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Data Centers Need Dirt Too, Plus Three Resume Fixes

16 October 2026

Welcome to Issue 4

Happy Friday, and welcome back to Bridging the Gap.

Last week's resume piece got a lot of people sending me theirs, so this week I'm picking up where I left off and showing a few real-world fixes. After that there's the week's news, a spotlight on Archer Western, and a look at what civil contractors are really doing on data centers, beyond the headlines about chips and power.

 

Resume clinic: three lines, three fixes

Here are three lines from resumes I was sent this past week, with details changed to keep them anonymous, and how I'd fix them. Lead with the project, add the numbers, name the delivery method.

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Send me yours and I'll do the same, whether you're looking or not.

 

The week in brief

Cardinal buys its way into Central Florida. Raleigh-based Cardinal Infrastructure Group is buying Hughes Brothers Construction, Inc. of Wildwood, Florida, for $357.5M, rising to as much as $455M with earnouts. That brings more than 500 people, around 25 underground utility pipe crews and over 300 pieces of heavy equipment. It's Cardinal's fourth acquisition this year, and it plans to use Hughes Brothers as a base for more Florida deals. My take: heavy civil roll-ups are speeding up, and the prize is crews and equipment as much as backlog. If you're at a firm that's just been bought, it's a good time to think about where you fit.

A $494M rare earth plant moves forward in Louisiana. Aclara Resources has finished basic engineering with Hatch for a processing plant at the Port of Vinton, west of Lake Charles. The estimate jumped 78% from April. Site prep is targeted for early 2027, but financing isn't done yet and an EPCM contractor still needs to be picked. My take: that's another big industrial job for the Lake Charles corridor, on top of Calcasieu.

Akron wants to drop a $300M wastewater plant. Akron, Ohio, is asking to cancel a planned $300M high-rate treatment facility under its federal consent decree. It would disinfect discharges for two extra months a year instead and move the money to its aging drinking water system. My take: more cities are going to look at their consent decree work again as costs rise. Expect more of these renegotiations.

A new rule for transit funding. The FTA has proposed giving Capital Investment Grant projects a 5% higher federal share in regions with above-average marriage or birth rates. Sen. Patty Murray called it "bizarre and dystopian," and comments are open until November 16. My take: whatever you think of it, it adds uncertainty for transit contractors already dealing with the funding cuts we covered in Issue 1.

$815M for South Carolina solar. Developer energyRe closed financing on five solar projects totalling 360 MW in South Carolina, with Duke Energy Corporation grid work alongside. My take: power and grid work in the Carolinas keeps growing, and it's pulling in the same site and civil crews.

 

Company spotlight: The Walsh Group - Walsh Construction & Archer Western

If you want one firm that shows how big roads and water have become together, it's Archer Western. The Atlanta-based contractor is part of Chicago's Walsh family of companies. In ENR's 2026 Texas & Southeast rankings it came first in both transportation ($1,609.6M) and water supply ($468.3M), and second in sewerage and solid waste ($505.9M). Hardly any other firm is near the top of all three.

The flagship right now is the $692M I-285/I-20 East Interchange in DeKalb County, Georgia. Archer Western leads the East Interchange Builders JV with E.R. Snell, under GDOT's design-build-finance model, and it's due to finish by the end of 2026. The engineering is clever: single drilled shafts up to 116 feet deep for each bridge pier, instead of two-column bents, which avoided pile-cap excavation next to live traffic. It's also the first GDOT job to use a three-member dispute resolution board.

That's alongside major aviation work, including leading the design-build team on the $855M Terminal F concourse at DFW.

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Why it's interesting

Archer Western shows that the old line between highway contractors and water contractors is fading. Its people move between interchanges, pump stations and treatment plants, and they're comfortable with every delivery model from hard bid to progressive design-build and DBF.

What it means for talent: engineers and supers who can cross over between transportation and water are some of the most valuable people in the market. Firms that want to compete with Archer Western need them, and they're hard to find.

 

Opinion: what civil contractors are really doing on data centers

Most data center headlines are about chips, power and the hyperscalers' budgets. But every one of those buildings sits on a site that someone has to clear, grade, drain, connect and supply with water. That's heavy civil work, and there's a lot of it.

The scale is huge

ConstructConnect counted $81.5B of data center construction starts in just the first half of 2026, already more than the whole of 2025 ($72.5B). North Carolina, Virginia and Texas are all near the top, and Texas, North Carolina and Virginia lead the pipeline of planned starts for the rest of the year.

What the civil scope actually looks like

Take the $2B project in Poughkeepsie, New York. Before any of the technical fit-out starts, a campus that size needs the same things every big data center site does:

 

  • Mass earthwork and pads. Ames Construction's published data center work includes jobs with 1 to 2 million cubic yards of mass grading done in seven to nine months.
  • Underground utilities and duct banks. Miles of conduit, water, sewer and fire lines, often put in alongside other trades on a tight schedule.
  • Substation and power pads. Grading, foundations and access for on-site substations, plus coordination with the utility's own grid work.
  • Water and wastewater. Supply mains, storage tanks, cooling water systems and, more and more, on-site treatment and reuse. Last week we saw SpaceX's Texas Terafab plan its own water treatment and recycling plant.
  • Stormwater and roads. Detention ponds, access roads, turn lanes and laydown yards, usually the first things built and the last things finished.

The catch: permission and power

New York is a good example of the risk. In July, Governor Hochul signed an executive order pausing state environmental permits for new data centers of 50 MW or more until a statewide review is finished. Facilities used mainly for research, including quantum computing, are exempt. Earlier this month she proposed that developers pay host communities $1M per megawatt. So in New York, which projects actually get built depends on what kind of facility it is and whether the community wants it.

My take: this is why the civil contractors doing best on data centers check the basics before chasing every job: is the power real, is the money real, and is the community on board? Get those right and the site work is some of the fastest, best-paid civil work in the market.

What it means for people

Data center site work needs the same people as highways and water plants: earthwork supers, utility foremen, civil PMs and estimators who can price mass grading quickly. Many of them are being pulled off traditional civil work by better money and faster schedules.

At MKH Search, we're working on a lot of data center roles right now, from site supers to project directors. If you're open to a conversation, or just curious what's out there, get in touch.

 

By the numbers: top 10 transportation contractors in Texas & the Southeast

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The Walsh Group - Walsh Construction & Archer Western tops ENR's 2026 Texas & Southeast transportation ranking at $1,609.6M, just ahead of Kiewit ($1,526.8M). FlatironDragados and Webber, a Ferrovial company are almost level in third and fourth, about $1M apart. The top four are all within about $135M of each other, so it's a very tight race at the top of the region's road and bridge market.

Source: Engineering News-Record Texas & Southeast Top Contractors by Market Sector, 2026.

 

 

That's a wrap

Thanks for reading Issue 4. Keep the resumes coming, and if there's a company you'd like spotlighted next time, let me know in the comments.

We're working on a lot of data center, transportation and water roles at MKH Search right now. Whether you're hiring or thinking about your next move, I'm always happy to chat. We also pay referral fees for good recommendations.

Have a great weekend, and see you in the next issue of Bridging the Gap.

Sophie Booker, Senior Consultant, Heavy Civil Division at MKH Search

🔔 Follow Sophie Booker and subscribe so you don't miss the next one 📩 sophie.booker@mkhsearch.com

 

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