For more than 60 years, Flanders, NJ-based Skoda Contracting has taken a measured and methodical approach to growth, evolving from a pipe welding company to an underground utility contractor for New Jersey’s leading natural gas companies. A similar strategy has guided the family-owned company into other underground construction services, such as water lines and underground electrical systems, and into new territories, with divisions established over the past 15 years to serve Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley and the Washington, DC metropolitan area. This year, the company ranks No. 36 in ENR East’s specialty contractor rankings, with revenue expected to grow by $10 million. improve its aging infrastructure. Investments in employee skill development and community service also contributed to the company’s selection as ENR’s New York/New Jersey Specialty Contractor of the Year.
CEO Dane Evans discussed Skoda’s place in the region’s construction market and what his company learned from a recent settlement with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission that stemmed from improperly documented plastic pipe mergers. This interview has been edited for space and clarity.
Skoda’s top three regional projects:
Flocktown Interconnection, Elizabethtown Gas, Hackettstown, NJ—Skoda recently completed this 7.5-mile three-phase steel pipeline for Elizabethtown Gas, finishing a month ahead of schedule. One of the most technically demanding pipeline projects in the company’s recent history, it included complex overhangs from bridges, more than 40 offsets and a crew that placed an average of more than 300 linear feet per day.
Wide Area Water and Sewer Connection Contract, Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties, Maryland.—This new multi-year commercial contract in the two counties represents Skoda’s successful expansion beyond gas projects into water and sewer construction after deliberately retooling and investing in building a dedicated water construction department.
Purple Line Utility Relocation, Washington Gas/Maryland Transit Authority, Montgomery and Prince George Counties, Maryland.—Skoda was selected to move dozens of pipelines for Washington Gas to clear the corridor for Maryland’s new Purple Line light rail system. The high-profile and coordination-intensive project required precise execution alongside a major public infrastructure program and demonstrates the company’s ability to operate in complex, multi-stakeholder environments, the firm says.
ENR: What trends are driving the utility market in New Jersey?
Skoda Contracting: in figures
0.6 -Evaluation of modification of the experience
1962 – Year of foundation
120 million dollars – Value of the contract award
Revenue 2025: key segments
94 million dollars– Utilities
0.94 million dollars– Power
84.60 million dollars – Oil and gas
0.47 million dollars – Washington DC
4.70 million dollars-Virginia
18.80 million dollars —Pennsylvania
65.80 million dollars – New Jersey
We are seeing not only business expansion as gas companies try to attract new customers and increase the number of services, but also gas line replacement and reliability projects. Utilities are upgrading their older pipes from old materials such as cast iron and steel to polyethylene.
Diversification has been an important part of Skoda’s recent growth. What has been the key to your strategy?
We only work for utilities, so we have a specific type of staff and culture that is based on safety, customer-focused execution and reliable project planning. We diversified methodically and intentionally, choosing projects and areas of work that made sense to us, where we weren’t going to overextend ourselves or take unnecessary risks. We are fortunate that our utility customers allowed us to take our time and get it right. They knew that our level of care and focus on security would help foster long-term relationships with them.
“We have a culture of picking the right people and allowing them to grow without pressure.”
—Dane Evans, CEO of Skoda Contracting
How did that guide your expansion into Pennsylvania and Maryland?
We have a culture of choosing the right people and allowing them to grow without pressure, whether it’s an apprentice-level worker or a senior manager looking for the next career step. It’s been good to see the Washington, DC-Maryland and Lehigh Valley divisions blossom through this methodical growth. We’re lucky to be a family business, so we can think in decades rather than six-month intervals. We can build the right foundation for each area to grow without getting too excited and then over-promising but under-delivering.
How does the Flocktown interconnection project exemplify Skoda’s work?
It was an extremely complicated three-phase 12 inch. Steel pipe interconnection project involving more than seven kilometers of work on narrow streets with a large number of trips, directional drilling and lines suspended on bridges. We had such a good project management team in terms of planning and logistics; our teams executed at a very high level, and our engineers worked tirelessly on the background work. We are proud of this project.
Looking for quick answers on construction and engineering topics?
Try Ask ENR, our new intelligent AI search tool.
Ask ENR →
Skoda had to rework several Pennsylvania projects after finding an employee did not follow proper pipe joining documentation procedures. What did you take away from this experience not only to prevent it from happening again, but also to improve the overall quality of the work?
We were defensive at first, because we’ve never had a security incident. But once we realized that this is happening to us, and not to us, and that it would make us better, we engaged in a really constructive way. Over the course of several years, we worked with the company to replace the pipes this employee was involved in at our expense.
Internally, we have changed the way we monitor projects in terms of documentation. We’ve created a separate inspection branch from our safety and customer education division, and focus on company supervisors to be much more intentional in the way they inspect workplaces.
We are now documenting all utility procedures on iPads and tracking metrics. We are also ranking field managers and teams not only on efficiency and profitability, but also on how well they follow procedures. If for some reason an incident like this happens again, we know we will be better off if we engage constructively.
