Big-D Construction

Big-D Construction is a Salt Lake City general contractor that traces its start to Nov. 2, 1967, when carpenter Dee Livingood sold his Volkswagen for $1,000 to open the business. It now leads the Big-D family of companies, with divisions for mission critical, heavy industrial, food and beverage and Signature luxury homes, plus Martin-Harris, McAlvain and Dovetail in the group. Its headquarters sits at 404 West 400 South, and regional offices run from Arizona and California to Minnesota, Montana and Wyoming. Big-D teamed with Holder Construction in a joint venture that built the terminal, Concourse A, parking, roads, tunnels, utilities and airfield paving for Salt Lake City International Airport’s $5.1 billion rebuild, which opens its last gates Oct. 27. The company passed $1 billion in sales in 2016.

One practical note before anything else: big-d.com now carries a banner directing visitors to bigdconstruction.com for the construction company itself. The original domain has become the family-of-companies site.

That family is eight businesses. Big-D Construction, Big-D Mission Critical, Big-D Heavy Industrial, Big-D Food & Beverage and Big-D Signature sit alongside Dovetail Construction, Martin-Harris Construction and McAlvain Companies. Commercial construction is organised nationally and by region, with Martin-Harris covering Nevada and Colorado and McAlvain covering Idaho. Big-D Signature and Dovetail handle mountain resorts and residences across Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. Mission critical, heavy industrial and food and beverage operate as national specialty groups.

The quick facts the company publishes: established 1967, 18 regional offices, an average of around 2,000 employees, and 1,800-plus associates supported today.

Eighteen offices is a long list, and the geography is worth having. Utah covers Salt Lake City at 404 West 400 South, plus St. George, Ogden, Lindon and Park City. Outside Utah: Tempe, Arizona; Pleasanton, California; Lakewood, Colorado; Boise and Idaho Falls, Idaho; St. Paul, Minnesota; Bozeman, Montana; Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada; and Jackson, Wyoming.

The build list runs to aviation and transportation, commercial, concrete, data centers, educational, food and beverage, government and public, healthcare, hospitality and resorts, industrial and mining, manufacturing, multi-family, religious and cultural, sports and entertainment, tilt-up concrete buildings, warehouse and distribution, and waste water treatment.

Featured projects show the spread between those divisions: heap leach stacking equipment at the FMI Morenci copper mine in Arizona, the Suntado dairy processing facility in Burley, Idaho, Copper Crossing at I-80 in Salt Lake City, and The Lodge at Blue Sky in Wanship, Utah. Navigating an active copper mine and a resort at 10,000 feet in the same portfolio is the company’s own framing of what the regional structure is for.

Subcontractors looking for prequalification requirements and active bids are directed to a dedicated section of the site.