Business View Magazine | January 2021

78 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2021 WHOLESALERS OF PIPE • VALVES • FITTINGS WATERWORKS • SANITARY SEWER • STORM SEWER (816) 459-8600 3939 NE 33RD TER KANSAS CITY, MO 64117 office, I’ll go run equipment out in the field.’ So, I took over operations and started working 15 hour days for close to 10 years just to get even. By doing that, I learned a whole lot, so I feel like I can get us through about any kind of problems now.” Today, Linaweaver Construction works on multi-million dollar projects. In fact, the company is about to close the books on a year of exceptional productivity, including a 198- acre plot project in Lansing, Kansas. And a $5.3 million road project in the Kansas City suburb of Gladstone, Missouri, where about 120,000 cubic yards of dirt was excavated to reroute Pleasant Valley Road. Nearly 3,000 feet of new road was built, while one mile of existing road was rehabilitated. A new storm sewer, two large block retaining walls, street lighting, a roundabout, a bike lane, and sidewalk were also installed. In spite of the challenges of COVID-19, there was a silver lining for Linaweaver Construction this year thanks to an unusual shift in the weather. While a substantial amount of their work usually stems from the aftermath of heavy rains that overwhelm aging sewer systems, it was actually a lack of precipitation that accelerated project completions in 2020. Mark explains, “The weather’s been so dry. We generally allow, say in a six-month period from May to November, that probably a month and a half to two months of that is going to be rain or bad weather. And we didn’t have that this year. So, much more work was accomplished.” Linaweaver Construction counts both Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, among its clients. Nearly 50 other municipalities, as well as the Kansas Department of Transportation and Missouri Department of Transportation are also on that list. “We work about 75 percent with cities across the metro area,” says Mark. “All the cities within a 50-mile radius know us pretty well. And we do probably 25 percent of private subdivisions or commercial buildings.”