100 Years of O&G

Andrew Oneglia and Flaviano Gervasini formed a business partnership in a venture that would later become known as Oneglia & Gervasini, Incorporated.

Photo: Andrew (seated) with his sons, George, Francis and Raymond.

Flaviano Gervasini is struck and killed by a train while trucking materials between a job site and a local quarry. Soon after, Andrew Oneglia brought on Flaviano’s brother Romeo as a partner in the business. In 1926, brother Orlando Gervasini would also join the company.

Photo: Andrew Oneglia, left, on a Mascetti-owned Buffalo/Pitts steamroller with operator Joe Carullo. The pair worked together at Mascetti and Holley.

O&G begins making ready-mix concrete.

O&G establishes a yard and office on Casson Avenue in Torrington and sells masonry supplies.

O&G enters the construction materials market and acquires its first quarry – a 40-acre parcel on Park Road in Woodbury.

O&G wins its first road construction project. The project entails building a bypass road at the submarine base in Ledyard.

The company takes "a major step" by purchasing its first crane for $24,000 ($390,000 in 2023 dollars). The primary reason for the purchase was to set boulder railings for a project on Sandy Brook Road in Colebrook.

All company equipment could still fit into one yard before the flood. After the flood, business took off, and the repair garage was moved to a more expansive location on South Main in Torrington.

O&G wins its largest contract in the company’s brief history. The contract is to build the Thomaston Dam for the Army Corps of Engineers after the flood of 1955.

Thomaston Dam is completed. O&G's Building Division is established. It wins contracts to build an elementary school in Bristol and Torrington High School.

O&G wins the contract to build the Torrington section of Route 8.

O&G is named to Engineering News Record's (ENR) 1st annual Top 400 Contractor list.

Work begins on the Colebrook Dam.

O&G completes the Bridgeport portion of Route 25.

O&G completes its first high-rise, Torrington Towers, a 14-story, 200-apartment building.

O&G enters the Construction Management market by developing the Greater Hartford YMCA Towers.

O&G celebrates the grand opening of the Bushnell II in Hartford.

O&G acquires a 225+ acre basalt quarry on Stiles Road in Woodbury.

Masonry becomes its own division under the leadership of Robert (Bob) Oneglia.

O&G begins work on a 3-megawatt powerhouse for the Goodwin Dam in Hartland, the company’s first project in the field of hydroelectric power generation.

O&G acquires a 190-acre property in Burrville. The property is used to establish and develop a rock quarry in Northern Connecticut.

O&G acquires asphalt plants in Stamford and New Milford and a wash plant in Dover Plains, New York, from the Peckham Materials Corporation.

O&G partners with Perini and PLC in a joint venture to complete the most unique bridge construction project ever undertaken in Connecticut – rebuilding the concrete segmental bridge known as the Raymond A. Baldwin Bridge. O&G acts as construction manager for a $40M ($92M in 2023 dollars) project for Cheshire Correctional Facility that will double the existing facility’s size.

O&G partners with Perini Corporation in a joint venture to complete a lock and dam project in Shreveport, Louisiana.

O&G, in partnership with Perini Corporation and the ICA Construction Company, is awarded a $168M contract ($350M in 2023) to construct the Chicago River Tunnel.

O&G’s Mason Division celebrates the grand opening of its flagship Mason showroom in Bridgeport.

O&G is awarded the AGC Build America Award for the ingenuity, resourcefulness, and hard work of the crew who rehabilitated the Route 8 Bridge Viaduct in Seymour.

O&G receives Mohegan Sun Boulevard contract, a two-mile roadway into the Mohegan Sun Resort in Montville.

O&G acquires Genovese waterfront properties on Davenport Street in Stamford, expanding its operations to include an asphalt plant, two ready-mix concrete plants, and an aggregate storage and distribution terminal.

O&G is brought in to complete the Founders Bridge project.

O&G partners with the Tutor-Saliba Corporation in a joint venture and is awarded a $783M ($1.4B in 2023 dollars) contract to construct the Alameda Corridor in Los Angeles. O&G partners with Perini PLC in a joint venture to complete a $172 million ($308 million in 2022 dollars) renovation of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York.

O&G is awarded the Bradley International Airport Improvement project that includes the construction of a new $260M ($454M in 2023 dollars) terminal. O&G completes New Milford High School, the largest and most expensive school in Connecticut to date. Thread City Crossing Bridge between Windham and Willimantic, built by O&G, opens to traffic.

O&G takes on all demolition, furnishing, and installation work for a 250-megawatt power plant in Wallingford, Connecticut. O&G is awarded the Church Street South Extension bridge project in New Haven. The project involves lifting and placing a 1,280-foot long, eight-span bridge into place using the world's largest mobile crane. O&G builds a 14-acre dog park on its quarry site in Southbury for public use.

