Ironworker Foreman Joseph Cieszkowski and Carpenter Foreman Leonard Gearhart led the crew installing stay-in-place metal bridge deck forms for the raising and redecking of the Bayonne Bridge in New Jersey.

The J. Anthony Equipment Co. leadership team in front of a Nelson Stud Welder system. Pictured left to right: Engineer Kevin Kelly, and Vice Presidents Richard Anthony and Rob Anthony.

For 50 years, J. Anthony Equipment Co. has been helping to build and repair bridges and buildings in the tri-state region.

J. Anthony Equipment, located in South Plainfield, New Jersey, is in its third generation of family ownership. The company designs, sells and installs stay-in-place metal bridge forms as well as sells and installs shear connectors—or studs—for buildings, bridges and other applications.

The company has five state-of-the-art portable stud welding systems. The stud-welding component of each system is powered by an electrical system that has the capability to weld studs up to 1 inch in diameter but is also precise enough to weld studs as small as a quarter-inch in diameter by a half-inch long.

Father and son Richard Anthony and Rob Anthony currently lead day-to-day operations as Co-Vice Presidents of the small business. Richard’s wife, JoAnn, holds the title of President, and the two of them own the majority share of the business with Rob owning the remainder.

Since its founding, the company has subcontracted on over 600 projects throughout the Northeast, with most of the projects in New Jersey and New York City. The company is a member of the Associated Construction Contractors of New Jersey, and its workforce consists of qualified union ironworkers and carpenters working in tandem on bridge deck projects. Stud welding is handled solely by qualified ironworkers. The company’s foremen have an average of 20 years of experience in the field. The company employs 10 full-time workers, and union workers are hired on a per-project basis.

From the Bayonne Bridge to Freedom Tower

“We are not afraid to take on difficult projects. We take on intricate work that takes a lot of design, a lot of engineering,” Rob says.

A notable project involved installing bridge deck forms on the Bayonne Bridge connecting Bayonne, New Jersey, and Staten Island, New York, so that the bridge could be raised 64 feet to accommodate larger ships. That project, designed by HDR Inc. and WSP, was named the No. 1 Bridge Project of 2019 by Roads & Bridges magazine.

The company is also working on the redesign of LaGuardia Airport, where workers have already installed bridge deck forms and welded studs on 16 new bridges, with two remaining. The new bridges are intended to make the airport more accessible and to ease traffic. The company also installed bridge deck forms and studs on the FDR Drive Reconstruction: Outboard Roadway Detour, which moved traffic onto a new bypass bridge so work could be done on the old bridge without disrupting the traffic flow. That project was named a top project in 2004 by New York Construction magazine.

One of J. Anthony Equipment’s most challenging projects to date was its work for Skanska on One World Trade Center, also known as Freedom Tower, in New York City.

“What Freedom Tower turned into for us was just a multitude of different applications. We were welding studs—horizontal welds, vertical welds, overhead welds in different sizes,” Rob says.

One of the difficulties was having to work deep underground. “This was the substructure, down in the train station area called the WTC Transportation Hub, with the building above,” Rob says. The major challenge was access. “It was tough to get our stud welding equipment close to the work sometimes. And then, even when you did, it was a challenge to get down a ladder or up a ladder. There were times when we would have to string our welding lead 400 feet down and then 300 feet across to where we needed to be.”

Ironworking is Tough

Assembling the concrete bridge deck supports for bridges is not easy work. “It takes a special guy or woman, because we’ve had female employees,” to be an ironworker or a carpenter, Richard says. “You have to be a good, hardworking, conscientious individual. After you get done building whatever you are building, you look at the bridge, the building, and you say, ‘I contributed. I built that.’ That alone is unique,” he says. “Other than walking away at the end of the week with a very nice paycheck and calluses on your hands, you get to say, 'I did that.’ ”

Because of the special nature of ironworking and the risk of working in often perilous conditions, J. Anthony Equipment has developed a special relationship with these workers. “One of the things that we have done for as long as I can remember is we have treated our employees well,” Richard says. As a consequence, the company has a lot of long-term workers. “We actually have people who follow us from job to job. They keep looking for jobs to work for us, and it is because we treat people like they are all family,” Richard says.

Ironworking is a tough way to make a living, and J. Anthony Equipment Co. takes care of its workers. “We have had guys with different issues, and we don’t fire them,” Richard says. “We help them. It is just something that is super important to me. You don’t discard people.”

That compassion is rooted in Richard’s upbringing as the grandson of a Presbyterian minister. “There are just values that are there,” he says, and he believes the way that they handle their workers is one of the reasons for the company’s success. “Our employees really want to stay with us. When the job is finished, people get laid off. Ironworkers, carpenters they go home; they call the union hall and put their name on a list to go back to work. Guys call and want to come back to us. So whatever we are doing here by taking good care of our people, it’s got to be the right thing.”

Supporting the Local Community

The company’s compassion extends beyond its workers into the local community. J. Anthony Equipment Co. has been a major supporter of the Brooke Healey Foundation, which was created in memory of 5-year-old Brooke to build awareness of and raise funds for research into DIPG—diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma—a pediatric brain cancer. Toni Anthony, Rob’s wife, grew up with Brooke’s parents, Steve and Stefani, and is a board member of the New Providence, New Jersey, foundation. Over the years, J. Anthony Equipment has been a repeat sponsor of Bikers for Brooke, BHF Casino Night, and the BHF Golf Outing. “The foundation is really important to Toni, me and J. Anthony Equipment,” Rob says.

Planning for the Future

The company would like to do more stud welding on buildings. It currently spends about 50 days each year welding studs in commercial buildings, Rob says, but he feels like they can double that and still be effective. “We will weld a stud anywhere. We welded studs on the underside of the Big Dig (the Central Artery/Tunnel Project) up in Boston. And that was welding these things overhead.” The company not only installs studs but also keeps a stocked inventory available for resale of most of the common sizes.

Richard’s hope is that J. Anthony Equipment Co. will remain a family enterprise for a long time. Little by little, Rob has been acquiring more ownership of the company and he hopes one day to pass the business on to his own children, but it will be a while before his 8-year-old twins and 5-year-old are ready for the office.