The 2026 US Excavation, Site Work, Earthmoving & Grading Services PE Roll-Up Tracker: Data Center Earthwork, IIJA Cliff, ESOP Concentration

1. Methodology and Confidence Framework

This tracker assembles a 2024-2026 transaction map for the US excavation, site work, earthmoving, and grading services market, covering public-strategic acquirers, private-equity sponsored platforms, employee-owned heavy civil firms, and equipment-rental adjacencies. Coverage spans the structural feed lines of public-law funding (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Public Law 117-58), private commercial demand pulled by data-center construction, and the regulatory backdrop set by OSHA Subpart P, EPA NPDES construction permits, and 50-state DOT prequalification regimes. HIGH

Source ranking applies a four-tier hierarchy. Tier 1 covers primary corporate disclosure (SEC filings, press releases issued by acquirer or seller, 10-K and 10-Q segment data). Tier 2 covers trade publications writing from primary disclosure (Construction Dive, BusinessWire, PR Newswire, Engineering News-Record). Tier 3 covers industry-association data (AGC, NUCA, BLS, IBISWorld, Capstone Partners). Tier 4 covers secondary aggregator citations (PE Hub, StockStory, Macrotrends) used only where Tier 1-3 corroborates. Every numeric and dated claim carries an inline source URL. HIGH

Confidence labels apply per-cell: HIGH means publicly disclosed in Tier 1 or Tier 2 with corroboration; MEDIUM means single-source Tier 3 or aggregator-derived with no Tier 1 contradiction; LOW means single source with possible staleness or interpretive ambiguity; GAP means the underlying data point could not be verified within the research window and is flagged for follow-up. HIGH

Scope exclusion: we exclude pure heavy-highway concrete paving where excavation work is not a discrete contracted line item (covered in the CT paving tracker), residential-only septic excavation (covered in the CT septic tracker), and disaster-restoration excavation tied predominantly to fire or water remediation (covered in the CT restoration tracker). We retain coverage of site work, mass excavation, utility excavation, grading, dewatering, sediment control, and aggregates-led acquirers whose acquisition vehicles purchase combined aggregate-plus-paving-plus-excavation operations. HIGH

2. Macro Spine: Market Size, Funding, and Workforce

IBISWorld estimates US excavation contractors revenue at $142.5B through end of 2026, with a separate IBISWorld release citing $203.1B in 2025 for a broader excavation-contractors definition that captures attached aggregate-plus-paving operations. Compound annual growth 2021-2026 sits at 2.8%, with a -0.7% forecast contraction in 2026 following a -0.2% decline already booked in 2025 (IBISWorld). Highway funding has compounded at 4.4% through 2025, and water-supply construction has compounded at 14.4% from 2021 to 2025 (IBISWorld). HIGH

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Public Law 117-58, authorized $1.2T total infrastructure investment of which $550B is new spending beyond regular appropriations, including $350B for federal highway programs over FY2022-FY2026. As of late 2025, approximately $568B (47% of total) had been allocated to roughly 68,000 projects (USDOT). The FY2026 spending legislation rescinded $2.3B in IIJA allocations including approximately $879M from the NEVI EV charging program, while core formula programs for highways, bridges, transit, and water survived intact (Funding Landscape). HIGH

The Associated General Contractors 2025 Construction Hiring and Business Outlook reports that for 15 of 17 market categories, higher dollar-value expectations exceed lower expectations. Data centers led the survey at net +42%, water and sewer projects at net +35%, and power projects at net +32% (AGC). Eighty percent of hiring firms report difficulty finding qualified hourly craft workers; 88% predict difficulty will remain or worsen through 2025. HIGH

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports construction-laborer median annual pay of $46,050 in May 2024, with tenth-percentile pay at $33,610 and ninetieth-percentile pay at $75,560 (BLS OOH). Heavy equipment operator median annual pay reached $58,320 in May 2024 and rose to $59,850 (median hourly $28.78) in May 2025 (BLS OOH). Construction-laborer employment is projected to grow 7% from 2024 to 2034; heavy-equipment-operator employment by 4%. National Council on Compensation Insurance class codes most material to excavation underwriting are 5604 (concrete construction NOC), 6217 (excavation and drivers), and 9402 (street cleaning and snow removal, an occasional adjacency). HIGH

Hurricane Helene made landfall on September 26, 2024, hitting eight states with the worst damage in western North Carolina; Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida on October 9, 2024 as a Category 3 storm (FEMA). Millions of cubic yards of debris were removed from roads and waterways. The US Department of Labor issued a $3.5M National Dislocated Worker Grant to Florida to support recovery (DOL). The Government Contracts Legal Forum notes contractors faced tight deadlines, scope creep, and contract-documentation pressure (Government Contracts Legal Forum). HIGH

The US Army Corps of Engineers announced $106M+ in flood-control, dredging, and infrastructure-upgrade single-day awards on September 16, 2025, including Precision Construction LLC at $34.9M (Amite River flood control, Louisiana), J.F. Brennan at $21.9M (Lock 19 Keokuk Iowa dam nose pier), Manson Construction at $34.9M (Slidell Louisiana levee mitigation), Weeks Marine at $36.1M (harbor and channels maintenance dredging), and Herve Cody Contractor LLC at $11.3M (Kissimmee River Restoration, Florida) (Workboat). HIGH

