Infrastructure Coalition Spotlight: AJAX Paving Industries of Florida
Scott Pittman serves as Vice President for AJAX Paving Industries of Florida. AJAX Paving Industries of Florida is a member of the Florida Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors, a group of leading companies in Florida committed to securing Florida’s Future.
What does your business do in Florida? Ajax Paving Industries of FL, LLC is a privately held asphalt paving contractor with 8 asphalt plants spread across west-central Florida. We are a prime contractor on Heavy Highway Construction projects with our biggest customer being the Florida Department of Transportation along with the many municipalities in our region. We currently employ over 500 employees from Naples to Crystal River.
In addition to being an asphalt paving company, we are also on the leading edge of the ever-growing Alternative Delivery method of project procurement. Alternative Delivery affords owners the ability to complete critical projects much quicker than the traditional Design/Bid/Build method. At Ajax, we have a strong team of Professionals that are well-versed in understanding the owner’s wants and needs, while being able to facilitate a project from the early stages of design through final construction.
How would you like to see Florida’s infrastructure improve by 2030? One area of improvement that immediately comes to mind is we need to relieve the daily bottlenecks that hamper the flow of people and goods all around our State. Anyone that has lived here in Florida for any amount of time, knows exactly where these locations are, such as I-4 West of Orlando. Florida’s population continues to grow at a rapid pace and to accommodate this growth it is imperative we continue to invest in our infrastructure. Fortunately, thanks to a sizable budget surplus last year in Tallahassee and a Governor with a vision to keep Florida flowing, it was recently announced that a significant infusion of funds will start the process of alleviating these bottlenecks well in advance of their originally scheduled timeline. The 7-billion-dollar infusion will move some projects up as much as 15 years from when they were supposed to be constructed per the original funding availability.
Do you have any projects or advancements in progress you would like to highlight? Living here in Florida does leave us susceptible to the threat of hurricanes and last fall we were all reminded how devastating some of these storms can be with the passing of Hurricane Ian. The toll these major storms have on our citizens, their property, and business can be significant. This also holds true with our state’s infrastructure, which was evident by the damage Hurricane Ian caused at Sanibel, Pine Island, and many other locations across Southwest Florida.
As the local and trusted FDOT contractor in Southwest Florida, Ajax Paving was honored to be selected to help get our state roadways back open as quickly as possible. While many of our employees were significantly affected by the storm, once they had their personal situations handled, they were eager to go to work and do their part to help their fellow citizens. In the first 30 days after the storm, we deployed hundreds of our personnel and equipment to temporarily restore Sanibel along with over 50 different critically damaged locations across Southwest Florida, where road washouts or bridge damage had made the roads impassable. Still today we have crews working at some of the less critical locations.
Today, our engineering team is working in partnership with FDOT and RS&H to design and plan a permanent fix for Sanibel and Pine Island that will be resilient enough to handle any future storms mother nature throws our way. The new Phased Design Build partnership will allow our team to design and build this work in a time frame never achievable under traditional methods, especially considering the size and scope.