Austin Industries, one of the largest general contractors in the United States (ranked 33rd on Engineering News-Record’s list of Top 400 Contractors), is celebrating 100 years of successful business operations this year. Austin Industries is the parent company of three operating companies - Austin Bridge & Road, Austin Commercial and Austin Industrial, which are all leaders in their own industries - civil, commercial and industrial construction and maintenance.
The Austin name first became synonymous with Texas bridge building when George Austin came to Dallas in 1889. He was serving as an agent for the George E. King Bridge Co. of Des Moines, Iowa. George’s younger brother, Frank, joined him in 1894. Frank hired a young man named Charles R. Moore in November 1900.
March 1, 1918, is the official founding of Austin Bridge Company under the leadership of Charles R. Moore, grandfather of the company’s retired chairman, William T. Solomon. On that day the charter for Austin Brothers Bridge Company was filed with the Texas secretary of state. Frank Austin agreed to let Moore buy out the contracting portion of the business and become president of what would soon be shortened to Austin Bridge Company. Frank retained the fabricating side of the company and formed Austin Steel.
Since then, Austin has grown, diversified and become employee owned.
During WWII, Austin contributed to the United States’ war efforts by building airfields and manufacturing magnesium bomb casings. These efforts were recognized by the U.S. government with the Army-Navy “E” award.
After the war, the company began focusing on building the country’s infrastructure through a newly developing interstate highway system. Additionally, the plant that had made bomb casings switched over to manufacturing farm implements to bolster American efforts to feed a growing nation.
Over time, Austin Industries would enter new and lucrative markets. Austin Bridge remained the civil construction company for roads and bridges and merged with Austin Paving in the early 1980s to become what it is today, Austin Bridge & Road. Austin Commercial was formed in 1975 to provide commercial construction. Today, it is one of the nation’s leaders in building airports, hospitals, corporate headquarters, university campus buildings and sports complexes, and semiconductor facilities. Austin Industrial was formed in 1983 to provide maintenance and construction services for the petrochemical, power and manufacturing industries. This company’s roots go back several decades to Austin’s experience building power plants, industrial facilities, and marine structures.
In 1986, Austin Industries became employee owned when the Austin Industries Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) was established. It became 100 percent employee owned in 2000. According to The National Center for Employee Ownership, Austin is the 13th largest employee-owned company in the U.S.
Today, Austin has a workforce that numbers more than 6,000 and has projects underway from coast to coast. The company’s core values of safety, service, integrity, and employee ownership permeate the culture of a company built on a century of success.