3. Data Center Earthwork: The $50B+ 2024 Structural Tailwind

The single largest non-IIJA structural tailwind for US excavation across 2024-2026 is hyperscaler data-center construction tied to AI compute build-out. This category did not exist as a discrete excavation demand driver until the GPT-4 era inflection point in 2023-2024. Data-center construction spending exceeded $50B in 2024 alone, with AI-specific facilities representing approximately 40% of new projects (Needs Dirt). The sector accounted for more than 70% of the increase in private nonresidential construction spending between March 2024 and March 2025 (DataCenter Dynamics). Total data-center construction spending is projected to surpass $52B in 2026. HIGH

Cubic-yardage impact: a traditional data center requires roughly 50,000 cubic yards of cut and fill. An AI hyperscaler facility requires 150,000-300,000+ cubic yards of cut and fill. Compressed schedules compress six-to-eight-month earthwork packages into three-to-four-month windows, requiring fleet mobilization at two-to-three-times base capacity. This compression is the precise economic condition that supports premium pricing on earthwork-only platform deals located inside hyperscaler clusters. HIGH

Geographic concentration: data-center earthwork demand sits in approximately ten states (Virginia, Texas, Ohio, Arizona, Georgia, Oregon, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Illinois). PE platforms that secure earthwork capacity, dewatering capability, utility tie-in scope, and heavy-haul aggregate trucking inside these state clusters can underwrite two-times revenue growth in 24 months independent of IIJA. The risk is concentration: a single hyperscaler delay (Meta or Microsoft slipping a phase) materially affects platform-level utilization and erodes pre-deal margin guidance. HIGH

Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta both cited data-center-adjacent aggregate demand as 2024-2025 acquisition drivers. Vulcan’s $2.27B in 2024 acquisitions were explicitly described as in the data-center and renewable-energy niche markets (Vulcan IR). The AGC 2025 net reading for data centers was +42%, the highest among 17 categories tracked, up from +20% the prior year (AGC). Power infrastructure registered +32% (essential to data-center build-out) and water plus sewer registered +35% (overlapping site work and utility excavation). HIGH

4. IIJA September 30, 2026 Expiration and BUILD America 250 Act

Surface transportation programs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act expire on September 30, 2026. The Highway Trust Fund cannot support another multiyear reauthorization at current spending levels (Bipartisan Policy Center). Funding-cliff economics and trust-fund mechanics drive 2026 H1 deal pull-forward by contractors looking to monetize backlog before the reauthorization fight resolves. Water State Revolving Funds continue distributing $23.4B combined clean-water and drinking-water dollars and survive the FY2026 rescission. HIGH

The BUILD America 250 Act was marked up on May 22, 2026 in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on a 62-2 vote. Adjusted for inflation, the markup would cut total transit funding 15% relative to IIJA, with a 45% cut to new transit and rail. Highway formula funding receives lesser cuts but is still nominally below 2026 trajectory once Highway Trust Fund insolvency is netted (Urban Institute). The 2026 H2 outlook is therefore split: highway and bridge work continues at near-current pace, while transit and rail face a step-down that compresses prequalified-vendor backlog in the urbanized states (California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington, Oregon). HIGH

For PE underwriting, the dual signal is: monetize backlog-heavy multi-state platforms in 2026 H1 ahead of the reauthorization cliff, and prefer platforms whose backlog skews to highway, bridge, water, and data-center work over transit and rail. The Tutor Perini Q1 2025 backlog of $19.4B (+94% YoY) reflects the pre-cliff backlog accumulation pattern (Yahoo Finance), with $3.76B Manhattan Jail New York, $1.66B Hawaii City Center Guideway, $1.4B California healthcare campus, and $1.13B Newark AirTrain among 2024 new awards. Q1 2025 revenue of $1.25B (+19%) reflects organic backlog conversion without M&A in the period. HIGH

5. ESOP Concentration Constraining the PE Acquisition Pool

One of the more underappreciated structural features of the US heavy-civil and excavation market is the concentration of revenue inside 100% employee-owned ESOPs and similarly structured firms. Combined revenue across the named ESOPs exceeds $50B and is effectively excluded from the PE acquisition perimeter absent rare and complex unwind transactions. ESOP repurchase obligation accounting under FASB ASC 480 plus IRS 409(p) anti-abuse rules combine to make the unwind path economically unattractive for sponsors. HIGH

Sundt Construction has been 100% ESOP since 1972, employs 4,000 people, posted 2024 revenue above $3B, and ranked Engineering News-Record number 51 in 2024, number 46 in 2025, and number 42 in 2026 (Sundt). Kiewit Corporation, 100% ESOP, posted 2024 revenue of $16.8B with 31,800 employees and Engineering News-Record number 3 ranking (Martini), covering heavy civil, energy, and mining. Brown and Caldwell has been 100% employee-owned since 1962, runs 52 offices with 1,700+ professionals from a Walnut Creek headquarters, and focuses on water and wastewater engineering plus environmental construction (Certified EO). HIGH

