State Supplement sponsored by:
441
59
75
Cornella 19
Rome 85 27
Athens
GEORGIA STATE EDITION
A Supplement to:
441
Atlanta
20
Madison Augusta
85
20
Griffin 1
129
Milledgeville
75
La Grange
Macon
301
185 19
16
Dublin
Swainsboro Oak Park
Columbus
Statesboro
341 441 16
Lyons Americus
Savannah
McRae
301
1
Cordele
27 82
Dorchester
341
Cuthbert
75
Albany
84
Douglas Tifton
82
95
82
Blakely
Pearson 27 84
Moultrie
19 319
Bainbridge
Valdosta Thomasville
SHIP WITHIN 48 HOURS
Waycross Brunswick 82
84
1 441
SAME DAY PARTS AVAILABILITY
®
24 HOUR TECHNICAL SUPPORT BACKED BY A 75 YEAR BUSINESS
July 29 2020
Thousands in Service!
Vol. XXI • No. 16
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.”
Affordable Price. Premium Service.
CALL 800-367-4937
Your Georgia Connection: Rich Olivier, Atlanta, GA • 1-800-409-1479
*On approved credit • Financing Available
Family, Fairness, Skill Spur Growth for Newnan Firm
With average annual growth of 10-to-12 percent over the past few years and millions of dollars worth of contracts, the company has more than 200 employees and more than 200 pieces of equipment compared to 80 employees and 100 pieces of iron in 2011.
By Irwin Rapoport CEG CORRESPONDENT
In May 2006, Scott Stokes founded Southeastern Site Development Inc. (SESD), a heavy civil/infrastructure general contracting firm in Newnan, Ga. Today, his firm is recognized as one of the city of Atlanta’s premier road building, site development, excavation, utilities, structures, concrete flatwork and construction contractors working throughout Georgia. While the majority of the company’s operations occur within a 100-mi. radius of Atlanta, it also does work in south Florida, Alabama and South Carolina, and has an office in Columbus (near the Alabama State line) and an equipment yard in Savannah, which gives it access to the Florida market. With average annual growth of 10-to-12 percent over the past few years and millions of dollars worth of contracts, the company has more than 200 employees and more than 200 pieces of equipment (tractors, excavators, dozers, cranes, loaders and other iron pieces) compared to 80 employees and 100 pieces of iron in 2011. The current fleet is approximately 70 percent Komatsu and 28 percent Cat, with the remainder made up of Kobelco cranes and Link-Belt cranes and LBX excavators. The fleet contains a substantial number of articulated see SESD page 6
Atlanta BeltLine Trail Finally Gets Southern Buckhead Route, Building Start Unknown After years of planning, the Atlanta BeltLine’s Northeast Trail finally has a course set through southern Buckhead, where it will connect to MARTA’s Lindbergh Center Station, as well as the PATH400 and other trail systems in the city. But the expense and complexity of its path, involving bridges and a tunnel, means construction will take several more years, with an opening likely coming no sooner than 2026. “Good news is, they have an alignment. Bad news is, it will
take forever,” said Denise Starling, executive director of Livable Buckhead, the nonprofit supervising PATH400, as she described the conceptual route at a May 27 meeting of the Buckhead Community Improvement District. The BeltLine is a proposed system of multiuse trails and an accompanying light rail mass transit line that would encircle intown Atlanta, largely using old railroad corridors. The transit see BELTLINE page 4
Atlanta BeltLine Inc. graphic
A map of the selected route for the Northeast Trail in southern Buckhead.
Page 2 • July 29, 2020 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
Unmarked Utilities Add to Delay of $800M I-285 Project
I-285 heading East under GA 400.
Looking northeast over the GA 400, I-285 interchange.
Construction at one of metro Atlanta’s busiest highway interchanges will take a year more than expected. The new I-285 interchange at GA 400, north of the city, was supposed to be finished by the end of this year. Due to the discovery of unmarked utilities and the addition of work to the project, the new target date is late 2021, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). It’s the second delay for the $800 million project. Last year, GDOT’s decision to expand the scope of construction to include two new bridges on I-285 extended the project by six months. When it’s done, state officials say the new interchange will make commuting easier at one of the region’s worst traffic bottlenecks. In the meantime, traffic is likely to remain stuck at times — even with lower-than-usual traffic during the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s always backed up,” said Jeffrey Snow of Atlanta, who passes through the interchange three days a week during the school year to take his grandchildren to class. “If you come from down Roswell Road and need to get over to 400 and you get on I-285, it’s a parking lot.” Improvements to the interchange have been a long time coming. About 420,000 vehicles a day pass through the interchange, which was designed to accommodate 100,000.
