A SALUTE TO AN CUSTOMER

LANGMAN CONSTRUCTION, INC.

  Quad Cities underground utility and earthmoving contractor thrives on tough jobs
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Charles H. Langman, PresidentThe tougher and more complicated a job is, the better Charles H. Langman of Langman Construction, Inc., likes it.

"We make our money on the tougher jobs that other people don't want to do," noted Langman, who founded his Rock Island (Illinois) contracting company in October, 1974. "Like the more difficult sewer and water jobs that involve deep cuts in wet conditions or that are complicated with rock removal."

Chuck Langman is the third generation of his family to work in the construction industry. "My father, Richard Langman, took a construction business over from his father, and he had his office in his home," said Langman. "I grew up watching my dad run a business and going out with him on jobs. I was trained from the time I was six or seven years old to run a construction company, which is all I ever wanted to do."

Liked heavy, highway work

After graduating from the University of Illinois with bachelor's (1970) and master's (1971) degrees in civil engineering,

D155 and D65 Dozers
Operators of Komatsu D155 and D65 dozers work in tandem at an ongoing mine reclamation project near Knoxville, Iowa.

Langman worked for his father for four years. Richard Langman was in the building end of the construction industry, but his son was interested in highway work. "At first he wasn't in favor of it, but eventually he began thinking it was a good deal that I split off," said Langman. "He was a big help getting started."

Working alone, Langman started off "doing a little rehab work for the city of Rock Island and its Model Cities program, remodeling homes, doing sidewalks and driveways," he remembered. "I did a lot of concrete patching, some roofing and even some interior remodeling for the Model Cities program. They were things that did not require a lot of capital investment in equipment. And I picked up some backhoe-loaders."

Langman Construction's first "big" project was a $400,000 street job for the city of Moline in 1976. "The city had put out an initial contract to do some culvert work to tie the smaller streets into 41st Street," explained Langman. "We got the culverts for $150,000 and we built them. We were right out there when 41st Street came up for bid, so we did some checking and said, 'Why not?'"

Langman bid the job and won the contract to build 41st Street from the ground up. "The first thing we had to do was strip the ground because it was nothing but a cornfield," he stated. "We did that, hauled in a lot of fill to prepare our sub-base, and then ran the sewer and water and poured the street."

Underground utilities a specialty

Today Langman Construction, Inc., specializes in underground utility work. The company employs from as few as 75 people during the winter to a peakseason high of 175. Most of its work is public, though "we're probably doing a little bit more private work than we used to," said Langman. "We're a little more comfortable with some of the major generals. I would say it's probably a 75-percent governmental, 25- percent large private mix."

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