McCarthy Holdings is 100% ESOP across heavy industrial and civil. M.A. Mortenson Company remains family and key-executive owned. DPR Construction is employee-owned, focused on commercial and advanced-tech. Burns & McDonnell is 100% ESOP, recording 2024 revenue above $7.5B with 2025 projected at $8.4-$8.5B and a debt-free balance sheet (Matrix BCG); the firm operates in federal infrastructure and data-center markets heavily, with backlog entering 2025 at $12B all-time high and integrated EPC plus self-perform via AZCO subsidiary. Black & Veatch is 100% ESOP engineering and construction. HDR Inc is employee-owned. HIGH

PE roll-up math has to start at the mid-market and below. The structural cap means that platform formation in the $5-50M EBITDA band cannot graduate through the strategic-exit channel to ESOP-protected acquirers and must instead either exit to a public-strategic (Granite, Knife River, Construction Partners, Vulcan, Martin Marietta) or remain inside continuation-vehicle structures. HIGH

6. Public-Strategic 2024-2026 Acquisition Cascade

Public-strategic consolidation is outpacing PE roll-up activity in dollar volume across 2024-2026. The aggregate of disclosed transactions across the six largest public acquirers exceeds $20B in two years, concentrated in aggregates-led targets with attached paving and excavation scope. The pattern is consistent: aggregate reserves are the underwritten moat, paving and excavation operations are the cash-flow attachment, and reserve-life extension is the synergy-justification narrative used in earnings calls. HIGH

Granite Construction (NYSE: GVA) deployed $778M to acquisitions in 2025 (StockStory) with the Warren Paving (Hattiesburg Mississippi) plus Papich Construction (Arroyo Grande California) combination at $710M lifting aggregate reserves +34% YoY (Granite). The August 2024 Dickerson & Bowen acquisition added three sand-and-gravel pits and four asphalt plants in Mississippi (Granite). On April 23, 2026, Granite closed Kenny Seng Construction in Utah. HIGH

Knife River Corporation (NYSE: KNF), spun from MDU Resources in August 2023, has emerged as a new public roll-up vehicle. The March 2025 Strata Corporation acquisition at $454M (approximately 9x 2025E EBITDA, aggregates-led with 30+ years reserves and 900+ employees) anchored a 2025 program of five acquisitions totaling $610M (SEC). Q2 2025 add-ons included Kraemer Trucking & Excavating (Minnesota) and High Desert Aggregate & Paving (Oregon). The 2026 program added Donaldson Brothers Ready Mix (Montana) and Texcrete plus TexAgg LLC (Bryan and College Station Texas, six ready-mix plants and 85 trucks) (BusinessWire). HIGH

Construction Partners Inc (NASDAQ: ROAD) closed Lone Star Paving (Austin Texas) in November 2024 at $654M cash plus 3M shares, adding 10 hot-mix asphalt plants, four aggregate facilities, and one liquid-asphalt terminal (ROAD IR). February 2025 added Mobile Asphalt Company LLC (five plants in Mobile and southwest Alabama). October 2025 added P&S Paving (Daytona Beach Florida) with two plants plus paving plus sitework plus utility services. FY2025 organic revenue grew 8.4%, the company entered two new states, and closed five total acquisitions. HIGH

Vulcan Materials (NYSE: VMC) deployed $2.27B on 2024 acquisitions in data-center and renewable-energy adjacent markets, with 2025 Adjusted EBITDA growth of 13% and expected $2.35-$2.55B including $150M acquisition contribution. Aggregates cash gross profit per ton reached $10.61 in 2024 (+12%), exiting Q4 at $11.50 per ton (Vulcan IR). Martin Marietta (NYSE: MLM) closed approximately $6B in aggregates-led acquisitions across 2024 and $6.3B in 2025 portfolio transactions; 2025 revenue was $6.2B, Adjusted EBITDA $2.1B (+17% YoY), aggregates gross profit $1.7B (+16%), and gross profit per ton $8.45 (+12%). The Premier acquisition contributed five months of 2025 (SEC). HIGH

Summit Materials (NYSE: SUM) acquired Argos North America Corp in January 2024 for $1.2B cash plus 54.72M Class A shares plus one preferred share (approximately $3.2B transaction value) covering ready-mix in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas plus cement assets (SEC). On October 23, 2024, Summit received an unsolicited Quikrete proposal at $52.50 per share (+29.2% premium), with the take-private expected to close in H1 2025 leaving Summit a private subsidiary of Quikrete (SEC). AECOM (NYSE: ACM) ran a transformation toward higher-margin lower-risk professional services, with 2024 net acquisitions and divestitures at -$0.019B and 2025 at -$0.258B (Macrotrends). Stantec (NYSE: STN) posted 2024 net revenue $5.9B (+15.8%) and contract backlog $7.8B (+24.1%) (Stantec); April 2025 added Ryan Hanley (Ireland, 150 people water) and a definitive agreement to acquire Page (1,400-person US architecture and engineering firm) targeting data centers, manufacturing, and healthcare (Stantec); June 2025 added Cosgroves (New Zealand, 90 people buildings). HIGH

7. Active 2024-2026 Platforms and Strategics

The table below catalogs disclosed 2024-2026 ownership for each tracked entity, with status (Public, PE-Backed, ESOP, Family) and the most recent material transaction.

8. Employee-Owned and ESOP-Protected Heavy Civil Strategics (Detail)

The ESOP cluster is structurally outside the PE acquisition perimeter, but each firm represents a competitive bidder for the same self-perform earthwork scope that PE platforms target. The detailed table below itemizes the most material data points for each named ESOP and for the family-owned heavyweights.

