a youngster, Jason Ball always enjoyed being outside and using equipment, whether it was for farming or construction. By the time he had become a young adult, he decided that construction was the career for him, and he wasted little time getting started....
Top Talent, Machines Keys to Success for Family Biz SRC
Family-run companies, especially those passed down from generation to generation, have always been the bedrock of American business. The older generations teach the younger set the importance of treating people fairly and honestly as well as the steps necessary to be a prosperous company....
Yoder & Frey Taps Thurston to Create Expansion, Boost Brand
Although Mike Thurston loved his job as vice president of TLG Peterbilt in Springfield, Mo., a job he had for the previous 15 years, he found himself open to listening to a proposal late in 2022 with the owner of Europe's largest construction equipment auction company....
Cumberland Develops Key Infrastructure Supporting Growth
For almost a decade, Cumberland Pipeline, headquartered in Columbia, Ky., has blossomed into one of the top underground utilities contractors in the central part of both its home state and that of Tennessee....
Asphalt Paving of Shelby Tests Blaw-Knox Prototype Paver
For Don Dedmon Jr., and his father, Don Sr., the reasons to choose — and continue to run — Blaw-Knox asphalt paving equipment in their business have always come down to two things: price and reliability....
Hills Machinery's Investments Expand Southeast Presence
After a company becomes successful, staying that way means it needs to be like a living organism — always growing and forever adapting. Over the past several years, the people at Hills Machinery, a Columbia, S.C.-based distributor of equipment built for construction, paving, environmental and agricultural needs, have wholeheartedly embraced that philosophy, with the result being that it is one of the top dealers in the Southeast....
Covenant Constructors' Integrity, Hot Market Fuel Success
The value of having experienced and steady leadership at the helm of any new business goes a long way toward building a successful future. Usually, a new company takes several years to take root in the marketplace before it becomes profitable....
Dream On 3, Industry Team Up to Fulfill Kids' Sports Dreams
The ability to help make dreams come true for kids and young people with life-altering physical, intellectual and developmental disabilities is a blessing reserved for a rare group of people. The number of organizations that do so in a highly developed and effective way are few, but a nonprofit based in Charlotte, N.C., has thrived for more than 10 years by applying its own novel spin to fulfilling youngsters' dreams sure to last a lifetime....
Expanding to Southeast Increases Success of Pa. Contractor
Despite outside forces, such as a much-forecasted economic slowdown, the Southeastern U.S. infrastructure building market has continued to grow at a steady pace during the post-COVID period. Multiple structure and road/bridge projects are announced daily in states like the two Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and Tennessee, to name a few....
First Two Phases of S.C.'s $1.7B 'Malfunction Junction' Freeway Upgrades Under Way
Making the driving experience better and safer for motorists and commuters using the freeways that connect on Columbia, S.C.'s west side is the goal of the state's huge Carolina Crossroads project, known colloquially — and for good reason — as "Malfunction Junction."The $1.7 billion, five-phase construction effort is being spearheaded by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), which has contracted with the experienced professionals at Archer Western and United Infrastructure, working as a joint venture (AUJV), to build the first two phases....
Texarkana Regional Airport in Arkansas Battles Rising Costs to Build Modern Terminal
The news is often filled with stories about large airports working on billion-dollar expansions or renovations, like the ongoing construction to upgrade New York City's LaGuardia Airport, or the never-ending improvements to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the world's busiest in terms of passenger traffic....
HEVI Leads U.S. Charge to Heavy Equipment Electrification
The development of a new manufacturing line of heavy equipment products has come on the scene within the last few years with the goal of leading the charge of American companies that offer fully electrified construction equipment....
Blanchard Machinery, Employees Aim to Be Force for Good Through Joe's Wish
With its 750 employees and their families in mind, South Carolina's Blanchard Machinery last fall launched an internal foundation, Joe's Wish, to provide emergency relief funds to its people during times of hardship....
Final Leg of Fayetteville, N.C.'s I-295 Loop Built By Branch
A contract for the final leg of North Carolina's long-awaited Interstate 295/Fayetteville Outer Loop project was awarded this past summer to Branch Civil, a subsidiary of Branch Group, and one of the East Coast's most prestigious heavy construction firms....
Following Merger, New Abernethy Contracting LLC in Charlotte Opens
The ancient, but well-known proverb, "Fortune favors the bold," certainly applies to Chad Abernethy, who has twice made audacious business moves in his short career. Most recently, the 35-year-old Charlotte contractor and executive orchestrated the merger of his former company, Barton Contracting Corp., with the one founded by his grandfather and operated by his father, Hal Abernethy Inc....
Dozer Operator Henry Schinske Has No Plans to Retire
It is not at all unusual for people who enjoy working in the operator's seat of a piece of construction equipment to do so for 15 or 20 years. Those that run bulldozers, excavators or wheel loaders tend to love their work and are often reluctant to leave them behind....
Sugarhill Contractors Builds Strong Reputation
So many of America's successful small and mid-sized construction companies were started by individuals who, as youngsters, had grown up on job sites watching their elders make a good living in the trade....
VIDEO: Dramatic Implosion of Florida Power Plant Done By Buffalo, N.Y., Demolition Firm
People never seem to tire of the thrill of witnessing the controlled demolition of industrial sites or buildings. That is particularly true of tall structures imploded into their own narrow footprint by a combination of expertly placed explosive charges and the forces of gravity....
Buffalo Creek Finds Sure Thing in SANY, Ironpeddlers
On his path to becoming a successful entrepreneur, Chad Whitley always figured he needed to rely on one or two "sure things" — people or companies that would help him reach his desired business goals....
As AUSA Debuts e-Model, Other Dumpers Continue Thriving
Over the past 61 years, Barcelona, Spain-based AUSA has proven itself to be a manufacturer of unique and inventive construction equipment — first in Europe and, since 2015, in the United States. AUSA makes compact industrial vehicles noted for their maneuverability, versatility and range of uses....
James River Equipment Making Impact On Crusher, Screener Business
When James River Equipment was founded in 1977 it was known primarily as a John Deere construction machine dealership, a successful affiliation that it still enjoys to this day. As the company grew, though, it brought on other product lines, including those that support the needs of its agriculture, turf and forestry customers....
Upstate South Carolina Is Latest Site for NED Expansion
National Equipment Dealers (NED), a heavy construction sales, full-service and rental company with branches in five Southern states, has recently expanded by opening a new location in the Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., market....
Scenic Watauga River Getting New Bridge Along Mountainous N.C. Highway
A construction project began earlier this year in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains to expand a critical roadway and replace an aging bridge to help lessen traffic congestion in a much-traveled part of the state....
Ruston Paving Restores NASCAR's 'Longest-Running' Track
On a recent fall afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C., full of sunshine, cool temperatures and falling leaves, venerable old Bowman Gray Stadium, home to college football games for nearby Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), was the site of a refurbishment project not normally associated with a gridiron venue....
Alliance With SANY Sets Ironpeddlers On Pathway to Success
Ironpeddlers, a construction and road equipment dealer based in the Charlotte-Monroe market in North Carolina, has thrived for most of the past 48 years as a family-run company noted for offering used machines and parts, along with a close working relationship with its customers....
Biz Fills Material Processing Equipment Needs Nationwide
For almost four decades, Gerry Kenny has established his name, and that of his company, Sand Science Inc. , as a source among contractors and company owners looking to get quality screening, conveying, crushing and recycling equipment....
Greensboro Tree Experts Reach New Heights With Magni
Robert Rogg enjoys his job working with trees, whether he is trying to help make them grow or clearing them away due to storm damage. Every job is different, though the degree of difficulty varies widely from project to project....
James River Branch Helps SW Virginia Farmers, Contractors
James River Equipment, a John Deere agricultural and construction and machinery dealer in the Mid-South, earlier this year moved its Rocky Mount, Va., branch further north to a larger facility in Boones Mill, just south of Roanoke....
Mauldin Helps Va.'s Racey Paving Keep Up With Workload
Brannon Racey is a young man working as superintendent at his family's paving company in the lush Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He also is preparing to one day soon assume the mantle of company owner from his father, Wayne, who has trained the younger Racey for the job since he could first walk....
N.C. Contractor Honors Daughter With Energetic Crews, Dynamic Machines
When Chris Philemon began his grading business 30 years ago this summer, it was because, as a young man, he discovered he had a love for running equipment like graders, loaders and other machines used for clearing and shaping properties....
Crown Paving Applies Final Touches to Tenn.'s Southall Resort
In the bucolic rolling hills of Middle Tennessee lies a 325-acre development that uniquely combines a luxury resort and spa with a working farm. Southall is located on the southside of Franklin, easily accessible from Nashville to the north but far enough from the big city bustle to give its guests plenty of peace and quiet during their stay....
Sunken Antarctic Research Vessel Being Demolished in Washington State
A project to demolish the research vessel Hero in Bay Center, Wash., is well under way, with the contractor predicting the job will be finished by mid-September. The legendary wooden boat operated in the Antarctic for 16 years until she was decommissioned in 1984....
Blanchard Machinery CEO, President Joe Blanchard Passes at Age 60
The construction industry in the Southeast lost a great and trusted friend on Thursday, July 14 when Joseph Rozier Blanchard, the president and CEO of Blanchard Machinery Company in West Columbia, S.C., passed away surrounded by his loved ones at his Charleston home following a brief battle with cancer....
LBX Presents Award to Parman Tractor & Equipment
In the short time it has been in operation in Nashville, Tenn., Parman Tractor & Equipment has become one of the South's top construction machine dealers. The company has been acclaimed for its strong customer service from the first day it opened in May 2019, and all the way through the pandemic....
Charlotte's Hoopaugh Grading Preparing N.C. Site for New Macy's Fulfillment Center
Over its almost 70 years serving the two Carolinas, Charlotte, N.C.'s Hoopaugh Grading Co. (HGC) has developed an outstanding reputation among contractors and developers for its prominent level of expertise in performing pre-construction work on projects of all sizes....
North Carolina Compost Company Makes Organic Waste Earth-Friendly
Not long after graduating from college, Riley Alber found work as a land surveyor, where he spent his days hiking through woods and wetlands just as he had as a youngster in southern New Jersey. Although he loved being outdoors, he soon realized that his job was a contradiction to his belief in preserving the health and sustainability of Earth's natural environment....
GP Rental Opens Unique Location to Serve Contractors
At the construction site of a gigantic new biotech facility in Holly Springs, N.C., contractors now have quick-time access to a facility that can supply the equipment and services they need to keep the project running apace....
