It soon expanded the size of its jobs– some of the city’s largest road, sewer, and water main projects – and the scope of its portfolio. By the early 2000s, C.A.C. added elevated painting work for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and built the second phase of Manhattan’s High Line.

Then in 2015 it added another key specialty – handling Con Edison gas main work for construction projects navigating the spaghetti-web of infrastructure under N.Y.C. streets.

Today, C.A.C. handles major city projects through solo bids and strategic joint ventures, with $275 million in revenue in 2025 alone. Current assignments include Manhattan’s $1.5 billion, 2.4-mile East Side Coastal Resiliency project – the city’s Superstorm Sandy response – and multiple roles on the $7.7 billion, 1.8-mile Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 project, including a $182 million utilities relocation contract.

The 500-person firm isn’t done, as Michael Capasso, C.A.C.’s president and CEO, outlines, with plans to expand domestically and globally, while hiring for new areas such as design-build construction. That portfolio – alongside a unique employee-ownership model and community service profile – are why C.A.C. is ENR’s 2025 New York Specialty Contractor of the Year.

Tell us about some of your current high-profile projects.

MC: We’re on package 1 of the Second Avenue Subway extension from 96th Street to 125th. There are four packages. On [the first], we have the whole utility relocation package, which is electric, gas, sewer, water, and some steel water mains. It’s also underpinning of existing buildings and reinforcement of their concrete foundations. We’re working on 105th Street to 112th Street, [the same stretch where] Package 3 will be the open-cut section of the new tunnel.

We’ve… encountered subsurface conditions different from the plans and [we] address those changed conditions and keep moving the project forward. We’re getting utilities out of the way so it’s not down the middle of the street where [they] do the open cut.

We’re also a dedicated subcontractor on Package 2 to Helmar International, which will be micro-tunneling and heavy civil work at the new stations at 106th, 116th, and 125th Streets. For Package 3, which is a design-build project, we have put in a [statement of qualifications] with IPC, the same tri-venture we’re working with on the East Side Coastal Resiliency [flood protection system].

For East Side Resiliency, we bid in January 2021 on the prime level and started in September 2021 with IPC. You have three different companies that bring three different skills sets – you need a lot of resources to build a job like this.

We did carbon fiber wrapping of the Oil-O-Static pipelines, which are high voltage electric lines. We installed all the sewers, water mains, did some restoration work and paving work as well as gas work, electric work, steam work. If you wanted to look at in sections, I would say a lot of our work is from the street level down, the grade level down.

And we just finished on New York City Transit’s 207th Street Yard upgrades. That’s a train storage and maintenance facility. We relocated and routed a sewer around the yards from 215th Street… up to 10th Avenue, down 10th Avenue to 207th Street. We had shafts that were jet-grouted to support the micro-tunneling operation.

Tell us a little about C.A.C.’s history.

MC: It was founded in ’91... We did our first public works subcontract in 1994, and then we did our first private job, a joint venture – we did the sitework, site utilities, site concrete, site asphalt for the Flushing Meadow tennis center, where the U.S. Open is. And we just started bidding work after that and have grown ever since.

The root of the company was… work for the New York [DEP and DOT]. Then we branched out over the years, whether it was larger private sitework jobs or… jobs that had a scope of work more in line with DEP. We did a big private job for Arverne by the Sea, a residential development in Rockaway, Queens [by] Beechwood Homes and Benjamin Development. They had to build all these new roads, sewers, and water mains that conform with DEP and DOT standards.

We got into some strategic joint ventures [for] MTA elevated structure painting. We also built phase 2 of the High Line in Manhattan in 2010. Then in 2015 we set a strategic goal to get involved in Con Ed gas work. Now, we’re one of Con Ed’s largest gas contractors in the city.

“In 2015, we set a strategic goal to get involved in Con Ed gas work, and now we’re one of its largest gas contractors in the city.”
—Michael Capasso, President & CEO, C.A.C. Industries

What’s next for C.A.C.?

MC: We’ve started to bring others onto the team with vast experience in other types of heavy civil projects to really grow our portfolio. We’re starting to look at design-build opportunities.

We’re going to keep the core – the road, sewer, and water work – and build around that with all these strategic joint ventures and new opportunities.

We’re also looking at opportunities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Florida. And the company is working on an opportunity to open a division in Dubai... But we’re being slow and methodical.

Tell us a little about the work culture at C.A.C.

MC: We converted to a 100% employee-owned company, an ESOP, on April 30, 2024. It includes all the union tradespeople. It’s not just management. That’s a key element as we look towards the future.

And one of our core efforts is C.A.C. Cares. Last month in Brooklyn, on one of our projects, the 73rd NYPD Precinct, we gave out 500 backpacks to the local children for school. We also do Halloween candy giveaways, Thanksgiving turkey giveaways. We donated a playground at Marble Hill Houses in the Bronx.

We disrupt the everyday life of communities with the work we need to do. These are ways to give back.