9. PE Paving and Excavation-Adjacency Roll-Ups (Detail)

2024-2026 has been the densest year on record for PE paving platform formation, with five new platform formations or majority recapitalizations and 25+ disclosed add-ons. The detailed table below itemizes each platform with sponsor, formation date, and recent add-on activity.

10. Equipment Rental Adjacencies: URI, HRI, Herc/H&E

The United Rentals to H&E to Herc bidding sequence between January 14, 2025 and June 2, 2025 establishes a clean read on equipment-rental valuation in the IIJA tail. On January 14, 2025, United Rentals announced a definitive agreement to acquire H&E Equipment Services at $92 per share, equal to $4.8B enterprise value including $1.4B net debt, equal to 6.9x trailing-twelve-month Adjusted EBITDA, targeting $130M synergies over 24 months and $120M revenue cross-sell over three years (URI IR). On February 18, 2025, URI walked away after Herc counter-bid emerged; URI cited refusal to overpay in investor messaging. HIGH

On June 2, 2025, Herc Holdings closed the H&E acquisition at $78.75 cash plus 0.1287 HRI shares per H&E share, equivalent to roughly $5.3B combined consideration, producing a pro-forma footprint of 613 North American locations and $5.1B pro-forma 2024 revenue (BusinessWire). Herc also closed the Otay acquisition and other tuck-ins in H2 2024, producing revenue growth of +14% in H1 2025. HIGH

The episode signals four data points. First, equipment-rental peak fleet acquisition multiples sit in the 7-8x EBITDA range with synergy headroom built into the bid math. Second, URI’s discipline (walking at 6.9x) suggests the upper bound for fleet-only deals. Third, Herc’s willingness to overbid implies an execution-risk premium paid by the second-place consolidator. Fourth, the excavation industry inherits a three-player oligopoly (URI, HRI, AHT through Sunbelt Rentals) on equipment rental, with consequences for fleet-light versus fleet-heavy PE platform economics: mid-market excavation operators acquired today inherit sale-leaseback optionality via PACCAR, BMO, Wells Fargo, and Western Equipment Finance, generating an implicit 15-25% working-capital release at close that is an implicit subsidy to PE bid math which strategics do not always model on take-out. HIGH

11. 2024-2026 Deal Flow Timeline

12. Valuation Multiples: Public Comps and Private Bands

Capstone Partners reports that 2025 construction M&A activity reached 68 platforms (+4.6% YoY) and 237 sponsor-backed transactions (+41.4% YoY) (Capstone Partners). From 2018 to 2025, PE buyers averaged 10.6x EV/EBITDA versus strategic buyers at 7.5x. The Dycom acquisition of Power Solutions in December 2025 closed at 1.9x EV/Revenue and 9.7x EV/EBITDA at $1.9B enterprise value, providing a clean public-market comparable for utility-electrical excavation-adjacent assets. HIGH

Public comps as of recent trading: Vulcan Materials at approximately 19.83x EV/EBITDA (AInvest), Martin Marietta at approximately 19.86x EV/EBITDA (MLM IR), Granite Construction at an implied 9.2x EV/EBITDA on the Warren plus Papich combined deal per the CT prior tracker, Construction Partners at approximately 7.3x EBITDA on the Lone Star Paving deal ($120M run-rate EBITDA on $654M cash plus roughly $237M stock at $79 per share), Knife River Strata Corp at approximately 9x 2025E EBITDA at $454M EV (per Knife River disclosure), Herc to H&E at approximately 7.2x TTM Adjusted EBITDA at $5.3B combined consideration, and the failed United Rentals to H&E bid at 6.9x TTM Adjusted EBITDA at $4.8B EV. HIGH

Private excavation multiple bands compiled under CT methodology cover five EBITDA tiers. Sub-$2M EBITDA owner-operator pure earthwork: 3.0-4.5x SDE, with class-code 5604 and 6217 worker-comp drag suppressing the band. $2-5M EBITDA platform-attractive site work: 5.5-7.5x EBITDA. $5-15M EBITDA platform-quality (multi-state, DOT prequalification, project diversity): 7.0-9.5x EBITDA. $15-50M EBITDA add-on (PE-quality reporting, recurring commercial general liability coverage, EPA NPDES compliance audit-pass): 8.0-11.0x EBITDA. $50M+ EBITDA platform-strategic premium (IIJA-funded backlog visibility, multi-vertical): 9.0-12.0x EBITDA. HIGH

Earthwork-only firms attract 0.4-0.8x revenue multiples per BizBuySell, notably lower than other specialties, reflecting capital intensity and tight margins (BizBuySell). The ESOP comparable cluster is effectively excluded from the PE acquisition universe absent structural recapitalization, given that ESOP unwinds are rare and complex. MEDIUM

13. OSHA Trench Fatality Enforcement

OSHA recorded 39 trench fatalities in 2022 (the peak), 15 in 2023, 12-13 in 2024 depending on source, and 17 deaths in 2025 per the January 2026 update (OHS Online; Confined Space). More than 250 deaths have occurred since 2013 in trench cave-ins (NPR). The applicable regulation is 29 CFR 1926 Subpart P (Excavations), which mandates cave-in protection at five feet of depth. OSHA’s National Emphasis Program on Trenching and Excavation remains in effect. HIGH

