J. F. White Contracting Co. is a Massachusetts-based contracting company specializing in heavy civil construction, deep foundations,

pile driving A pile driver is a heavy-duty tool used to drive piling, piles into soil to build piers, bridges, cofferdams, and other "pole" supported structures, and patterns of pilings as part of permanent deep foundations for buildings or other structures ...

, and mechanical/electrical construction. Founded in 1924, the company is headquartered in

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston ...

. The company has performed work primarily in the

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

area of

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In 2014, J.F. White Contracting Company was acquired by Dragados USA.

History

J.F. White Contracting Co. was formally founded in 1924 by Joseph F. White, Sr. who had started his business years prior to the company's formal organization. He bought his first truck in 1918 and steam shovel in 1922. From 1924 to 1930, the company excavated the foundations for the Statler Hotel & Office Building, the

Aetna Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...

Headquarters, the

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

Building in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

, the Fogg Art Museum. The company also built the

Foxboro Stadium Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England ...

. In 1945, White's sons Thomas J. White, Joseph White Jr. and John White returned from

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and took over the business. The sons focused the firm's work on pursuing public works contracts offered by the Metropolitan District Commission. The

Charles River The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly me ...

dam project was their first major heavy civil project. The successful completion of this contract in 1978 led to the establishment of J.F. White as a respected heavy civil contractor.

Major Projects

The company played a key role in the Boston

Big Dig The Big Dig was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the then elevated Central Artery of Interstate 93 that cut across Boston into the O'Neill Tunnel and built the Ted Williams Tunnel to extend Massachusetts Turnpike, Interstate 90 to Logan I ...

project. Notable contracts during the Big Dig included the

Ted Williams Tunnel The Ted Williams Tunnel is a highway tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts. The third in the city to travel under Boston Harbor, with the Sumner Tunnel and the Callahan Tunnel, it carries the final segment of Interstate 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpi ...

(Joint venture with Morrison-Knudsen and Interbeton), the North End section of the Central Artery tunnel (CA/T) (Joint Venture with the Slattery division of

Skanska Skanska AB () is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. It was established in 1887 as a concrete product manufacturer. History Aktiebolaget Skånska Cementgjuteriet (Scanian Cement Casting Ltd) was established i ...

USA and

Tutor Perini Tutor Perini Corporation (formerly Perini Corporation) is one of the largest general contractors in the United States as a result of the merger of Perini Corporation and Tutor-Saliba Corporation in 2008. At the end of 2013, it reported annual r ...

), and the

Central Artery The Central Artery (officially the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway) is the concurrent section of Interstate 93, US 1 and Route 3 through Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The modern-day Artery, built as part of the Big Dig from ...

I-90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

I-93 Interstate 93 (I-93) is an Interstate Highway in the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the United States. Spanning approximately along a north–south axis, it is one of three primary Interstate Highways ...

jacked tunnel which involved

ground freezing Ground freezing is a construction technique used in circumstances where soil needs to be stabilized so it will not collapse next to excavations, or to prevent contaminants spilled into soil from being leached away. Ground freezing has been used f ...

. J.F. White was part of a joint venture with

Civil USA and Ecco III Enterprises on the $1.1 Billion contract to build the Catskill-Delaware Water Ultraviolet Disinfection Facility.

Ownership and Leadership

In 2014, the firm was sold to

ACS Group ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. () is a Spanish company dedicated to civil engineering, construction, all types of services and telecommunications. It is one of the leading construction companies in the world, with projects ...

for an undisclosed amount after being operated by three generations of the White Family.

References

External links

J.F. White Contracting Co.
Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts {{Realestate-stub