Building names: Indiana's major commercial construction firms.

• Author: McKimmie, Kathy
• Position: Real Estate & Construction - Industry Overview

Indiana's construction companies continue to build their state and national reputations even in a lagging economy.

ENR--Engineering News-Record publishes an annual Top 400 list of U.S. contractors by revenue. Eleven Indiana companies made the cut for 2002 with Hunt Construction, Indianapolis, coming in on top at No. 20. Others on the list included Duke Construction, Indianapolis (87); F.A. Wilhelm, Indianapolis (154): Traylor Bros., Evansville (194); Industrial Contractors, Evansville (215); Reynolds Inc., Orleans (265); BMW Constructors, Indianapolis (277); Shiel Sexton, Indianapolis (310); Hagerman Construction Corp., Fort Wayne (364); Frontier-Kemper Constructors, Evansville (391); and Gohmann Asphalt & Construction, Clarksville (399).

SOUTHERN INDIANA

When it comes to construction, full-service Industrial Contractors of Evansville has done it all for nearly 40 years. Well, almost all, says owner and CEO Alan Braun. "We do everything except insulation and painting." The company did about $200 million in business last year, and is currently building headquarters for two Evansville companies, Old National Bancorp, a $52 million project to be completed in July 2004, and Vectren's $20 million facility, which should be finished later that year.

Industrial Contractors captured about $5 million in masonry and foundation work out of Ivy Tech's $20 million expansion budget, and it continues to provide industrial maintenance for many companies including IPL's Petersburg Generating Station and American Electric Power's Rockport plant, as well as its plants in Ohio and West Virginia.

Evansville's Frontier-Kemper Constructors, owned by Deilmann-Haniel Holding of Dortmund, Germany, constructs mostly tunnels outside the state. One current project is New Jersey Transit's Weehawken Tunnel Light Rail project near Weehawken, N.J., valued at more than $140 million, for which it is managing and 50 percent partner. It's also working on the tunnels and shaft for the enlargement of the Fort Smith Arkansas water reservoir valued at around $40 million. Annual revenue in 2002 was nearly $102 million.

Building bridges and tunnels is the specialty of Traylor Bros., Evansville, most of them out of state. This spring it began work on a $220 million, four-year joint venture to replace the locks at the McAlpine Lock and Dam in Louisville for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Traylor has about half the project. This fall, the company finishes construction of a water tunnel for the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority, another joint venture, with Traylor's portion being about $85 million. By year-end it will complete a $54 million cable-stay bridge over the Mississippi River...