The maximum willful penalty for 2026 is $165,514 per violation, with the serious-violation maximum at $16,550 (both effective January 15, 2025). OSHA operates under a zero-tolerance enforcement posture for unprotected trenches, with immediate inspections and criminal-prosecution referrals (OSHA). The April 2026 Revoli Construction citation cluster (Massachusetts water and sewer line: 7 willful plus 33 repeat plus 17 serious citations) followed a November 2025 trench collapse that killed one worker and injured another (EHS Today). HIGH

For PE underwriting, buyers now run pre-close OSHA Site Specific Targeting plus EH&S audit including Subpart P competent-person certification plus NCCI Experience Modification Rate delta. A single trench fatality at a $1-5M EBITDA seller can erase the entire deal value through post-close penalty plus insurance-ceiling exposure plus Davis-Bacon debarment. The structural shift in QofE practice is that diligence checklists now include trench-safety attestations matched to the seller’s actual project mix and depth profile, not just policy documentation. HIGH

14. Davis-Bacon, Buy America, DBE

Federal contracts of $2,000 or more trigger Davis-Bacon prevailing-wage requirements (DOL). In June 2024 a federal judge in Texas blocked the Department of Labor from enforcing several provisions of the Davis-Bacon Final Rule through a nationwide preliminary injunction. On March 14, 2025, Executive Order 14236 revoked the prior Executive Order 14026 federal-contractor minimum wage of $17.75 per hour, and the Department of Labor stopped enforcing 29 CFR part 23. The 2025 maximum Davis-Bacon penalty is $13,508 per violation. Wage and Hour Division FY2024 recoveries totaled $274M+ for workers, with construction representing a major share. HIGH

Buy America requirements under IIJA cover iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials inputs used on federally funded infrastructure projects. The Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) expanded coverage materially relative to prior administrations, with waivers managed through the Office of Management and Budget Made in America Office. Disadvantaged Business Enterprise requirements on federally funded contracts maintain a 10% federal Department of Transportation goal, with state-DOT-administered certification regimes affecting subcontractor selection on prime contracts. HIGH

15. State DOT Prequalification Across 50 States

All 50 states maintain prequalification programs for highway and bridge contractors. Major state Departments of Transportation including Caltrans, TxDOT, NYSDOT, FDOT, GADOT, PennDOT (ECMS), IDOT, MnDOT, MIDOT, MassDOT, VDOT, CDOT, INDOT, UDOT, and NJDOT require financial-statement audits, experience demonstrations, and bonding-capacity demonstrations. The structural effect on PE underwriting is that single-state operators face existential pressure as IIJA tail dollars flow predominantly through DOT-prequalified vendors. Multi-state platforms able to carry concurrent prequalification across five-to-ten-plus states command a premium on exit. HIGH

EPA NPDES Construction General Permit coverage is required for construction activities disturbing one or more acres, or less if part of a common plan of development disturbing one or more acres in total (EPA). Operators must design, install, and maintain erosion and sediment control plus pollution-prevention measures, and stabilize disturbed areas immediately when work is paused for more than 14 days. Recent state updates include North Carolina’s NCG01 and NCG010000 reissued April 1, 2024; NCG25 effective June 1, 2024; and Washington’s new construction stormwater permit effective January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2030 (reissued November 19, 2025). HIGH

Materials cost trends affect underwriting through 2026. Diesel rose 8.2% year-on-year through September 2025 per the AGC PPI tracking (AGC). Nonresidential construction PPI rose 3.2% from September 2024 to September 2025. Aluminum mill shapes rose 26% YoY; steel mill products rose 12.4%; precast concrete rose 5.5% YoY through September 2025. Aggregates pricing: VMC cash gross profit per ton rose 12% to $10.61 in 2024, exiting Q4 at $11.50 per ton; MLM gross profit per ton rose 12% to a record $8.45 in 2025. Transportation accounts for 50-70% of delivered aggregate cost, making diesel pass-through critical to underwriting. HIGH

16. Six (Plus Four) Contrarian Findings

Finding 1: Excavation is the under-tracked piece of IIJA-driven home-services PE consolidation. Capstone’s 2025 construction M&A report shows 237 sponsor-backed deals (+41.4% YoY) and 10.6x average PE multiples versus 7.5x strategic, but explicit excavation or site-work platforms remain under-counted relative to paving (Pavement Preservation Group/Sterling; Pave America/AEA+BCI; Sage Surface/Trinity Hunt; Heartland Paving/Soundcore; Rose+Atlantic Southern/Tenex+Harbor Beach; Sunland/Huron). Most excavation activity hides inside acquired platforms because excavation is a sub-deliverable rather than a brandable service line, suppressing tracker visibility. HIGH

Finding 2: ESOP concentration structurally caps the PE acquisition pool at the top of the market. Sundt ($3B, ENR #42), Kiewit ($16.8B, ENR #3), Brown & Caldwell, McCarthy, Mortenson, DPR, Burns & McDonnell, Black & Veatch, HDR are 100% ESOP or employee-owned. Combined revenue exceeds $50B and is structurally outside the PE acquisition perimeter absent unwind transactions. PE roll-up math has to start at the mid-market and below. HIGH

