Comer Construction Inc

Comer Construction Inc is a site development and earthwork contractor founded in 1982 and based in Forest Hill, Maryland, working across excavation, underground utilities, storm drainage, grading and demolition on commercial, institutional and transportation projects through the Mid-Atlantic. The firm is running a pilot programme on active jobsites for a North Carolina State University study, funded by the Job-Site Safety Institute, into why contractors have not moved from Type I hard hats to Type II safety helmets. The cost gap the study is examining is roughly sevenfold, about $15 against more than $100 a head, against a backdrop of roughly 200 U.S. construction workers dying each year from traumatic brain injuries. Comer’s participation puts a working site contractor rather than a lab at the centre of the adoption question, which is the part of PPE research that usually goes unfunded.

The hard-hat study is one thread; the company’s own history is another.

Comer started in 1982 with two trucks, a loader and a dozer, and is now a third-generation family business running a modern fleet maintained in-house. Fleet maintenance kept internal is a deliberate choice for an earthwork contractor — downtime on a dozer stops a crew, and waiting on a dealer’s service schedule is how a week disappears.

It is certified as both a minority and woman-owned business, holding MDOT certification #02-102 and Baltimore City certification #15-366678. Those certificates carry real commercial weight on public work in Maryland, where state and municipal contracts set participation goals that primes have to meet.

The service list runs wider than excavation. Alongside grading, underground utilities and stormwater management it includes maintenance of traffic — the temporary closure, signage and flagging plans that keep a road usable while work proceeds, which requires ATSSA-certified staff and is a specialised scope in its own right. Hydro excavation appears separately, the vacuum method used to expose live utilities without risking a strike. Equipment rental and commercial snow removal round it out, both of which put the fleet to work outside the construction season.

Recent projects include the Mandy and Dennis Weinman Cancer Building at Sinai Hospital and the Carolyn E. Fugett Intergenerational Center. Sectors served cover commercial, government, healthcare, education, residential, and parks and recreation.

The company runs an award-winning safety programme and is based in Forest Hill on 410-879-6094.