Road Machinery & Supplies Co. 95th Anniversary

A Supplement to Construction Equipment Guide

Road Machinery & Supplies Company

Growing Family Celebrates 95 Years

By Giles Lambertson

Depression arrived.

Sill kept his doors open through the ensuing economic turbulence selling whatever he could find to Road Machinery & Supplies Co. represent locally, including snow is a broad-ranging company that fence, fire engines and Stockland has maintained its sense of family. motor graders. When World War II Its 350 employees in 13 locations loomed, mines in the Mesabi support equipment customers Range west of Duluth ramped up to across the upper Midwest, includsupply America with iron ore to ing Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska and North and The Road Machinery & Supplies Co. management team build war ships, tanks and planes.

South Dakota — and nationally expanded in 2016 as part of a strategic growth plan. (L-R): The The resulting economic surge team included CFO Troy Johnson; CEO Mike Sill II; current from a family of companies down Vice President of Sales Marketing Andy Schwandt; retired Vice boosted the company and, in the in Texas. RMS is not your little President of Sales and Marketing Dave Johnson; and 1950s, Road Machinery & Supplies Co. became a statewide President Russell Sheaffer. neighborhood store. dealer for the Austin Western line But it once was.

In 1926 — fully 95 years ago — when Michael M. Sill opened of motor graders, which heralded further company growth.

In short, the early years of the company were marked more by the doors of the enterprise in Duluth, Minn., the first order of business was to establish his company. He did so by selling road cul- survival than vigorous growth. That came later. Sill’s grandson — verts and managed to lay a company foundation strong enough to current RMS chief operating executive Michael M. Sill II — gives the company founder full credit for what he withstand the debilitating financial accomplished. forces that crashed down on “My grandfather was very Duluth three years later when the Great

CEG CORRESPONDENT

In September 2020, Road Machinery & Supplies Co. opened its new Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facility. A twin of the Bondurant location that opened a month earlier, the 25,000-sq.- ft. branch features 10 drive-through service bays; a parts warehouse; and administrative offices.

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entrepreneurial, but the challenge of the first generation of company ownership was to work through the Depression and the war,” he said.

After all, had the first Sill not succeeded in those early years, the remarkable growth of Road Machinery & Supplies Co. that came later would not be celebrated today. ** The expansion of the company is impressive as measured by just about any yardstick.

Besides the multi-state geographical footprint of the company, Road Machinery & Supplies Co. today offers astonishingly wide-ranging lines of equipment. A partial listing Road Machinery & Supplies Co. moved into a new 22,000-sq.-ft. branch in East Moline, Ill., in 2018. includes off-highway trucks and behemoth hydraulic shovels. Aggregate handling and processing machinery.

Forestry loggers and delimbers. Earthmoving, compacting and paving equipment. High-reach and lifting machines. Articulated dump trucks. Demolition and scrap-handling machinery.

RMS also offers services and specialty products that include trench-shoring, auger boring, new and used parts, heavy machinery rentals and small equipment rentals — even custom steel CEO Mike Sill II (L) and Vice President of Product Support and Southern Operations, Joe Schmidtlein, cut the fabrication in a stand-alone ribbon at the grand opening of Road Machinery & Supplies Co.’s new Des Moines branch in August 2020. facility. The company CEO said the purpose behind this diversity is to provide customers a service to keep our customers, we should,” he said.

Expansion of services and product lines is the rule. Aggregate full slate of heavy equipment-related services. products offer a good example. While the aggregate segment has “We used to find that our customers would call up with a need been in the company’s portfolio for some 20 years, it is at this and, if we didn’t have a product or service, they would have to go somewhere else. We concluded that where we can develop a continued on page 6

“My grandfather was very entrepreneurial, but the challenge of the first generation of company ownership was to work through the Depression and the war.”

Michael M. Sill II

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CONGRATULATIONS

on

95

YEARS

We look forward to many more years of working together to deliver industry-leading attachments and service.

genesisattachments.com © 2021 Genesis Attachments, LLC

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BUILT TO CONNECT

From Rock to Road Connection is at the heart of everything we do. We design and manufacture products used to build the infrastructure that physically connects the world, but the connections we make with people are what drive us forward. We were founded on innovation and a passion to help our customers succeed. It’s this commitment that has driven our decision to unify as one company. ASTEC.