Bergmann Brings Well-Crafted Dumpers to American Market
A few years ago, a trio of veterans in the construction equipment industry came together with the goal of finding and marketing a unique product line that was not being widely offered in North America....
Gregory Poole's Ben Bradsher Retires After 50 Years of Service
Contractors, farmers and forestry experts working in the eastern half of North Carolina have long relied on Raleigh-based Gregory Poole Equipment Company to supply them with needed machines, tools and services....
YouTube Influencer Joins Forces With NED, Hyundai
A popular YouTube personality, social media influencer and owner of a forestry mulching company in northwest South Carolina has recently joined with National Equipment Dealers (NED) and Hyundai Construction Equipment to market the latter's mid-size machines on the global video platform....
Southern Sun Paving Carves Niche as Successful Business
Often, today's business news is all about mergers and acquisitions, or billion-dollar corporations, but it is also newsworthy when small, decades-old family companies have proven that they can establish a successful place for themselves in the highly competitive marketplace....
Carolina Cat Celebrates 95 Years as Family Business
From its headquarters in Charlotte, Carolina Cat (CTE), formerly known as Carolina Tractor & Equipment, is one of those rare jewels of American business: a family company founded during the "Roaring Twenties" that has achieved immense success without being acquired by a larger conglomerate....
Blanchard Machinery Upgrades Summerville, S.C., Branch
In any competitive marketplace, the essential elements to success always include individual talent and company reliability. But for prosperous firms to remain strong, they also need to find ways to upgrade their look and improve their service to keep customers coming back time after time....
Determination Puts Dennis Concrete Among South's Top Firms
Josh Dennis knew he was going to run a concrete service — all the way back to when he was a youngster in Dover, Tenn. In his small hometown, along the west bank of the Cumberland River and not too far east of the larger Tennessee River, there were few industries for folks to make a decent living....
SRM Concrete's Huge Success Due to Teamwork of Family
Back in 1999, Mike and Melissa Hollingshead decided that they needed to build a ready-mix concrete plant in their own Middle Tennessee backyard. An unusual choice for most folks, certainly, but Mike did so only because he was often frustrated in getting the materials he needed to run his small concrete business....
Tornado Recovery Effort Needs Proper Equipment, Great Compassion
The versatility and durability of machines built for heavy construction has had high visibility outside the industry since the day after a rare and powerful tornado outbreak slammed through the Midwest, Mississippi Valley and South in the overnight hours of Dec....
Integrity, Hard Work Built S.C.'s 4M Iron Equipment Dealership
When two men working in different sectors of the construction equipment business in South Carolina decided to open their own dealership in 2013, the goal, obviously, was to make it a profitable venture....
Hills Machinery's New Locations to Better Serve Carolinas
With the goal of establishing each of its locations within approximately 90 mi. of the next closest dealership in the Carolinas, Hills Machinery Co. is expanding to include two more facilities in the Tarheel State....
Picturesque Virginia Valley Site of I-81 Bridge Replacement Project
In one of the South's more scenic mountain valleys, construction crews have been at work for two years to build replacement bridges on Interstate 81 in southwest Virginia's Smyth County. The projected $28.9 million effort involves substituting two half-century-old freeway bridges that cross over Virginia Route 11, the Norfolk Southern Railroad line and the Middle Fork of the Holston River with new, wider spans....
DECO's Success Taking On Tough Demo Projects Goes Easier With Volvo Machines
At a site off Interstate 26, northwest of Charleston, S.C., Volvo construction equipment, including large and medium crawler excavators, can be seen knocking down an old auto parts manufacturing facility....
NC's $1.7B Northern Beltway Faces Another Decade of Construction
One of North Carolina's largest and most complex road projects has been ongoing since December 2014 and, although a few sections have been opened, its final completion date will still not occur until sometime in the 2030s....
Volvo, Ascendum Boosts Success of Tenn. Construction Firm
There are few road projects that have taken place in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee in recent decades that did not rely on Knoxville-based Harrison Construction Company for the materials and services needed to complete the work successfully....
AUSA Grows U.S. Market for Its Unique Compact Equipment
In 1956, four friends in Spain came together to form a company to design and build microcars for the European market. Their business, Automóviles Utilitarios Sociedad Anónima (AUSA), only produced the diminutive automobiles for five years, but the cars were noted for their comfort and the quality of their workmanship....
Woman-Owned B&N Grading Enjoys Rapid Growth in N.C.
When Heather Thompson and her then-partner, Brian Hux, decided to open a business together in 2010, they, like most small-business newbies, started off quite humbly. In their case, that meant renting a pickup truck by the hour, lining the bed with plywood and going to Charlotte-area asphalt plants to load it with hot asphalt, despite being warned not to by the vendors....
James River Serves Growing Customer Base Via New Hub
To serve its growing base of customers in the construction industry in eastern North Carolina, James River Equipment in January opened a hub facility in the southern suburbs of Raleigh. The approximately 60,000-sq.-ft., full-service dealership relocated to a larger 25½-acre piece of property in Garner from another part of the Raleigh metro area....
Mississippi Business Helps Contractors 'Fill the Gaps' in Their Projects
When Brian Woods decided to leave college early and start his own one-man construction service company in 2003, he began by performing one specific task for the general contractors that took a chance on him....
Blythe Construction Reduces Its Carbon Footprint
Charlotte-based Blythe Construction Inc., one of the Southeast's leading heavy construction companies, recently unveiled a new piece of equipment designed to reduce the firm's carbon emissions from its paving operations in North and South Carolina....
Modern Facility, Capabilities Make Parman One of Tenn.'s Best Distributors
Just two years ago, a new company, Parman Tractor & Equipment, opened its doors to contractors in Tennessee and other parts of the South wanting a distributor of top shelf construction machinery — one that is also expert in the art of treating its customers well....
New Tools Help Ideal Landscaping 'Make the Grade'
One thing is certain about Ideal Landscaping's project at Hoover Road Park in Durham, N.C.: The Triangle company employs some of the best tools on the market to perform its grading project at the 50-acre soccer park....
Sen. Lindsey Graham Visits Mauldin Paving Products
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham visited the Mauldin Paving Products manufacturing facility in Greenville, S.C., on May 17 to discuss President Biden's proposed $2.1 infrastructure bill designed to, among other things, build better, safer roads and bridges nationwide....
N.C. Contractor Finds Success Among Scenic Vistas
Joffrey Merrill has a cool job. Not only does he love his work, but he gets to do it outdoors amid the splendor of the southern Appalachian Mountains of North and South Carolina. The area where he operates his excavating company is beautiful but rugged country, particularly in and around his home base of Penrose, N.C., southwest of Asheville....
Smallest Virginia Town Tackles Big, Innovative Project
Hillsboro may be a tiny northern Virginia community of only 120 residents, but it began a big revitalization effort in March 2020 that could be a model for how many future infrastructure projects are funded, designed and built....
SGTM Goes Well Beyond Providing Tree Waste Solutions
Tony Raynor is very effusive about his company's versatility and, as he likes to say, the "depth" of its subsidiaries. Tony Raynor is CEO of Sustainability Green Team (SGTM), Astatula, Fla. There is no denying that Raynor is spot-on with his assessment....
One of America's Busiest Highways Undergoes Major Expansion
When one of America's major highways undergoes an expansion and improvement project costing hundreds of millions of dollars, chances are that a sizable number of people will be affected. That is certainly the case in Fredericksburg, Va., where work is well under way on the second phase of an upgrade to a portion of Interstate 95, one of the busiest freeway corridors in the country....
VIDEO: Diverging Diamond Interchange Begins to Shine in Tennessee
In the United States, the use of diverging diamond interchanges (DDI) is becoming increasingly popular among state transportation departments to improve the flow of vehicle traffic where busy non-freeways intersect with interstates and other freeways....
Great People, Equipment Spur Success for N.C. Contractor
Lewis Barton puts a great deal of faith in the people that help make his utility construction company successful. In turn, his crews respect him and admire the way he and his management operate the firm....
R.H. Price Installs Water Main Down Busy Charlotte Street
Anyone who has regularly driven around Charlotte, N.C., in the last couple of decades can attest to its seemingly never-ending growth. New skyscrapers are erected each year in the uptown, along with multi-story residential apartments and condominiums in the trendy neighborhoods nearby....
Amid Challenges, N.C Freeway Interchange Remains on Schedule
It is now been almost nine years since contractors first began to transform the interchange at I-40 and I-77 in Statesville, N.C., 40 mi. north of Charlotte. With only an expected year-and-a-half left before the two-phased freeway project is finished, crews from two different construction companies have made quite a few upgrades to each interstate as well as several streets and roads feeding to them and the interchange....
Young Expert Leads N.C. Stream Restoration Construction
The practice of engineering stream and wetland restoration has been in use for thousands of years — ever since humans first realized they needed to keep their waterways healthy to drink and safe to travel upon....
Lanier Sand and Soil Continues Its Many Decades of Success
One of South Carolina's most long lasting and highly regarded companies is Lanier Construction, which, as a provider of mined materials to contractors for several decades, does business as Lanier Sand and Soil....
Success of Florida's J. McKinnon Due to Integrity, Efficiency
The task of building Florida's mammoth Brightline Trains extension from West Palm Beach to Cocoa, then west to Orlando International Airport, is a Herculean one for any of the contractors on the project....
North Carolina County Relies on EDGE, Hills Machinery to Handle Waste
North Carolina's Mecklenburg County is the state's largest in terms of population with just more than 1.1 million residents. Along with its county seat, Charlotte, Mecklenburg is one of the South's major urban centers....
Calder Brothers Transform Mauldin Paving Into Top-Ranked Maker
In 2019, a South Carolina manufacturer lifted the curtain on three new commercial class paving machines that, in terms of engineering and performance, rank among any made by much larger equipment makers....
Hickory Contractor Evolves Over 54 Years to Stay Successful
If a new construction company can make it past its fledgling years and manages to keep the lights on, any continuing success is due to a series of evolutionary periods. For Hickory, N.C.'s Neill Grading & Construction, its success is rooted in being a third-generation family company....
Kentucky Taps Ohio Contractor to Fix Fire-Damaged Span
In the early morning hours of Nov. 11, a truck accident on the Brent Spence Bridge, which spans the Ohio River from northern Kentucky to downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, led to a fire and shutdown of the twin-decked structure....
