I am curious what kind of fleets these companies have? Mainly there mass excavating crews, they must have tons of iron to be doing the earthmoving that they do. I currently have plans to a project down in Kentucky, it is the realignment of US 460, this section is only .80 miles in length. The project involves nearly 6.2 million yards of earthmoving, there is also (2) 1,111 FT structures, (2) 350FT structures, and one smaller structure. This project bids on Friday the 31st. I am not a real contractor bidding this job, just interesting in learning about other companies. On the planholders list is Bizzack and Elmo Greer, I have done lots of research on these guys. I have noticed on very large Kentucky highways they are the prime bidders on all of them, with the exception of other companies from time to time. They also have bid lots of work in West Virginia, and they have bid Ohio work in the past. One Kentucky letting in 2004 Bizzack got a 9 million yard highway and a 7.5 million yard highway in the same day, they appear to be very aggressive. Any info anyone has on them would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!
Both have been involved in coal mining and large excavating work in the mountains of both states for many years. I had a boss with a coal company I was working for that quit and went to work for Bizzack over north of Pikeville. But it didn't last and he wasn't too appreciative of them or the way they (didn't) maintain their equipment. When West Virginia greatly expanded their state highway reconstruction system a few years ago, both companies benefited a bunch. As you probably know, straightening out a highway in that part of the world involves moving a lot of cubic yards and it took big iron to do it. As both companies used large mining equipment, it was an easy move to the highway work as they had plenty of large machines available. About 1993 I took a look at a Letourneau L1100 that Greer had for sale near Jenkins, Kentucky. As it so happened, I used to live there in the eighties and so had a double interest in going over. Anyway. The loader wasn't in that great of shape and we already had too many that were the same way at the mine in West Virginia, so we didn't pursue it any further. But the interesting part was that Greer had just finished reworking the highway in front of the hollow where I used to live. The hollow was no longer there, as the golf course, club house, and the homes behind all that were buried under all the waste from a stripping operation that took all the coal out where my house used to be. I turned down a chance at becoming Greer's Maintenance Manager. I had only just started at the mine in WV when a head-hunter called with an invite to apply. In retrospect, I maybe should have jumped at it. Well, you never know. Oh yeah. Both companies are very well connected politically in both states, which as you know, is exceptionally important there. If either one wants a project bad enough, chances are better than average they will get it.
Very informative, thank you very much. Out of curiosity what are some of there large excavating machines used in the highway work? Like you said Greer had a LT 1100, what about other loaders, large excavators, rigid frame trucks, dozers and scrapers? I'm hoping sometime I can get the opportunity to check them out on a project.
At the time, they had a large fleet of Cat 992's and 777 trucks. Also D10 and D11 dozers along with a herd of D7's and 8's. What they have today I'm not so certain. I remember they had an early 994 there in Jenkins that we also considered buying. But my boss was in tight with Caterpillar and they told him to wait for the later model.
Thanks for the response, sounds like they both sure have large fleets.
Bizzack is a power player. Now partially owned by Old Castle. Here's a link to some history: Scroll down to this heading "Lawson's firm sold to Irish company Writers: Lee Mueller And Beth Musgrave" http://www.kctcs.edu/todaysnews/index.cfm?tn_date=2005-11-02
Thanks for the link, very interesting to see they are partially owned by Old Castle. Are you familiar with any of their earthmoving fleet?
Update on the US 460 Project: Elmo Greer was the low bidder at $44.5 million, Kay & Kay Contracting was second and Bizzack was third.
where exactly is this stretch of us 460 located?
It is located in Pikeville, Kentucky I believe. This is near the Virginia line to my understanding. Check out the link: http://transportation.ky.gov/progmgmt/sypmaps/d_12/Pike US-460.html There is several phases of it, this is all loacted around Elkhorn City. Hope that helps.
CRH is Eires largest cement manufacturer ,quarry company,asphalt maker and paving company, the letters stand for Cement Roadstone Holdings http://www.roadstone.ie/about/history.html
Did you ever get a chance to go down and look at the project?
Unfortunately I never made it to the project.
I'm new here to the forums, but excited to have found them! I'm a yella-iron addict. Bizzack has another (other than the one you referred to) 460 project going on in my backyard right now. The company I used to work for while in college was the second lowest bidder and got slammed by Bizzack on this job from what I understand. Anyway, you wanted to see some of Bizzack's and Elmo's equipment so here's a great link for some of Bizzack's stuff that is working RIGHT now - 24/7... http://www.facebook.com/pages/VDOT-Route-460-Grundy-Relocation-Phase-II/263775193080