History & Heritage
A Project Delivery Legacy Decades in the Making
Various Eichleay companies have delivered a wide range of unique, impressive, and noteworthy projects over the last 150 years. This legacy continues today with Eichleay, Inc. which specializes in the design and construction of process and manufacturing facilities. We approach all that we do with integrity, commitment, and a long-term perspective.
John Eichleay Jr.
Founder. 1875
Eichleay’s roots trace all the way back to 1875 when an innovative building inspector named John Eichleay Jr. founded a structural moving business that would become renowned for completing projects believed by many to be impossible. The advent of the industrial age brought with it profound changes in the urban landscapes of America. This transformation was perhaps no more evident than in John’s hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.
As the preeminent center of industry and technology at the time, small houses and buildings were being torn down to make room for larger ones, industrial plants were pushing residential neighborhoods outward from the rivers and railroads, and various new forms of transportation permitted people to live further from their places of work. Rather than demolishing and rebuilding structures to accommodate this rapidly changing infrastructure, John believed that they could be moved for only a fraction of the cost. This new approach ended up making for a lucrative business. Although the projects undertaken during the early years were quite modest, they became increasingly bold and impressive as techniques were perfected and the reputation of the John Eichleay Jr. Company grew.
John P. Eichleay
Shown in Top Left. Leader Through 1920’s
During the early part of the 20th century, the John Eichleay Jr. Company soared to new heights under the leadership of John’s oldest son, John P. Eichleay, and the contributions of his 3 other children, Walter, Harry, and Roy. Around this time, the brothers began to venture into other businesses such as steel production, steel fabrication, shipbuilding, real estate, and even movie theaters (as a result of the emerging motion picture industry). This was all largely fueled by the unprecedented strength and growth of the U.S. economy. Throughout this period, however, the structural moving business remained their core asset primarily due to the recent introduction of affordable automobiles. Because increased vehicle sizes and traffic volume made much of the existing infrastructure in major metropolitan areas obsolete, many streets and other corridors of commerce required widening. This yielded an abundance of moving projects for Eichleay, both in Pittsburgh and on a national level. Towards the end of its heyday in the late 1920s, the John Eichleay Jr. Company had moved over 10,000 structures and was acknowledged as the undisputed leader in the business.
John W. Eichleay
Established Eichleay Corp in 1932
By the late 1920’s economic changes and technological advances made the relocation of large structures increasingly impractical. As a result, the moving techniques perfected over the previous decades were adapted to include the installation of heavy industrial machinery. It was around this time that John W. Eichleay rose to prominence. To capitalize off of the enormous industrial expansion being experienced throughout the nation after The Great Depression, John W. led the transformation of the company into a formidable general contractor. The Eichleay Engineering Company that he established in 1932, whose name would be changed to Eichleay Corporation a year later, quickly built a reputation for being able to execute large public works and heavy industrial projects nationwide, as well as several internationally. The company remained quite diversified under his tenure performing work for a wide variety of different sectors, including ferrous and nonferrous metals, pulp and paper, power, chemicals, refining, transportation, and heavy civil among others. Given the firm’s Pittsburgh roots, however, it is not surprising that it developed a particular niche in the construction and retrofitting of steel mills, coke ovens, and blast furnaces.
George F. Eichleay, P.E.
Chairman
In the early 1970s, George F. Eichleay (Geof) took over and leveraged Eichleay Corporation’s reputation and existing client base to enter the engineering business. The rapid growth of several of his new ventures marked a paradigm shift away from direct-hire construction to emphasize engineering and management services. A primary motivation for pursuing this more integrated business model was to enable participation in the front-end development of projects. Moving up the value stream now provided far greater opportunities to influence the efficiency of the capital spending process for clients. Geof’s commitment to this endeavor is perhaps best exemplified by his active involvement in the Construction Industry Institute (CII), a consortium of leading owners, engineers, and contractors committed to improving facility lifecycle costs. He served as Chairman of this organization in 1998 and was inducted into the National Academy of Construction in 1999. The scope, size, and complexity of the projects executed during this era, particularly in the steel industry, were a level beyond those completed previously.
George F. Eichleay, Jr.
Current President and CEO
As the health of the U.S. steel industry waned at the advent of the 21st century, focus transitioned to other more vibrant markets in the western United States. Since 1988, Eichleay’s western U.S. offices have developed a wide range of capabilities to serve its clients in the Petroleum Refining, Chemical, Food and Beverage, Mining and Metals, High Tech, and Life Science sectors. This nimble organization has grown steadily and developed a unique ability to execute major capital projects, as well as small-cap programs. There are great synergies that come from this combination. Small local firms cannot match our capabilities and resources. Large EPC firms cannot match our speed and flexibility. George F. Eichleay, Jr., the 5th generation to lead the business, remains committed to promoting the core values that have enabled longevity over time: independence, differentiation, reinvention.
Timeline
1875
John Eichleay Jr. founds a structural moving company based in Pittsburgh, PA that bears his name
1879
Edison invents the electric light
1903
Captain S.S. Brown’s Mansion was raised 160 ft. up a sheer cliff and then moved 500 ft. back from the cliff’s edge to make way for new rail lines outside of Pittsburgh, PA
1910
Virginia, a 235 ft. steamship that ran aground during a flood near Willow Grove, WV, was transported 750 ft. back to the edge of the Ohio River
1912
John P. Eichleay takes over leadership
1913
Ford develops the first moving assembly line
1915
Charles M. Schwab, President of US Steel and Chairman of Bethlehem Steel at the time, commissioned Eichleay to relocate his mansion 1,500 feet to the other side of his beloved orchard. John Eichleay raised the house 27 feet and moved it over the orchard to avoid harming any trees.