Self-Confidence Guides Bishop's Success With Dynapac
Jennifer Bishop has always been one to go toe-to-toe with the toughest issues in her professional life. And, inevitably, her self-confidence and perseverance lead her to success. That fire within Bishop has also led her to a new position in 2020 as Dynapac North America's dealer sales manager for the Southeast following a 16-year-long career with the company....
Beneficial Use Practices Spur Tarheel Company's Success
Helping others become stewards of the health of the planet, while still operating a successful business, is a dream for many owners and executives. But, in 1999, J. Gary Steele and his wife, Charlot, did just that when they formed Advanced Residuals Management (ARM) LLC....
Sally Damages Pensacola Bridge: Forces Closure, Delays Re-Opening
Hurricanes are often erratic by nature and their movements can be hard to predict. The amount of destruction they inflict on United States' coastal areas also is difficult to foresee. A perfect example recently could be found in last month's Hurricane Sally....
U.S. 70 Havelock Bypass: Another Upgrade to Critical North Carolina Corridor
Although not an interstate highway, U.S. Highway 70 in eastern North Carolina is steadily being transformed into one. The highway is already one of the state's most critical transportation arteries. Most of the route across the length of the state is made up of four lanes, while some sections have been converted to freeways....
New I-16/I-95 Interchange Will Benefit Port of Savannah
Georgia's Port of Savannah is a major East Coast shipping and receiving center, home to the largest single-terminal container facility of its kind in North America. The port is made up of two modern, deep-water complexes: The Garden City Terminal and the Ocean Terminal....
Former Marine Runs His Coastal Carolinas Business Smartly, Neatly
One might be surprised to know a 25-acre recycling yard in an industrial area of Wilmington, N.C., filled with big equipment processing giant piles of old trees and vegetation, also is a model of neatness and efficiency....
Fast-Tracking the Upgrading of I-75
In April, when the spread of COVID-19 initially brought a decrease in the amount of vehicle traffic to Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis directed the state's Department of Transportation (FDOT) to take the opportunity to accelerate a series of critical road and bridge projects already under way....
Salvage, Recycling Biz Finds Success in Eastern Tennessee
After bringing his wife with him to Knoxville, Tenn., Harry Hernandez decided that having lived and worked in his native Venezuela, as well as Florida, eastern Tennessee was the best place for his young family to grow and thrive....
Ascendum Machinery Opens Flagship Store Near Charlotte
In 60 years, Charlotte-based Ascendum Machinery has established itself among the country's best full-service dealers of top-brand construction equipment. The company is not only the exclusive distributor of Volvo Construction Equipment, but it employs a highly dedicated and knowledgeable staff committed to maximum uptime, quality service and parts availability....
Isaias Pummeled Infrastructure in Mid-Atlantic, New England States
Although only rated as a Category 1 hurricane, Isaias was still a deadly and destructive storm after it made landfall in the United States along the southeast coast of North Carolina on Aug. 3. From there, the storm weakened into a Tropical Storm, but still had enough punch left to inflict significant damage as it roared up the East Coast into the Northeast and New England, bringing with it heavy rains and flooding, and power outages affecting millions and destruction from high winds....
ALDOT Plans Twin Bridges Over U.S. 231 Landslide
A dramatic combination of large pavement cracks and an underground landslide on U.S. Highway 231 near Huntsville, Ala., in the early morning hours of Feb. 13 prompted an immediate closure of roughly 1,000 ft....
North Carolina Mulch Improves Safety, Efficiency With New Feeder Stacker
After 22 years hauling and producing residential- and commercial-use mulch, Kirk Strickland knows what one efficient and essential piece of machinery can do for his company's success. He owns North Carolina Mulch Inc....
Lynches River Contracting Helps S.C. Racetrack to Re-Open
A raceway park is set to re-open in Kershaw, S.C., that promises to give people of all ages the opportunity to get behind the wheel to enjoy the speed and action that comes from driving on a road course....
College, Ironpeddlers Work to Close Operator Shortfall
For several years, construction companies of all sizes have been faced with a pronounced shortage of people looking to work in the building trade, including folks to operate heavy machinery. In many cases, job seekers are unaware of the salaries and benefits construction careers can provide them — if they possess the necessary skills....
Infrastructure Solutions Group Expands to North Carolina
After 35 years of business throughout Virginia, Infrastructure Solutions Group expanded to add brick and mortar in the Tarheel state early this year. The company has been doing rental business throughout the Mid-Atlantic for years, and owners Eric Rocchiccioli and Ben Jones decided it was time for a second location to support their growing sales territory....
Virgin Trains Building Twin Bridges Across Melbourne Waterway
In late May, as part of the larger construction of the new high-speed Virgin Trains rail line through Brevard County, crews closed the railroad crossing at Prospect Avenue in Melbourne for two years to build new twin bridges spanning Crane Creek....
Orlando to Miami in Three Hours…That Could Happen By 2022
Since 2018, a luxurious passenger train service has been transporting people between downtown Miami and West Palm Beach, with a stop in Fort Lauderdale. The Brightline trains have proven to be popular with business passengers and tourists alike, as they are a faster alternative to the often-congested highways of South Florida....
Decades of Experience Drives Columbia Asphalt Company
When it comes to the business and science behind asphalt paving, there may be no one in the Southeast with more knowledge about the subject than John Scott. He has worked around the industry for more than 50 years as both a South Carolina Department of Transportation inspector and engineer, before opening his own company in 1979....
Roper Brothers Beats the Odds to Be a Successful Family Biz
Most family businesses have humble beginnings. Unfortunately, most of them fail, too, within a short period of time. But the history of Roper Brothers Inc. , a general contractor in Fountain Inn, S.C., just outside Greenville, is one of those remarkable tales of a business that has grown into a great success over 35 years while also staying completely family-run....
Massive South Jersey Project Continues
Motorists that have long had to endure mind-numbing traffic delays as they pass through a multi-highway interchange near Camden, N.J., are now witnessing a noticeable difference along the major roadway system....
Adding Capacity the Goal of I-10 Projects
Road construction crews are hard at work across the state of Louisiana on several projects to improve Interstate 10, one of the South's busiest vehicle and freight corridors. In the Bayou State, the highway stretches 274 miles across the lower third of Louisiana from the Texas border east through Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans, before turning northeast to Mississippi....
Wesson Group's 'Safety First' Policies Keep It Building in N.Y.
In late March, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that many construction projects in his state would be frozen due to the rapid and disastrous spread of COVID-19. The type of work contractors perform in the Empire State were placed on two lists: "essential" and "non-essential." with those in the latter category ordered to close until further notice....
The 'First State' Updates Part of Its I-95
One of the busiest highway corridors in the U.S. is Interstate 95, a stretch that runs north from Richmond, Va., before continuing around Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, New Haven, Conn., and Boston....
Army Corps of Engineers Using Skills to Battle COVID-19
In times of national emergencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has historically taken the point among federal agencies in providing engineering skill to important public works projects stateside, as well as to American military sites abroad....
Port Canaveral Building New Terminal for Massive Carnival Cruise Line Ship
Just to the south of where Americans once launched men to the moon and will soon begin their voyages to Mars is the site of a different kind of facility — one that also helps launch people, but to more Earth-bound destinations....
I-95 in South Florida Undergoes Major Improvements
For more than a century, the east coast of South Florida has been an area of the country that attracts people worldwide for both vacations and year-round living — and that allure may never end. And what's not to like? Warm temperatures 12 months out of the year; wide, glistening beaches; and a range of lifestyles available for people of all ages are just a few attractions of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Palm Beach area....
First Phase Under Way to Finally Complete Raleigh's Triangle Expressway
With the goal of reducing the usual heavy traffic around North Carolina's capital city, work has begun to extend a substantial portion of the Triangle Expressway on the southside of Raleigh. Known as the Complete 540 project (and, secondarily, as both the Southeast Extension and N.C....
Busy U.S. Airports Ready for Anything in Winter
Summer had only just ended in the Front Range of Colorado, in and around Denver, when the area received its first snow accumulations on Oct. 10. It was little problem for area motorists long accustomed to early winters and maneuvering through the white stuff....
When Treating Wintry Roads, Which Material Is Better: Salt or Sand?
Some of the more intense snowstorms and icefalls in decades have blasted the United States over the last few winters. Changes in the climate are often cited as the reason for today's extreme winter weather and has touched off a hot debate among scientists, politicians and average Americans....
Prep Work Begins in Earnest for Snow-Slammed Region
When a region of the U.S. regularly receives more than 100 in. of snow each year, area residents and drivers can take solace in knowing that their state DOT undoubtedly has experienced snow-removal professionals with access to well-maintained equipment to keep the major roads open for traffic....
Friendship Is Key for National Attachments, Smith-Rowe
American commerce was built on the close, personal relationships developed between companies or between a company and its customers. To be successful, each party mutually benefits from the business exchange....
L.I. Firm Successfully Pivots From Excavating to Recycling
At only 18 years old, Ryan Murray started an excavation business with just a Bobcat, a pickup truck and a motivation to work hard. That desire to succeed still inspires and has paid off quite nicely — both for him and his local environment....
DOTs Toss Aside Massive Snowfalls, Keep Roads Open
The job of getting heavy snow off the roads and freeways of western mountain states is an expensive, but essential process. While many operators of snowplows, spreaders, blowers and other equipment work seasonally, for the professionals in charge of maintaining that equipment, it's a year-round job....
$2B Light Rail Expansion Benefits Twin Cities
Despite not being ready until 2023, the people of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area have something worth looking forward to. That's when the newest light-rail line in Minnesota will be completed, designed to give riders in the southwest suburbs an easier, quicker and alternative way to reach the Twin Cities....
Unique New Outer Banks Bridge Under Construction in Rodanthe, N.C.
Fierce ocean storms, hurricanes and nor'easters have regularly pounded the rail-thin Outer Banks of North Carolina. Cape Hatteras is famous for being the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," a spot on the East Coast notorious for the hundreds of sunken ships sent to the bottom of the ocean floor — some from as far back as the 1500s....
Liberty, Missouri Interchange Targets Labor Day Opening
A major Kansas contractor is quickly building a replacement for a key interchange in Liberty, Mo., a northeast suburb of Kansas City, with high hopes that the project will be open to traffic by Labor Day weekend....
New Animal Science Lab Nearing Completion at South Dakota State
The first of two important new veterinary science building projects at South Dakota State University is nearing the end of its construction, in time for opening prior to this fall's semester. That structure's finish, followed immediately by a renovation of an adjacent vet lab, is designed to elevate the school's already outstanding reputation for advancing the study of animal disease and prevention....
