- Washington Group International
-
Washington Group International was an American corporation which provided integrated engineering, construction and management services to businesses and governments around the world. Based in Boise, Idaho, it had approximately 25,000 employees working in over 40 states and more than 30 countries. Its primary areas of expertise were: infrastructure, mining, industrial/process, energy & environment, and power. It was acquired by URS Corporation of San Francisco in November 2007 for $3.1 billion, and currently operates as the "Energy and Construction Division" of URS.[1]
Contents
Origins
At the age of 30, Dennis R. Washington founded Washington Construction Company in Missoula, Montana in 1964. He guided the company to the top of the civil construction market in Montana, and expanded into mining, industrial construction, and environmental cleanup work. As his company grew into a major regional firm, Washington's vision for the future continued to expand also - leading to a series of acquisitions that produced an international company.
In 1993 it expanded its heavy civil construction-operation, when it merged with Kasler Corporation, a California-based firm with large-scale operations in heavy-civil construction.
Morrison-Knudsen Co.
In 1996, the Washington Group acquired Morrison-Knudsen Co. of Boise, the major construction company. M-K was one of the consortium of firms that built Hoover Dam and the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and many other large projects of American infrastructure. M-K was also involved in the construction of rail projects such as the BART extension (M-K also built 80 C2 cars for BART) and the single track Apoera-Bakhuys railway in Suriname (1976–1977). It built the California Cars as well as other rail passenger cars and light rail. It also built locomotives, originally under its own name and later under subsidiary MK Rail from 1994–1996, such as the MK5000C and the F40PHM-2C. M-K also rebuilt locomotives, including the four Delaware & Hudson ALCO PAs. Its Australian operations (based in Whyalla, South Australia) rebuilt a number of locomotives for both private and public operators.
M-K's origins date to 1905, when Harry Morrison met Morris Knudsen while working on the construction of the New York Canal (irrigation) in southwestern Idaho. Morrison was a 27 year-old concrete superintendent for the Reclamation Service; Knudsen was a fifty-something Nebraska farmer (and Danish immigrant) with a team of horses and a fresno scraper.
Their first venture together was in 1912, on a pump plant in nearby Grand View, where they lost money but gained experience. For several years the firm built irrigation canals, logging roads, and railways. They incorporated in 1923, the year gross revenues topped $1 million.
During World War II, M-K built airfields, storage depots, and ships, and it later expanded into foreign construction. It built the locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway, the DEW system, Minuteman missile silos, NASA's Kennedy Space Center, and over 100 major dams. Knudsen died in 1943, Morrison in 1971.
M-K was led into some risky non-core areas by Boise native William Agee, who became CEO in 1988, and was ousted by the board of directors in February 1995. The company had been in financial difficulty for several years and declared bankruptcy that same year. It was purchased by Washington Group in 1996 for $380 million.
Additional growth
Growth by acquisition brought the Washington Group into the top tier (by size) of American construction firms. However, Washington Group also declared bankruptcy - virtually eliminating all shareholder value. In 1999 it acquired the government-services operations of Westinghouse Electric Company, becoming a science and technology services leader, and in 2000 the company expanded its market leadership by acquiring Raytheon Engineers & Constructors, which owned Birmingham, Alabama based engineering giant Rust International, to produce one of the largest companies in the industry.
However, Washington Group entered bankruptcy in 2001, but later successfully exited it.
Acquisition by URS
On May 28, 2007, URS Corporation, based in San Francisco, announced it had reached an initial agreement with WGI management to purchase the entire company for $2.6 billion (about $80 per share). According to the plan, WGI would operate as a division of URS, with the headquarters remaining in Boise. On November 15, the deal was finalized for a purchase price of $3.1 billion ($95.116 per share).
URS competitors include Bechtel, Fluor Corp., CB&I, Kiewit, and Jacobs Engineering Group.
See also
- Top 100 US Federal Contractors
References
- "Idaho for the Curious", by Cort Conley, ©1982, ISBN 0-9603566-3-0, p. 403-404
- The Wreck of Morrison Knudsen - Time, April 3, 1995
- Idaho company recovers - Seattle Times, (AP), July 28, 2004
Morrison-Knudsen ballast hopper with CIC markings on the CRANDIC at Cedar Rapids, Iowa
External links
- Washington Division of URS - official site
- Acquisition information website from URS and WGI - 15-Nov-2007
- Forbes.com - URS & Washington Group - Nuclear Fusion - 29-May-2007
- The Seattle Times - 29-May-2007
Categories:- Defunct companies based in Idaho
- Companies established in 1964
- Defunct engineering companies of the United States
- Companies disestablished in 2007
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
