Leo A. Vecellio, Jr., is the 2020 recipient of the George S. Bartlett Award from the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). Vecellio is chair/president/CEO of Vecellio Group and past chair of ARTBA.
Established in 1931, the Bartlett Award is co-sponsored by ARTBA, the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO), and the Transportation Research Board (TRB). The award annually recognizes an individual who “has made an outstanding contribution to highway progress,” according to the association.
Previous recipients include members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, former U.S. Department of Transportation secretaries, state transportation department secretaries, and top transportation design and construction executives.
Vecellio was recognized for his 40 years of business success, extraordinary volunteer leadership contributions to national and state construction groups, and ongoing commitment to supporting education and research through the Vecellio Construction Engineering & Management Program at Virginia Tech.
Today, the fourth-generation-owned-and-run company is one of America’s largest and most respected contractors, with extensive heavy and highway construction, mining, and petroleum operations in the southeastern U.S., mid-Atlantic, and beyond.
Vecellio served as ARTBA Foundation chairman from 2009-2016. In 2018, the Vecellio family was inducted into the ARTBA Foundation’s Transportation Development Hall of Fame.
Vecellio grew up in the family business and joined it full time in the 1970s. He extended the reach of the company beyond its West Virginia roots into the southeastern United States and beyond through a series of acquisitions, start-ups, and expansions. He also diversified into aggregates production and energy services. Today, under the Vecellio Group corporate umbrella are: Vecellio & Grogan, Ranger Construction Industries, Sharpe Bros., White Rock Quarries, Vecenergy, and Hal Jones Contractor.
According to ARTBA, George S. Bartlett was regarded as the greatest single influence on the use of concrete roads in the United States. During his career, Bartlett was lauded by contemporaries in the concrete and highway industry for his energetic and innovative promotion of concrete roads. In 1909, he established experimental stretches of concrete pavement, working with the Wayne County Road Commission in Michigan—the birthplace of modern road construction—and the University Portland Cement Co.
Source: ARTBA
