< Previous“The company prides itself on the quality of its workmanship and the safety of its employees.” industrial manufacturing and metal fabrication sectors, and its sales total more than $300 million annually. The company employs over 250 individuals in its Appleton head-quarters in Wisconsin, its additional offices in Wisconsin and Colorado, and its three fabrication facilities. The team also works with more than 750 international trade union craftsmen nationally. In addition to being known for its exceptional craftsmanship in construction, AZCO operates a 90,000 square foot fabrication JULY 201830center that produces carbon steel, stainless, chrome-moly, and exotic alloy pipe and metal fabrication. It has also constructed, fabricated and provided mechanical contracting for some of the most iconic landmarks across the Fox Cities, such as the Kimberly Clark Corporation.Current President and CEO John Trottier’s specialized leader-ship has always ensured that his team stays focused on being an integral part of the community. The company prides itself on the quality of its workmanship and the safety of its employ-ees. In fact, part of its mission is to be dedicated to zero injuries, and the business has won numerous safety awards, including from the Association of Union Contractors. In June of 2017, the company reached a significant safety milestone by achiev-ing one million hours worked with no recordable incidents – which are an injury that results in death, days away from work, restricted work or transferred to another job, medical treat-ment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness.“Like so many manufacturing and construction companies across the U.S., AZCO is faced with the challenge of finding skilled labor.” Recent notable projects for the combined team are the Empire Riverton Power Plant in Riverton, Kansas, which was completed in 2016. For this project the team converted an existing com-bustion turbine generator into a combined gas-fired power facility, and the high-efficiency system controls fuel costs, lowers emissions and provides reliable energy for consumers in Riverton. This project received a Zero Injury Safety Award from the National Maintenance Agreements Policy Committee for completing more than 600,000 on-site labor hours and zero recordable injuries.Giving back to the community is also an important aspect underpinning AZCO. It has been a supporter of local organi-zations including the Sole Burner/American Cancer Society, Menasha Joint School District, Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army, just to name a few.Like so many manufacturing and construction companies across the U.S., AZCO is faced with the challenge of finding JULY 201832skilled labor, but this hasn’t prevented exciting project work to be awarded to this seasoned company. Next up for Azco Inc. and Burns & McDonnell is a project that will see the construc-tion of two new natural gas power plants in Wisconsin for the Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corp., which is a subsidiary of WEC Energy Group. The projects are estimated to cost $275 million to build and will generate approximately 180 mega-watts of natural gas-fueled energy when completed, provid-ing a long-term and affordable power solution. Both of these projects are expected to be completed in early 2019.AZCO is also breaking ground on a new fabrication facility, and is expecting to win project of the year for a large Exascale Computing Project (ECP) it completed in Texas. We look forward to seeing what lies ahead for this firm that makes it its mission to invest in its people and its community. 33CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS JULY 201834We wrote about Bloomsdale Excavating, a family-run company for three generations, back in November of 2015. It serves many industries but concentrates on excavation, blasting and miscellaneous concrete work for site development. Bloomsdale is also known for the development and implementation of safe mining practices that help other companies throughout the country. We spoke with Executive Vice President Pete Buback and President Scott Drury about the company’s many recent developments.Roller compacted concrete (RCC) was previously becoming a big part of what Bloomsdale Excavating did. It would have taken a large investment of capital to continue the effort, and so ownership decided to invest those dollars in equipment that supports its grading opera-tions. “As disappointed as I was personally with that, it was the right decision at the time. We are no longer in the RCC business,” says Scott. Bloomsdale has instead expanded its conventional concrete abilities and services for clients. Bloomsdale performed well on projects involving RCC and added to some ground-breaking projects. Due to these efforts, the Missouri Department of Transportation has a compacted concrete pavement specification to which Bloomsdale contrib-uted with research and development. “We were proud of our efforts and proud of the results but decided to spend these dollars on other things. We were ahead of the curve,” says Scott. Bloomsdale has the people and skills in place to start this up again, so while it may not be on the radar presently, it could return again in the future. The Nexus Construction Service Group sister company spinoff was successful. Pete Buback, who had previously been at Bloomsdale, was one of its founding members of Nexus and its vice president of business development. He and Bill Priesmeyer recently returned to Bloomsdale, with Bill now serving as vice president of pre-construction. Nexus is still active and pursuing construction management, GPS file building, survey work, and design and constructability analysis. Written by Mark Golombek35CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS If Bloomsdale gets busy, finding workers is difficult. Being a union contractor, it first calls the union hall, and if its members are busy elsewhere, Bloomsdale will go out on its own to find talent. The lack of skilled workers is a problem and is recognized in the industry, but contracting organizations such as the Association of General