Specialty Contractor of the Year

ENR West Names the 2025 Specialty Contractors of the Year

Helix Electric EchoWater — Taka Taira-Kaplan Photography

Helix Electric team members guide the placement of the new power building at Orinda Water Treatment Plant in Northern California.
*Photo courtesy Taka Taira-Kaplan Photography*

ENR West has named the 2025 Specialty Contractors of the Year—San Diego, Calif.-based Helix Electric and Portland, Ore.-based Harder Mechanical Contractors.

The award is chosen by ENR’s team of regional editors who rely on a battery of criteria that includes total regional revenue of construction services of participating companies, and also include breakouts by state revenue and various specialties and disciplines, as applicable.

The two firms will be profiled in the Dec. 15 issue of ENR West, which will also include the ENR West’s Top Specialty Contractor rankings.

Helix Electric

Helix Electric has been chosen as ENR West’s California Specialty Contractor of the Year which includes firms across California, Nevada and Hawaii.

Helix, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, specializes in design-build and highly complex electrical projects across the US. The company’s $727 million in revenue last year in California and Nevada is partly due to specialization on some of the A/E/C industry’s most challenging sectors such as water treatment, data center and renewable energy.

The company recently completed the installation of a new large prefabricated power building at the Orinda Water Treatment Plant, a key milestone in a $267 million infrastructure project in partnership with East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and Flatiron Construction. In addition to it's California work, Helix has also completed and is actively constructing new mission-critical infrastructure projects in the Las Vegas and Reno, Nev. areas.

Harder Mechanical Contractors

Harder Mechanical Contractors has been chosen as ENR West’s Northwest Specialty Contractor of the Year which includes firms across Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

Harder has been a mainstay of the Pacific Northwest A/E/C market for almost 90 years and has prospered recently based on the breadth and balance of its portfolio of projects. The firm topped $744 million last year in part due to its expertise handling advanced technology projects such as data centers and semiconductor facilities that have boomed of late.

One example of the company’s technology-focused work is a data center project in Oregon, which recently broke ground with a contract value of $80 million. They were also involved with the Portland Airport International Airport Baggage Conveyers upgrade and the International Airport Terminal Core Redevelopment.

KEYWORDS: Specialty Contractor of the Year

C.J. Schexnayder is the Editor of ENR West. He has contributed to ENR's coverage of the construction industry for more than a decade. His work has focused on major projects, industry trends and emerging technology. He previously was the South America correspondent for the magazine based in Lima, Peru. During that time, he covered numerous large-scale infrastructure projects across the region including the Third Lane Expansion of the Panama Canal. In addition, CJ has been an award-winning newspaper reporter in Southern California, Texas and Louisiana.