The new interchange will feature new “flyover” ramps and lanes adjacent to both highways. When it’s completed, it will be almost as big as Spaghetti Junction, where I-285 meets I-85 northeast of Atlanta. The project also includes a new diverging-diamond interchange at GA 400 and Abernathy Road and a new bridge at Mount Vernon Highway. Since construction began in November 2017 orange barrels have stretched for miles along both I-285 and GA 400. GDOT and contractor North Perimeter Contractors have done what they can to alleviate traffic congestion — most of the lane closures occur at night and on weekends. But congestion has remained a problem, and it may until the work is finished. Originally, the work was supposed to be done by this summer. Then, last year, GDOT added two new I-285 bridges to the project — over Glenridge Drive and Peachtree Dunwoody Road. That pushed completion back to late 2020 or early 2021. Now, GDOT and the contractor have agreed to add even more work to the project. After consulting with the surrounding community, GDOT will add bike and pedestrian trails and local road improvements, said agency spokeswoman Natalie Dale. GDOT also will adjust its design to accommo-
Exit ramp from GA 400 to I-285 westbound.
date future toll lanes along the top end of the Perimeter. Additionally, the transportation department has discovered unmarked utilities that must be relocated — a common problem on large construction projects, Dale said. The combined cost of all the extra work is about $43 million. But she explained other costs could fall, and the final price tag may yet be around the original $800 million estimate. Dale said the construction delays associated with the additional work are unavoidable. But she said doing all the work now would be less disruptive than completing the interchange and coming back later for the additional work. “We’re not upset for the reasons the timeline is shifting,” she added. Ann Hanlon, the executive director of the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts, agreed it will be better for local businesses in the long run to do all the work now. She said many employees at area companies are still working at home because of the pandemic, which has alleviated traffic congestion. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get an amazing interchange built with adjacent trail connections,” Hanlon said. “That’s important not just to the central Perimeter [area], but to the entire metro Atlanta region.”
Cobb County Tractor’s Bill Smith Earns Takeuchi Sales Kudos Takeuchi-US has announced Bill Smith of Cobb County Tractor was presented with Takeuchi's Salesman of the Year award for his successful sales efforts in 2019. This is the third time Smith has taken top honors for Takeuchi after ranking number one again in retail sales for North America. Located in Marietta, Ga., Cobb County Tractor is a full line dealer of Takeuchi. It serves the construction and landscaping industries, as well as offering parts and service. Takeuchi’s Southeast Region Business Manager Steve DePriest was on hand in Marietta to present Smith with the award. “Hands down, Bill Smith knows the meaning of a true sales professional. We could not be more pleased of the way he represents our brand,” said DePriest. “He very much deserves to be recognized for his sales efforts, always going above and beyond the customers’ expectations as well as Cobb County Tractor’s expectations. Bill works extremely hard and logs long hours each and every day. Something else that sets Bill apart is how great he listens to customers, always understanding their needs. We are proud to once again present this award to him for his outstanding performance in 2019.” For more information, visit www.takeuchi-us.com.
Steve DePriest (L), Takeuchi southeast region business manager, and Bill Smith, Cobb County Tractor sales representative.
Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • July 29, 2020 • Page 3
Page 4 • July 29, 2020 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
With Trail Set, Bobby Touhy Earns GUCA’s Contractor Attention Turns Member of the Year 2019-2020 Honors to Complexity BELTLINE from page 1
has yet to be built, while several segments of the trail are already open, including the Northside Trail in Buckhead’s Tanyard Creek and Atlanta Memorial parks area. The Northeast Trail segment would connect the existing Eastside Trail from Monroe Drive in Virginia-Highland to Buckhead’s Lindbergh Center Station. Between Virginia-Highland and I-85, the Northeast Trail is routed along an existing railroad right of way. But between I-85 and Lindbergh, it must navigate a past a maze of uses. The Armour Yard railyard, the existing MARTA Red and Gold lines, PATH400, the Peachtree Creek corridor and the future Clifton Corridor light rail line are among those complexities. Atlanta BeltLine Inc. (ABI) held a community meeting last summer to show five alternative routes through Buckhead. The final choice, unveiled May 14, is a variation on what was called “Alignment B.” In southern Buckhead, the alignment of the BeltLine trail, along with the transit line, would split at an existing Y-shaped branching of the railroad at Ansley Golf Club, where rail bridges cross the Buford-Spring Connector. The transit line will use the northern branch of the Y and run on existing railroad right of way directly to the MARTA station. The Northeast Trail will use the southern branch and begin its meandering course through the neighborhood. After crossing I-85 and the rail line, the trail route follows the perimeter of the commercial district and follows Peachtree Creek’s course before running along Garson Drive to the MARTA station. One of two spurs of the route passes along Adina Drive to connect to PATH400, which in turn connects to the South Fork Conservancy’s Confluence Bridge and a trail network intended to link to Brookhaven’s Peachtree Creek Greenway. The Northeast Trail eventually would connect to another BeltLine segment, the Northwest Trail. ABI doesn’t expect its construction to begin until 2023, with a likelihood of two to three years for completion, said an ABI spokesperson. The budget is unknown, she said, but it will probably be ABI’s most expensive section so far. At last year’s community meetings, consultants gave a broad estimate of $10 million to $15 million per mile to build the trail in that area. The chosen alignment is roughly 2.5 mi. long. Starling expects the BeltLine would not open until 2026 or 2027, much longer than she had hoped for connections to PATH400. In the meantime, work has begun on the section of the Northeast Trail south of I-85. Georgia Power is working there and is set to pave a section of the path.
