ENR Texas & Louisiana has selected civil site work and turnkey railroad contractor W.T. Byler Co. Inc. as the region’s 2020 Specialty Contractor of the Year.

The Houston-based, family-owned and operated firm saw its 2019 regional revenue soar 70% above 2018 totals to reach $420.29 million. The growth was entirely organic, primarily a result of civil site work from private industrial petrochemical and railroad projects. W.T. Byler is also celebrating 47 years in business this year.

At one point last year, utilizing hundreds of units of heavy equipment, W.T. Byler was completing civil site work for four concurrent megaprojects across Texas in Beaumont, Baytown, Webster and Portland. The firm continues to build intermodal facilities and also built the site for a new Coca-Cola plant, Dollar Tree and Medline Distribution. Projects currently underway include nine jobs for Union Pacific Railroad.

W.T. Byler employs up to 1,000 personnel and owns a large late-model fleet of equipment, including 85 Volvo 25-ton Artic-Haulers. The firm also recently celebrated 500 days of accident-free work, after clocking 2.8 million safe work hours. Overall, W.T. Byler’s crews have worked a total of 8.48 million work hours with zero lost-time accidents since August 2015.

Beyond the jobsite, the firm supports Faith Academy-Bellville and Sam Houston State University with donations and site-work services, and supports various Texas youth organizations, including the Youth Rodeo Association, Miracle Farms Brenham-Forging Young Men of Integrity and Character, Young Life Belville, and SWARS George J. Elking Jr. Scholarship Fund.

W.T. Byler is an ABC Accredited Quality Contractor, member of the Associated General Contractors and three-time Construction Users Round Table (CURT) CISE recipient, among many other industry honors.

For more on W.T. Byler and the firm’s achievements, be sure to check out the Dec. 14 issue of ENR Texas & Louisiana.