1918
George Eastman’s (of Eastman Kodak fame) home in Rochester, NY was cut in two, split apart, and neatly rebuilt after installing a huge pipe organ in the music room
1921
The Joseph Woodwell Building, an 8 story masonry clad structure, was moved 40 ft. back to accommodate the widening of Second Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh, PA
12 homes were moved 500 ft. down a street and loaded onto barges to cross the Kanawha River in order to make way for the new State Capital Building in Charleston, WV
1922
Jack’s Run Bridge, a 150 ft. tall by 750 ft. long wooden structure in Pittsburgh, PA, was translated horizontally 175 ft. to make way for a wider replacement bridge
1929
U.S. stock market crash precipitates a global depression
1930
The Indiana Bell Telephone Building, a 12,000 ton structure in Indianapolis, IN, was moved 52 ft., pivoted 90°, and rolled another 100 ft. without disturbing the 600 employees inside
1933
John W. Eichleay takes over leadership
1936
Hoover Dam penstock pipes, 44,500 tons in all and with each 22 ft. long by 30 ft. diameter by 3 in. thick section weighing 186 tons, were engineered and installed for Babcock & Wilcox
1945
Jumbo, a 214 ton vessel with 16 in. thick walls and measuring 28 ft. long by 12 ft. 8 in. in diameter, was transported 30 miles through roadless desert as part of The Manhattan Project
1947
Installed over 35,000 tons of rolling mill machinery, including a 100 in. continuous hot mill, a 44 in. slabbing mill, 75 overhead cranes, and 18 traveling gantries for Alcoa in Davenport, IA
1953
Constructed the world’s largest wind tunnel facility at Moffett Field, able to test wingspans up to 100 ft., for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in Mountain View, CA
Erected the ‘mock-up’ nuclear propulsion system for Westinghouse at Bettis Atomic Lab that would be used to power the first generation of nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy
1957
Constructed a greenfield aluminum finishing facility including a 2-stand 66” Bliss Mill for Anaconda Aluminum in Terra Haute, IN
Installed all of the major mechanical equipment for the Shippingsport Atomic Power Station, the first commercial nuclear power plant built in the U.S., just northwest of Pittsburgh, PA
1960
Built a new 80 in. hot strip mill facility for Great Lakes Steel Corporation near Detroit, MI which contained over 170,000 cy of concrete
1968
Completed 105,000 cy of foundations and equipment installation for a 60” hot and cold rolling facility including a cold mill, hot strip mill, pickle line, and temper mill at Sharon Steel in Farrell, PA
1972
George F. (Geof) Eichleay takes over leadership
1974
Installed 45,000 cy of foundations and set equipment for a Taconite (Iron Ore) processing facility operated by Cleveland Cliffs in Ishpeming, MI
1975
Eichleay opens a design engineering office with initial staff of 5 people in Pittsburgh, PA
1980
The compact disc (CD) arrived
1983
Modernized and revamped a hot strip mill and installed a new world class 5-stand tandem cold mill for Kaiser Aluminum in Trentwood, WA
1984
Completed first turnkey design/construct project including full design engineering, procurement, and construction services for a new MacSteel mini-mill in Fort Smith, AR
1985
Windows program invented by Microsoft
1988
Constructed, in joint venture, a close coupled pickle line, continuous tandem cold mill, and a continuous anneal line for USS Posco Industries in Pittsburg, CA
1989
Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe
1993
Designed and built, as part of a $200 million joint venture, an 85 oven coke battery capable of producing 850,000 tons per year for National Steel near Detroit, MI
1995
George F. Eichleay, Jr. becomes the 5th generation to join the family business
1999
Provided full EPCM services for the company’s first $1+ billion project, a 1,750,000 sf grassroots carbon and stainless steel finishing facility for AK Steel in Rockport, IN
2001
Performed an $115 million emergency rebuild of the USS-Posco Industries tandem cold mill, originally built by an Eichleay joint venture in the 1980’s, after a fire destroyed it
2003
Executed first major project for the biotech industry, a 3-story 50,000 sf PDF for Immunex in Bothell, WA to develop and scale-up biopharmaceutical processes based on bench-scale research
2007
Completed a major $100+ million Program Management effort involving the upgrade of Genentech’s Building 3 clinical and commercial manufacturing facility in South San Francisco, CA
2010
Assumed EPCM responsibilities for a $750 million state of the art environmental compliance project to reduce flue gas emissions at Valero’s refinery in Benicia, CA
2011
Finished our largest EPCM project to date, a $1.5 billion expansion of a rare earth minerals mine for Molycorp, located about an hour outside of Las Vegas, NV
2016
Eichleay initiated work on the largest refinery project program in its history at Chevron Richmond
2020
Eichleay continued our geographic expansion with new offices in Ferndale, WA, and Billings, MT, advancing our strategic imperative to be close to our clients
Who We Are
Learn More About Us
As a mid-sized industrial engineering company with large-company capabilities and a small-company culture, Eichleay offers you the most expansive range of services and capabilities for the entire spectrum of project sizes.