The Georgia Utility Contractors Association Inc. (GUCA) presented Cherokee County resident Bobby Touhy, Civil Site Services Inc., with the GUCA Contractor Member of the Year for 2019-2020 at the 2020 GUCA Annual Conference in Amelia Island, Fla. Gov. Brian Kemp also gave Touhy a commendation for his work and this award. “GUCA contractor members are the backbone and foundation of the Association and the driving force behind the utility construction industry. This year, Bobby Touhy, Civil Site Services Inc., represents the GUCA Contractor of the Year who has risen to the occasion through his impeccable work ethic and commitment to GUCA and the utility construction industry,” said GUCA Executive Director Vikki McReynolds Consiglio. Touhy co-founded T.C.B. Construction Inc. in 1990, specializing in small commercial grading and underground utility projects. In 2001, he obtained his utility manager’s license. Touhy is now president of Civil Site Services, a utility contractor specializing in commercial development, multi-family housing and school projects. The company was founded by Ricky Harp in 1988 as Richard Harp Excavation. The company was rebranded in 2010 as Civil Site Services when Vicky Clontz was brought in as partner. The company has grown to more than 135 employees. Civil Site Services has been an active and dedicated member of GUCA since 1996. As an active GUCA member, Touhy has served as 2018-2019 Membership Committee Chairman, 2019-2020 PAC Committee Chairman and 2018-2020 GUCA Board of
Directors. He has proven to be a leader in all his roles and leads by example by showing up and getting the job done. “My affiliation with GUCA has been a very rewarding experience and I have been honored to develop meaningful relationships with so many leaders in the utility construction industry.” Touhy plans to continue working and growing Civil Site Services while remaining an active GUCA member and leader in the utility construction industry. For more information about GUCA, visit www.guca.com.
Bobby Touhy
CMES Begins $22M Macland Road Widening, Reconstruction Work West of Marietta The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) began a three-year-long reconstruction and widening project on Macland Road, the department announced. The $22 million project, widening more than 6 mi. of Macland Road between the communities of Powder Springs in western Cobb County and Hiram in eastern Paulding County commenced on July 10. The area is west of the metro Atlanta suburb of Marietta, itself located northwest of the Georgia capital city. CMES Inc., an engineering firm and heavy construction contractor based in Norcross, was awarded the contract in the spring. The reconstruction of the east west corridor of Macland Road, or Georgia State Route 360, will overhaul the roadway between Lost Mountain Road (SR 176), near McEachern High School, and Charles Hardy Parkway (SR 120) in Paulding County. Plans call for widening Macland Road from two lanes to four, as well as adding a grassed center median to the passageway. The designs also call for creating new dedicated turn lanes and 5 ft.
sidewalks to each side of the road, according to the state transportation department. “These improvements are needed to accommodate the growing traffic along SR 360, improve mobility between the cities of Dallas and Marietta, and enhance safety on the corridor,” GDOT said in a news release. “The project is scheduled for completion in November 2023.” Phase One of the project, which consists of clearing vegetation and starting overhead and underground utility work around the roadway, has required lane closures. The reconstruction project timeline is subject to change, the GDOT said, depending on weather conditions. The entire project length is approximately 6.2 mi. long with 3.1 mi. in Paulding County and 3.1 mi. in Cobb County. The contract for the road work was the largest of 19 construction contracts awarded by the GDOT in April for statewide transportation projects totaling $113.5 million.
Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • July 29, 2020 • Page 5
Page 6 • July 29, 2020 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
Newnan’s SESD Sees Growth of Up to 12 Percent Since 2011 SESD from page 1
trucks and excavators in the 400,000, 88,000, and 60,000 lb. ranges. Prior to the founding, which was done after careful research and planning, Stokes spent four years as project estimator/vice president with APAC, a grading company based in Georgia “2006 was a very robust year for the construction business, as it had been for the previous three years, and I saw a market that folks weren’t really pursuing — so I took advantage of it,” said Stokes. “This lasted for about 18 months and then we had the great depression of 2008, but we were able to do what we could to continue securing road building and heavy civil projects between $500,000 and $1 million and kept 45 guys busy up to 2011. “When I started, I just had some small dozers, a couple of articulated trucks and some mid-sized backhoes and 14 people,” he added. ‘It’s always tough to get contracts and we had some great folks help us early on. John Bledsoe, who is a vice president, was instrumental in helping us procure work. Most of our early contracts were for the Georgia Department of Transportation [GDOT] and municipalities.” Surviving the downturn taught Stokes many lessons on how to run a smart and efficient company. When the economy began to rebound in 2011, SESD was ready. In 2014 it built the first solar farm in Georgia, which required moving approximately one million yards of dirt. “We’ve been growing from there,” said Stokes. “We added the structures aspect about six years ago and I hired my brother Dustin five years ago to manage that division — that took us up to six bridge crews. About three years ago we acquired the assets of Ed Smith Construction, and started doing culvert work in Georgia and south Florida. There wasn’t anything like a big break. We worked hard and bid projects for large excavations and structures.” Between 2008 to 2011, SESD had secured some $3 million to $4 million contracts, but most importantly, its reputation for finishing jobs on-time and on-budget was being recognized and larger contracts became the norm. Today, SESD now takes on much larger projects as a prime contractor. “When I started, I just had some small dozers, a couple of articulated trucks, some mid-sized backhoes and 14 people,” said Scott Stokes, owner of Southeastern Site Development.
Currently about 60 percent of its business is with GDOT and Crews perform work on municipalities and 40 percent with private clients. a bridge over the “We are guided by a relentless focus to be the best in the Etowah River. eyes of our customers, employees and the communities in which we operate,” said Stokes. “We constantly strive to implement the critical initiatives required to achieve our vision, which includes being a leading provider of safe, responsive, value-added services, and distinguish ourselves through top-quality workmanship and cost-effective solutions to the complex logistics that are an everyday part of the job.” Early major projects were GDOT’s Custer Road project in Muscogee County in 2017 that included a couple of bridges over a four-lane highway, a $14 million job for the city of Atlanta, and several earth work projects that had crews move over one million yards of excavation. “We completed a $16 million green infrastructure designbuild project for Atlanta in 2016,” said Stokes. “Delivering these projects gave me a sense of pride, not just for myself, but for the guys out there making it happen, seeing us grow.” SESD’s services cover excavation and grading; structures/bridge construction; installation of underground utilities; building of roads and parking areas, sidewalks and curb, and building pads; erosion control and waste water treatment plants. “Moving dirt, pouring concrete, and building structures like bridges is our bread and butter,” said Stokes, who noted that SESD uses Topcon machine controls on all of its dozers and excavators. “We’ve invested a lot of money in making sure we have state-of-the-art machine control equipment to help us meet specifications. This lets us move dirt and fine grade areas much faster. That’s a big deal because we can complete jobs much more quickly and transfer crews and equipment to other projects. It makes us more efficient, reduces our costs and increases our profits. “If our clients are satisfied, we’re satisfied,” he added. “We try to get ahead and focus on problems that experience can bring to the table, and when we get on a job, we aggressively pursue the schedule and lend our expertise. We like to manage a whole site — do the clearing and everything horizontal and then give it to our vertical guys where all they have to do is pour the slab and come out of the ground with it. This is same concept of operation whether serving a prime contractor for the DOT or mass excavating a site for one of our larger general contractors. We solve probMembers of the Southeastern lems early on and try to minimize or avoid Site Development team change orders for our customers to help them screen materials. manage their budgets and get it done earlier than the schedule shows.” In Florida, SESD partners with much large companies. “We act more as a specialty structures company and in southern Georgia we do a lot of underground infrastructure, pouring inplace culverts,” said Stokes. For the next five years, Stokes is looking to maintain current growth levels, having experienced some years when growth was at 40 percent and the concerns that it brought about. “When an economy turns around and you start to grow, that’s your biggest risk — of blowing up and not being able to control your cash flow and hiring people that are not qualsee SESD page 8
