Company History

Rice Lake Contracting Corp. was incorporated on December 20, 1984, in Deerwood, MN, as a municipal utility contractor and quickly evolved into a general contractor specializing in projects associated with wastewater and water treatment facilities. We assumed the name Rice Lake Construction Group in 2000 to better identify our firm’s business. In 2002 Rice Lake began operating a Masonry Division with the acquisition of the assets of Gibson Masonry.

Holm Brothers Plumbing & Heating was acquired by Rice Lake in 2004 to better position our company as a full service contractor to our water treatment clients. Holm Brothers has been in existence for 50 years and has established itself as one of the premier mechanical subcontractors in this field.

In 2007 Rice Lake began operating an Industrial Pipe Division to provide additional services to that sector of our clients. We have employed as many as 275 pipefitters at one time, and currently hold the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspector's "R" Certificate of Authorization as well as the "S" and "U" Certificates of Authorization issued by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

In 2008 we acquired the assets and personnel of the tunneling division of the utility contractor Barbarossa and Sons, Inc., thus expanding the utility portion of our company.

In 2010 Rice Lake acquired the assets and personnel of Madsen Johnson Corporation, a Hudson, WI, based general contractor that also specialized in the construction of wastewater and water treatment facilities. Coincidently, Madsen Johnson was also incorporated in 1984. The combination of our two firms gives us the experience and expertise in the construction of wastewater and water treatment facilities that few other firms can match.

Our corporate office is located in Deerwood, MN, with offices in Hudson, WI, and Atwater, MN. On a typical project our firm will self-perform site piping, demolition, excavation, concrete work, masonry, structural steel erection, metal installation, carpentry, specialty installation, equipment installation, process piping and mechanical.

We usually subcontract painting and electrical along with some smaller specialty items such as roofing, caulking, etc. Our average employee count for the past three years has been over 250 and our average revenue for the last three years has exceeded $90 million.