ASHTON, ONTARIO – When Mike Cavanagh sees the fleet of Kenworth T800s hauling rock and aggregate to help build a new section of Highway 7, outside of Ottawa, he marvels at the growth the company has achieved over the past 50 years. Back in the ’50s, Cavanagh’s two uncles, Tom and Gerald, had an opportunity to take part in the construction of The St. Lawrence Seaway — a 189-mile canal that connects Montreal with Lake Ontario through a series of seven locks.

After getting his feet wet with the Seaway project, Tom Cavanagh returned to Ashton and formed Thomas Cavanagh Construction, which has become one of the largest family-owned and operated businesses in the Ottawa area. Today, Tom, along with his wife Kay and four other family members, join 350 employees in the company workforce.

The company is involved in many sectors of the heavy construction industry, from heavy equipment rental, road building, sewer, and water main construction, to commercial and residential site preparation and land development. The company’s 29 licensed pits and quarries produce more than 2 million tons of crushed aggregates annually. They operate a fleet of 80 dump trucks and tractor/trailers, as well as 150 pieces of off-road equipment. Mobile lube trucks — including a Kenworth T370 — service the company’s fleet.

But the company’s historical core remains moving dirt and aggregate and its stable of Kenworth T800s have been its workhorses. “We have an excellent reputation, not only with the community we serve, but with drivers who operate our equipment,” said fleet manager Mike Cavanagh. “We like the Kenworth T800s for their low cost of ownership and durability. We keep our equipment for 10 to 15 years, sometimes longer, and they stand the test of time. We even have a 1989 T800 with more than a million miles and it’s still productive and a money-maker. Our drivers have made it clear that they prefer driving Kenworths,” Cavanagh said.

This kind of customer satisfaction, combined with Kenworth’s quality vocational products, contributed to Kenworth’s reception of the 2008 J.D. Power and Associates awards for “Highest in Customer Satisfaction for Vocational Segment Class 8 Trucks.”

Thomas Cavanagh Construction’s latest order of 12 Kenworth T800 tri-axle dumps have 485 hp engines with 1,850 ft-lbs of torque, driven through 18-speed transmissions. The dump trucks feature Chalmers suspensions with 46,000-lb. rear axle and 20,000-lb. front axle ratings. All the new T800s were spec’d with the Kenworth Extended Day Cab, which adds six inches of length, five inches of cab height, and two more inches behind the wheel in addition to providing 21 degrees of driver seat recline and an extra two cubic feet of storage behind the driver’s seat.

Cavanagh said the company’s future remains bright. A new three-year contract to supply the aggregate for the extension of Highway 7 by nearly 11 kilometers (or about 7 miles) means Thomas Cavanagh Construction will have up to 30 trucks on the job to move an estimated 3 million tons of aggregate.

For more information, visit www.kenworth.com.