This year, for the first time, ENR Southeast gave respondents to our annual Top Contractors survey the opportunity to raise their hands for possible consideration as Contractor of the Year. In all, of the roughly 120 contracting companies that participated in this year’s survey, roughly 20 firms took the opportunity to make their case.

In addition to the information provided, we reviewed the revenue numbers reported by all of the Southeast contractor respondents, and researched potential Contractor of the Year nominees further. Ultimately, we narrowed the candidates down to two deserving nominees.

From there, with nominations in hand, ENR editors from across the country voted. And the results are in: Superior Construction Co. Southeast is ENR Southeast’s 2018 Contractor of the Year.

The Jacksonville, Fla.-based transportation and civil contractor reported a strong, 48% annual gain in revenue during 2017, the year covered by this year’s Top Contractors survey.

But the selection of Superior Construction as the Contractor of the Year is notable in other ways. With $238.2 million in Southeast revenue reported for our survey, Superior’s total is the lowest for a Southeast Contractor of the Year honoree.

That’s one of the byproducts of the expanded outreach that ENR Southeast—and all of ENR’s Regional Editions—has implemented for our Firm of the Year selection efforts. And, more relevantly, it’s a result of the “story” that Superior Construction was able to tell about itself.

The contractor that implemented emergency repairs to Jacksonville’s Mathews Bridge, an effort that won a Best Projects award in 2014. In 2017, Superior Construction made some big moves, opening three new Southeast offices in Tampa, Charleston, SC, and Nashville. In Tampa, the contractor saw an opportunity for expansion when another transportation contractor closed its offices there. At about the same time, Superior landed the largest contract in the firm’s nearly 80-year history, the $234-million Wekiva River Bridge—actually a trio of cast-in-place segmental box bridge structures being built over the environmentally sensitive area. (That project was featured on the cover of ENR in August 2016.)

ENR Southeast will provide more insights about Superior Construction and its latest expansion efforts in our upcoming June 25th print edition. Congratulations to this year’s Contractor of the Year!