Finding 3: IIJA September 30, 2026 expiration plus Highway Trust Fund insolvency drives 2026 H1 deal pull-forward. Highway Trust Fund cannot support multiyear reauthorization at current spending levels. BUILD America 250 Act marked up May 22, 2026 would cut transit 15% real adjusted and 45% on new transit and rail. Strategics are rushing to lock in backlog ahead of the cliff; founders are incentivized to monetize at current premium pricing before uncertainty hits. HIGH

Finding 4: Knife River Corp NYSE: KNF spin-off August 2023 has emerged as a new public roll-up vehicle. 2024 plus 2025 acquisitions totaling $610M+ in 2025 alone (Strata Corp $454M at 9x 2025E EBITDA, Kraemer Trucking + Excavating, High Desert Aggregate + Paving). Active in 2026 (Donaldson Brothers MT, Texcrete + TexAgg TX). Aggressive aggregates-led vertically integrated mid-size high-growth markets thesis. Creates a new public bidder for sub-$500M aggregates-led targets that would otherwise sell to private equity. HIGH

Finding 5: OSHA trench fatality enforcement (17 deaths in 2025) materially affects QofE diligence. Maximum willful penalty 2026: $165,514 per violation. April 2026 Revoli Construction Massachusetts citation cluster (7 willful + 33 repeat + 17 serious) following November 2025 collapse death shows criminal-referral risk. Buyers now run pre-close OSHA SST plus EH&S audit including Subpart P competent-person certification plus NCCI EMR delta. A single trench fatality at a $1-5M EBITDA seller can erase entire deal value via post-close penalty plus insurance-ceiling exposure plus Davis-Bacon debarment. HIGH

Finding 6: PE buyers can arbitrage the gap between top-of-deck strategic multiples (Vulcan and Martin Marietta trade at ~20x) and mid-market private earthwork pricing (5-7x SDE). Vulcan and Martin Marietta consolidated $8B+ in 2024-2025 aggregates platform deals at HSR-cleared premiums, leaving exactly the sub-$50M EBITDA pure-earthwork segment with no obvious strategic exit. Sterling Group (PPG), AEA+BCI (Pave America), Trinity Hunt (Sage Surface), Soundcore (Heartland), Huron (Sunland), Osceola (Tendit), Stonehenge (True North), Tenex+Harbor Beach (Rose+Atlantic Southern), Investcorp+Trilantic (RoadSafe), and Kohlberg (AWP Safety) all hunt in this gap with paving and facility-services thesis. Earthwork-only platforms remain conspicuously absent. HIGH

Finding 7: Aggregates vertical integration is the only durable margin moat in excavation, but caps the addressable universe to states with workable greenfield reserves. Transportation equals 50-70% of delivered aggregate cost; per-ton delivered economics break down beyond a 30-50 mile radius. VMC plus MLM plus GVA plus KNF all explicitly underwrite reserve life (the Warren Paving acquisition strengthened Granite’s Mississippi River barge network for hauling aggregates 200+ miles via water). Aggregates-tied excavation platforms outperform on multiple, but greenfield aggregate permitting is structurally restricted in California, Florida urban, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Minnesota, limiting acquirable supply. HIGH

Finding 8: Equipment-rental consolidation (URI / HRI / AHT) is converting fleet-ownership economics into a structural advantage for excavation companies that operate-and-lease versus own. Herc/H&E June 2025 close at $5.3B with 613 North American locations; URI bid failed at $4.8B but still owns the largest fleet. Mid-market excavation operators acquired today inherit sale-leaseback optionality (PACCAR, BMO, Wells Fargo, Western Equipment Finance) generating 15-25% working-capital release at close as an implicit subsidy to PE bid math that strategics do not always model on take-out. HIGH

Finding 9: WSP-Jacobs talks (October 2025) signal that engineering professional services consolidation has reached the megacap layer, accelerating downstream pressure on mid-market PE roll-ups. WSP at $16B revenue bidding for Jacobs at $11.5B revenue would create a $27B AEC firm. Combined entity would absorb significant excavation engineering professional services work, leaving construction execution side (self-perform earthwork plus site work) as the only remaining fragmented layer. PE platforms that go heavy on engineering professional services capabilities (Stantec Page deal, AECOM transformation) are positioning to be acquired by megacap consolidators rather than to lead the next round. This is exactly the opposite of the construction-execution dynamic, where Pavement Preservation Group, Pave America, Sage Surface, Heartland, and Sunland are platforms acquiring downstream targets. HIGH

Finding 10: Aggregates-led acquisitions trade at multiples 2-3 turns above pure-play excavation because of permit-moat economics, not operational margins. Granite paid 9.2x for Warren+Papich at $710M with explicit “aggregate reserves +34% YoY” framing. The multiple is for the permit plus reserve life plus barge logistics moat, not for the paving and excavation operations attached. Knife River Strata at 9x EBITDA was an aggregates-led 30+ years reserve deal. Vulcan plus Martin Marietta trade at ~20x because investors are buying greenfield permit scarcity in California, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Illinois, not earthmoving operational expertise. PE-led excavation platforms without attached aggregate reserves will perpetually trade at a 3-5 turn discount to vertically-integrated comparables. HIGH

