Earning Their Stripes
Beltway Striping & Traffic Control, Inc. paves the way for continued growth and success
When Ervin Williams founded Beltway Paving Company (Beltway Paving), he had been working in the asphalt industry for more than 20 years, ever since the end of World War II. In 1966, with the support of his wife, Evelyn, he made the move to open his own asphalt paving company. Today, more than half a century after it was established, the family-owned business is still humming.
And with the addition of Beltway Striping & Traffic Control, Inc. earlier this year, the company is now a one-stop shop for contractors looking for site work and paving services.
Headquartered in Waldorf, Maryland, Beltway Paving offers a suite of services, including asphalt repair and resurfacing; industrial concrete slabs and concrete curbs, gutters and sidewalks; erosion control; excavation; grading; as well as wet and dry utilities. While the company’s focus began with paving small parking lots, it now manages both small and large projects for industrial, government, large commercial customers and residential across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
“We provide a variety of services for a complete site package that’s all done in-house,” says Kirk Barber, Project Manager. “Everything—from asphalt to demolition, excavation, concrete and striping—is all done here.”
Growing the Company
During his years of running the business, Ervin taught his son, Michael (known to all as Mickey), the trade. In 1989, Ervin officially passed the torch to Mickey, which was a turning point for the business. Through Mickey’s leadership and vision, the company grew by leaps and bounds.
At the time when Mickey took the helm, Beltway Paving had been limited by smaller and older equipment. Mickey modernized and expanded the company by buying newer equipment and bidding larger jobs. What began as a small family business with just six employees during its first year has grown in both size and scope.
In 2013, Mickey passed the reins to his daughter, Christine, who currently serves as President, and Tim Moore, Vice President. Mickey’s youngest son, Charlie, has also joined the family operation. The third generation of the Williams family has continued to build on Mickey’s vision of expansion by adding to Beltway Paving’s repertoire of services, all while keeping his commitment to customer service at the forefront of the business.
Sadly, Mickey passed away in February of this year. While the Beltway Paving team mourns his loss, they are proud to honor his legacy, cemented in the continual growth and success of the company.
It had always been Mickey’s vision to provide road striping and traffic control in-house.
“My dad was the type of person who was always thinking of the next thing; he was our visionary,” remembers Christine. “He told us, ‘We need to provide striping for our customers.’ It was a no-brainer. We’re already on the job paving it, so why not do the striping ourselves?”
By early 2020, Beltway Striping & Traffic Control, Inc., a subsidiary of Beltway Paving Company, was established. The company handles all types of parking lot or road striping and provides temporary traffic control during road construction. Beltway Striping & Traffic Control also operates alongside Beltway Graphics & Signs, which fabricates all types of signage, including on-site construction signs, regulatory signs seen on roadways and handicapped parking signs.
In just a few months, this fledgling company has worked on the road striping for North Road, which runs through the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., along with striping and seal coating the zoo’s parking lots. They’ve also completed striping and seal coating for the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) at a St. Mary’s County park and ride location, and they did the striping for a new roundabout installed on Prince Frederick Boulevard in Prince Frederick, Maryland. And that’s just the beginning.
Under the leadership of Jimmy Johnson, Head of Operations, both Beltway Striping & Traffic Control and Beltway Graphic & Signs have received certifications with the State of Maryland. Beltway Striping & Traffic Control has all the required equipment and expertise to complete thermoplastic striping on state roads. And Beltway Graphics & Signs is a Maryland Department of Transportation-approved sign company, meaning it can provide official regulatory signs on the roadways—like speed limit signs, stop signs or warning signs. Traffic control rounds out the services.
“We are a one-stop shop,” Jimmy says. “If a general contractor wants to get a [site work or paving] job done from start to finish, we can hand them the whole deal with just our one company.”
As Vice President Tim Moore explains, each of these added divisions are all part of the same goal: to provide the services that customers need.
Commitment to Service
“The Beltway Paving brand is built on offering quality services,” Tim says. “We’re going to do a great job, and we’re going to deliver the project on time.”
Dave Norwood, Project Manager for seven years, echoes that sentiment. Recalling when he first interviewed for his position at Beltway Paving, Dave asked what sets the company apart from its competitors. “The first words out of Mickey’s mouth were ‘customer satisfaction,’ ” he says.
Beltway Paving and Beltway Striping’s commitment to service can also be seen in the way its team members work together to meet customers’ needs.
Each area of the business has its own point person. For instance, Kirk is the go-to person for concrete, whereas asphalt is a specialty for Dave, and Jimmy handles all things striping and traffic control. This creates a culture of collaboration, where team members rely on each other.
“We feed off each other’s experience and expertise,” Dave explains. “If I have a project that includes site concrete work, I’m going to go to Kirk and ask for his opinion.”
“No one person does it all,” Jimmy adds. “Everybody works together, and it is definitely a team effort. You can reach out to anybody at any level, and everybody is right there to take that task on with you.”
The team-centric culture at Beltway Paving is one thing that stood out to Jimmy when he first joined the company. “Personally, I’ve never met a better group of people in all my life. Everybody here seems to be very happy to come to work, which says something about a company. They treat everyone as if they’re family, and they go the extra mile for people,” he says.
Lasting Legacy
As Beltway Striping & Traffic Control continues to grow, Christine is excited by its future prospects and seeing her father’s vision come to life. “It’s exciting to know we’ve started this, and it can grow into something that can stand alone beside Beltway Paving and be as successful, or even more successful. The fact that my dad wanted it so bad makes it even more sentimental to us.”
“Paving was my dad’s entire life,” Christine says. “He wanted us to be successful. He wanted to see his legacy live on through me, Tim and my brother, Charlie. He had bold ideas at times, but when we reminded him that we wanted to stick with what we knew, we ended up doing very well.”
For both Christine and Tim, the success that Beltway Paving and Beltway Striping & Traffic Control have seen so far is thanks to the dedication of the team members.
“Every contractor knows that it’s your people who make you,” Tim says. “Beltway Paving and Beltway Striping & Traffic Control are made up of great people. They’re hard workers who treat the customer with respect. They’re honest, they do the best job they can, and they do it on time.”
“We have a strong team,” adds Christine. “We’re very lucky to have the key people in place that we do—people we can trust, people we know will do a good job and people who care.”