Ames Construction

2023 Industry Partnership Award

In the spring of 1962, Richard J. “Dick” Ames founded Richard J. Ames Excavating in Lakeville, Minnesota, with a used Caterpillar D8 dozer and a strong work ethic born on the family farm. By late summer, Dick had asked his younger brother, Raymond “Butch” Ames, to join him in the business and, in 1963, the company was renamed Ames Construction, Inc. One by one, Ames family members joined the fledgling company, including their brothers John and Ron Ames and nephew, Mark Brennan.

While road construction and soil conservation work were the company’s mainstay, the housing boom following World War II also opened doors for the growing business, as Ames began residential site development work with a local developer. When the housing market stalled in the late 1960s, the company pursued commercial work and aligned with local major private general contractors.

By the mid-1970s, Ames Construction had built strong business relationships and opportunities arose for pursuing work outside of their home state, which ushered in an era of growth that uprooted family members to establish offices in different regions of the country. The company’s willingness to travel also opened doors to expand market opportunities. In the 1980s and 1990s, Ames added capabilities and broadened its reach to include projects in water resources, railroad, transportation, energy and mining.

Ames arrived at the site of its first mining client on Valentine’s Day in 1986 to work on a large infrastructure project. By building a relationship anchored with mutual trust, transparency and respect, Ames has never left the property. And in 1994, when called on by a client to help finish building a struggling six-million square foot leach pad at the Muruntau Mine in Uzbekistan, 40 Ames personnel traveled to the site within a week, trained local workers and finished the project.

For more than 35 years, Ames has successfully executed complex mining projects, which has placed them at the forefront of the mining industry. From infrastructure, mine development, and mine facility construction, to contract mining and mine reclamation work, Ames has an arsenal of experience including pre-production stripping, turnkey mine development, leach pads, tailings storage facilities, mechanical, contract mining, mine closure and reclamation work.

Today, Ames Construction is a full-service civil and industrial general contractor for projects in the federal, industrial, mining, railroad, renewable, transportation and water resources industries.

Throughout Ames’ 60 years in business, the one constant has been creating partnerships with clients, vendors and the communities in which they live and work. These invaluable relationships carried Ames into the growth and expansion that continues today.