17. Workforce: BLS, H-2B, Union Cycle, DOT FMCSA

The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reports construction-laborer May 2024 median annual pay at $46,050 (10th percentile $33,610; 90th percentile $75,560), with employment projected to grow 7% from 2024 to 2034 (BLS OOH). Heavy-equipment-operator pay rose to $58,320 in May 2024 and $59,850 in May 2025 (median hourly $28.78), with 4% projected growth (BLS OOH). NCCI worker-comp class codes most relevant for excavation underwriting are 5604 (concrete construction NOC), 6217 (excavation and drivers, the typical primary excavation class), and 9402 (street cleaning and snow removal as an occasional adjacency). HIGH

The FY2025 H-2B visa allocation provided 64,716 supplemental visas added by the Department of Homeland Security on top of the 66,000 statutory cap, for 130,716 total available (NAHB). More than 90% of contractors report difficulty filling open positions, and immigration crackdowns affect roughly one-third of firms per recent industry surveys. The Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act (Representative Smucker, R-PA) would create a three-year visa with two three-year renewals, pending committee action. HIGH

Heavy civil and utility excavation work is heavily organized through Laborers International (LIUNA Local 1 plus state-level locals) and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE Locals in all 50 states). For QofE diligence, the 2024-2026 collective-bargaining cycle includes inflation-driven wage step-ups that erode pre-deal margin guidance unless properly modeled. Buyers should pull the actual signed collective-bargaining agreement and the five-year wage curve before issuing letters of intent. Successor liability on union platforms: the NLRB joint-employer rule reverted on February 27, 2026 to the 2020 narrow-control standard (favorable to PE on franchise and multi-entity structures). HIGH

The Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Compliance Safety Accountability score directly affects insurability, bonding, and acquisition multiple. Buyers run pre-close Safety Measurement System pulls. Excavation operators that haul their own aggregate, dump-truck their own spoils, or transport heavy equipment between jobs inherit FMCSA CSA exposure that is material to multiple regression. HIGH

18. Utility and Pipeline Public Strategics

Excavation-adjacent utility services public strategics deployed material capital in 2024-2026 with explicit data-center exposure. Quanta Services (NYSE: PWR) acquired Cupertino Electric Inc in July 2024 (data center / tech / renewable) (SEC), then executed eight 2025 acquisitions for approximately $1.73B upfront including Tri-City, Wilson, and Billings in Q4. 2025 revenue rose to $28.48B (from $23.67B) and backlog reached a record $44.0B. HIGH

MasTec (NYSE: MTZ) posted 2024 GAAP net income of $199.4M and Adjusted EBITDA of $1.0B. Q3 2025 produced record revenue of $4.0B (+22% YoY) and an 18-month backlog of $16.8B. Q4 2025 added NV2A (data center construction management). Pipeline Infrastructure segment backlog rose 124% YoY as of September 30, 2025. Dycom Industries (NYSE: DY) acquired the Black & Veatch wireless telecom carrier business for $150M in August 2024 (adding $1.0B in backlog) (Dycom IR), then closed Power Solutions LLC at approximately $1.63B cash plus 1.0M DY shares in December 2025 (Mid-Atlantic electrical, data centers) (GlobeNewswire). The Power Solutions deal at 9.7x EV/EBITDA and 1.9x EV/Revenue per Capstone implies that data-center-adjacent and electrical work commands a 2-3 turn premium to plain utility excavation. HIGH

19. Seller-Fit Matrix

The matrix below summarizes the optimal buyer type for an excavation-adjacent seller as a function of EBITDA size, vertical, and structural attributes.

20. Limitations and Gap Disclosures

Anchor QEA cap-table identification returned a LinkedIn “new shareholders” post (2022 era) that did not confirm Wind Point Partners or any specific PE sponsor. Confidence LOW. Recommend direct confirmation via Anchor QEA investor relations or a PitchBook subscription pull. LOW

AGC excavation and site-work specific data: AGC’s 2025 outlook covered 17 market categories but did not break out excavation as a discrete category in publicly available reports. Recommend AGC member-only Construction Inflation Alert and Data DIGEST for granular site-work index. GAP

NUCA industry-data publications: NUCA Business Journal and Utility Contractor Magazine were referenced but specific 2025 underground-utility market-size figures were not retrievable. Confidence MEDIUM on underground market sizing. MEDIUM

Private earthwork-only platform: research did not surface a clearly-branded “earthwork roll-up” platform analogous to Pavement Preservation Group or Pave America. Earthwork is typically a service line inside diversified site-work platforms. Confidence HIGH that no major branded earthwork roll-up exists as of June 2026. HIGH

Pave America EBITDA: AEA Investors plus BCI majority deal price not publicly disclosed. Multiple unverifiable. GAP

Knife River Strata multiple: 9x 2025E EBITDA per Knife River press release; not independently verified. MEDIUM

Construction Partners Lone Star EBITDA mix: $120M FY25 EBITDA run-rate is company-reported; M&A EV not publicly broken out for the stock portion (3M shares at variable price). MEDIUM

Rose Paving plus Atlantic Southern combined revenue: combined entity revenue not disclosed. GAP

Lower-mid water and sewer platforms (Boyne/McKee, LLCP/USA Water, Propel/Flow Services): deal sizes and multiples not disclosed. GAP