Contractors (AGC) of Missouri are working on getting more people into this line of work. The AGC will go to career fairs, middle schools, and high schools talking about the trades and opportunities to make a good living in this industry. The unions are supporting these efforts as well by working on campaigns to get people educated about the potential.Another issue is the lack of much-needed infrastructure funding. “There are scant few good projects out there. In Missouri and Illinois, we are battling a lack of transportation funding. There are no transportation programs in either state to support a large excavating contractor. When a project presents itself, we are battling a heavy list of bidders. Yes, we do have opportunities coming up, but if I told you, I would have to kill you,” jokes Scott. As of January 1, 2018, Bloomsdale has begun an effort of strate-gic planning. An accountability chart and Bloomsdale created responsibilities associated with positions. “We revised our structure a little bit in that accountability chart. The biggest change was in looking at the position of president. The respon-sibility of being the forecaster and implementation of day-to-day business falls on one person. We realized that it takes two people to do it all,” says Pete.The first person serves as a visionary to look ahead and set cor-porate policies and philosophies, making sure that these fall in tune with company values. The second person gets things done on a daily basis, so the visionary can continue planning without getting bogged down in the intricacies. Scott retained the position of president, and Pete serves as executive vice president. “The visionary status is a very natural thing for me. I’m just a dumb old country boy, trying to make a living,” says Scott.Bloomsdale Excavating’s family history runs deep at more than seventy years. Scott’s grandfather started it in 1946, and he has been a part of this business his whole life. Although only forty-six years old, Scott has been working full-time at Bloomsdale for nearly thirty years. He worked his way up, learning the business, the industry, how to build projects and relate to people.“My role is to take care of those things that Scott doesn’t want to do,” laughs Pete, who is more of a detail-oriented person. “My responsibility is just the day-to-day operations of the company. “Bloomsdale is staging itself for growth, but the focus will always be on Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas to some degree.”JULY 201836 Scott is the face of Bloomsdale Excavating. The term visionary is how we describe his role. He can look to the future and chart the appropriate direction. He is the big picture guy.”Pete has over thirty-four years of industry experience, the last fifteen of which have been with Bloomsdale Excavating. He brings expertise but also knows the company and its way of doing business intimately. “We are not just co-workers, but good friends, and our per-sonalities mesh, so we work well together. Pete did business development for Bloomsdale for many years, and he knows a lot of people. He is well connected and brings a lot to the table,” says Scott.Currently, Bloomsdale is staging itself for growth, but the focus will always be on Missouri, Illinois, and Kansas to some degree. The aim is to keep people at home if possible. This may be an old company, but it has a young staff. “They have families and values. They want to stay close to home. We have had our stint of travelling over the last five years and are all a little burned out. We are trying to keep them close to home, but I don’t know if that will last much longer,” says Scott.While these have been the biggest changes that Bloomsdale has seen in decades, it does not end there. In addition to the normal operating divisions, it was decided that the company needed true sales and marketing positions. This is something that the company has never endeavored to do before, but now can.All this adjusting has helped with business development. The responsibility was split amongst people so no single person is held accountable. “If one single person does not have account-ability, then no one does. We finally have a sales and marketing aspect to our company. The conversations only began at the beginning of the year, but we have moved fast on this,” Pete.llcllcJULY 201838Written by Pauline Müller Founded in 1996 by John L. DiVito and John N. Rahkonen, Northern Construction Service, LLC works throughout New England, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Its sizeable list of customers includes the United States Coast Guard, the New York State Construction Fund, transportation departments, and municipalities, as well as private clients.Most of us know that if you want to do well in business, people matter – especially customers. However, every now and again, one comes across a company with slightly different, perhaps even more evolved views. One such business is Northern Construction Service, LLC, for which the continued education and self-improvement of its team is a genuinely big deal. Always there to support team members in completing their continued studies, owner John Rahkonen is a shining example of how consistently investing in one’s team and taking an interest in cultivating their futures are the real game changers for propelling a big business into a league of its own. While it is especially famous for constructing and maintain-ing a great variety of bridges, Northern Construction Services is well-respected in many disciplines, with an equally strong focus on constructing and rehabilitating other traffic-bearing surfaces like roads, landing strips, and the like. It also does marine work and has recently completed several seawalls and pile-driving projects along the northeast coast. It is working on a number of utility projects, like the site work it is doing for a handful of large gas compressor stations around New England. These projects involve earth moving, excava-tion, extensive concrete pouring, and more. It is also assist-ing in traffic mitigation for the new MGM Grand Casino at 39CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Next >