Nicholson Construction of S. Fayette holds firm on holding things firm

For a company that specializes in keeping large structures firmly planted in the ground, Nicholson Construction's engineers spend a lot of time on the move, away from their South Fayette headquarters.

“I travel a lot,” said Nathaniel Witter, 22, of Bridgeville, a project engineer who recently returned from a six-month stint in Washington state, where Nicholson helped stabilize the cracked Wanapum Dam across the Columbia River. “Part of the reason I came here was that I didn't want to sit in an office all day.”

Nicholson's list of projects has become more national and international as the company founded 60 years ago this month in Arthur Nicholson's South Fayette garage moved from a subcontractor specializing in pile driving to a prime contractor overseeing the construction of underwater tunnels and shoring up building foundations.

Since it was acquired 10 years ago by French geotechnical company Soletanche Bachy, revenue has tripled to more than $150 million a year, senior vice president John D. Wise said. Nicholson remains an independent subsidiary, with a workforce of about 225 permanent employees in six offices that can increase by 200 to 300 with a large project.

Most of its work involves “holding a structure up or holding the earth or water back,” said Wise, who has an office in the South Fayette headquarters but spends 35 to 40 weeks a year traveling to work sites.

“A lot of what we do, this company pioneered here. It was given birth in Pennsylvania in our hills and landslides.”

It's often invisible work on high-visibility jobs: Nicholson workers helped stabilize the Ground Zero site at the World Trade Center, anchoring the walls of the so-called bath tub there that keeps out water from the Hudson River; put in the foundations of buildings including San Francisco's highest skyscraper and PPG Place, Downtown; kept water out of the subway tunnels beneath the Allegheny River; and built the river wall outside PNC Park on the North Shore.

The company started small in 1955 but quickly found a niche in large public works requiring pilings and foundations such as the building boom in interstate highways. Under the leadership of Arthur Nicholson's sons Pete and Joe, the company began specializing in anchoring technology used to keep supports and foundations in place.

Wise said when he joined the company in 1988, it was phasing out pile driving and focusing more on foundations.

The family left the company in 1996 when they sold to an Italian partnership called Rodio, which sold to Soletanche Bachy nine years later. During that time, Nicholson expanded into more wall-building and stabilizing jobs.

“We sell ourselves as problem-solvers,” Wise said, citing projects such as the Wanapum Dam and work on shoring up a Las Vegas hotel that was sinking. The company continues to focus on public works, including jobs at failing locks and dams for the Army Corps of Engineers and transportation tunnels beneath Biscayne Bay leading to the Port of Miami.

“Nicholson Construction Co. was instrumental in completing the Wanapum Dam spillway repairs timely by working safely and efficiently,” said Kevin Marshall, hydroengineering manager for the Grant County Public Utility District, which operates the dam. “Their team worked collaboratively with Grant PUD pulling from their experienced employees and industry connections to develop innovative solutions to unique challenges on the job.”

Nicholson workers spent five years at Ground Zero in New York, work that included installing 1,000 “tie-backs” to secure walls surrounding the worksite.

That job was physically and emotionally draining, Wise said. Given where Nicholson works, though, most of its jobs are challenging.

Projects usually involve work below the surface, where Wise said “you don't always know what Mother Nature put there or what man did before.”

Having international corporate backing provides the company extra help when needed.

“We can call on resources from all over the world,” Wise said, though he noted the company strives to maintain the personal touch that the founding family instilled.

For Witter, working on high-profile projects provides an extra layer of satisfaction.

“You look at the sheer mass of an incredible project like that dam,” he said recently as colleagues in the company's equipment yard moved a remote-controlled drill rig used to help stabilize Wanapum. “It's an important job.”

David Conti is a staff writer for Trib Total Media.