Heavy Constructors - Leadership

A long proud history of serving the Kansas City Region

Since 1950, the Heavy Constructors Association of the Greater Kansas City Area has been the advocate for public works in both Kansas and Missouri. The HCA remains committed to delivering needed improvements to Kansas City’s highways, roads, bridges, airports, rivers, sanitary water and storm water systems. Our quality of life as we know it depends on these facilities which we use each and every day.

The HCA was started nearly 70 years ago when a group of area construction company executives met in old Union Station and agreed to join together to tackle the challenges in construction. Over the years, the HCA, made up mainly by local family-owned businesses, has worked hand-in-hand with city, county, state, and federal elected officials and civic leaders to build the infrastructure that is the very foundation of our metropolitan area and our lives.

The story of the HCA is really the story of Kansas City in the years following Worlds War II. The story of how the challenges facing a growing city were met. These challenges continue today; safer roads and bridges; sports entertainment facilities; KCI; and flood retention structures including the Kansas and Missouri River levies and area lakes.

The Heavy Constructors have supported many projects of great significance to the area’s citizens including the revitalization of Union Station and Liberty Memorial. The story of the Heavy Constructors is the story of the proud men and women of the heavy, highway and utility construction industry working together to build the future of our city. The HCA’s motto, “Making It Better…” exemplifies the can-do spirit of the Association members, who are rising to meet the challenges of building on the past to improve Kansas City and the states of Kansas and Missouri.

Operation Bulldozer

After heavy rains in the Kansas River basin, the rise of water began its destruction in the Argentine District, then covered Armourdale, the West Bottoms and the Central Industrial District. The devastation was complete. Compounding the problem, large numbers of live stock were killed in their holding pens in the West Bottoms. The Army Corps of Engineers divided the flood ravaged area into districts and assigned the districts to HCA members to begin the clean-up.

That was the birth of Plan Bulldozer, a community service provided by the HCA to local governments during natural or man-made disasters that require equipment, labor and expertise to alleviate human loss of life and suffering. Over the years, Plan Bulldozer has been implemented during numerous emergencies, the more tragic being: the Ruskin Heights tornado of 1957, the Conoco Oil Storage Plant fire in 1959, the Plaza Flood in 1976, the Hyatt skywalk collapse in 1981, and the 1993 flood in Kansas City. As part of Plan Bulldozer, the HCA, in cooperation with the Builders’ Association, publishes an Emergency Resources Catalog with information on available resources for handling disasters and catastrophic events. The catalog is distributed annually at no cost to area emergency response personnel.

As a single piece of legislation, the 1956 Interstate Highway Act ranks as the most significant in the history of the Heavy Constructors and changed the nation as a whole. The Act created work for thousands of men in the local construction industry and provided modern, full access control highways to ease travel between major cities throughout the nation. HCA members built Interstate Highways 29, 35, 70, 435, 635 and 670. These highways enable rapid and efficient movement of people and goods throughout the entire metropolitan area and to other points nationally.

In 1988 Cavalcade of Progress epitomized the leadership of the Heavy Constructors as the voice for needed public improvements. The Cavalcade of Progress was a long procession of heavy construction equipment that stretched from KCI Airport to the Truman Sports complex, delivering the message to fund needed public works. The procession received extensive media coverage and underscored the message of “Let’s go to Work!”

The Heavy Constructors have led the fight for safer, modern highways in Kansas. Following a period of decline in the early- to mid-1980’s the state’s highways were in trouble. The HCA worked to enact the 1989 Comprehensive Highway Program (CHP) to address the problems facing Kansas Highways. While much was accomplished by the 1989 CHP, needs remained. The HCA worked with the Governor and legislature to enact the 1999 Comprehensive Transportation Program. The Heavy Constructors are proud to have been part of the effort to make Kansas better.

HCA has been pressed to have essential transportation improvements funded in Missouri. The Association worked diligently on the 1992 Fifteen-Year Plan as a means of making those improvements become a reality. The HCA was the first to publicly question the financial ability of the Plan to deliver promised projects. The Association continues to work today to provide the people of Missouri with necessary transportation improvements of safer and modern highways.

The Heavy Constructors Association has a long and proud history of working with the area’s elected public officials to improve our infrastructure. Most recently working to get approved by Kansas City voters the $800 Million in General Obligation Bonds to fund infrastructure projects and approval for the $1.5 Billion new Single Terminal Project at KCI.

For seven decades, the Heavy Constructors Association has worked to improve our airports, storm and wastewater sewers, roads, and bridges throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Today, the Heavy Constructors Association of Greater Kansas City includes approximately 150 proud member companies comprised of general contractors, specialty contractors, major suppliers, suppliers and affiliate members.

Heavy Constructors Association
1100 Walnut, Suite 2950
Kansas City, Missouri 64106
p: (816) 753-6443 | f: (816) 753-1239
info@heavyconstructors.org