Henry County Airport
Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • July 29, 2020 • Page 7
Atlanta, GA 404.469.7210 Birmingham, AL 205.841.6666 Madison, AL 256.350.0006 Mobile, AL 251.633.4020 Montgomery, AL 334.262.6642 Oxford, AL 256.832.5053 Tuscaloosa, AL 205.848.4147 Pensacola, FL 850.479.3004
Page 8 • July 29, 2020 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
Mix of Seasoned, New Talent Reaps Rewards for SESD SESD from page 6
ified,” he said. “You want sustainable growth with reserves and maintaining the quality of your work.” In addition to the equipment yard in Savannah, SESD has a shop at its Newnan headquarters, which it built two years ago. With such a large fleet and equipment distributed to many construction sites, preventive maintenance is essential to maximize production. “We service every tractor at a minimum of 500 hours,” said Stokes. “We do all preventative maintenance services either in-house or we use the manufacturer to do 2,000 hour services to change all filters and fluids. Every 1,000 hours we’ll throw manufacturers in there to look after the tractors.” Rusty Shirley, SESD’s equipment manager, who has been with the company since 2014, has three mechanics whose training and skills are constantly upgraded by attending classes put on by Komatsu, Cat and other manufacturers. Stokes pointed out that SESD replaces equipment every three to five years, depending on the hours logged by each machine, which translates in large annual equipment purchases The firm purchases and rents equipment from Tractor Equipment Company (TEC, for Komatsu), Yancey Bros. Co. for Cat machinery, Cowan Equipment for Kobelco cranes and Link-Belt pieces, and Flood Equipment for pieces from other manufacturers. “These companies are top-notch and top quality vendors with good organizations, good work ethics and good folks,” said Stokes. ‘When we purchase new pieces, we try to give everybody a fair shot and go with whoever has the best price.” The company also purchases late model equipment at auctions. “It gives us a competitive advantage where we don’t pay retail for it,” said Stokes. “This creates value in the company by having assets that are being utilized and bought for a good price. By me and Rusty pursuing the auction market, our equipment value is probably more than most companies.” SESD’s fleet contains examples of all the essentials and the more specialized pieces. It also owns two lowboys to transport heavy equipment to various sites. Family is important to Scott Stokes, and in addition to
Georgia Port Authority Bridge
Early major projects were GDOT’s Custer Road project in Muscogee County in 2017 and several earth work projects that had crews move over one million yards of excavation.
Crews from Southeastern Site Development place a beam on the Johnson County Bridge.
Dustin, a P.E., running the Structures division, his son Garrett is now working at as a project manager. “It’s wonderful working with family,” said Stokes. “It’s always good seeing your kid every day — most people don’t get this opportunity. Dustin worked for Rogers Bridge, a big bridge company out of Atlanta, and he brought a wealth of experience to Southeastern.” Stokes also is pleased with his employees. “We have a good mix old experience and young guys that we’re training,” he said. “We’re in a good position to move forward with good management and people that learn daily on the job and benefit from the experience of their peers. We care about our folks and treat them better than fair. We try to have rigorous training programs, especially for younger folks who get offered a lot of opportunities to be foremen, superintendents and project managers. We trust them and they trust us.” CEG
Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • July 29, 2020 • Page 9
We’re a World-Class Supplier of Portable Crushing and Screening Equipment Backed by IndustryLeading Product Support. 7330 Delta Cir, Austell, GA 30168 770-819-6600 centralatlantatractor.com
We Call It EXPERTISE. You Call It PEACE OF MIND.
Choose from Track- or WheelMounted Jaw, Cone, Closed-Circuit or Impact Crushers as well as Standard or Scalping Screeners.
Crush. Classify. Profit. www.irockcrushers.com 866-240-0201
Page 10 • July 29, 2020 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
Construction Equipment Guide • Georgia State Supplement • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • July 29, 2020 • Page 11
Page 12 • July 29, 2020 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • Georgia State Supplement • Construction Equipment Guide
{ Y o a , i M i , G
a Š ĂŠ ÂŁ Ă a ÂŁ ĂŠ Ć ¡ ˜ ÂŁ a Ăť ĂĽ ĂĽ Ă™ ĂŠ Ăľ
7UDFWRU (TXLSPHQW &RPSDQ\ KDV EHHQ SXVKLQJ WKURXJK WR WKH HQG IRU RXU FXVWRPHUV VLQFH 7KH 6DOHV 6HUYLFH 6XSSRUW WHDPV DW 7(& KDYH \RXU EDFN DW DOO WLPHV DQG LQ DOO SODFHV &RPH YLVLW RQH RI RXU ORFDWLRQV WKURXJKRXW $/ *$ )/ WRGD\
i Ä? ÄĽ Ä Ä&#x; Ĺś ˜ Ă™ Ă?