As the Interstate Highway System marks its 50th anniversary June 29, the Vecellio Group approaches a milestone of its own with close to $1 billion in Interstate contracts performed over the years.
Since the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, the groups three heavy/highway construction units — Vecellio & Grogan (V&G), Ranger Construction Industries and Ranger Construction South — have built, widened or resurfaced approximately 1,000 lane-miles of Interstate highway in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland and Florida.
The work has encompassed all phases of excavation, grading, drainage, bridge construction and paving, with contract values to date totaling approximately $877 million and counting.
With the size of todays projects and number of expansions in our market areas, we could reach $1 billion in Interstate work by the end of the decade, said Leo A. Vecellio, Jr., third-generation contractor and CEO of the family-owned business, founded as Vecellio & Grogan in 1938.
The group also has received hundreds of millions in other federally aided contracts for construction on Appalachian highways and other major routes that often link to, but arent technically part of, the official Interstate system.
V&G’s first Interstate contract was in 1959 for a section of I-77 in its home state of West Virginia. This was followed by I-95 and I-81 projects in Virginia, along with numerous I-64 and I-77 jobs in West Virginia during the 1960s.
The companys first $10 million-plus Interstate contract came in 1970 for a section of I-79 in West Virginia. This was surpassed a few years later by a $22.5 million contract — V&Gs largest of the decade — for a nearby I-64 project. The company built many other I-79, I-64 and I-77 sections in West Virginia and Virginia in the 1970s, including two prosecuted together that required more than 12 million cubic yards of earthwork.
In the 1980s, the companys Interstate construction activities expanded significantly. In addition to I-77 and I-64 projects in West Virginia, V&G built numerous sections of I-40 in North Carolina, constructed a $44.5 million segment of I-68 in Maryland — its largest contract of the 1980s or 1990s — and built sections of I-75 and I-95 in Florida. The I-95 contract included 13 bridges and was the final leg of the entire Maine-to-Miami route.
Vecellio Group operations by this time included Ranger Construction Industries, which performed numerous Interstate widening and resurfacing projects on I-95 and I-4 in Florida during the 1980s and 1990s. Vecellio & Grogan continued its Interstate work with a $22 million contract on I-81/I-26 in Tennessee.
Through 2006, V&Gs Interstate contracts have included its largest project to date, building a $67 million section of I-540 in North Carolina, while Ranger Construction and Ranger Construction South have kept busy in Florida widening and resurfacing sections of I-4, I-75, I-95 and I-595 under contracts worth up to $33 million.
As America’s transportation needs continue to grow, the construction industry is continually adapting to meet those needs, said Mr. Vecellio. We look forward to many more years of providing services and materials for our public- and private-sector customers.”
Vecellio Group is one of the nations top 200 contractors (top 30 in heavy/highway construction) as ranked by Engineering News-Record. In addition to building transportation projects for federal, state and local governments, the groups services include commercial site development; asphalt and paving contracting; limestone aggregate mining; and petroleum products offloading and storage.