Wilson Construction Company

Matt Wilson started laying transmission foundations in Troutdale, Oregon in 1952. His company now employs more than 800 people out of Canby, Oregon, building high-voltage transmission and distribution lines, substations and underground systems across the western states. Wilson runs its own helicopter fleet, which matters on remote line work where trucks can’t reach the structures. The firm is half of the Barnard Wilson joint venture erecting the TransWest Express, the high-voltage direct-current line that will move Wyoming wind power toward Nevada and the Southwest. That project spent roughly two decades in permitting before construction started. It’s now one of the larger interregional transmission builds underway in the United States.

Wilson’s capability comes down to what it owns and who it trains. The company runs more than 2,000 pieces of rolling equipment alongside 12 MD 500 series helicopters configured for power line work, and operates two subsidiaries, Cougar Construction and Wilson Utility Helicopters. In 2025 the Wilson family sold the business to Quanta Services after more than seven decades of private ownership.

Voltage range is the clearest measure of scope. Transmission crews work 115kV through 500kV, including energized hot work, while the underground group installs everything from solid dielectric cable to high-pressure fluid-filled systems rated to 345kV. Substation and switchyard work spans design through drilling and grading. Foundation crews run specialized drilling equipment for drilled shaft piers under lattice and tubular steel structures, plus grounding systems. Wilson will also take a full engineering, procurement and construction package rather than construction scope alone.

The helicopter division goes back more than 30 years and its project record is worth reading in detail: 110 miles of 500kV reconductoring for Southern California Edison, a new 230kV line near Portland, spacer-damper replacement on Bonneville Power Administration 500kV lines running continuously since 2006, and a 230kV lattice steel reconstruction in California. The company says it has contributed to national and international helicopter safety guidelines rather than simply following them.

Training happens at a five-acre facility with a classroom, a transmission line, a wood pole climbing area, a 100 percent fall protection structure and room to practice helicopter landing zones; an underground vault and a transmission tower are planned additions. The in-house curriculum, branded Wilson University, covers OSHA ET&D 10- and 20-hour programs, OSHA construction 10- and 30-hour courses, NJATC signalperson and rigger certification, CIC crane operator certification, clearance holder training, competent person training, first aid and CPR, and hot work, grounding and minimum approach distance instruction. Journeyman linemen and electricians come out of IBEW; apprentices come from IBEW-NECA programs.

Day-to-day safety runs on pre-job briefings, daily task hazard analysis reviews by the crew, weekly meetings built around an in-house newsletter called The Handline, quarterly industry training, and layered inspections and audits. Wilson participates in the OSHA Electrical Transmission and Distribution Partnership, belongs to the National Safety Council and the Evergreen Safety Council, sits on Washington State’s Governor’s Industrial Safety and Health Advisory Board, and has been an ISNetworld member contractor since 2014.

The geographic footprint is wider than a western-states description suggests. Offices sit in Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Arizona and Pennsylvania, and past work extends into Canada, American Samoa and Indonesia. Environmental staff handle compliance in-house, writing stormwater pollution prevention plans and managing erosion control on sensitive sites.