DeLong Construction puts pride into earth-moving

When one thinks of construction, the mind usually jumps to images of incomplete buildings being finished one layer at a time, or perhaps a lattice of scaffolding that stretches into the sky, or maybe even a cement truck filling in a foundation or a road.

All of these come after one pivotal step, however: earth-moving. That is the business of DeLong Construction.

“It’s basically moving dirt from one place to another, according to what the plans call for,” Co-Owner Dana DeLong-Patterson said. “We might put the rock down, we also do underground utility installations … sometimes we’re working for other contractors, sometimes we’re working for a public entity like the city of Washington or Johnson County, and sometimes we’re working for construction managers.”

That’s all there is to it. With only a few exceptions, DeLong Construction moves dirt. It doesn’t pour foundations or pave public roads or dig basements. The industry term for their work is “horizontal construction,” as opposed to better-known “vertical construction.”

There’s a lot more to the job than making the ground flat, however. the company sets the stage for every other part of any large-scale building project, by ensuring proper drainage and quality soil types underneath a foundation.

“There’s something rewarding about transforming the earth,” DeLong-Patterson said. “You physically change things to match what’s on paper, and there’s a tangible product that you can drive by, years from now, and tell your kids or your family, ‘I got to help with that.’”

The company was founded in 1994 between brother and sister Deran DeLong and Dana DeLong-Patterson, both of whom learned the ropes working for their father’s similar company growing up.

That year, they had 11 employees, six of whom still work there. Today, it has 87, operating all over a roughly 70-mile radius centered on Washington, Iowa.

“Many contractors work statewide and in neighboring states,” DeLong-Patterson said. “We have made a concerted effort to stay in this part of the state so that our employees get to go home at night. We’re a family-owned business, we believe in family values, we want people to be home with their families.”

DeLong Construction strives to do “pride-worthy projects,” in the words of DeLong-Patterson.

“We want people to be happy that they chose DeLong Construction as the contractor, and know that they’re going to get a product that’s built the way they want it,” she said. “We have great people who work for us, and they do great work.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com