Dillingham Construction


Dillingham Construction was an engineering and construction services company which was based in Hawaii then in Pleasanton, California. The company was founded in the 1880s to build a railroad across the swamps of Oahu, Hawaii. Dillingham later became a leading engineering and construction firm, building dams, airfields, high-rises, hotels and embassies around the world.

Bankruptcy

The company was forced into bankruptcy in 2003 as a result of mounting debt arising from multi-million dollar unpaid change orders from a few public entity clients that refused to pay for the extra work. The company planned to reemerge from Chapter 11 in Florida under the name of one of its smaller subsidiaries, Watkins Engineers and Constructors. The international operations subsidiary of the company Dillingham Construction International managed however to survive the bankruptcy. This company is currently based in Ponca City, Oklahoma.

Notable projects