Photo: Courtesy Primoris Services Corp.

But Primoris really took off at the end of 2009. It acquired James Construction Group (JCG), Baton Rouge, La., from Angelo Iafrate Construction Co., Warren, Mich., for $135 million. Last November, it acquired Hillsboro, Ore.-based pipeline contractor Rockford Corp. for $82.6 million.

With these acquisitions, Primoris is no longer primarily a West Coast firm; now, it is a $1-billion con-tractor whose reach stretches from the Pacific Coast all the way to Florida. Its revenue jumped 101.7% in 2010, rising to No. 44 on the Top 400 Contractors list.

“It is a good marriage,” says Mike Killgore, executive vice president and director of construction services for Primoris. He says the acquisitions are an opportunity for the firms to share relationships and leverage purchasing power.

Killgore says JCG has seen a slowdown in private infrastructure work, such as the sitework/civil work it did for the now-completed Marathon Refinery in Garyville, La. But the firm continues to win major public transportation projects. “We recently picked up four segments on the I-49 expansion in north Louisiana,” Killgore says.

Further, Rockford enhances Primoris’ position in the pipeline market. Rockford is constructing roughly 126 miles of the natural-gas Ruby Pipeline project , a 680-mile, 42-in. transmission line running from the Opal Hub in Wyoming to Main, Ore.