One of the best-known brands in highway and heavy construction, C.C. Myers Inc., which carved out a reputation for winning incentive payments by completing difficult projects ahead of schedule, has withdrawn from a major project and will soon “evaluate its options,” said the company’s president.

C.C. Myers Inc. is selling excess real estate, equipment and other assets “that are no longer required” while completing other projects, said the president, Steve Francis, in an email reply to questions.

He also said, “Timing will be worked out over the coming months as projects are completed, after which we will evaluate options for the company’s future.”

On Jan. 11, the Sacramento Bee reported that the contractor had been forced to drop out of the state's $133-million improvement project on route I-80 in Sacramento “due to financial difficulties.” The newspaper cited company officials as the source.

Asked to confirm the reported financial difficulties, Francis said in the email that the Rancho Cordova-based company faced “challenging market conditions” and that “funding for transportation has been inconsistent for some time. Increased competition for fewer dollars, along with our market size, and the nature of our civil work have created challenges.”

It is also possible that the company’s finances were stretched by a problem on the I-80 project.

In 2014, Caltrans forced C. C. Myers Inc. and its joint venture partner, to rebuild at least a quarter mile, and possibly more, of central median shoulder on the 10-mile project. The median shoulders had cracked soon after they were built, according to a Caltrans spokesman. He did not know the exact amount of rework but said he believed the final cost was still being negotiated.

The spokesman also said that Concord-based Bay Cities Paving and Grading, C.C. Myers Inc.’s partner on the project, had assumed 100% of the contract and that the project was 75% complete. Officials of Bay Cities Paving and Grading could not be reached for comment.

Francis said the re-built sections are the subject of a claim and that he would not comment on it.

Founder No Longer Involved

The California contractor is no longer associated with its namesake founder, Clinton C. Myers, since he filed for personal bankruptcy protection in 2008.

According to the company’s website, C.C. Myers became an employee owned company in 2006.

In 2008, C.C. Myers, the company’s founder, Clinton C. Myers, filed for protection from creditors in personal bankruptcy and lost his interest in the firm.

Since then, he has started another contracting company, Myers & Son, which has no connection to C.C. Myers Inc.