ForConstructionPros.com

For over 40 years, Egge Sand and Gravel built a solid reputation as a supplier of aggregates and construction services for customers in Eugene and the surrounding Lane County area. As a leading sitework contractor, Egge, now a division of Oldcastle Materials, specializes in building sites, utilities, grading, paving and concrete work. With over 40 percent of its business represented by the production and supply of construction aggregates, including base rock material, concrete rock and sand, and asphalt rock; and the company's construction division rapidly growing, Egge management felt the time was right to further solidify its position in the market by entering the asphalt production arena.

"We always subcontracted the paving work on our projects, and we had to purchase asphalt from other producers," notes Gary Warren, Egge president. "Since we have access to the aggregates required to produce asphalt, we felt it was time to invest in our own production facility."

Well, there's a little more to the story. Warren was hired by former Egge founder and owner, Vern Egge, two and a half years ago to evaluate products and services that would propel the company to its next level of growth. With approximately 99 percent of the business tied to commercial development, Warren set his sights on adding products and services that would allow the company to pursue government agency work.

"There's a lot of potential for pursuing public works' projects and a lot of those types of projects require asphalt production and paving capabilities," Warren says.

"So it just made sense for us to expand in that area," he continues. "We were already supplying aggregate material for those projects and we already had a construction division in place to handle the type of site preparation and construction required to execute those projects, so it just made sense to also supply the asphalt required to complete those projects."