Wirtgen Quickly Promoted to 'Sarge' By Minnesota Paving Firm
Richard Carron has long been a proud veteran of the United States Army. The owner and president of Valley Paving Inc. in Shakopee, Minn., southwest of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Carron served his country in the late 1960s during the Vietnam War....
Caltrans: Initial Fixes on RSR Bridge Due to Complete in July
It's never good when crumbling concrete falls off an aging highway bridge, but particularly so on one that crosses a portion of San Francisco Bay, one of the busiest traffic corridors in the world. The structure in question is the 5½-mi.-long Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, the northernmost of the Bay's five crossing points....
For ABC Recycling Buying New Proves as Easy as 1-2-3
Adam Blank had used an old forestry crane for years to move scrap metal around his business northwest of Atlanta. Using the log-loader worked well enough, he said, and kept him from having to invest a lot of money on a newer machine....
Excavating for Science in Former Gold Mine
For well over 100 years, the Homestake mine in South Dakota was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, producing 41 million oz. of the precious metal until its closure in 2002. Now, the extensive maze of caverns at the site, in the state's beautiful Black Hills, is being transformed into a laboratory designed to unlock the mysteries of some of the smallest particles in the universe....
Pennsylvania Roads, Bridges Losing Billions in Funding
With each passing day, deteriorating roads and bridges become a bigger issue across the state of Pennsylvania. A 2018 report card on the state's infrastructure from the American Society of Civil Engineers gave Pennsylvania a D+ for its highways, roads and bridges after inspecting their condition....
Every Paving Contractor Has Stories to Tell
It might be hard to believe, but veteran paving contractors do have tales of adventure attached to most of the road projects they have worked on. How could they not? Over the past century, paving contractors have created millions of miles of paved roads and surfaces in the United States....
Lano Equipment Reaches 70 Years
For the Lano family, and their 60 plus employees, maintaining the legacy of their business after 70 years of service to the Twin Citirs metro area is a primary objective. That legacy, that small business work ethic, where every customer, and every employee matters, is what has made Lano Equipment a top equipment dealer in the Midwest....
Crews Rebuild Tenn. Bridge One Week After Collapse
The collapse of the I-75 South bridge over I-24 West in Chattanooga April 1 proved to be anything but a funny April Fool's Day prank to motorists and the Tennessee DOT. All lanes at the busy interchange of I-75 and I-24 closed for several hours after the failure, stopping traffic in all directions throughout most of the day....
Crews Restore South Carolina Beaches After Storms
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, a mix of tools and machinery is hard at work in a part of South Carolina known as a place for fun and relaxation: the coastline in and around Myrtle Beach. The area beaches are part of South Carolina's 60-mi.-long Grand Strand, a series of seaside communities stretching from the North Carolina border to Georgetown....
Contractors Tell Tales of Excavators' Near-Heroic Exploits
From massive road projects to clearing jobs on single-home sites, the chances are good that powerful hydraulic excavators are doing the work. Earthmoving contractors cannot do business without a compact, mid-size, full-size or very large machine to do the work — perhaps even all four — in their rolling stock....
Project Aims to Prevent Flood Disaster Repeat
Following devastating floods that inundated large parts of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2008 and again in 2016, the city is now building a massive flood-control system along the Cedar River. City designers and engineers hope it will provide a permanent solution to protect residents and businesses from the river's wrath....
Energy Farms Rise on Windy Kansas Plains
A flat, dry portion of northwestern Kansas, where, just as in Oklahoma, "the wind comes sweeping down the plain," is the home of a pair of large turbine wind farms currently under construction. Each are designed to provide the local population and a couple major companies with clean, renewable energy....
Compact, Mini Equipment Offers Low Cost, High Productivity
The ability to tackle tough and variable jobsite applications defines a successful and reliable piece of construction equipment. That is particularly true of machines that move earth and handle debris and materials....
SC Rock Strikes Aggregate Gold in Coastal Limestone
Like all mine owners, Bill Griste Sr. has millions of years of geological forces to thank, in large part, for his success. His company, SC Rock, is in South Carolina's coastal region, home to a rich vein of marine limestone that formed around 10 million years ago....
S.T. Wooten Uses Technology to Meet Demanding Production Requirements
A spot-on example of a symbiotic business relationship can be found between S.T. Wooten Corporation and SITECH Mid-Atlantic, both located in North Carolina. With its headquarters in Wilson, S.T. Wooten is one of the top construction companies in the state and, since its formation in 1952, has become well known for its top-notch heavy construction, commercial/residential work and engineering/design-build....
Massive Bridge Project Streamlines Interstate Corridor
After three years of enduring delayed traffic as road improvements progress along Birmingham's congested I-59/I-20/I-65 corridor, motorists traveling through the downtown have honed their capacity for patience and composure....
NCDOT Replaces Yadkin River Bridge on I-40
A pair of aging interstate bridges over the Yadkin River are the centerpieces of a $72 million road improvement and replacement project now under way in a gorgeous part of west-central North Carolina. The two bridges carry traffic east and west along I-40 between Clemmons and Bermuda Run, two fast-growing suburban communities southwest of Winston-Salem....
Heavy-Haul Trailers Rely Less on Tech, More on Strength
Whether you are a contractor that operates a large outfit with lots of earthmovers or a small builder with just a compact loader and skid steer, if you use heavy equipment, none of the pieces are of much use to you if you cannot easily get them to the jobsite....
Integrity Makes Sukut Construction Fixture for 50 Years
Hard work and integrity are key ingredients to making any business successful. Breathing life into a new company is always difficult, but growing and sustaining a business for five decades, while evolving it into a multi-million-dollar operation, is extraordinary....
New Designs Enhance Reliability of Loaders, Dozers
Rough and tough. Stable and highly maneuverable. Always does the job. Those are the qualities contractors have come to expect from two machines that are ubiquitous on any construction site: bulldozers and crawler, or track, loaders....
Parking Expands in Phases at Busy Charleston Airport
Construction crews at the Charleston International Airport are working to complete an initial expansion of parking capacity before the always hectic holiday season sets in. By Thanksgiving, vehicle parking at the Palmetto State's busiest airport will increase by about 250 spaces, with another 1,300 being overhauled — all of them in outlying lots south of the main terminal....
Motorists Revel in Early Finish to Huntsville Highway
When they first heard the news in late 2015, motorists in Huntsville, Ala., dreaded what was ahead for them. One of the city's lifelines, U.S. Highway 231, known locally as the South Memorial Parkway, was on the verge of getting a $54 million upgrade....
Brawny Artic, Rigid Off-Road Trucks Keep Jobs Moving Along
No matter their size or configuration, off-road haul trucks would have to be considered as the “strong men” on any construction site or quarry. Whether they are big, rigid haulers (off-roads with conventional front steering and rear-wheel drive), articulated haulers (more maneuverable trucks with a tractor and a trailer section) or compact dumpers, these burly machines are designed to carry heavy loads of dirt and rock in and out of a work area....
It was “dinner and a show” on Aug. 24 when hearty food, good friends and great equipment all came together in the Blue Ridge Mountains where Carolina Cat held an open house at its Deep Gap branch....
City Anxiously Awaits Streetcar Line Opening
Sometime later this fall, Milwaukee residents will have a new — yet old — way to get around the city's vibrant and busy downtown. Engineers currently are going through the final testing phase on five modern, elegantly-designed streetcars and how they operate on the newly-installed tracks....
U.S. Underground Hums With Trenchers, HDD Equipment
Much has been said in recent years about how the American infrastructure is in desperate need of a major overhaul. Everyone from politicians, TV pundits and ordinary people who complain about driving across inadequate streets and bridges have weighed in on the problem....
Upscale Residential Tower Rises in Milwaukee
A beautiful view of nearby Lake Michigan will await residents of a new, 22-story tower just northeast of downtown Milwaukee when construction on the building is completed in 2020. The new $123 million Saint John's on the Lake project is taking shape on a low hillside just across the street from McKinley Park, which borders the lake and is a short walk from the McKinley Marina....
Backhoe Loaders Popular as Multi-Purpose Machines
Versatility is a valuable commodity in the construction business. Just like a football player who can run and pass from scrimmage, is a reliable pass-receiver and can return kicks, a machine that can handle multiple tasks on a job site is highly-prized....
Iowa-Based Orbit Screens Prevent Explosions
One day around 2005, as Brad Schnittjer remembers it, he was conducting a fairly routine field day demonstration with one of his screening plants at a dairy farm in Virginia when a man approached him asking several intriguing questions....
Wheel Loader Design Involves Nuanced Advances Over Time
It's blisteringly hot outside, dust and dirt is flying all around and noise is hammering your eardrums. Such is the environment at a typical construction site in the warmer months, particularly a big job requiring a lot of earthmoving; highway projects and manufacturing plants are perfect examples....
MacDill Air Force Base Site Work Underway in Fla.
Site work is underway south of Tampa on a new $50 million project at MacDill Air Force Base designed to host more than two dozen of the U.S. Army's Black Hawk and Apache helicopters. The work will include building a 92,000-sq.-ft....
New High-Tech Plant Replaces Talladega Mill
After 10 years away, Georgia-Pacific is back in Talladega — a proud development for both the company and those who live in the small town renowned nationally for its rich auto-racing history. Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific, one of the world's largest paper and lumber manufacturers, is closing in on completing the construction of a new facility in Talladega, the eighth in Alabama to produce products for the company....
Most people readily identify the construction projects they see by the big, heavy equipment operating around work sites, such as earthmovers, paving machines and cranes. But just as important to any building effort — from grading and clearing jobs to heavy girder installation — are the less obvious machinery....
Downtown Winston-Salem's Business 40 Seeing $99 Million Makeover
Winston-Salem, N.C., has been undergoing a major transformation for 25 years. Once known primarily as home to one of the world's largest manufacturers of cigarettes and other tobacco products, this dynamic mid-size city of 243,000 people is now regarded more for being a center of emerging technologies and a home to one of the South's most exciting and diverse arts communities....
A major multi-street rebuilding effort is advancing around one of the nation's top universities — a project meticulously planned so as not to disrupt the flow of foot, bike and vehicle traffic around the busy and lively campus....
Wright Brings Youth, Expertise to Stream Restoration
Joe Wright could almost serve as the face of the small-business construction business in 2018. A young, college-educated man who, in a relatively short time, has built an outstanding reputation for himself and his specialized company, Wright Contracting LLC....