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ing being the D71PXi hydrostatic transmission dozer.

“There’s a lot of excitement moment being systematically built around that machine,” said Andy out as a larger component of the Schwandt, vice president of marketcompany. ing and sales of RMS. “We just recently assumed the The dozer is said to be 60 percent Astec line of equipment for the more productive than its predecesDakotas and Nebraska,” said the sor machines; reduces steering CEO. “We’ve invested in an aggreinput from an operator by 80 pergate division manager supported by cent; and is 100 percent programa new product support group commable for automatic operation. posed of aggregate specialists, parts Other Komatsu dozers soon will specialists and a dozen parts and offer the same intelligent Machine service sales representatives.

Control 2.0 features.

Aggregate is the fastest growing Some of the Komatsu heavy part of the company, with a techni- Second-generation owners of RMS, brothers Mitch (L) and equipment is beyond heavy. The cal services group that can back it Mike Sill Sr. Mike Sr. passed away in May of 2010.

PC7000 mining shovel, for examup.”

The flagship brand of equipment represented by RMS is ple, is humongous, the largest on the Mesabi Range. The 680-ton Komatsu, the 100-year-old Japanese company that built its first hydraulic shovel is powered by two 1,650-hp diesel engines; piece of heavy machinery, a crawler tractor, 90 years ago. There’s operates with a hydraulic flow of more than 1,600 gpm; and has no question about its position in the company. Komatsu has been a standard bucket that can hold 47 cu. yds. of material.

Project manager Kenny Jacobsen is quite familiar with the represented by RMS for more than a quarter century — ever since it entered the United States’ market — and gives the company PC7000. Jacobsen began working at RMS in 1977 as an intern, premier machinery lines ranging from 400-ton mining trucks to accumulated experience in the field and the shop, and today manages shovel and drill rebuilds. He oversaw assembly of a PC7000 mini-excavators.

Furthermore, Komatsu’s intelligent Machine Control technolo- at a mining site on the range, a massive undertaking that involved gy continues to disrupt the heavy machinery market, a latest offer- piecing together 31 truckloads of component modules. A favorite from page 3

The first Minneapolis-metro location of Road Machinery & Supplies Co. opened in Bloomington, Minn., in 1957.

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“We try to represent the most preferred brands in an equipment category, to support existing customers with expert parts and service support ...”

Michael M. Sill II

photo of his shows him ice support, and then set seated on a single tooth of out to capture additional the excavator’s gigantic market share,” Sill said. bucket.

“We have a responsibility More recently, Jacobsen to our vendors and cusis managing the disassemtomers to represent their bly of another Komatsu interests with premier excavator, a PC4000 products and that has been model. It is being dismana significant component of tled at a U.S. Steel mine for our growth over the years. transport in pieces to Being accountable to our another mine some 30 mi. vendors and customers away where it will be requires investment on our reassembled. The project part, and that philosophy will require three months. brings focus to the brands Besides Komatsu, Road we represent.”

Machinery & Supplies Co. ** is a dealer of other notable Michael Sill II joined lines of equipment. These Michael R. Sill (L), Michael M. Sill (C) and Mitch Sill (R) pose with Michigan Loader the company in 1988 and aren’t niche products representatives in 1960. worked his way up through either, for the most part. sales and product support The lineup is replete with such premier machinery brands as roles before succeeding his father, Michael R. Sill, as president in KPI-JCI/Astec, Sandvik, Epiroc, GOMACO, BOMAG, LeeBoy, 1994. His father and uncle, Mitchell, had been the driving force Peterson, Roadtec, Grove and SENNEBOGEN. of the company after his grandfather stepped aside.

“We try to represent the most preferred brands in an equipment “Because of the economic challenges of the first generation, category, to support existing customers with expert parts and serv- my dad and uncle really are the ones credited with getting the

A Road Machinery & Supplies Co. employee retrieves a part from the Duluth, Minn., warehouse in the 1960s.

A Road Machinery & Supplies Co. service technician prepares to work on a haul truck in Duluth, Minn., in the 1970s.

