About us

Family owned. Union built. Since 2005.

JLA & Sons Construction was founded in 2005 in Waukegan, Illinois, and is family owned and operated. We specialize in underground utility work and trucking, and we’re proud to serve the state of Illinois.

Today we work as the underground subcontractor for prime contractors on IDOT, Illinois Tollway and City of Chicago Department of Water Management projects: storm sewer and box culvert, drainage structures, water main and lead service lines, sanitary bypass, underdrain, removals and trucking.

We do the work ourselves. Our crews are union, our foremen run the field, and we own the excavators, loaders and dump trucks that do the job. In the office we handle our own shop drawings, RFIs, change orders, certified payroll and DBE paperwork, so the GC has one less thing to chase.

City of Chicago press event inside a precast box culvert section at the Le Moyne and Luna job, with a JLA & Sons excavator behind. — City of Chicago press event at the Le Moyne & Luna box culvert job.

How we work

What GCs get with JLA

Self-performed

Our own crews, foremen, equipment and trucks. We don’t broker our scope to other subcontractors.

Union and certified

LiUNA and IUOE Local 150 signatory, DBE/MWBE certified with IDOT and WisDOT, IDOT prequalified, and a City of Chicago licensed drain layer.

Paperwork handled

Shop drawings, RFIs, change orders, certified payroll and DBE reporting done in-house and on time.

CertificationDBE / MWBE certifiedIDOT and WisDOT

Illinois DOTPrequalified, Class 020

City of ChicagoLicensed drain layer

LaborUnion contractorChicago Laborers’ District Council (LiUNA) and IUOE Local 150

Established2005Family owned and operated

Home yardWaukegan, IllinoisLake County

Safety

Every trench protected

Our crews work inside trench boxes and braced shoring on deep excavations, call in locates through JULIE and Chicago 811 before we dig, and hold stand-down meetings when conditions on the job change. When something unexpected turns up in the ground, the crew stops and calls it in.

Crew members working inside a braced and shored excavation at a large water main fitting. — Braced, shored excavation on the Wood St / Ashland Ave job.

Crews & equipment

Our people, our iron

We run three self-perform field crews, each led by a JLA foreman, on company-owned equipment.

A white JLA & Sons wheel loader and four white excavators lined up along a roadway on the I-294 job. — Part of the JLA & Sons fleet staged on the I-294 Central Tri-State job.

Komatsu PC490LC-11: Excavator
John Deere 850D LC: Excavator
Hyundai HL955A: Wheel loader
Dump trucks: Spoil haul & material
CCDD disposal account: Clean soil to licensed facility