N.C. Releases Initial Data of 10-Year Plan
Planning, scheduling and funding its transportation infrastructure is an intricate process for any state, but the North Carolina DOT seems to have initiated a prioritization program to do so that is both efficient and transparent....
Skid Steer Manufacturers Sound Off on Technology Trends
The “big boys” in the world of construction equipment are the machines that tend to dominate any job site, such as bulldozers, wheel loaders and backhoes. But, truth be told, the vehicles that perform the broadest range of tasks are often among the smallest....
Answers Remain Elusive in Miami Footbridge Collapse
The deadly collapse of the pedestrian bridge at Miami's Florida International University (FIU) on March 14 is likely to have been caused by a combination of factors, according to bridge and structural engineers....
Express Lanes Along I-77 Corridor to Open in Fall
Since November 2015, commuters moving up and down the Interstate 77 corridor from uptown Charlotte north to the suburban community of Mooresville have resigned themselves to slogging through heavy traffic every morning and evening....
'Old Man River' to See New Bridge
The mighty Mississippi River has long been regarded as a dividing line between the American East and West. Flowing south from its headwaters in Minnesota, the 2,320-mi.-long river almost splits the country from north to south all the way to the Gulf of Mexico south of New Orleans....
Strong Economy Boosts Optimism Ahead of Florida Auctions
The annual mega-sale of construction equipment at the 2018 Florida Auctions is almost here with the gavels set to drop throughout February in the Orlando-Kissimmee, Fla., area. Equipment buyers from all over the world descend on Central Florida during the month, looking to add new and used pieces to their yards....
Port Expansion to Attract Bigger Cargo Ships
Several major shipping ports and cargo terminals are located on America's East, West and Gulf coasts — and all are locked in a competition to attract more business. The companies with which they want to do more business are those carriers that ship products to and from the United States by means of giant cargo ships....
$95M UT-San Antonio Research Building to Showcase Lab Work
What promises to be a sparkling new addition to an already beautiful campus is currently rising from a site on the eastern edge of the main campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio. The school began constructing a 153,000-sq.-ft., four-story Science and Engineering Building (SEB) off Bauerle Road and Key Circle earlier this year with a finish date set for May 2020....
Doosan, Pinnacle Central Team Up for Hurricane Recovery
When disasters occur, it's not just ordinary citizens that feel compelled to give. It's important to remember that companies are made up of good people who are willing to help not just their friends and neighbors, but those in distress hundreds of miles away....
Upgrade to Charleston Plant Fueled by Booming Population
Keeping drinking water clean and safe for an ever-growing metropolitan area demands a treatment plant that can continually be upgraded to meet changing needs. The vibrant communities in and around Charleston, S.C., are seeing their primary water treatment plant being modernized this year at a cost of $40 million to handle current and future population growth....
Port St. Lucie to See Much-Needed River Crossing in Late 2019
Florida is famous for its rapid population growth as more and more people have chosen to leave the colder, northern states for the warmer climes of the Sunshine State. Miami, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa have all become major cities due to that growth, but many other lower-profile municipalities have also experienced such a large influx of new residents that their infrastructure has become overloaded....
Quad Cities See $1.2B Span Over Mississippi
It is hard to imagine a pair of structures more in need of replacement than the two that make up the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge. More commonly known together as the Interstate 74 Bridge, the twin suspension spans transport about 80,000 vehicles across the Mississippi River each day between Bettendorf, Iowa and Moline, Ill....
Bypass to Ease Traffic Around Popular North Carolina Zoo
Anyone who has ever visited the North Carolina Zoo, located in the center of the state south of Asheboro, has experienced the often-maddening summertime traffic around the massive park. With more than 700,000 visiting the zoo each year, it is the Tarheel State's most popular tourist attraction....
Brand-New Bell Trucks Put in Heavy-Duty Hours at Quarries
Hauling rock out of a quarry is about as heavy-duty as any job can get. The people that do it have to be tough and stay sharp for hours each day both to stay safe and to keep the material moving. But they also cannot accomplish their task successfully without the right kind of equipment....
Crews Replace 52-Year-Old Rexford Bridge
A sleek new 772-ft.-long-bridge is in the finishing stages of construction across the Mohawk River just to the northeast of Schenectady, N.Y. When it is opened to traffic later this summer, it promises to add much-needed capacity across a heavily-traveled commuter route....
Twenty-Five-Year Project to Safeguard Fla. Residents
The gigantic and complex task of rehabilitating the Herbert Hoover Dike around South Florida's Lake Okeechobee may take close to 25 years when it is finished, but the benefits of the work should ensure the safety of area residents for many decades after that....
State Makes Its First 'Flex Route'
The state of Michigan has come up with a novel, cost-savings solution to alleviate heavy rush-hour traffic on a stretch of U.S. Highway 23 just northeast of Ann Arbor. With more than 60,000 cars and trucks traveling along an 8-mile-long corridor of U.S....
Bonner Bridge Project Marks Year Two
Heavy construction has moved into its second year on a long-awaited and vital bridge along North Carolina's Outer Banks. When opened for traffic in the fall of 2018, the $246 million replacement for the Herbert C....
Fire-Damaged I-85 Overpass to Open Ahead of Schedule
To the long-suffering commuters of Atlanta, the crews working to replace a damaged section of I-85 in just two months must seem like superheroes. On March 30, a roaring blaze broke out during rush hour under an overpass of northbound I-85 at Piedmont Road, resulting in the collapse of the bridge around 7 p.m....
S.C. Legislature Passes Gas-Tax Hike; Roadblocks Remain
In an effort to help rescue the Palmetto State from having one of the worst road systems in the country, South Carolina's Senate voted April 26 to increase the state's gas tax, the second lowest in the nation....
Topsail Island Sees Bridge Replacement
Work is in its early months on a sparkling new bridge being built across the Intracoastal Waterway along the southeast North Carolina coast at Surf City. The $54 million project is intended to replace an aging swing bridge, but because of its elegant design, it also will give motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians a sweeping view of the ocean as they come into town....
Akron Embarks on $1.4B Effort to Modernize Sewer System
Later this summer, a convoy of trucks will be moving into downtown Akron, Ohio, carrying huge pieces of what will eventually be a massive tunnel-boring machine. Once the pieces are put together, the machine will begin the process of boring a 6,240-ft....
Southeast Cleans Up After Matthew
Heavy-duty rain and surf from a hurricane generally means heavy-duty equipment will be called in for repairs. That is certainly the case in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, which roared northward up the southeast coast of the United States the second weekend in October....
Indiana Contractor Paves With Intelligent Compaction
Walsh & Kelly Inc. first had the task of resurfacing a largely rural, four-lane highway in north-central Indiana. The job itself was fairly routine: paving an 8-mi. (12.9 km) long stretch of state Road 19 in Elkhart County requiring a .5-in....
Intense Work Ethic Fuels Success of Richmond Contractor
If anyone thinks the American work ethic is a thing of the past, then they need to meet Malcolm E. Thomas. The CEO and president of Ty's Hauling & Paving Inc. in Richmond, Thomas has achieved tremendous success and respect through the rock-solid principles of hard work and integrity....
SC Rock Expands Haul Capacity With Bell 50-Ton Trucks
Bill Griste wanted to get back into running an aggregate rock mining and distribution outfit again. He knew that his former Carolina Aggregate Products' Goretown Mine had many millions of tons of marine limestone buried within the earth and that rock made for excellent road-building material throughout both Carolinas....
Knoxville's McGhee Tyson Airport Modernizes Runway System
Anyone driving past or flying out of Knoxville's McGhee Tyson Airport has seen a buzz of construction activity for two years now as the current runway system is undergoing a complete modernization....
Sunshine State Sees Exciting New Transportation Project
An exciting new transportation project is being built in the Sunshine State that is designed to eventually move passengers to and from Miami and Orlando, one of the most populous and highly visited regions in the country....
Crews Push On to Complete U.S. Highway 321 in N.C.
Not too many years ago U.S. Highway 321 in North Carolina was just a twisting two-lane road from the foothills town of Lenoir over the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains all the way to Boone, a distance of 27 mi....
Lesner Bridge Project to Serve 40,000 Drivers
More than 40,000 vehicles a day pass over the Lesner Bridge in Virginia Beach, many of them carrying people to and from the popular oceanfront. A large number of people from all over the state, including nearby Norfolk and Richmond, as well as the Washington, D.C., area, drive over the two parallel spans in order to reach the sun and surf on the Atlantic Ocean....
Tenn. Contractor Increases Efficiency With Komatsu Dozer
Knoxville's Duracap Asphalt Co. , one of eastern Tennessee's top paving contractors, has always been noted for its hard work and the speed with which it gets projects completed for its clients....
Florida Again Seeing Robust Road, Bridge Construction
The Great Recession that began in 2008 hit every sector of the American economy, but few states were delivered a body blow as hard as the one inflicted on Florida. Because of its tropical climate and the most beachfront and coastline in the continental United States, the Sunshine State has always been heavily dependent on tourism for its revenue....
Linder Set to Make an Impact in Used Equipment Marketplace
A recent decision to add another value-packed service to its business has positioned Linder Industrial Machinery to become a major player in the buying and selling of used construction equipment. In the past, Linder did not actively seek to buy or take older pieces in as trades....
Drilling Rigs Named for Fallen Soldiers
On a chilly and blustery day this past March, a very special pair of crawler-mounted drills were received at a Virginia-based electrical contractor before being dedicated to honor two of America's fallen soldiers....
Komatsu Excavator Helps Small Tenn. Contractor to Thrive
Rodney Murphy doesn't consider himself to be a specialist in his business, but people and businesses in and around the town of Maryville, Tenn., know he is the go-to guy when it comes to moving and selling dirt....
Benchmark Tool & Supply Makes Major Expansion Into Va.
A major market expansion is underway for Benchmark Tool & Supply, the North Carolina-based equipment distributor known for its high-quality service to the construction, engineering, surveying and agricultural industries....
May Heavy Equipment Expands Presence in Eastern North Carolina
Since last fall, May Heavy Equipment has enjoyed great success across the whole of North Carolina due to a new acquisition by the highly-respected company. May purchased Tar Heel Machinery, a company that itself had grown to be one of the Raleigh area's top equipment dealers....
Modified Excavator Moves Product From Mighty Mississippi
Every spring, the mighty Mississippi River is a busy thoroughfare of barges hauling all manner of goods up and down the waterway. As spring also is the time to get fertilizer to farmers for row-crop planting season, companies that move it are especially active during this part of the year....