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In 2018, the service team at the Savage, Minn., branch completed a rebuild of a Komatsu HD605 mechanical truck for Flint Hills Resources. It was the largest such project the team had completed to that point.

company off the ground and growing,” he said. “The brothers were both sales personalities, added product lines, expanded the company into adjacent states and moved the company headquarters to the Twin Cities suburb of Savage.”

In 1994, the second-generation twin brothers elected to split the company, largely for estate purposes. Michael R. Sill and Michael Sill II retained the heavy construction and mining divisions, along with the RMS name. Mitch Sill and his two sons retained the truck equipment and Aspen Equipment divisions and ran both under the Aspen Equipment name. The latter company today manufactures and sells truck-mounted cranes and equipment for several heavy industries from a headquarters in nearby Bloomington, Minn.

Michael Sill II has accelerated the expansion of RMS during his leadership tenure, both to provide his customers with a full gamut of services and products and

Virginia, Minn., employees gather for a group shot in the mid 1990s.

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The staff of Road Machinery & Supplies Co. poses for a picture in 1970 outside of the company’s location in Duluth, Minn.

to build a base for future growth.

“We are very focused on growth, but not in and for itself. Because of our reputation for strongly supporting our product lines, vendors have approached us about becoming a part of Road Machinery. We also have reached out to some companies and acquired their businesses,” he said.

As Road Machinery & Supplies Company’s reputation grew, Sill recognized the opportunity to reassess the company’s strategic growth plan. In 2016, he launched a more focused approach to growing RMS. Russell Sheaffer joined RMS that fall after more than 30 years working at diesel engine manufacturer Cummins. Shaeffer was a longtime acquaintance of Sill’s.

“Mike knew I had gone through a significant restructuring at Cummins and wanted my help in managing some of the growth at Road Machinery,” Sheaffer said. “We had a A Komatsu wheel loader leaves the Bloomington, Minn., branch for a customer’s job site in the continued on page 18

late 1980s.

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Congratulations on 95 years of success!

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Congr o rattulullatiion o s!s

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Helping Con ntra actors

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Road Machinery & Supplies Co. hosted an employee appreciation event at Extreme Sandbox in Hastings, Minn., in which attendees could operate Komatsu equipment.

from page 9

good conversation and the timing was right for both of us.”

Sheaffer came on board as president with Sill becoming CEO. “I was not looking for a change but what Mike wanted to do with RMS sounded exciting. It is fun to be a part of it and to have meaningful impact on it,” he said.

Sheaffer said that Sill expressed a desire to be “not so much in the weeds of running the company, but rather to spend more time on long-range strategic initiatives.”

Mission accomplished.

Said the CEO: “We’ve become a much more strategic company with Russell on board. There are a lot of good things going on.”

One of those things occurred November 2017 when RMS acquired Tritec of Minnesota, an established steel engineering, fabricating and welding company in Virginia, Minn., in the heart of the Iron Range. The mines generate a steady volume of welding and fabrication work, including relining truck bodies and rebuilding shovel and loader buckets.

“With Tritec, we saw an opportunity to complement our aggregate initiative,” said Sheaffer. “It brings a solution to quarries for steel chutes, bucket rebuilds and other products. Limestone and gravel operations were buying steel elsewhere and RMS has now captured some of that market.” ** As an equipment dealer, Road Machinery & Supplies Co. represents a full array of equipment offerings. Branch operations offer specialized solutions based on a region’s needs. For example, the Virginia office sells and supports the ultra-heavy mining equipment used across the Mesabi Iron Range, while the

Road Machinery & Supplies Co. and SENNEBOGEN technicians assembled an 8320EQ crane – the largest SENNEBOGEN crane in North America – in December 2020 for Gavilon Grain in St. Paul, Minn.

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Bondurant, Iowa, branch focuses on construction and aggregate equipment that supports the growing Des Moines area.

Jon Anderson is vice president of northern operations, overseeing the work of seven RMS offices and more than 100 employees. Anderson manages a broad range of products and services, including the construction, mining and forestry branches in Virginia, Duluth and Negaunee, Mich.; two RMS Tritec operations in Virginia and Bismarck, N.D.; a component rebuild operation in Virginia; and a used mining equipment business in Hibbing, Minn.

