After 40-Plus Years, Connecticut Contractor Still Likes Working on the Crew
“I don’t need to be out there. I just like being out there,” says the 59-year-old owner of D'Amico Construction, a family-owned...
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Often, you’ll find the 59-year-old owner of D’Amico Construction shoveling asphalt along with his crew and performing other jobsite tasks.
“I don’t need to be out there,” he says. “I just like being out there.”
D’Amico Construction has been a family-owned paving business since 1952 in Plainville, Connecticut. As the second-generation owner, William D’Amico has worked with the company since he was 13. He is one of 12 finalists for Equipment World’s 2024 Contractor of the Year Award. (Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2025 awards; to learn more see the end of this story.)
“Just Give Them Quality Work”
Equipment World
“My old man was a smart guy,” William says. “He started from nothing. He built this up for us. And so you’ve got to respect somebody like that. You listen to him, and you get his knowledge.”
William worked on the paving crew during summers starting at about age 13. He was operating an asphalt roller at 15. After high school, he joined the company full time. He operated a Blaw Knox paver.
“I ran that thing for 33 years,” he says.
When William’s mother became ill, his father downsized the business but kept it going so his sons could take over one day.
That day came in the 1980s when he turned over the reins to William and his older brother Donald. The brothers expanded the company to site preparation work, with William at the helm of the new division. Donald ran the paving operation.
Donald passed away in 2013. William was left to run the entire company, which focused mostly on commercial projects.
The paving crew, some of whom have been with the company for 30 years, stepped up its game. The company grew from mostly 40,000-square-foot pavements to up to 200,000-square-foot jobs.
The company also performs site work for such projects as Dollar General stores, but paving is its largest segment.
Through it all, William focuses on the lessons he learned from his father and brother.
“Yeah, technology changes, but the basic stuff is still there,” he says. “My brother Donald, my father instilled in me, ‘Just give them quality work.’”
That focus has kept the customers coming back – one as long as 40 years – to the point the business doesn’t have to advertise.
“He is incredibly honest and incredibly transparent,” says Robert Rudolf of Rudolf Properties. “… They made sure to get that job done right.”
The Next Generation
The D’Amicos recently started a milling business owned by Elizabeth D’Amico, William’s wife and the construction company’s office manager.
Their Wirtgen milling machine is painted pink for breast cancer awareness. Elizabeth is a breast cancer survivor.
“Without her, I wouldn’t be able to do half the stuff I do,” William says.
Elizabeth D'Amico, office manager and owner of New Gen Milling ServicesEquipment World
William is passing along his knowledge to the next generation. “He's learning the same way like I was taught,” he says of Nick. “Integrity is the name of the game.”
Nick sees his work as part of furthering his family’s heritage.
“I always wanted to do it because my grandfather started it. I wanted to be able to say I was the third generation to do it,” he says.
“And I feel like if you have something already that's going good for you, why wouldn't you want it to continue, especially if it's been in your family?”
Nick realizes he is rare in this age of worker shortages and difficulty attracting and keeping younger employees in construction.
“Back in the day, all his friends would be working with him,” Nick says of his father. “I had my friends come for a summer, and after one month, they’d be like ‘Dude, I don't ever want to do this again.’”
William would like to expand the company’s sitework division and do larger commercial projects, but the difficulty hiring workers has slowed those plans.
“You just cannot find kids his age anymore to do it,” William says. “They just don't want to do it. And everybody's getting older. The industry is definitely getting tougher.”
Nick D'Amico, center, on the paving crewD'Amico Construction
“Competing Partners”
To keep and attract workers he offers incentives, retirement benefits, health care and good pay. The crews don’t work weekends. The company also keeps its equipment in good shape, buying new machines for the paving crew and slightly used earthmoving machines. He also recently bought new trucks – all painted in the company’s bright yellow.
“I had to buy some tri-axle trucks because nobody wants to drive the older trucks,” he says. “Truck drivers, they want a decent truck, just like an operator wants a nice machine.”
Due to the labor shortage, D’Amico has also been partnering with some of its competitors to work together on projects.
“In the last couple of years I've been doing this more and more because of the lack of help,” he explains. “We merge with different companies to do a project. He’s my competition one time, and then he’s my partner. When it’s all done, we split up, and we go on our own ways.”
D'Amico Construction
“He Pretty Much Saved My Life”
As far as keeping employees, D’Amico Construction has some who have been with the company more than 30 years, even one who was working with the company when William was 15 and he was 18. The paving crew has an average tenure of about 15 years, Nick says.
“We’ve still got the same guys, and we just work hard,” William says.
“All of these guys appreciate him,” Nick adds. “They're all comfortable with him.”
An estimator for the company’s sitework division praises William for hiring him during a difficult time.
“I walked in there 10 years ago; I had no experience in nothing. I needed a job,” Mike Echevarria says. “I just had my first kid, and I told him if you hire me, you will never regret it, give me a chance.
“He pretty much saved my life.”
Ten years later, he says, he’s in his second house, has two kids, boat, trucks, cars. “And all because he gave me that chance to work hard. He showed me everything, from my asphalt shovel to an excavator to a dozer to a computer.”
Nick and William D'AmicoEquipment World
“Don't Have to Be Big to Make Money”
D’Amico Construction has performed well over the past 10 years under William’s leadership.
“I personally like where I am now. It's controllable,” he says. “We're producing good work, quality work.”
The company has begun tracking its job expenses through software and is finding ways to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
His customers remain loyal to him, some who still just hire with a handshake.
“I'm not always the lowest bidder,” he says. “But they want me because they know I can get in and get it done and on time.”
He’s not willing to sacrifice that for the sake of growth.
“As far as growth,” he says, “you don't have to be big to make money.”
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Equipment World is now seeking nominations for the 2025 Contractor of the Year awards, which highlight contractors who have excelled in their local markets by displaying the highest standards of business acumen, equipment management expertise, attention to safety and community involvement. Twelve finalists and their guest will receive an expense-paid trip to Nashville and access to exclusive events next spring. To access the Contractor of the Year application, click here.
