Business has also been good for TDIndustries, a mechanical and plumbing contractor based in Dallas. The firm moved up to third place in this year's ranking, helped by a nearly $75-million jump in regional revenue to $355.72 million.

"Last year was a record for us in terms of revenue, and this year we're on target to potentially beat last year," says Mike Kotubey, TD president. "All of our offices have been experiencing growth, it's not just one or two locations."

Megaprojects

Kotubey attributes the growth to several factors, including the increase in regional megaprojects.

"The industry has gone through a trend over the last five to seven years where the megaprojects have become a larger share of the marketplace," he says. "Because of that, and through our financial strength, we've been able to play very effectively in that market and go after the very large projects in addition to staying close to home and doing the small work."

Kotubey says that megaprojects made up close to three-quarters of the work TD has done in Dallas, with the rest being more mainstream projects valued at under $15 million.

That's consistent with the steady rise this past year in contract values noted by all the specialty contractors with whom ENR spoke.

While the markets continue to be robust and there are plenty of opportunities available, competition is variable, Kotubey says.

"If you stay within the confines of a large city or metro area like Dallas-Fort Worth, we still see pretty heavy competition," he says. "If you start moving to the outlying areas, you see less competition. So there's still a lot of market pressure, even though the markets are improving."

On smaller projects, competition has been a lot stiffer than in the more complex markets such as health care, energy and industrial, Kotubey says, "mostly because some contractors are still trying to dig out of the hole of the last four to five years, so any kind of profit looks better than what they've been booking." He adds that "we still see a lot of pressure from a lot of small contractors that have had quite a few lean years over the last three to four years."

In the complex markets, there has been "more teaming, more projects going lean in a formal way and more acceptance of IPD [integrated project delivery] as a preferred delivery method," Kotubey says. That means less competition as owners are looking for value-added contractors that have engineering expertise as well as the ability and financial resources to handle large, complex projects.

TD is currently working on the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, a ground-up, greenfield facility of more than 1 million sq ft that may become the largest contract the firm has ever done. Its work on the project will near $100 million when work is complete, Kotubey says.