Treviicos

Treviicos is the U.S. special foundations arm of Italy’s Trevi Group, and it’s been based in Charlestown, in Boston, since Trevi bought ICOS in 1997. ICOS itself had been working in North America since 1964, and the combined company did foundation work on the Big Dig. It builds slurry and cutoff walls, diaphragm walls, deep foundations and ground improvement for dams, levees, transit and buildings, and it sometimes bids as a specialty prime. Its project list includes the Herbert Hoover Dike Reach 1 gap closure at Lake Okeechobee, and a Houston office covers the Gulf. Webuild now owns 36% of Trevi, and its cash bid has turned into a mandatory offer for the rest.

Dams are where this contractor’s capability shows most clearly. It carried out rehabilitation of Herbert Hoover Dike Reach 1 on the earthen dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee, recorded as 2008/2011, and has worked at Wolf Creek Dam in Jamestown, Kentucky. Cut-off wall work in an existing embankment dam, with water on one side, is among the most unforgiving ground engineering there is.

The work is grouped into four categories: deep foundations, retention systems and shoring, soil improvement, and cut-off. Underneath sit eight named technologies, including hydromill diaphragm walls, deep soil mixing, compaction grouting, cement and chemical grouting, micropiles, large diameter bored piles, and ground and rock anchors. The hydromill matters on hard ground and at depth, where conventional grabs stop being viable.

Urban work runs alongside the dam projects. The company handled retention systems at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2017, a site where excavation support has to be designed around a live hospital. The published project list reaches New Orleans, Washington D.C., New York, Newark, Manhattan in Kansas, Folsom in California, Walton County in Florida, Haverhill in Massachusetts and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Three offices serve that spread: the Charlestown headquarters at 38 Third Avenue inside Boston National Historical Park, a South Central office in Houston on Imperial Valley Drive, and Trevi Foundations Canada in Laval, Quebec. The company describes a large presence from the Greater Boston area down to New Orleans and Florida.

The ownership chain is worth understanding. The parent, Trevi Group, operates through two subsidiaries, Trevi for special foundations and Soilmec for the rigs and machinery, with the group listed on Euronext Milan.

Leadership includes Stefano Valagussa as chief executive, Emanuele Davitti as president, Renzo Grando as vice president of operations and Kevin C. Lewis covering the Southeast region. The Charlestown line is 617-241-4800.