“These varied branch operations give us the ability to support a wide range of industries in the northland, from small fabrications to our large mining shovels, drills and trucks. We can support them through their entire life Road Machinery & Supplies Co. PSSR Dave Suther (R) discusses a project with cycle,” said Anderson.

RMS Sales Manager Luther Braun at a Des Moines job site featuring an Astec As for equipment sales, mining is the primary piece of GT440 track-mounted crushing plant. business — Komatsu heavy trucks and excavators; KPIJCI and Astec aggregate processing equipment; and Epiroc drilling machines. According to Anderson, a currently popular “We have a significant equipment Epiroc model is the PV351 blast-hole drill that can bore holes 10 presence in these mines. The to 16 in. in diameter and 65 ft. deep in a single pass.

RMS’s northern operations also are a resource for industries company has been one of the besides mining. vendors of choice since RMS first “RMS Tritec, for example, provides an ability to rebuild wheel loader buckets for the quarry industry; fabricate chutes and clasopened up its operations here.” sifying tanks; or simply provide shaped steel for customers. So, we support industrial power plants, pulp and paper industries, Jon Anderson lignite coal markets and the port of Duluth,” he said.

The vice president, who has been at RMS for six years but in the industry for 35, said “mining might be the most challenging industry there is to support. By its nature, it is a 24-7, 365-days-a- and construction the same. We go to great lengths to meet our year operation. The equipment in mines constantly needs atten- customer’s needs.” tion, every day at all hours. Mines never shut down.” ** It is up to companies like RMS to respond whenever a need Joe Schmidtlein is vice president for the company’s product arises. support division and southern operations. From his office in a new “We have a significant equipment presence in these mines,” RMS facility in Bondurant, Iowa, he keeps tabs on about a dozen said Anderson. “The company has been one of the vendors of offices and 100 service techs across the company — half of them choice since RMS first opened up its operations here.” in field service trucks — as well as other customer support perAnother important customer base of Road Machinery & Supplies sonnel.

Co. in northern Minnesota is the timber industry. The state has some Southern division customers are heavily weighted toward 17 million acres of forests. Large pulp, paper and lumber process- construction and quarry operations. KPI-JCI and Astec products ing corporations subcontract the field work to owner-operator are popular with aggregate customers. Komatsu’s excavators, logging companies. These small companies are RMS customers. dozers and wheel loaders strongly appeal to construction comAnderson said managing the northern operation of RMS is panies. Many Komatsu models now boast intelligent Machine only possible because “we have a great bunch of people who Control, which allows equipment to communicate with engiwork here. There are some specialists on the mining side, but we neered plans for enhanced productivity. approach it as a team. And we treat mining, forestry, aggregate One challenge for Schmidtlein is the breadth of equipment that

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RMS service personnel are expected to be able to maintain.

“We represent dozens of brands, while our competitors only represent a few,” he said. “Nevertheless, our customers expect the same level of expertise on each brand in our lineup.”

To enhance such expertise, Schmidtlein encourages service personnel to focus on their favorite pieces of equipment.

“I survey them and let them tell me what they were naturally most interested in. The success of our investment in training would be determined by us knowing their interests and tailoring their training accordingly. When it’s time to dispatch someone for a service call, we can send the person we consider a specialist in that area,” he said.

To signal RMS’s commitment to training, Schmidtlein designed into the RMS technicians were intricately involved in the assembly of the Komatsu 930E-4Se trucks at a Bondurant office a company-wide trainCleveland-Cliffs mine near the RMS Negaunee branch in 2011. ing center. Supervisors had concluded The RMS sales team proudly gathers around this Komatsu 930E-4SE truck.

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that techs sent to OEM training centers were being trained in techniques incompatible with RMS shop situations.

“Bringing the training here also lets customers attend,” he said. “We invite customers in for a day of training.”

Maintaining a pool of service techs is as challenging for RMS as for other dealers and contractors around the country.

To keep a stream of young people entering the field of equipment maintenance, the company has arrangements with several schools in its territory, including the Des Moines Area Community College, to turn out young people with associate degrees as machinery technicians. RMS also has a partnership with the Komatsu Diesel Technology program at the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton.

