Construction Today - Vol 21 Issue 3 | Page 38

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At the dawn of the 20th Century , Fred Weber , Sr . bought his first piece of mechanized equipment , a solid-tire , fiveton dump truck . Combining talented people and the right tools , his company , Fred Weber Inc . ( Fred Weber ), began to grow . Heavy highway construction started the growth followed by rock quarries , asphalt plants and river sand dredging . The company succeeded at becoming the best producer with the lowest cost .

While now a major force in the industry , the company has never lost sight of the vision and work ethic of its founder . For more than 95 years , Fred Weber , Sr .’ s beliefs have been an integral part of the company ’ s culture : the power of planning , the value of a good day ’ s work , and the need to continually change business practices to better serve clients .
Fred Weber grew to become the leading heavy highway , aggregate and asphalt company in the St . Louis region . In 1986 Fred Weber transitioned to an ESOP company .
In 2006 Fred Weber added portable crushing to its services in successfully rebuilding the Taum Sauk pump storage reservoir . The project entailed crushing six million tons of rhyolite in the 3.2 million cubic yard roller compacted concrete dam reconstruction .
After the Taum Sauk project in 2010 , Doug Weible , President , redirected the portable crushing plants into a new Contract Services division within the company . “ This new initiative was driven almost out of necessity ,” explains Mark Denton , VP of Operations . “ The housing crisis hit in 2008 and we found ourselves with portable equipment that was being underutilized . So , we forged ahead with Contract Services , which has become a great fit within the company .”
In 2012 , after 20 years with the company , Doug Weible began his leadership tenure as CEO and Chairman of the Board . In the next
38