Dive Brief:
- This year's Fortune 500, an annual list that ranks companies based on revenue, includes seven major commercial engineering and construction firms, with Fluor claiming the top spot among its peers and at No. 149 overall.
- AECOM (No. 161), Jacobs Engineering Group (No. 259), Peter Kiewit Sons (No. 324), Quanta Services (No. 355), EMCOR Group (No. 360) and CH2M Hill (No. 494) rounded out the list of engineering and construction companies making the top 500.
- Fluor was first in the sector on Fortune's 2016 list and increased its overall rank from last year's No. 155. EMCOR also rose in the ranking by 21 spots. The other entries slipped from their 2016 rankings, with AECOM falling five spots, Jacobs falling 24, Kiewit falling 10, Quanta falling three and CH2M Hill losing 16 places.
Dive Insight:
Earlier this year, Fortune issued its yearly ranking of the world's most-admired engineering and construction companies, and Fluor topped that list as well. Jacobs, Kiewit, EMCOR and AECOM also appeared on the list.
While Fluor is one of the largest contractors in the country, it is not immune to the occasional troubled job. The company is a part of Purple Line Transit Partners, which is under contract to finance, design, build, operate and maintain the $5.6 billion, 16-mile Purple Line light-rail project in and around Bethesda, MD.
PLTP announce financial close in June of last year and had secured an agreement from the Federal Transit Administration for a $900 million grant. However, opponents of the project, who wished to save a popular park from demolition, filed a lawsuit trying to stop construction. In August, a federal judge revoked the Purple Line's state and federal approval just days before the FTA was to deliver the money to project officials.
At issue are accurate ridership numbers, which U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said need to be studied further and resubmitted as part of a supplemental environmental review. The Maryland Attorney General's Office has appealed Leon's order, and, so far, PLTP is on board and committed to seeing the project through.
Another major U.S. project for Fluor is the construction of a $1.8 billion Novo Nordisk diabetes active pharmaceutical ingredient factory in Clayton, NC. The contractor has a $1.2 billion contract to build the 830,000-square-foot plant, which should be complete in 2020.
