In the environmental marketplace, Karl Yost, Wilder Construction’s environmental division manager, says that some specialties are steady.

“Several areas seem to be holding their own... landfill constructions and closures, marine sediment work, mine reclamation and restoration along with mine improvements and upgrades.” But, Yost notes, “It’s a soft market.”

Wilder’s environmental division, part of heavy civil contractor Wilder Construction, has a strong relationship with the Environemtal Protection Agency and has worked on a number of Superfund cleanups throughout the West.

Lately those projects have included Air Force bases in Sacramento and New Mexico, as well as dreging work in the Northwest and in San Francisco Bay. Wilder is ranked in the top 25 of hazardous waste contractors by Engineering News Record.

Wilder is also marketing its own low-permable pavement, called MATCON, that can be used to cap and contain hazardous soils. Yost says the firm has received “quite a bit of interest” in MATCON and that it is particularly valuable in working with brownfield sites.

Yost says, in the near term, things look solid for Wilder.

“Some projects are surfacing for constructionn that have been in planning for years at the Superfund level,” he says.