Surveying the National Landscape for Expansion
Look for American Layout & Land Surveying to grow across the US
With a history of winning major roadway projects like the widening for the New Jersey Turnpike, the next logical step for New Jersey-based American Layout & Land Surveying, LLC is a national expansion of its services.
Having been around for more than 10 years, the business restructured in 2015 as American Layout & Land Surveying. The professional land surveying company specializes in construction layout for both the public and private sectors and performs public/private land surveys. But, the company’s real bread and butter is the work done for the heavy highway and construction industry, says Chief Estimator and Principal, Anthony Bombardieri.
Anthony tells us the certified Small Business Enterprise provides services throughout the state of New Jersey, all five boroughs of New York, eastern Pennsylvania, and in Florida. “Those guys you see on the side of the road with the tripods? That’s us. We’re putting in stakes and measuring elevations for contractors to build curbs, drainage structures and retaining walls, among other things,” he says.
“Our main goal is to continue growing and become operational in even more states,” Anthony says. “We already operate in several states along the East Coast; it would be great to naturally expand from Florida into North Carolina, Georgia and Delaware—and beyond.”
Trophy Projects
Anthony’s confidence in the firm’s strategic plan comes from the large clientele list built over the years. The team has worked on everything from small projects to massive jobs, like the one it’s currently handling in Florida. American Layout & Land Surveying will handle the surveying for more than six miles of reconstruction and streetscape improvements, totaling about $500,000 to $600,000 by the end of the contract. A few years ago, the team did the construction on the parking lot, curbs, and drainage systems at the state of New Jersey’s first Amazon fulfillment center, located in Robbinsville, N.J. Other big wins include: the construction layout for all phases of the Global Terminal project in New Jersey, a shipping port expansion in Jersey City and Bayonne; and participating in the Garden State Parkway tree clearing and widening project from mile markers 35 to 64.5 in Ocean County.
An additional milestone project involved interchange widening efforts on the New Jersey Turnpike, between Interchange 6 in Burlington County and Interchange 9 in Middlesex County. The 35-mile expansion project doubled capacity within this stretch of a chronically congested corridor. At the peak of construction, it was noted to be the largest ongoing roadway project in the Western Hemisphere, with 17 general contractors, 327 subcontractors, five construction management firms and 21 utility companies involved in construction.
Pride in Being Millennial-Born Leaders
Anthony attributes much of the firm’s success to its leadership. He adds with a note of pride that the leaders of the company, who are only in their mid-30s, have developed a business model that has resulted in “a lot of success.”
The characteristics that make the business profitable don’t focus on technology or proprietary software. Rather, the company’s focus is to go above and beyond to form personal relationships with clients, he says.
“We have a very proactive development and estimating department,” Anthony explains. “We’re responsive; if someone reaches out, we respond promptly and people really appreciate that. We’re often one of the first companies to get in line for a project and that keeps people coming back to us, as well.”
Anthony credits the growing number of assignments on that persistence in reaching out to contractors to get a foot in the door. “That’s how our workload expanded initially; we were calling up contractors and being persistent until they gave us a shot. Now, we have a handful of really good contractor clients that use us for all of their work,” he says.
Capitalizing on the internet to increase brand awareness, American Layout & Land Surveying uses Google AdWords to drive traffic to its website. Anthony notes that the increased amount of private land survey requests coming in this year is a direct result of this marketing effort.
“That was one of our smaller service lines, but this year after doing AdWords and linking it to our website, and also responding to queries immediately via live chats, our name is really getting out there. Now, we’re having a record year in private property land survey contracts,” Anthony states.
No Automated Responses Here
American Layout & Land Surveying was founded in May 2015 when the previous company restructured. At that time, there were two field crews and three office staffers working out of a small basement office. Today, there are four field staffers in New Jersey and two in South Florida. The office is headquartered in Jackson, N.J., with about nine employees. While the company is still in growth mode, it isn’t operated like a big corporation. Rather, the team prefers to work in a more relaxed environment.
“We have a laid back, small company feel and atmosphere, and there is constant communication between staff members,” says Anthony. “We have regular company outings, including a beautiful dinner at Christmas for the team and going to a ballgame or the race track in the summer.”
It’s also a great feeling—and fosters teamwork—to be a part of the charitable events that are important to clients, he says. Whenever there is an opportunity to sponsor an event, like WalkMS, or contribute to organizations that support medical research or disease awareness, this company is all in.
Clients depend on the contractors they hire to provide superior workmanship that is second to none, and to complete the job in a timely manner. That’s the goal of American Layout & Land Surveying.
“The industry is always changing as technology grows and develops. We (as most companies today) utilize one-man crews with a robotic instrument instead of two- to three-man crews doing calculations by hand. We also invested in drone capabilities this year,” says Anthony.
He concludes: “We want to be that member of the team that is irreplaceable and makes the project run smoothly. To accomplish that, we must be responsive, professional and on the cutting edge—and that’s what we do.”