Page 30 • September 22, 2021 • www.constructionequipmentguide.com • CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT GUIDE
Blythe Construction Celebrates Century of Service in N.C. BLYTHE from page 1
Today, Blythe Construction is a full-service construction company capable of handling projects of virtually unlimited size and scope. It annually produces some $400 million in revenue, evenly split between heavy highway construction and asphalt paving. While it hasn’t a single mule in its stable of equipment, more than 400 state-of-the-art machines are cranked up each week to work job sites across North Carolina. What’s more, Blythe also is involved in projects in South Carolina and, as part of Eurovia USA, the full length of the East Coast and in Texas. It is working on 25-30 construction projects at any given time, most of them in North Carolina, with fully 65 percent of the company’s annual revenue generated in the Charlotte metro area. While the scale of Blythe Construction operations since 1921 has grown exponentially, the expansion doesn’t seem to have unmoored the company from its core principles. Blythe’s senior vice president of construction, Brian Webb, said he believes the company operates with the same business ethos as in the beginning. “Blythe long has been recognized as a leader in state highway work in North Carolina, as a company that delivers projects on time,” he said. “We still do that today. Over the years, we have managed to retain the respect of stakeholders as a dependable partner.” Webb, who has been at Blythe for 23 years, was asked if one project or another stands out in memory for the size of the contract or the difficulty in completing it. He said none does. “Each project reflects the character of the work that we do. Whether it is a $500,000 parking lot for CVS Pharmacy or a multi-lane highway project, it is a proud moment for us when we finish it. No matter the size of a project, we work to complete it on time, within budget, and safely.” ** In the decades following its founding, Blythe Brothers grew its highway construction and paving business. World War II impacted its business model, with the company contracting to build part of the brand new U.S. Marine Corps training base in Jacksonville, N.C., called Camp Lejeune. Other tangents included establishment in the following decade of asphalt paving subsidiaries in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, enterprises that eventually folded. In the mid-1980s, Blythe Brothers entered a period of
Probably the earliest shot of Blythe Brothers Construction. Mule-drawn road grading. It’s possible this is from Lawyers Road (Blythe’s first-ever roadway project).
Asphalt plant located in Kings Mountain, one of 12 plants owned and operated by Blythe in the Carolinas. After shutting down last fall for winter maintenance, the facility was upgraded and enhanced with the addition of three 30,000-gallon liquid asphalt silos, a new Astec control tower, and a fresh coat of paint. As of April, the plant is up and running at a max capacity of 400 tons per hour.
ownership changes. First, the company was renamed Blythe Construction when it was acquired by Alfred McAlpine, a British construction group. That association lasted for more than a decade. In 1998, Blythe Construction was sold and became part of Hubbard Construction, a heavy general contractor that still works the length and breadth of Florida. Two years later, Hubbard Group, including Blythe, was acquired by Eurovia, which is a division of VINCI Construction,
One of Blythe’s early asphalt paving teams.
headquartered in France. So, today, Blythe Construction is a subsidiary of a transportation construction and commercial development organization that operates in 16 countries. Multi-level corporate structure notwithstanding, Blythe and the other Eurovia subsidiaries operate quite autonomously, while at the same time having the resources of Eurovia to draw upon. see BLYTHE page 40
Blythe once performed the majority of equipment repairs and maintenance in-house, but has since changed the approach to rely more on manufacturers for major repairs.