Job on 2,000-Acre Farm Proves Game-Changing for Firm
Brannon Turbeville's ability to find lucrative work through business networking, coupled with his fierce work ethic, has made him one of South Carolina's top up-and-coming young contractors. Turbeville operates Palmetto Brush Control LLC in Florence, a company that started modestly in 2007 by doing brush and undergrowth cutting....
Atkins Realize Pride of Ownership With Excavating Firm
The chance to run their own excavating business really sounded appealing to Monte and Donna Atkins. Their goal was simple: to work hard and give themselves, and their children, a happy life. So, the Virginia couple left their jobs and opened their own company, which they knew meant enduring long hours and taking on more work than others thought possible....
Orlando's JMHC Inc. Preparing Local Site for Massive New FedEx Facility
In north Polk County, at the intersection of Interstate 4 and U.S. Highway 27, land is being cleared for a new massive FedEx distribution center. Jim Cooper Construction Company Inc., a general contractor out of Birmingham, Ala., has selected a central Florida site construction firm to do the job....
City of Kannapolis Sees Smoother Roads With LeeBoy
When you have been successful and happy doing a construction job a certain way for a number of years, it is often difficult to see how it can be done even better. But construction equipment technology from Leeboy always delivers on its promise to help get things done faster and more efficiently, and that is exactly what LeeBoy’s new Rosco RA-400 pothole patcher is doing for the streets and roadways of the city of Kannapolis....
Recalling a 52-Year Project Through the Blue Ridge Mountains
For those who love fabulous mountain scenery and cool, clean air, there may be no better way to find it in the southeast than the Blue Ridge Parkway. The leisurely, two-lane highway stretches through Virginia and North Carolina for 469 mi....
High Standards Produce 40 Years of Success for Flowe
Jim Flowe has not relied on mere luck to get his business to where it is in 2015. His firm, J.O. Flowe Grading Co., is the perfect example of how hard work, perseverance and integrity is still the recipe for success....
Motocross Racer Makes the Grade After Career Change
Todd Bennick’s career took a decidedly left turn several years ago — one that has made him a respected member of the construction industry. Bennick owns and operates Bennick Grading in Nebo, located in the mountains of western North Carolina near Marion....
McClam & Associates Expands Runway at S.C. Airport
A project to lengthen the runway at the Fairfield County Airport in central South Carolina is set to upgrade the facility, and help it stay economically competitive. Luckily, the contractor, McClam & Associates, is up to the task....
Meade Tractor Acquires Eight Construction Dealerships
One of the most trusted names in the Southeast for providing agricultural and turf equipment has now expanded its reach to include construction equipment in Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the company....
Big Money, Big Equipment at Work at South Carolina Gold Mine
The predominant image of gold miners in most people’s minds is probably one of old prospectors panning for the precious mineral in a river or stream — maybe in California or Alaska. They most certainly don’t think of state-of-the-art, industrial-scale gold mining in, of all places, South Carolina....
Hot-Mix Asphalt Remains Key to Palmetto’s Success
South Carolina’s Palmetto Corporation, recognized as one of the Southeast’s top site development companies, offers a diverse set of services that includes grading, concrete, hauling and crushing — even commercial and residential building....
Armstrong Contractors ’Goes Green’
In the new millennium, construction companies are increasingly realizing the merit — and potential profits — of being environmentally responsible. No matter what business owners personally think about the impact of humans on the environment, most now certainly see how lucrative it can be to “go green.” Not only do these endeavors fill their coffers, but they are also a proven way to boost a firm’s cost savingsA good example of a company successfully adding green efforts to its business model is Columbia-based Armstrong Contractors, a full service site-work outfit that has been operating from the South Carolina capital since 1961....
Wildwood Employs Specialized Skills on Charleston Project
A building contractor’s ability to work creatively and efficiently within an urban confined space is a special talent. Wildwood Contractors Inc. in Walterboro has built a solid reputation doing just that in the state’s coastal Low Country, particularly in Charleston, a city fabled for its historic neighborhoods of tightly-packed homes and high-traffic, high-pedestrian streets and avenues....
Pinnacle Cranes Solidifies Position in Southeast Market
Charlotte-N.C.-based Pinnacle Cranes is known throughout the southeast as a top distributor of Link-Belt cranes and was, in fact, named one of Link-Belt’s Top 5 dealers in North America in 2014. One of the reasons that Pinnacle Cranes is one of Link-Belt’s best distributors is because it works extremely hard to anticipate its customer’s needs....
Worth the Wait — U.S. 220 Receives $17.6M Upgrade
After 20 years of discussion and planning, a two-part road project on Greensboro’s rapidly-growing northwest side is finally under way. The 9.4-mi. (15.1 km) long U.S. Highway 220/N.C. Highway 68 connector, which will one day be rebranded as I-73, is a four-lane highway under construction just west and north of Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTI)....
Thompson Contractors Purchases Workhorse Wheel Loader
Down at Thompson Contractors Inc.’s two rock quarries in southwest North Carolina, drilling, blasting and moving hard, abrasive rock requires extra-tough machines to get the job done properly. This dirty, dusty work is not for equipment with reliability issues....
Grading Firm Uses Topcon Technology to Relocate Road
A small-town airport runway needs to be extended to accommodate larger corporate jets. As a result, an existing two-lane road has to be extended around the new airstrip. That means that Sowers Construction Co Inc....
Blanchard CAT Aims to See Small Businesses Succeed
Caterpillar equipment can be found on job sites all over the world, being used by some of the largest contractors. But by offering quality products, parts and service, Caterpillar, in collaboration with its local dealerships, also helps its smaller customers achieve success, too....
Bell Trucks Help Power Triton Sitework Development
At the job site where land is being cleared to make way for a new-home development in Durham, Jason Thomason knows he can rest easy in regards to at least two of the machines he uses. Thomason is the equipment manager of Triton Sitework Development in Raleigh....
ASC, Air Equipment Rental Partner to Open New Dealership
Name recognition is everything to any successful business, partnership, or product, particularly when the names involved stand for excellence. So it made perfect sense when two big-name and well-respected equipment dealerships joined forces recently in Tennessee to sell two big-name product lines....
Good Hope Contracting Paves Way Along I-22 in Jasper
Having confidence in the reliability of your equipment when you are running a construction firm may be a little more important than the amount of money you lay out for that equipment. But when both of those factors come out in favor of a contractor, the result is the cost of doing business is low and the peace of mind is high....
Alliance of Southeast Firms Produces Specialized Equipment
The state of Alabama had a need and a local dealership, assisted by a Georgia specialty manufacturer, answered the call. When the state wanted excavators that could be specially configured to operate mulching attachments, the general manager of a Southeast equipment dealership, David Habbard of Rental Inc....
Roxboro Contractor Finds Precision Tool for Site Grading
On a recent hot summer day at a building site in north Raleigh, excavators and bulldozers were busy working to grade the site for a future Lifetime Fitness location. The health and fitness center is being built to serve the area’s growing number of residential neighborhoodsAt the center of the work was a bevy of equipment operators from Jimmy Lewis & Sons Grading and Septic Tank Services Inc., a 45-year-old company based northwest of Raleigh in the Person County town of Roxboro....
Raleigh Company Aims to Meet Area’s Waste Removal Needs
Getting actual dirt on your hands and coming home dog-tired at the end of the day can still buy success in this country. Dan Wall exemplifies this idea. Since 2006, through his hard work and perseverance, Wall was able to turn a one-man, one-truck operation into a booming business....
Tarheel Firm Positions Itself for Continued Success
From modest beginnings in rural northeastern North Carolina, Glover Construction Co. Inc. has grown into a respected building firm in the southeast. Its impeccable reputation is due in large measure to being able to overcome a variety of project difficulties to deliver a finished product on time, on budget, in a safe manner and without contractor-generated “change orders.”Glover Construction, based in Pleasant Hill, northeast of Roanoke Rapids just south of the Virginia state line, moves millions of tons of dirt each year as a company that specializes in mass excavation....
Hydroelectric Dam Project to Improve Area Traffic
One of the Tennessee River’s major hydroelectric dams in eastern Tennessee is under construction that is designed to greatly improve highway traffic in the area. The Fort Loudoun Dam is located on the river at Lenoir City, southwest of Knoxville....
James River Names Dan Metcalf as GM of Asheville, N.C., Dealership
James River Equipment, the construction and forestry machine dealership with more than 30 locations in Virginia and the two Carolinas, has announced that Dan Metcalf has been tapped to be the general manager of the company’s Asheville, N.C., store....
ASC Breathes ’Second Life’ Into Older Equipment
Giving timeworn construction equipment a second life and saving money for the customers of ASC Construction Equipment USA Inc. is the fervent goal of both Patrick Overstreet and Cory Penland. As managers of ASC, headquartered in Charlotte, they understand that their company’s partnership with Volvo has many advantages, both to them and their customers....
Forsyth County Shines With Diverging Diamond Interchange
With summer in full swing, road crews are expected to ramp up the rehabilitation of a 4.2-mi. (6.8 km) stretch of Union Cross Road in eastern Forsyth County that will include the area’s first diverging diamond interchange, or DDI, at its intersection with Interstate 40....
Crews Take Frustration Out of Visiting the Smokies
Driving to the Great Smoky Mountains from Interstate 40 in eastern Tennessee has often been a frustrating adventure for motorists looking to visit the most popular national park in the U.S. The Smokies are the country’s most visited national park, with more than 9 million visits per year and at times, particularly in the summer, it seemed that all of those visitors were driving into the park at once down one of the area’s major arteries....
South Carolina’s Coogler Construction Does the Dirty Work
Joey and Chris Coogler have always been willing to take on the dirty, labor-intensive jobs necessary in order to ensure that sparkling new roads, sidewalks, buildings and homes can be built and enjoyed by everybody....
Hills Machinery Makes Bold Plans to Expand in Carolinas
Columbia, S.C., based Hills Machinery, already well-known as one of the southeast’s most dynamic equipment dealerships, is proving it again with several bold moves designed to increase its commitment to offering outstanding customer service, according to the company....
Construction crews north of Atlanta are finishing up a 46,610 sq. ft. (4,330.2 sq m) upscale transitional care medical facility designed to care for patients who have been discharged from the hospital but still in need of daily rehabilitation....
North Carolina Dealership Set to ’Crush’ Low Productivity
In a relatively short period of time, one North Carolina-based equipment dealership has managed to "crush" low productivity — so to speak — and in the process become a successful Southeast dealership....
