A huge increase in state funding for road and bridge projects has highway contractors scrambling to find the workers needed to keep up.
The Georgia Highway Contractors Association recently launched a campaign to raise awareness about road construction jobs and help companies fill their openings.
Lawmakers approved a package of tax and fee increases in 2015 aimed at raising an extra $1 billion a year for construction projects. Lawmakers have also approved borrowing $100 million for road and bridge projects the past few sessions.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Tuesday that Department of Transportation obligations - mostly to contractors - increased $700 million in fiscal 2016, which ended June 30.
State officials announced Tuesday that Marietta-based C.W. Matthews, the state's largest contractor, was chosen to repair I-85 after part of it collapsed in Atlanta last week, but major projects are going on around Georgia.
“Across the state, our members have job openings that need to be filled,” said David Moellering, exectuive director of the Georgia Highway Contractors Association.
The association has put up a website GeorgiaRoadsJobs.com to provide information - in English and Spanish - about jobs in the industry and job openings.
Below is a list of the top 10 state road contractors in 2016 in terms of what they were paid and what the state is obligated to pay them:
Payments
C.W. Matthews, Marietta, $296.4 million
E.R. Snell, Snellville, $95.5 million
Reeves Construction, Macon, $42.8 million
Scott Bridge Co., Opelika, Ala., $37.3 million
Pittman Construction Co., Conyers, $34.7 million
Reames and Son Construction, Tifton, $30.8 million
McCarthy Improvement Co., Davenport, Iowa, $29.2 million
Oxford Construction Co., Albany, $28.6 million
GP’s Enterprises Inc., Auburn, $27.6 million
Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Atlanta, $26.2 million
Obligated contracts in 2016
C.W. Matthews, Marietta, $356.4 million
Reeves Construction, Macon, $158.9 million
The Scruggs Co., Hahira, $143.3 million
East Coast Asphalt, Douglas, $95.9 million
E.R. Snell, Snellville, $94.9 million
Lovin Contracting Co., Robbinsville, NC, $80.5 million
Pittman Construction Co., Conyers, $78.0 million
Reames & Sons Construction, Tifton, $54.1 million
Wright Brothers Construction, Charleston, Tenn., $52.3 million
Littlefield Construction Company, Waycross, $38.1 million
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