Arthur Allen, owner of A.W.A. Contracting in northeast Florida, enjoys being behind the wheel, be it on a piece of construction equipment or drag racing in his leisure time. He’s a specialty contractor who for 30 years has established a reputation for diversification in construction and maintenance services by successfully executing projects including box culverts, stormwater drain systems, ADA compliance jobs, transportation department projects, and municipal work. A current job has his crews working on a 16-inch water main for a local county—a million-dollar job that will take two months to build. The experienced and established company operates with a staff of 23 employees—including one of Allen’s brothers—utilizing a fleet that features mostly Doosan and some Caterpillar equipment.
“Lately, I’ve been impressed with Doosan equipment and that’s what we’ve been buying new,” notes Allen. Recent additions to the company’s fleet include two new Doosan 220 articulating wheel loaders, one new Doosan 140 excavator, and a Doosan 350 excavator for setting large structures and moving mass quantities of dirt for jobs requiring the installation of box culverts. Allen prefers owning equipment over renting or leasing. In Florida, A.W.A. Contracting crews deal with a variety of groundwater conditions. “Florida is considered a swamp,” points out Allen, adding that soil conditions can vary, requiring different equipment and approaches that aren’t always standard. “Out towards the beach, we deal with cocina shell and coral and then as you move inland to the center of Florida, you deal with hardpan dirt,” he says. In other parts of the state, he encounters a mix of sand and clay soils.
What He Does Day to Day
Allen is a hands-on manager who prefers to hop on a piece of equipment and work in the field alongside his employees as they tend to the daily tasks required on their projects, which can take from a week to a few months to reach completion. Allen also spends his time doing project management and working on bids for other work.
What Led Him to This Line of Work
Allen grew up with a father who helped to build Florida infrastructure. Allen’s father was an engineer in Florida who devoted most of his career to designing bridges. When Allen’s father eventually started his own business in engineering consulting, Allen worked for his father as the lead inspector. He could not envision doing anything else outside of construction. “I liked hot rods and mechanics,” says Allen, adding that he did not like school and “didn’t get along with books.” While his brothers pursued college and trade school, Allen asked his parents if they wouldn’t mind giving him the money they had set aside to send him to school so he could use it to start his own business. “From there, it was a lot of hard work,” says Allen, who broke ground on his company in 1987. “It still is hard work. My father taught me to pay off my equipment fast and keep it maintained.”
What He Likes Best About His Work
“Working outside and interacting with people on a day to day basis” gives Allen the greatest sense of satisfaction about his work, he notes.
His Biggest Challenge
Allen’s challenge echoes that of other company owners in the industry: finding qualified employees who are drug-free and not afraid to get their hands dirty. Video games and cell phones are a distraction for the younger generation uninterested in operating equipment, he says. “I wore a vehicle out by the time I was 16,” he adds. While running his own business can often present more challenges than “good times,” Allen says it’s worth sticking with it. “You have to keep your head above water and keep your bills paid,” he says. “That’s what people like to see.”
