ABC Honors Contractor of the Year

Performance Contractors Inc., headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was named ABC's 2023 Contractor of the Year. This award recognizes member companies for corporate integrity and commitment to safety, professional development and expert workforce development.

Performance Contractors continues to be a nationwide leader in large-scale, full-service industrial construction,” said 2023 National Chair of the ABC Board of Directors Milton Graugnard, executive vice president, Cajun Industries LLC, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “This company and its employees are committed to ABC’s mission of advancing the merit shop by delivering high-quality projects safely and efficiently to contribute to the strength of our communities. It is an honor to present Performance Contractors with this well-deserved award.”

Performance Contractors is an ABC Top Performer and an ABC Accredited Quality Contractor. Performance has earned the highest level—Platinum—in ABC’s STEP Safety Management System as well as numerous ABC Excellence in Construction^® Awards at the national and chapter levels.

Established in 1979 as a merit shop general industrial contractor, Performance has grown to a $1.5-billion company with more than 8,000 employees offering construction, maintenance and turnaround services for clients across the United States. In addition to its Baton Rouge headquarters, Performance maintains regional offices in Lake Charles, Louisiana; Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas; and Mobile, Alabama; along with satellite offices in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Evansville, Indiana.

Travelers is the presenting sponsor of the 2023 Contractor of the Year Award.

Top Construction Projects

At the Excellence in Construction^® Awards ABC honored 82 construction projects worth a total of $2.14 billion. Winners of the EIC Innovation, Design-Build and Productivity awards were also announced. The EIC awards are the construction industry’s leading national competition that honors general and specialty contractors for world-class, safe and innovative construction projects from across the country.

“The Excellence in Construction Awards are the cornerstone competition in our industry, honoring the project teams that exemplify the best of the best in merit shop construction,” said 2023 National Chair Milton Graugnard. “The 2022 standout projects include the National WWI Memorial in Washington, D.C., the Mount Olympus Indoor Water Park in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, and the Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s Cancer Institute in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Every one of these projects is exemplary and shows the diversity of what the merit shop construction industry builds and how we build projects safely, on time and on budget.”

The EIC awards honor every member of the construction team, including the contractor, owner, architect and engineer. The winning projects are judged on complexity, attractiveness, unique challenges overcome, completion time, innovation and safety.

A panel of industry experts served as the competition’s judges. This year’s judges included representatives from At Home, the Design-Build Institute of America, Engineering News-Record, Marriott, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Building Sciences, T-Mobile, the University Research Institute and various construction-related firms nationwide.

A full list of EIC winners is available on ABC’s website.

Top Safety Leaders

ABC named 49 winning contractors of the 2022 National Safety Excellence Awards for their remarkable achievements in leadership, safety and innovation.

“World-class safety and total human health are essential pillars of the culture of ABC member companies—and those priorities are exemplified by these 49 contractors,” said Milton Graugnard. “Simply put: These contractors prioritize taking care of their employees, their greatest asset. Among the NSEA winners are several ABC Top Performers, leading contractor members ranked by work hours, demonstrating the positive impact of implementing strong safety programs.”

The 2022 National Safety Excellence Award winners were selected from ABC member firms that achieved Diamond, Platinum or Gold status in ABC’s STEP Safety Management System in 2022, reflective of their 2021 safety performance data. During the selection process, contractors were judged on self-evaluation scores, lost workday case rates, total recordable incident rates, leading indicator use, process and program innovations and interviews conducted by members of ABC’s National Health and Safety Committee.

The National Safety Excellence Awards are presented in three major North American Industry Classification System code categories: NAICS 236—Construction of Buildings; NAICS 237—Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction; and NAICS 238—Specialty Trade Contractors.

The STEP Safety Management System, the standard for developing world-class safety management systems in construction, is designed to help both large and small contractors evaluate every aspect of their corporate safety and health programs and identify opportunities for improvement.

CNA, one of ABC’s eight strategic partners, is the presenting sponsor of the National Safety Excellence Awards.

See a complete list of winners on ABC’s website.

Inclusivity, Diversity and Equity

The 2022 National Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Excellence Awards are an annual recognition of ABC members that display exemplary IDE leadership in their company, workforce, supply chain and community with best-in-class recruitment policies, retention practices and training and mentoring programs.

“Advancing inclusion, diversity and equity in construction the merit shop way benefits the entire industry,” said Milton Graugnard,. “ABC is pleased to recognize organizations that continually prioritize these valuable components to any vibrant culture. Congratulations to these industry and business leaders for committing to creating inclusive workplaces, celebrating diverse ideas and perspectives and deploying strong IDE strategies to put the best talent on the field.”

Awards were presented in five categories:

Associate: Baker Tilly, Chicago

General Contractor Over $33 Million: Avalon Bay Communities, Boston, and Hensel Phelps, Greeley, Colorado

General Contractor Under $33 Million: Bryson Constructors Inc., East Point, Georgia

Subcontractor: M. Davis & Sons, Kenneth Square, Pennsylvania, and TDIndustries, Dallas

Supplier: United Rentals Inc., Stamford, Connecticut

A panel of construction professionals reviewed submission responses and selected the winning companies that excelled in advancing inclusion, diversity and equity in the industry and workforce.

United Rentals Inc., the world’s largest equipment rental company, is ABC’s IDE program sponsor and supports ABC’s IDE initiatives, including the IDE Summit and National Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Excellence Awards.  

To learn more about ABC’s diversity programs, visit diversity.abc.org.