SDLGs Help M&M Dairy Keep Cow Stalls Clean, Comfortable
For Jeff Maness, the choice was simple. He needed a tough and reliable machine to help him move bedding sand for the cows on his 2,500 acres of farmland near Statesville, N.C. He researched various front loaders before he decided to go with a relatively new product backed by a trusted name....
Major Interstate Junction in N.C. Undergoes $89M Facelift
When the interchange of Interstate 40 and Interstate 77 in Statesville, N.C., was constructed in the late 1960s, traffic projections through the junction were set at about 5,000 cars and trucks per day....
Charleston Bulk Transfer Enjoys Ongoing Success With Sennebogen
The success enjoyed by Charleston Bulk Transfer (CBT) over the past several years can be tied directly to one dynamic piece of machinery found at a company pier on Charleston, S.C., Cooper River. A Sennebogen 880 R-HD, weighing in at a massive 310,000 lbs....
Savannah’s Truman Parkway on Track to Open in March
Residents of Savannah, Ga., can now see the finish line on the long trek that has been the building of the Truman Parkway. Almost unbelievably, Savannah’s business and political leaders first discussed the road project more than 40 years ago....
Bridge Work Over I-85 Detours Vital Link in N.C.
Motorists traveling east on U.S. Highway 64 from west of Lexington, N.C., will have to endure an out-of-the-way detour a few months longer due to a new bridge project that is delayed. Two lanes of the highway’s route through Lexington have been disrupted since January when road crews began preparing to demolish an old, narrow overpass that carries east-bound traffic over the Interstate 85 business loop or, as it is known locally, Business 85....
Cat Auction Services Takes Part in Florida Auctions
For a relatively new company, Cat Auction Services made a pretty big splash at last year’s Florida Auctions. The company, started in 2008 when five Midwestern Caterpillar dealerships decided to create their own auction channel, had grown to the point a year ago that they felt confident in their ability to perform well at one of the construction equipment industry’s premier events....
Relationships Forge Success for Virginia Dealership
The relationships you forge in business are almost always the lifeblood of any successful company. This is especially true in the case of Scott-Gallaher Inc. Construction & Industrial Equipment, a dealership based just outside Roanoke, Va....
Developer Uncovers Hidden Gem in Cobb County
One of the hidden gems of the Metro Atlanta area is a little-developed area in southern Cobb County on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, known as the River Line Historic Area. The area gets its name from the 6 to 7-mi....
I-75 Interchange Marks Beginning of Major Road Projects
Work crews are currently rehabilitating an old interchange on Interstate 75 just south of Calhoun. No big news there, right?Well, upon closer inspection, that fairly routine road work appears to signal the beginning of what is destined to be just the first part of a major new road project in north-central Georgia, designed to lighten traffic congestion in the area and help move local commerce more efficiently....
Linder Industrial Machinery Hits Milestone
Successful companies, particularly those remaining few that manage to stay successful for decades or more, are like living organisms — kept alive and thriving by their ability to adapt to changes in the environment, or marketplace, in which they exist....
I-95 Corridor Update Aims to Cure Traffic Headaches
Anyone who has ever had to drive into or out of Washington, D.C., in particular along the I-95 corridor, has experienced the almost mind-numbing traffic backups and delays common to the area. Bumper-to-bumper traffic can be found at every compass point in and around the city, particularly on weekdays....
Sennebogen Has Enough Mettle to Handle Asheboro’s Metal
To Kim Markham’s way of thinking, the Sennebogen 825 material handler he owns has been a dynamic addition to his company. Markham’s firm, Asheboro Recycling Center (ARC), located on Southmont Drive on the south side of Asheboro, N.C., is a one-stop shop for the buying, processing and selling of recyclables....
Granite Contracting Relies on Carolina CAT Partnership
With all the work that Granite Contracting is involved with, the company needs the best paving equipment and service on the market. With that in mind, they turn to Carolina CAT. Granite Contracting, located just north of Charlotte in Cornelius, N.C., is always working on a project somewhere in North or South Carolina....
Work Stops on Bonner Bridge Pending Ruling
Work on the replacement of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge on North Carolina’s Outer Banks began in early December and is on hold pending the outcome of a judge’s ruling. The Bonner Bridge is the only access route across the Oregon Inlet between Hatteras and Bodie islands....
Pepperdam Faces Bright Future Despite Past Challenges
Similar to many construction companies that have come through the recession of the last 5 years, Pepperdam Construction may be battered, but it is certainly not beaten. In fact, the firm, located in North Charleston, S.C., is facing an increasingly bright future....
Jacksonville Firm in the Iron Biz for the Long Haul
When people see wheel loaders and earthmovers busily working on a large job site, such as a road project or bridge replacement, it rarely occurs to them that someone had to actually work to get those giant pieces of equipment to that location....
Blanchard Machinery Unveils New Set of Iron Services
One of the South’s top equipment dealers, as well as a premier machine parts supplier and service provider, has announced that it has opened a new shop designed to service all types of machinery in a more efficient manner....
Work Continues on New $79M Hospital in Davie County, N.C.
After years of discussion and planning, construction finally began this summer on the first phase of a new hospital for the citizens of Davie County, just west of Winston-Salem, N.C. The new Wake Forest Baptist Health — West Campus is located off I-40 at N.C....
SE Highway Crisis Needs Big Solution
There’s no use denying it. America’s vaunted transportation infrastructure, particularly the roads and bridges that we all use, is simply falling apart. From deep potholes in major roads to crumbling bridges, motorists across the country drive over these problems every day....
May Heavy-Equip Now Marketing Kawasaki Loaders
One of the South’s top equipment dealers recently reached an agreement to begin selling, renting and servicing Kawasaki’s line of articulated wheel loaders, including its Z7 line of machines....
CCS Equipment Partners With Kawasaki in Eastern N.C.
It seems to be a partnership borne out of a mutual desire to give customers exactly what they need through friendly, honest service. When CCS Equipment Sales LLC, a full service equipment dealership located just north of Raleigh, wanted to begin offering a bigger line of wheel loaders to give their utility company customers a fuller line of equipment, they zeroed in on Kawasaki, a manufacturer known for its well-made machines....
Waste Hauler Sees Big Fuel Savings With Hybrid Excavator
Yet another American operation has recognized the benefits of so-called “green technology” and decided to embrace it. Solid Waste Authority (SWA) of Palm Beach County, Fla., has made its first purchase of a Komatsu HB215 hybrid hydraulic excavator, the only hybrid machine of its kind on the market....
South Florida Airport Runway Under Way
After more than 18 years of planning and debate, work finally began in late January on a new, 8,000-ft.-long (2,438 m) runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida. The huge $791 million South Runway Expansion Project should be completed and ready for landings and takeoffs in September 2014, according to airport officials....
S.C.’s Blanchard Machinery Company Delivers Cat CT660 to N.W. White & Co.
South Carolina-based Blanchard Machinery Company recently announced the delivery of the first Cat CT660 on-highway truck sold in the state to N.W. White & Co., a trucking and hauling firm headquartered in Columbia, S.C....
Rish Equipment Team Building ’Support Driven’ Culture
Rish Equipment Company, which has sold and serviced construction and mining equipment in West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland for more than 70 years, has announced that it has elevated several key employees to new management positions in order to better serve its loyal customer base....
New N.C. Mobility Fund Kickstarts I-85 Project
Tarheel State transportation officials have had their eye on widening the busy I-85 corridor through southern Davidson County in the central part of the state for decades. The hang-up, as always, was money, as well as completing other high-priority projects....
Muddy Creek Bridge Forms Along U.S. 421
The more than two-year effort to replace the old bridges that carry U.S. Highway 421 traffic over Muddy Creek in Winston-Salem should be finished in late May, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT)....
JW Demolition Sees Big Savings With Komatsu Hybrid
For Will Dellinger, buying four new Komatsu hybrid excavators for his burgeoning demolition and recycling firm was a no-brainer. Last summer, Dellinger’s North Carolina-based company decided to invest in four of Komatsu’s new 2011 HB215-1 excavators, primarily because the model’s eco-friendly technology offers its owners such a big savings on fuel costs — as much as 40 percent....
Southern Crane Adds Star Performer to Its Crane Fleet
Earl Johnson III had to be talked into acquiring a new piece of equipment for his business, but in the end, taking delivery of a sparkling new Link-Belt hydraulic truck crane proved to be a “no-brainer.”Johnson, the president of Southern Crane in Raleigh, N.C., had another 15 cranes in his fleet and all of them were busy....
Carolina Bridge Hustles to Close Up Gap Left by Irene
Crews are frantically working around the clock to erect a temporary bridge along a stretch of North Carolina Highway 12, the only major highway along the state’s Outer Banks, after Hurricane Irene cut a breach in the thin strip of land that separates Pamlico Sound from the Atlantic Ocean....
LeeBoy-Rosco Machine a Workhorse for Va. Paving Firms
When one of the mid- Atlantic region’s top paving and emulsion contractors needed a cutting edge new machine to apply its product to the area’s streets and highways, it trusted one brand and one dealer enough to deliver it to them sight unseen....
Watson Construction Saving the Planet - and Money
The way the professionals at Watson Construction see it, if you can do business with equipment that is both environmentally friendly and wallet friendly, why would you do it any other way?The contracting firm, one of the largest in northern Florida, has put that philosophy on display in a number of ways over the last few years....
Husband-Wife Team of Denali Investments Mines Success
For more than 200 years, the bedrock of American business has been the small entrepreneur, the man or woman who has an idea and through sheer hard work turns that idea into a business that both serves the community and is a financial success....
Texarkana Asphalt Plant to Make Cameo on Science Channel Show
TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) The city of Texarkana, Ark., will make a cameo on the Science Channel later this year. A two-man production crew with British production company Wag TV was in town recently filming a segment on making asphalt roads for the show “How Do They Do It?” The team, comprised of director Paul Haines and cameraman Peter Torch, began the morning with a shoot at RK Hall Construction’s asphalt plant....
First New LeeBoy Highway-Class Paver Working in Miss.
When the road department of Madison County, Miss., needed an upgrade to its aging asphalt paver in 2010, it became the first owners in the country of a new, cutting-edge machine that had just rolled off the assembly line....
Excellent Service the Key to Hills Machinery’s Success
Jim and Adam Hills made a pretty gutsy move in 2010. Right in the middle of a slow economy, the two brothers and business partners decided to expand their three-year-old equipment business by opening a second location....
Will ConExpo-Con/AGG Point the Way to a Healthier 2011?
