O&G Industries’ Evolution from Materials Supplier and Road Builder to a Nationally Regarded Construction Firm

Established in 1923, O&G Industries, Inc., located in Torrington, Conn., has seen tremendous growth and evolution from its early years as a supplier of construction materials and road builder to a nationally recognized industry leader in building construction, heavy civil, construction materials, and mason products.

O&G started when two friends, Andrew Oneglia and Flaviano Gervasini, formed a business partnership. Their first jobs included hauling sand and stone to various construction sites. But tragedy struck the company early on; Flaviano was killed when the truck he was operating was struck by a train. Determined to move forward, Andrew worked long hours alongside his three sons, Raymond, Frances, and George, to make a name for the company and honor its fallen founder.

O&G experienced rapid growth in its first 50 years. In 1936, the company bought its first quarry in Woodbury, Conn. Three years later, it won its first road construction project, building a bypass road at the submarine base in Ledyard, Conn. In 1958, the company won its largest contract yet: building the Thomaston Dam for the Army Corps of Engineers after the flood of 1955. The success of this project solidified O&G’s reputation and propelled the company forward.

In 1961, the Building Group was established when O&G began work on its first school construction project, an elementary school in Bristol. Over the next 50 years, the Building Group would celebrate many significant milestones, while the company would continue to diversify by adding concrete and asphalt plants, several more quarries, establishing a mason division, and performing major joint venture projects in California, New York, Louisiana, Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Some of the Building Group’s more notable projects include rebuilding the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Hartford (known today as the XL Center) in 1978 after the roof collapsed during a winter storm. In 2000, work was completed on Litchfield County’s largest high school to date in New Milford, Conn. Less than a decade later, O&G completed a significant campus expansion project at

Quinnipiac University – the York Hill Campus, which encompassed all of O&G’s capabilities, including building, heavy civil, construction materials, and mason product supply.

O&G has built more than 300 schools, including more than 6 million sq. ft. of sustainable, net-zero, and LEED-certified. This experience positioned O&G as one of Engineering News-Record’s (ENR) Top 100 Green Contractors in the country, a distinction the company has held every year since the survey’s inception in 2007. O&G has also been named to ENR’s annual list of the Top 400 Contractors in the country every year since the list was first published in 1964.

In 2011, O&G’s Building Group formed a specialized unit to meet the construction demands of healthcare, industrial, and manufacturing projects. The roster of clients continues to include some of the world’s largest manufacturers, such as Sikorski and Pratt & Whitney.

Today, O&G excels at vertical construction in several markets, including education (public, independent, and higher), healthcare, commercial, office, industrial, manufacturing, municipal, community, athletic venues, transit, utility, infrastructure, water, and wastewater.

Over the years, the company has received awards and accolades for several projects. Most recently, it received the Associated General Contractors of Connecticut (AGC CT) Build Connecticut Award in the CM/GC: Mid-Size New Construction for the Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center at the Frederick Gunn School in Washington, Conn. It also received the AGC CT’s Build Connecticut Award in the CM/GC: Mid-Size Renovation category for the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk Addition and Renovation joint venture project with A.P. Construction.

Now in its centennial year, O&G is led by third and fourth generation family members and is nationally recognized as an industry leader in construction services and products. Its diversity is what distinguishes O&G from others in the industry. The company’s product portfolio includes the distribution of aggregates, concrete, and asphalt through a network of six quarries, eight concrete plants, and nine asphalt plants located throughout Connecticut and eastern New York. The by O&G Industries, Inc.

Mason Division is one of the East Coast’s largest masonry products, services, and solutions suppliers. Beyond road, bridge, and dam construction, O&G’s Heavy Civil Division has performed large-scale site work and power and energy projects.

“Every milestone of our first 100 years comes down to a simple fact: the dedication of thousands who’ve worked strategically to accomplish great things together,” explained Greg Oneglia, third generation owner overseeing the Building Group. He gives credit to the employees and families beyond the O’s and G’s for making the company what it is today. “With over 900 employees from every corner of the state, it didn’t just take a village, it took a state to make O&G what it is today.”