GORHAM – Gorham-based Shaw Brothers Construction Inc. expects to move in December to its mammoth new complex now under construction on Mosher Road – its third headquarters in Gorham for the 34-year old company owned by Jon and Danny Shaw.

“This is a pretty big step for us,” said Jon Shaw, president of the company, as he and his brother drove around the new project Monday, where steel framing was rising.

Undaunted by the struggling economy, the company sees its new complex as a business edge.

“As long as we’re competitive, we’ll be busy,” Danny Shaw, company treasurer, said.

“People need water, sewer and roads,” Jon Shaw said about the future.

The company constructs local roads and major highways along with installation of utilities like sewer lines. Projects have included widening sections of the Maine Turnpike and building the Bernard P. Rines Highway in Gorham.

Cramped at their 21-acre Main Street site, Shaw Brothers needed room to expand operations. They outgrew their facility on Main Street.

“Small, too small,” Danny Shaw said. “We’re running three shifts now to keep equipment maintained.”

So, they turned to building a new headquarters at their sprawling, 125-acre Mosher Road property. The facility will feature a two-story brick office building with an attached maintenance facility, which has a mezzanine floor. Floor space for offices and shops totals 48,200 square feet. A separate warehouse and a scale house combine for another 25,200 square feet.

“What they’re doing there is an incredible project for the town,” Tom Ellsworth, director of Gorham Economic Development Corp., said Wednesday. “It’s incredible.”

The construction company said it has sold its present headquarters at 511 Main St. to J.P. Noonan, a Massachusetts-based transportation company. J.P. Noonan has seven facilities in six states including one in Baldwin. Rich Otten, terminal manager at Jewett and Noonan Transportation in Baldwin, said Tuesday that facility, which has 25 employees, would relocate to Gorham.

Otten said the bulk of the work for the Baldwin facility is petroleum and the move to Gorham puts it closer to fuel terminals in South Portland, along with easier access to the Maine Turnpike.

Shaw Brothers Construction is now paying rent at Main Street to J.P. Noonan.

Last year, the town approved plans for the Shaw Brothers headquarters complex at 329 Mosher Road. To make way for its new headquarters, the construction company razed a former brick manufacturing plant on additional property Shaw Brothers acquired.

Jon Shaw declined to offer cost of the new headquarters. He laughed when asked if it was a multi-million-dollar project.

“It’s not a cheap building,” he said.

Featuring energy efficiency, the offices and shops will be outfitted with motion detection lighting; radiant heat in floors; and heat produced from waste oil with a natural gas backup system. The two brothers looked at facilities around the country for ideas before deciding on design.

“We’re going to take advantage of the latest technology where it makes sense,” Jon Shaw said.

Danny Shaw said the shop would have 10 bays for equipment, six cranes and separate shops for welding and washing equipment.

One of its own crews, augmented with a foreman and a welder from Cianbro, is erecting the steel framing. But, winter weather has proven a nuisance since steel for framing arrived on Jan. 18.

During Monday’s storm, heavy equipment bulldozed snow away for construction workers.

“It’s been a battle,” Dick Butterfield, project superintendent, said Tuesday about contending with snow and cold. But, “everything is on schedule right now.”

The new headquarters will have a view of a company quarry in its back yard. The company introduced plans for a quarry and asphalt plant to the town in 2006. Gorham planners approved the Brickyard Quarry and an asphalt plant on Mosher Road in the spring of 2008 following years of contentious public hearings that packed the Town Council chambers.

But since, the company bought Commercial Paving in Scarborough and has yet to start construction of the asphalt plant on Mosher Road. The quarry, which is operational, is expected to yield rock for decades. “We’ve got over 100 years in this quarry,” Danny Shaw said.

The company, which owns 11 gravel pits and quarries, anticipates working 35 jobs this summer. The construction company has crews now at several sites, including schools and a hospital, and has a dirt-moving contract for a CMP project.

Right out of Gorham High School – Jon Shaw, a 1973 graduate, and Danny Shaw, 1975 – founded the company in 1977 beginning with two employees. They envisioned growing to perhaps a crew of 15. From headquarters on New Portland Road, Shaw Brothers moved in 1985 to Main Street.

Now, Shaw Brothers has 85 employees, but that number will likely mushroom to 160 during the summer construction season.

In their early beginnings, they recalled running into a fuel shortage crisis and Danny Shaw said a dealer told them they couldn’t get fuel. To supply their earthmoving equipment, the brothers were hauling fuel with their own pickup trucks.

But, they’ll have plentiful fuel storage at their new complex with 65,000 gallons – 50,000 gallons of diesel and 15,000 gallons of gasoline.

A company generator guarantees electrical power in any emergency. The facility will serve as a Maine disaster response facility available to make emergency repairs for municipal or state equipment like ambulances and trucks.

“We could run five welders, if we needed to,” Jon Shaw said.

In case of emergencies like road collapses, items available at Shaw Brothers include road barriers. The company is stocking shelves in its warehouse with a variety of supplies.

Adjacent to the warehouse, a 200-ton scale is designed to accommodate huge, off-road trucks at the facility. The scale, 12-by-80 feet, would be one of the biggest in New England.

Butterfield said the project illustrates the commitment and confidence that the Shaws have in their company.

“A nice project for the town and the owners – something everyone will be proud of,” Butterfield said.

Danny Shaw, left, and brother Jon brave another snowstorm to check the progress of their new corporate headquarters on Mosher Road in Gorham.Photo by Rich Obrey