CEO Mike Sill II speaks to a group of RMS employees in the training center of the Des Moines Schmidtlein said the approach to facility. recruiting keeps evolving.

“We’re now targeting students in their freshman and sopho- for people interested in technical training, but for people of good character. more years and in more rural high schools.”

“I always try to push the principle that we can teach people The initiative is helped by Komatsu being a partner in the educational effort and by an RMS regional service manager sitting on the industry. It is more difficult to teach them work ethics or the board of the North Dakota college’s diesel training program. integrity,” he said.

Schmidtlein clearly is sold on the RMS culture and is working In the end, the executive said the company is looking not just

The 2019 class of Road Machinery & Supplies Co. service technicians graduated from North Dakota State College of Science’s Komatsu Diesel Technician program.

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RMS also has trained Gradall service technicians and factory-authorized Gradall parts to help you efficiently handle more work with fewer men and fewer machines.

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Road Machinery & Supplies Co.’s northern locations service Komatsu mining equipment like this 240-ton class 830E electric mining truck and 1.1-million-lb.

PC5500 mining shovel for the mining industry on Minnesota’s Iron Range.

from page 21

(L-R): Road Machinery & Supplies Co. employees Kevin Jalonen, Ken Jacobsen and Dale Decker pose after assembly of a 1.1-million-lb. Komatsu PC5500 mining shovel for U.S. Steel in May 2017.

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to preserve and replenish it with a new generation of skilled employees. He said he will feel he contributed to building something special when people recognize Road Machinery & Supplies Co. as the number one destination employer in the industry. ** Other pieces of the overall RMS organization besides the aforementioned are not incidental. They are integral, in fact, to the overall scope of providing products and services for the key industries of construction and mining.

Consider some of them: • RMS Mining Solutions offers second-hand and refurbished parts for heavy mining equipment. It sources used machines and dismantles them for their parts, rebuilds parts for exchange, and sells used parts that have been inspected and certified — all choices to match a budget to a solution.

Road Machinery & Supplies Co. employees gather after completing assembly of a Komatsu 830-E mining truck in 2017. The truck was the first Komatsu 240-ton truck sold to US Steel MinnTac in Iron Mountain, Minn.

• RMS Rentals offers equipment lines for general and specialty construction contractors, including such lines as JLG, Wacker Neuson, LeeBoy and Potain. Based from its own service facility in Savage, it provides the Minnesota market with well-maintained equipment that is available for short-term or long-term rental.

• U.S. Shoring & Equipment Co. is a Texas-based subsidiary that supplies underground boring and shoring equipment. The RMS division is the only independent North American dealer of Barbco boring machines and directional drills — a solution growing in popularity when pipe, fiberoptic lines and other buried utilities encounter urban infrastructure. Trench-shoring products also are offered through Atlanta Equipment, another RMS company operated from Euless.

The sheer variety of products and services under the RMS banner keeps Andy Schwandt, the RMS marketing and sales vice president, busy. The challenges he finds are met strategically.

“Goals are set by managers in each region and for different aspects of the company, and then we work on a plan and execute the plan,” said Schwandt.

Sounds simple enough. The marketing and analytical skills of Schwandt and his team help.

“Our focus is on identifying problems that a customer might have and seeing what we might provide to solve those problems,” he said.

He cited a new campaign about lowering engine emissions at work sites.

“Komatsu’s intelligent Machine Control comes into play. They are more efficient, so fewer machines are needed on a project.

That also means that fewer high-skilled machine operators are required. The technology holds many advantages for the end user,” he said.

Can Schwandt ever see the results of his marketing outreach?

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A Komatsu WA600-6 wheel loader is used to feed the crushing spread at Red Rock Quarry’s quartzite mine in Sanborn, Minn., in November 2019.

Yes. A recent video demonstrated how a Marooka rubber-tracked carrier created a new trail in a sensitive area without disturbing the surrounding soil.

