ForConstructionPros.com

Since their inception in 1975, John C. Hipp Construction Equipment Co. has seen development in Alachua County, FL — and all of north central Florida for that matter — proceed at a breakneck pace.

In that time, the company has grown from a general contractor doing driveways, parking lots and subdivisions into a turnkey heavy highway firm regularly tackling large-scale private, municipal and state projects. While that growth has proven challenging overall, it has really impacted the company's asphalt production capability.

Faced with aging equipment incapable of meeting the ever-growing demand for asphalt, company president Virginia Johns recently made the most sizeable capital equipment investment in the company's history. The resultant purchase — a Milemaker 325 asphalt plant from Asphalt Drum Mixers Inc. has, in turn, made a positive impact upon both the company's capabilities and its long-term outlook.

Meeting the demand

The daughter of company founder John C. Hipp, Virginia Johns has seen the changes coming to North Central Florida for some time. The growth which has consumed the southern part of the state has been slowly working its way up I-75, driving property values up and making ever-larger demands on Hipp Construction's business.

"Until last year we were able to make do with what we had — but just barely," Johns says. "The demand for asphalt was steadily increasing, and meeting that demand was getting more and more difficult. Our plant was really showing signs of age and stress and though we briefly considered adding on to increase capacities, deep down we knew the route to take. We felt a new plant would give us the added capacity we needed, but also would provide additional benefits as well, including cleaner emissions, better consistency and lower maintenance, among others. We also saw that upping our capacities would enhance our ability to bid bigger projects; so we made the move."