March 2021 Vol. 76 No. 3

Features

Profiles in Underground Construction

75th Anniversary

Doosan Infracore North America, LLC 

THEN 

• Founded in 1896, with a long legacy in infrastructure support.
• History in equipment manufacturing began in 1937 as Chosun Machine Works, Korea’s first large-scale machinery factory; first facility built in Incheon, South Korea. 
• When Doosan Infracore first entered the North American market, its main products were excavators and wheel loaders; over time, offerings grew to include wheel excavators, articulated dump trucks, material handlers, log loaders, mini excavators and attachments.
• Created Construction Equipment Division in 1977 and completed an excavator production plant in Incheon, South Korea, to further develop heavy equipment. Produced and shipped first crawler excavator in 1978 and began wheel loader production in 1990. 
• In 2008, an acquisition added a line of articulated dump trucks.

NOW 

• Doosan Infracore North America, LLC, became its own business entity in January 2018, and is based in Suwanee, Georgia, near Atlanta.
• Headquarters in Suwanee, Ga., near Atlanta, supports a network of more than 160 authorized Doosan dealers in the U.S. and Canada.
• Equipment lineup includes crawler excavators, wheel excavators, wheel loaders, articulated dump trucks, material handlers, log loaders and attachments.
• Customers use Doosan machines in construction, forestry, recycling, mining, utility, agriculture and landscaping.
• Today, at an expanded Incheon campus, as well as a facility in Gunson, South Korea, Doosan produces excavators, wheel loaders, log loaders and material handlers.
• Articulated dump trucks are built at the Doosan manufacturing facility near Elnesvågen, Norway.

MILESTONES 

• Since 2005, Doosan has grown from its position as the seventh-largest construction equipment manufacturer in the world, to the fifth-largest. 
• Celebrated 80th anniversary on June 4, 2017, marking the founding of Chosun Machine Works, known as Korea’s first large-scale machinery company.
• Built a network of dealers in North America, with a solid infrastructure to support customers and their equipment, including parts distribution centers in Seattle and Atlanta, service training and product management
  in Georgia, sales training at The ROC customer experience facility in Arizona, and attachment design and development in Minnesota.
• Offers the DoosanCONNECT telematics management system, which helps customers monitor their Doosan machines.

CONNECTIONS 

• For the past 10-plus years, the Doosan marketing department in North America has enjoyed a partnership with Underground Construction magazine, hosting Editor-in-Chief Robert Carpenter at media events and interacting with him during tradeshows. 
• Appreciate the editorial coverage of its products in the magazine and on the Underground Construction website.

 

Midwest Mole, Inc. 

THEN 

• Founded in 1982, by Len & Jane Liotti, as a trenchless underground contractor, in Indianapolis.
• Initial offerings were auger boring and conventional tunneling; targeted market was Central Indiana and Chicago.
• Founders’ son Dan took over the company in 2003.

NOW 

• Became an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) corporation in 2020, when the second-generation owner retired.
• Expanded from mainly working in the Midwest within 8 hours of Indianapolis, to projects throughout and opened a second office in the Alexandria, Va., area.
• Full-service trenchless contractor specializing in auger boring, pipe jacking, hand mining, horizontal directional drilling, conventional soft ground and rock tunneling, and slip lining.
• Serve municipal water and sewer, electric & telecommunication, highway & railroad transportation markets.

MILESTONES 

• Strong growth over the last 20 years.
• 2007 project at the Indianapolis Airport helped us to step up to that next level of handling larger and more complex jobs and earned industry recognition.
• Since then, have been recognized by peers several times, including winning NUCA’s Top Jobs award in 2020 for an emergency repair project on a failing sewer in downtown Louisville.

CONNECTIONS 

• Always look forward to receiving Underground Construction. There are many options for construction industry publications, but few put the focus on our specialty of underground work like Underground Construction.
• Encourage our employees to make sure they receive and review each issue, and even tear out articles and ads they find useful, saving them for reference or to share with others.

From Archive