April 2007 The Clean Machine Katrina’s landfall yields a windfall for cleanup specialist Phillips and Jordan By Sara c. Shoemaker
If it’s a dirty job, Phillips and Jordan wants to do it. The privately held, Knoxville-based company has been flying under the radar since 1952, cleaning and clearing land for everything from commercial real estate to disaster recovery.
Not many outside the industry know the name, but Phillips and Jordan got its start with the Tennessee Valley Authority back in the 1950s, hauling away logs to make way for today’s interstate system.
In more recent times, natural disasters have garnered the company more attention, not to mention lucrative contracts, and spawned satellite offices in Florida and California.
Then along came Hurricane Katrina. As with the millions in the Gulf Coast states affected, Phillips and Jordan would never be the same.
“Disaster response was not our bread and butter,” says Patrick McMullen, the firm’s CFO and executive vice president. Nonetheless, Phillips and Jordan quickly became a go-to contractor after successful cleanup efforts stemming from hurricanes Hugo and Fran.
Most disaster recovery projects mean picking up debris from wind damage, work that can usually be completed in two to three months.
Hurricane Katrina was different. The ensuing floods in the lower parishes of New Orleans made the task of sorting and disposing of hazardous debris according to the guidelines set by the Environmental Protection Agency an 18-month ordeal. And the clock is still ticking.
Phillips and Jordan was awarded an unprecedented $500 million contract via the Army Corps of Engineers to clean up after Katrina. While the company’s single largest deal to date, the thousands working 12-to-14-hour shifts, seven days a week, are earning every dime.
“They’re so busy, and there is so much to accomplish, they don’t realize the impact until the jobs are over, and they go home,” McMullen says about the emotions of dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster.
While crews sort debris in New Orleans, Phillips and Jordan continues to feed its core services at home, landing a contract to haul 750,000 cubic tons of earth to prepare Japan-based auto parts maker, Denso Manufacturing, for its much touted, $185 million, 55-acre plant expansion.
Phillips and Jordan was the lowest bidder, says Bryan Daniels with the Blount County Economic Development Board, because the firm already had its equipment available from another dirt-moving job at McGhee Tyson Airport, also in Blount County.
It is a dirty job. And Phillips and Jordan is glad to do it.
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