“The video had an above-average click rate and we received an increase in calls from customers we hadn’t heard from in a while. We want to get to the point where we can closely track each marketing campaign,” he said. ** The earliest RMS memories of CEO Michael Sill II include conversations he used to have with his grandfather, company founder Michael M. Sill. The elder Sill would come by the office

after his 13-year-old grandson had mowed grass on the property.

“When I was done mowing, my mostly-retired grandfather would pick me up and we’d go down to the local ice cream parlor for a burger and dessert,” Sill recalled. “As we ate, he usually incorporated a simple business lesson. It often was something simple like, ‘Do you know the difference between a job and a job well done. It’s about fifteen minutes.’ He’d then discuss how advance planning or cleaning up loose ends on project completion can make a difference and be noticed. Many of those lessons have stayed with me forever.”

This family remembrance is pertinent because RMS is imbued with a “family” culture. It is not just a façade, Sill said.

“I think that’s who we are. It is reflected across the company. We want Road Machinery employees to feel like they are part of the family,” he said.

Sill said such a culture is not just a nice gesture of solidarity. Rather, it helps the company reach its potential as an organization.

“I think happy people are more apt to take better care of customers. People who are happy at home will be happy at work. It is not that we don’t have our challenges, but we are more prepared to help each other through the challenges.”

Leadership is united in promoting the family feel.

Company President Russell Sheaffer noted that “we take a lot of pride in preserving and maintaining this family atmosphere. I tell everyone my proverbial door A crew of Road Machinery & Supplies Co. technicians prepare a Komatsu always is open, my phone is always answered. As an WA1200 mining wheel loader for a move to Hibbing Taconite in November 2012. organization grows, the reality is you have to add layers

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Road Machinery & Supplies Co. added the Peterson equipment line in 2020. Boomerang Corp. uses its Peterson 5710D to crush wood debris at a Marion, Iowa, location in September 2020.

of management to effectively manage people and programs.” pressure for them to figure out if RMS is right for them at this Yet, he said, “family” will not be sacrificed to growth. stage of their lives,” he said.

The southern operations vice president, Joe Schmidtlein, said With Road Machinery & Supplies Company just a few years the RMS “family” characteristic is widely recognized. shy of being around for a full century, the CEO said he’s pleased “We took a survey of customers and asked what, in one word, with where the company is at 95. describes RMS. The response ‘family’ kept coming back, over “I have a real sense of satisfaction working with a quality team and over and over.” of people. It makes me feel good. Road Machinery is well respectKim Grippe, one of numerous long-term RMS employees, can ed today and we have a lot of good years ahead of us.” CEG attest to all the foregoing. She knows the family pretty well. During her long career with RMS, she has worked with both second and third-generation owners.

“When the original Mike [the CEO’s father] would come into the office, he’d ask, ‘how is your husband and how are the kids,’” she said. “He even remembered their names sometimes. I had both of my kids while working here and if I needed to keep a doctor’s appointment or whatever, I always was told to keep it. No one ever has said anything about taking too much time off or something.

Never. The company is so family-oriented that you always feel welcome.”

A fourth generation of the Sill family may continue this family story. The CEO’s 28-year-old daughter, Abby Sill, already works for RMS, but Mike Sill II isn’t pushing his children to build on the family legacy.

“I’d enjoy working with any or all of my kids, but with Metro Pavers breaks in its new GOMACO GP3 slipform paver at a job site in the strength of our current leadership team, there is no Williamsburg, Iowa, in May 2021.

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Operators use pair of Epiroc drills including a T45 (L) and T40 drill rigs to complete a project in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

RMS Tritec specializes in steel fabrication and machining projects with a focus on the mining industry. It was formed in 2017 when Road Machinery & Supplies Co. purchased Virginia, Minn.-based Tritec.

A Rognes Corp. operator uses a Komatsu intelligent Machine Control PC360LCi excavator with integrated GPS technology to dig a trench for a sewer line on a project in Ankeny, Iowa, in 2018.

At Weber Stone Company’s Stone City, Iowa, quarry, an operator uses a Komatsu D65PXi intelligent Machine Control dozer to remove overburden and create an access road in February 2020.

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Located in Euless, Texas, U.S. Shoring & Equipment Co. is the nation’s largest Barbco boring machine and directional drill distributor. It also carries a complete line of shoring and trench box equipment.

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