At the March 2008 ConExpo-Con/AGG trade show in Las Vegas, organizers reported record numbers in terms of both bookings and attendance, despite the fact that the U.S. economy had already begun to show signs of tumbling into a recession....
Ritchie’s Statesville Office Strives to Live Up to Reputation
For John Fairley, his job is simple: To make sure that the Statesville, N.C., office of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers lives up to the parent corporation’s reputation as the top construction equipment auction house in the world....
Two Charleston Projects Benefit Low-Income Seniors
The Charleston, S.C., area will soon see the opening of two sparkling new apartment complexes geared exclusively to low-income seniors, age 55 and older. The twin projects were funded and built through the Humanities Foundation, a Charleston-based non-profit that is becoming well known in the South for creating beautiful homes for low-income citizens....
Crews Finally Set to Finish Savannah’s Truman Parkway
Residents of Savannah, Ga., will soon be able to rejoice as a massive road project that was first discussed more than 40 years ago, is finally nearing completion. Work began earlier this summer on the fifth and final phase of the Harry S....
Traffic Relief on the Way for Lake Norman Visitors
Motorists traveling through the Mooresville area of North Carolina to and from Lake Norman have had to deal with a lot of traffic congestion in the last few years as local development activity has dramatically increased....
Relationships Key to Highland Tractor’s Longtime Success
By Eric OlsoncEG CORRESPONDENTThe equipment dealerships that have managed to survive the ravages of the American recession over the last two years are the ones that have strong and loyal customer bases....
Relationships Key to Highland Tractor’s Longtime Success
By Eric OlsoncEG CORRESPONDENTThe equipment dealerships that have managed to survive the ravages of the American recession over the last two years are the ones that have strong and loyal customer bases....
Hammond Drive Project Designed for Easing Traffic
Metro Atlanta motorists may face a hassle in the near term, but in the long term, the expansion of the Hammond Drive bridge over Georgia Highway 400 will help alleviate traffic in the busy area north of the city....
Watauga’s New High School Combines Modern Convenience, ’Green’ Features
By Eric OlsonCEG CORRESPONDENTThe finishing touches are now being applied to the sparkling new Watauga High School, a project designed to replace a facility opened 45 years ago. Located on the eastern edge of Boone, N.C., the new school, with a price tag approaching $80 million, is nestled in a picturesque valley surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains....
Sand Science Marks 25 Years in Business With New Offering
Gerry Kenny has worked with materials processing equipment almost his entire adult life. A gregarious Irishman, he has worked with screens and conveyors in Europe and Africa and since coming over to America more than 25 years ago, he has operated one of the most successful equipment dealerships in the Southeast....
Trio of Inside Sales Reps Personify Success of Carolina CAT
The ultimate success of any company is highly dependent on the people who represent the face of that company to the general public. By this criterion, it is easy to see why Carolina CAT is one of the premier equipment dealerships in the Carolinas....
Pinnacle Central Celebrates 10 Years in Corrosion Control
When a company has been in business for 10 years and has seen growth in most of those years, the reason is due almost entirely to the experience and professionalism of its sales people and the relationships it has built with customers....
Improvements on U.S. 421 Delayed by Series of Storms
The brutal winter that has affected so many Americans along the East Coast since December also has been responsible for delaying many outdoor construction projects. Usually there are days where the conditions are mild enough to allow for work to continue....
New Carolina CAT VP Vows to Own
When Carolina CAT decided last year that it needed a dynamic new personality to be the face of its renewed emphasis on customer service, it turned to Brandon J. Hess, a man who has worked in all facets of the construction equipment business during his career....
S.C. Firms Working on Fort Jackson Cemetery Expansion
Heavy construction equipment is currently working its way across the gently rolling sandhills of central South Carolina as part of a project to expand the recently dedicated Fort Jackson National Cemetery....
Construction Ramps Up at New Farmers Market Near Columbia
After several years of planning and a controversy over where it should be located, the new South Carolina State Farmers Market is heading into its last months of construction before a scheduled April 17, 2010 grand opening....
I-40 Landslide May Take Six Months to Clear
Officials with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) believe that a large rock slide blocking both directions of Interstate 40 just east of the Tennessee line could take as long as six months to clear....
Innovative Drainage Key to New Parking Area for Gamecock Games
Tailgate parties at University of South Carolina (USC) Gamecocks football games should be more enjoyable this fall with the construction of a sparkling new parking area adjacent to the stadium. The just-opened parking area, on the southwest side of Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, also serves visitors to the South Carolina State Fair, which will ran this year from Oct....
New Crusher Brings Surprise Business for Concord Firm
When Michael Frings decided to expand his concrete business to include a stone crushing service, it meant he would have to buy or rent all new equipment. And there was only one place he considered to get the machinery he needed: Stafford Equipment in Charlotte, N.C....
Florida’s City Excavating Enjoying Success Despite Lean Economic Times
City Excavating LLC, a site development company in Fort Myers, Fla., was created just last year. Yet even amidst challenging times, the company is doing well and its owners believe things will get even better as construction stabilizes....
Deadly Stretch of Vital S.C. Road Gets $100M Upgrade
Making a dangerous stretch of South Carolina highway safe for motorists, while giving residents and vacationers a faster way of escaping an approaching hurricane, is the goal of a $100 million road project near the state’s southernmost tip....
Virginia Paving Co. Resurfaces D.C.’s Dulles Greenway
Crews from Virginia Paving Company, Division of The Lane Construction Corporation, are currently working to resurface a 5-mi. (8 km) stretch of the privately owned Dulles Greenway toll road between Leesburg, Va., and Washington-Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia....
Warm Weather Brings Bustling Work to Goldsboro Bypass
A great deal of red Carolina clay is being moved in the area around Interstate 795 on the northwest edge of Goldsboro as road crews are busy working on a much-needed bypass for U.S. 70 around the town....
W.L. Hailey Awarded Contract to Build 15M-Gal. EQ Basin
Earlier this year, W.L. Hailey of Nashville, Tenn., was awarded a $12 million contract to build a new equalization basin and adjacent pumping station for Nashville’s Metro Water Services on the city’s east side....
Easing Traffic Headaches on I-26
An expensive, but much-welcomed solution is currently being built to alleviate one of South Carolina’s most traffic-congested corridors. Crews are busily working along a 3-mi. (4.8 km) stretch of Interstate 26 in North Charleston, from the intersection with Ashley Phosphate Road south to the I-526 interchange....
Cure Coming for Atlanta’s 14th Street Bridge Traffic Ills
A congested major intersection in downtown Atlanta that has proven to be a headache for commuters and travelers throughout the area will soon be reconstructed. The reconstruction is now past its halfway point and heading toward the finish line....
New $18 Million Bridge to Open This Fall Along U.S. 1
Drivers who use U.S. 1 to travel between the Florida counties of Brevard and Indian River on the state’s central east coast will soon be able to get across the Sebastian River via a new single-span bridge currently being built to replace the old twin spans....
New Davie County Bridge Over I-40 to Ease Area Traffic Woes
One of North Carolina’s fastest growing suburban areas is the northeastern end of Davie County, located only 10 mi. (16 km) southwest of Winston-Salem. Since the 1990s, the area has seen the growth of several major new-home developments as more people have chosen to live in the country and commute across the Yadkin River into Winston-Salem via Interstate 40....
Macon Road Widening Job to Alleviate Growing Traffic Woes
Crews are busy working on a $14.5 million road-widening project along Bloomfield Road/Log Cabin Drive on Macon’s west-southwest side that will help alleviate growing traffic headaches in the area....
English Erects Much-Needed New Yadkin River Bridge
Heavy cranes are being moved into position to begin the girder assembly later this winter on a new $14.9 million, four-lane bridge spanning the Yadkin River along U.S. Highway 158 in North Carolina, 10 mi....
Huge U.S. 321 Widening Project Heads Into Home Stretch
A $65 million road-widening project in Caldwell County, N.C., will enter its fifth year of work in 2009 and all indications are that the construction will be completed next fall. A 6.57-mi. (10.6 km) stretch of U.S....
Conveyors Save Carolina Sunrock Truckloads of Money
A Raleigh-based company has found a way to move material out of its quarries that it believes will save dump trucks full of money over time. Carolina Sunrock LLC, a construction materials firm that supplies aggregates, asphalt and concrete to construction projects across the Southeast, has recently begun handling and transporting rock out of its new Woodsdale quarry in Person County via conveyor belt....
Barnhill Contracting Blazes Trail Around Wake Forest
The third and final leg of a new highway bypass around the Wake County town of Wake Forest, N.C., northeast of Raleigh, is currently under way and is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2010. Work began on the $11.5 million third phase of the North Carolina Highway 98/Wake Forest Bypass in March....
TGC Development Chomps Through Raleigh Red With Terrain Leveler
Infrastructure work is rolling along for hundreds of high-dollar homes just northwest of Raleigh-Durham International Airport. TGC Development Inc. has been working at the site, a new section of Brier Creek Country Club, for the last several months....
S.T. Wooten Wraps Up Interstate 40 Rehab in Raleigh
After more than 10 months of mostly nighttime work, the rehabilitation of a heavily traveled 12.9-mi. (20.7 km) section of Interstate 40 around Raleigh is coming to a close in the coming days. Drivers on the Capital Beltline from Exit 289 (Wade Avenue) to Exit 301 (the I-40/I-440 split) will soon find that all lanes of the freeway will be free of traffic barrels and lane closures once again....
Cane Creek Restoration Helps Balance Out Development
More than 17,000 linear ft. (5,200 m) of a once wild and meandering North Carolina stream system that has degraded due to agricultural activity is currently undergoing an extensive restoration. The $2 million Cane Creek restoration project in northwest Person County has seen crews working there since early May....
Landmark Sails Through Drainage Work at Charleston Naval Shipyard
Helping to shore up the infrastructure at the site of what was once one of America’s busiest naval bases is the task at hand for Landmark Construction of North Charleston, S.C. A full-service construction firm, Landmark is currently in the middle of a more than $5 million project to install 2,600-ft....
Hensel Phelps Rocks ’n’ Rolls at Amusement Park Project
By early June, guitar licks from the Eagles and the Moody Blues will waft across Myrtle Beach, S.C., as Hard Rock Park, the world’s first rock ’n’ roll theme park, opens to the public....
Crews Race to Complete Concord Dragstrip for September Event
Close to 300 people are working six days a week to build a state-of-art drag strip adjacent to Lowe’s Motor Speedway (LMS) in Concord, N.C. Plans call for the quarter-mile track to be open in time for the Sept....
