Pioneer spirit

Sandy beaches, palm trees… and 35,000 kilometers of roads and freeways, traveled each day by 222 million vehicules – Los Angeles is an el dorado for sully-miller Contracting co., a colas subsidiary in California.

In this sunny month of November, crews are working on a section of Interstate 15, at the edge of this sprawling metropolis. Past the snow-covered peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains, the desert stretches all the way to Las Vegas. Here, near th elittle town of Hesperia, 14 kilometers of pavement are being repaired. “A lot of trucks coming up from the ports at Long Beach and Los Angeles and heading to Nevada and Utah take this highway,” says operations manager Ayaz Uddin. “To avoid disrupting car and freight traffic, we close some lanes at night while we work.” As many as 75 people are on the job at one time. A mobile concrete plant near the site produces the concrete for the paving work, which is slated to end in autumn 2024.

In May 2012, Colas Inc. created Colas Construction USA Inc.1 to provide operational support to the local subsidiaries to help them win road, airport, rail, and port infrastructure contracts worth more than $50 million. With a staff of ten people, the new company, whose role is to manage very large projects, is based at La Brea, near Los Angeles, in the offices of Sully-Miller Contracting Co. “The construction sector in the United States is very dynamic and very competitive,” say Nina Allington, head of business development at Colas Construction USA Inc. “That’s why it’s important to combine the best practices of Colas’ seven largest subsidiaries in the United States and capitalize on their experience to be able to win new major contracts.” For example, like the ones Sully-Miller Contracting Co. has been carrying out at the international airport of Los Angeles (commonly called LAX), one of the busiest in the world. “Since 2019, Sully-Miller Contracting has carried out several large projects at the Los Angeles airport, like the construction of a taxiway, a contract worth 84 million dollars,” says operations manager Travis Clausen. Since January 2023, crews have gone back to the airport to extend a taxiway and move a bus parking lot that was located near an aircraft refueling station.

Clausen has been working on projects at LAX since 2012, so his customers know and trust him. “How you obtain public works contracts is changing,” says Marcus Leavitt, president of Colas Construction USA Inc. and executive vice president of Colas Inc. “Increasingly, customers are preferring the ‘best value procurement’ model for their big projects. That is, the price counts for about 50 percent in the awarding of the contract, while the other half concerns the qualifications of the people who will be doing the project, the technical proposal, and the calendar for the work.” Hence the need to create a network capable of combining the best practices developed by Colas companies across the United States.

Irwindale, a town lying at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, is home to a large production plant operated by Sully-Miller Contracting Co. and two of its subsidiaries, United Rock Products and Blue Diamond. The view of San Antonio Mountain is breathtaking.

“Materials extracted from the quarry are processed and transformed on site and sold to construction companies,” says Mark Pachura, general manager of United Rock Products. Another activity is crushing concrete recovered from the demolition of buildings in downtown Los Angeles. This is the historical center of the city, the location of Chinatown, Little Tokyo, the Art District, government buildings, and the city’s financial district. The production plant’s proximity to the downtown area roughly 40 kilometers away affords it valuable visibility and business opportunities.

Each year, two million tons of construction materials are produced at the plant. Customers have the convenience of fast, drive-through delivery thanks to an automatic loading system in operation 24 hours a day, five days a week and sometimes on weekends depending on customers’ needs. Sully-Miller Contracting Co. also has a garage at the site to repair the machinery and mobile equipment used on its worksites.

Tourists and locals stroll along the ocean at Long Beach, enjoying the sunshine. Visible through the palm trees along the promenade is the Queen Mary, the famous transatlantic ocean liner that has been converted into a hotel and museum. A few kilometers further up the coast in Long Beach is the huge Port of Los Angeles. Goods from all over the world pass through its 24 terminals that open directly onto the Pacific Ocean. Near one of them, in the Wilmington neighborhood, Sully-Miller Contracting Co. is building a 16,000-sq.-meter park on the waterfront. Earth is being moved to create a hill to offer residents and tourists unobstructed views. The park will also feature playing fields, boat docks, and a jetty where fisherman will be able to try their luck. “We had to adjust our calendar according to the tides to avoid flooding the underground construction,” says project manager Ray Delgadillo. “Work got underway in November, and we are expecting to finish up in the spring of 2023.” This waterfront park project in Wilmington is part of a larger redevelopment program for this busy industrial area of Los Angeles.

What are the objectives of Colas Construction USA Inc.?

Colas has seven local subsidiaries in the United States, which operate on a decentralized model. The aim of Colas Construction USA Inc. is to create a network to share our expertise and resources more effectively. We have developed a five-year plan with growth objectives for our core business activities as well as for the diversification of our projects through greater investment in the private sector. With Colas Construction USA Inc., we want to help the local subsidiaries to win more major projects and to control risks in carrying them out, whether it be in the development, financing, planning, or design.

What major projects are you targeting?

There is no shortage of projects in the United States because the economy is robust, and the market is steady. We are targeting major road, airport, and port projects, and with the Olympics coming up in 2028 in Los Angeles, we are looking at some great opportunities for new business. Another objective is to win contracts in states other than California, like Georgia and Colorado, where our subsidiaries do not ordinarily carry out these types of projects. To succeed, we are going to rely on our internal resources and team up with trustworthy partners to form winning partnerships.

What tools can Colas Construction USA Inc. rely on?

We are developing systems at Colas Construction USA Inc. to combine the best practices and procedures of the local subsidiaries. We can also rely on Colas University, an inhouse training program for management staff where managers learn about the Colas group, its market positioning, its organization, and how it operates. The contents are the same in Paris, Budapest, Montreal, and Morristown, New Jersey, where the headquarters of Colas Inc. are located.