New Mexico
Our roots in New Mexico run deep.
Back to the end of the 19th century, in fact, when a young M. M. Sundt, recently emigrated from Norway, made the state his home. It was in the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico that he established his construction business with only a small set of tools and an abundance of skill, grit and purpose.
EARLY INNOVATION
In earlier days, Sundt was already doing innovative things, building one of the first earth-moved dams in the world in 1910—a dam still in use today.
New Mexico would go on to become Sundt’s proving ground as one of the nation’s most trusted builders when, in 1942, we were asked to complete an urgent, no-bid government project shrouded in secrecy. In Los Alamos, the town and labs we built in just 14 months, scientists completed research that would help to bring an end to World War II.
OUR WORK
Today, we continue that legacy of trust as one of the state’s leading contractors for projects of all kinds.
They include our award-winning reconstruction of a stretch of U.S. 70 through Hondo Valley, a $23.5 million expansion of the New Mexico State Veterans Home and an $18.6 million CMAR project that gave the state its first LEED Gold® multi-family home structure: Chamisa Village at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
CRITICAL CONSTRUCTION
It’s fair to say that much of our work in New Mexico has been mission-critical, from rail and power to multiple projects for the U.S. military.
A century ago, we demonstrated our reliability in building a hospital for the U.S. Public Health Service at Fort Stanton: a facility that would serve as a tuberculosis hospital for the Merchant Marine. As recently as 2014, Union Pacific Railroad turned to Sundt for construction of the Strauss Rail Yard, the company’s first new service and intermodal facility in nearly a century. A transportation hub vital to the distribution of goods across the Southwest, the project was honored with the Award for Excellence from the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association.
GETTING THE JOB DONE
Across New Mexico, we’ve built a reputation for getting things done, and nowhere has that been demonstrated more than in Los Alamos.
Half a century after building the town, we returned to Los Alamos after a fire destroyed 48,000 acres of forest just ahead of the rainy season, leaving a nearby nuclear reactor vulnerable to catastrophic flooding. In an emergency design-build agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sundt mobilized within 24 hours and built a dam within 60 days: 67,000 cubic yards of roller-compacted concrete at a site accessible only by rappelling down a steep canyon trail.
HELPING COMMUNITIES PROSPER
Today, we continue to fulfill M.M. Sundt’s purpose with projects in New Mexico: to build environments where our communities can prosper.
The students of Las Cruces High enjoy new and remodeled spaces to learn and grow. Our military veterans are cared for in a new residential home—a unique facility in Truth or Consequences that features a therapy pool piped with natural healing waters from New Mexico’s hot springs. Over a century after our first project here, Sundt continues to build prosperity for the places we work and live.