O&G acquires a property in Beacon Falls that will become home to the company’s stone fabrication center.

O&G begins work on the Thomas A. Watson Generating Station in Braintree, MA. O&G assumes the role of civil and structural contractor for a new cogeneration plant and chilled water facility at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. O&G partners with Perini PLC in a joint venture to complete the $172M ($266M in 2023 dollars) Whitestone Bridge project in New York.

O&G takes on one of its most significant power and energy projects to date when it partners with Chicago Bridge & Iron and Moser Pilon to build a $108M ($162M in 2023 dollars) liquified natural gas (LNG) facility in Waterbury.

O&G, in partnership with the Tutor-Saliba Corporation, is awarded a $242M contract ($351M in 2023 dollars) to relocate Runway 25L and make Center Taxiway improvements at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). O&G completes a cogeneration plant and chilled water facility at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. O&G acquires a 347-acre limestone quarry in New Milford from ASI, Inc. The quarry marks the fifth quarry operated by O&G.

O&G announces that it will manage construction on a $34M ($48M in 2022 dollars) cogeneration and expansion project at the Sterling Power Plant at Yale University. O&G completes the historical renovation of Yale University's Yale Bowl complex. The renovation is completed in time for the complex's rededication and the 124th annual matchup against rival Harvard.

O&G donates a 45-acre former sand and gravel facility to Beacon Falls. The property includes a 40-acre man-made lake transformed into a recreational park by O&G, now known as Toby’s Pond and Recreational Park. O&G begins deck renovation work on the I-95 Moses Wheeler Bridge between Stratford and Milford. O&G completes the Jackman L. Stewart Athletic Center at Berkshire School O&G completes a 10-megawatt central heating plant for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

O&G, in partnership with Tutor-Perini in a joint venture, is awarded the largest and most complex transportation project ever undertaken in Connecticut. The project, known as Contract E, is part of a larger series of projects comprising a $2B New Haven Harbor Q Crossing Corridor Improvement Program. The York Hill Campus at Quinnipiac University is completed.

O&G, in partnership with Barletta Engineering Corporation and VHB Engineering and Construction, is awarded a $230M ($289M in 2022 dollars) project to rebuild the Braga Bridge in Falls River, Massachusetts. O&G launched the Platt Builds program in Meriden, designed to create awareness of the opportunities that careers in construction can provide for long-term financial and job stability for high school students.

Renovation and expansion of the Arnhold Emergency Department at New Milford Hospital is completed. O&G became the first outfit in Connecticut to acquire Caterpillar's newest fuel-efficient wheeled loader. It saves at least two gallons of diesel fuel every hour and meets top EPA standards for clean emissions.

O&G, in partnership with Tutor Perini Corporation (TPC), is selected by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to oversee the Westside Purple Line Extension Section 2 project in Los Angeles. O&G completes the Newington Route 175 Bridge – one of Connecticut's first accelerated bridge construction projects.

O&G completes concrete construction of the massive fast-tracked SoNo Collection in Norwalk. Bridgeport and Stamford mason showrooms undergo major remodeling, earning a HOBI Award from the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Connecticut as 2018's "Best Small Product Showroom."

O&G completes the Cttransit Bus Maintenance and Storage Facility in Hartford nine months ahead of schedule, Bristol Ambulatory Care Center, and the Ella T. Grasso Technical High School in Groton, among other projects. O&G begins significant energy efficiency enhancements at its asphalt plants. The plants at Canal Street in Stamford and in New Milford are the first in America to enter into the EPA/DOE's Energy Start Challenge for Industry program aimed at maximizing efficiency. O&G is named one of Bechtel’s 25 Global Suppliers of the Year for their work on the Cricket Valley Energy Center in Dover Plains, NY. Using Accelerated Bridge Construction, O&G replaces Bridge 307 over I-95 in Stamford on two back-to-back weekends.

O&G completes installation of a 3,762-panel solar array at its Southbury quarry. Generating 960 kilowatts of electricity, the solar farm powers the entire complex. It’s the first such industrial application of its kind in Connecticut. O&G builds the Pozzotive Production Plant for Urban Mining and becomes its anchor customer, supplying this concrete made of ground glass pozzolan from recycled glass sourced locally.

O&G completes Buckley Elementary School in Manchester - Connecticut’s first net-zero public elementary school. O&G completes the I-91 Charter Oak Bridge project, a joint venture with Barletta. This 3-year project, dubbed the "congestion buster," alleviates traffic problems around Charter Oak Bridge. O&G breaks ground on the New Britain Energy and Innovation Park – the largest fuel cell project of its kind in North America.  O&G received CCIA’s Arthur Gruhn Excellent in Construction Award in the Challenging Category for its emergency repair work on TPC River Highland’s 13th Hole.