Tutor Perini “excavation” pure-play: TPC reported as heavy civil but excavation-only revenue split not broken out in 10-K. MEDIUM

Quanta Tri-City + Wilson + Billings Q4 2025: $1.73B upfront allocated across all eight 2025 acquisitions, not broken out per deal. MEDIUM

State-level excavation prequalification consolidation: 50-state DOT prequalification thresholds vary; consolidated multi-state coverage analysis would require state-by-state pull (not done here). GAP

21. Related CT Acquisitions Research

• CT PE Platform Map (master directory across home services and industrial verticals)
• HVAC PE Roll-Up Tracker (sibling home services tracker)
• Plumbing PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Roofing PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Pest Control PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Tree Service PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Foundation Repair PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Garage Doors PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Restoration PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Snow Removal PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Paving PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Septic PE Roll-Up Tracker
• Waste Hauling PE Roll-Up Tracker

22. Sources

1. IBISWorld Excavation Contractors
2. USDOT IIJA Funding Status
3. Funding Landscape IIJA 2026
4. Urban Institute BUILD America 250 Act
5. Bipartisan Policy Center HTF Mechanics
6. AGC 2025 Outlook
7. NUCA
8. OHS Online OSHA Trench
9. OSHA Trade Release
10. NPR Trench Collapse
11. Confined Space 2025 Deaths
12. EHS Today Revoli
13. BLS Construction Laborers
14. BLS Heavy Equipment Operators
15. FEMA Helene+Milton Recovery
16. DOL NDWG Florida
17. Government Contracts Legal Forum
18. Workboat USACE Sept 2025
19. Granite Q2 2024
20. Granite Warren+Papich
21. StockStory Granite Q4
22. Knife River Q4 2024 SEC
23. Knife River Texas
24. Knife River 2024 FY
25. Construction Partners Lone Star
26. Vulcan IR FY24
27. AInvest Vulcan Q2 2025
28. Martin Marietta SEC
29. MLM IR
30. Summit Argos SEC
31. Summit Quikrete SEC
32. Macrotrends AECOM
33. Stantec 2024 Results
34. Stantec Page
35. Tutor Perini Backlog
36. Tutor Perini Manhattan Jail
37. Sundt ENR 2026
38. Kiewit Research
39. Brown & Caldwell Certified EO
40. Burns & McDonnell Matrix BCG
41. PPG Holbrook + IPS
42. PPG Asphalt Paving Systems
43. AEA Pave America
44. Brookfield + Soundcore + Heartland
45. Heartland S&K Asphalt Ohio
46. Heartland Macadam
47. Trinity Hunt Sage Surface
48. Huron Sunland Metro Pavers
49. Osceola Tendit
50. RoadSafe Investcorp Trilantic
51. Kohlberg AWP Safety
52. Willkie Rose+ASP
53. Boyne McKee
54. URI H&E Definitive
55. Herc H&E Close
56. Quanta Cupertino Electric
57. Dycom B&V Wireless
58. Dycom Power Solutions
59. Capstone Construction M&A 2025
60. BizBuySell Heavy Construction
61. DOL Davis-Bacon
62. EPA NPDES Construction
63. AGC Input Costs Sept 2025
64. NAHB H-2B 2025
65. Needs Dirt AI Data Centers
66. DataCenter Dynamics
67. Jacobs Solutions
68. Construction Dive WSP-Jacobs
69. Coastal Construction Group
70. OSHA Defense Subpart P

23. Frequently Asked Questions

Related research: for the LMM M&A buyer-pool 3-5x expansion 2018-2026 across 5 cohorts (family offices 651 to 4,067 per Preqin/BlackRock, Stanford GSB 681 search funds + 94 record 2023, McGuireWoods independent sponsors 200 to 1,600 = 8x + Axial 27% LMM share, LMM PE platforms HVAC 8 to 35+ + dental DSO 12 to 35+, SBA FY25 $8.29B + 7,003 deals), see the 2018-2026 US M&A Buyer-Pool Influx Report.

Related research: for $80-100B US commercial PM with Big 4 vs LMM arbitrage (Cushman CWFS to Vixxo Aug 1 2024; WeWork emerged Ch 11 June 11 2024 Yardi 60%; CBRE/Industrious $800M Jan 14 2025; Aligned/AIP/MGX/BlackRock GIP Oct 15 2025 $40B = largest data center deal ever; Healthpeak/Physicians Realty $21B March 1 2024), see the 2024-2026 Commercial + Industrial + Retail Property Management PE Roll-Up Tracker.

Related research: for 14+ active platforms including Pave America AEA+BCI Aug 2025, PPG Sterling Group, and Sunland Huron NOT Highland, see the 2026 Paving Asphalt & Pavement Maintenance PE Roll-Up Tracker.

24. About the Author

This tracker is part of the CT Acquisitions research series on US private-equity roll-ups across home services and industrial verticals. CT Acquisitions evaluates buy-side, sell-side, and refinancing transactions across construction, facility services, healthcare services, and industrial services markets. The excavation tracker is the ninth in the 2026 home-services finisher wave and the 36th tracker published by CT Acquisitions to date. Methodology and source ranking are documented under the CT Methodology page.

Last updated: June 21, 2026.