Jack Tobin, Vice President of Railroad Construction Company, has been with the company for ten years, but he has been in the industry for four decades. He started as a union carpenter in 1983 while going to school for civil engineering at the same time. From there, he has spent his entire career in the heavy construction industry in positions ranging from structural superintendent and field engineer to project engineer and project manager.
This year Railroad Construction Company is celebrating its 100th anniversary in business. After 94 years as a family-owned enterprise, RCC was re-established in 2020 as an ESOP, creating shared ownership between its co-workers, which in turn has driven productivity and offered RCC’s distinguished team a direct stake in the company’s future accomplishments.
BTEA President Elizabeth Crowley spoke with Jack about RCC’s corporate culture, its approach to safety, and how it pulled off a few of its recent successes.
BTEA: Railroad recently completed the LIRR’s Webster Avenue Bridge 31% under budget and months ahead of schedule. How were you able to achieve this result?
First and foremost, this was a design-build project, and I’d say it really was a poster child for how design-build is supposed to work. That doesn’t always translate down to the field and how jobs are actually executed, but on this project it did.
We had a great relationship with the MTA. They were true partners with us, and we were partners with them. Our joint venture partner was excellent, as was our designer, and everybody was aligned and pulling in the same direction. We were able to come up with strong ideas together and actually execute on them. When you have that kind of alignment, you get great results—more efficient, more effective, and safer execution. That’s what drove the outcome here.
This wasn’t our first design-build project. We’ve completed several in recent years, totaling more than a billion dollars in revenue. We have 22 licensed professional engineers on staff and our own design office in Manhattan, so we work very closely with our design consultants on these projects.
We’ve done a lot of design build work with the MTA and Amtrak, and now you’re seeing agencies like DEP starting to fully embrace design-build as well, which we think is a very positive development.
From the owner’s perspective, the goal is innovation—to save money for the ridership and taxpayers and ultimately deliver a better project. When the process works the way it did here, that’s exactly what you get. This project is a strong example of that, and we’re proud it was recognized with an ASCE Project of the Year award.
BTEA: On the Eastbound Re-Route segment of East Side Access your team faced significant technical challenges. What were they, and how did you overcome them?
This was also a design-build project, and it was challenging both technically and operationally. The work involved constructing about 2,100 linear feet of cut-and-cover tunnel through the busiest interlocking in North America, which meant we had to be extremely conscious of ongoing rail operations at all times. We had trains running through the project from Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, and New Jersey Transit.
We had a good plan going in, but in a live rail environment like that conditions are constantly changing. A lot of that is driven by the availability of outages and access to the work, so you have to be able to react and adjust as things shift. What made the job successful was consistent planning and coordination with the owner—staying aligned, making adjustments in real time, and always keeping safety first.
From a construction standpoint, we used some unique approaches. One example was hand-excavated underpinning pits—what we call pit piers—to form the walls of the tunnel. These were excavated vertically, reinforced with rebar, filled with concrete, and then built sequentially until they tied together into one continuous wall. That allowed us to safely excavate and construct the tunnel in a very constrained environment.
Safety performance on the job was something we’re very proud of. The project worked more than 430,000 manhours without a single lost time incident, a truly remarkable feat especially given the conditions.
At the end of the day, the job came down to discipline—strong planning, the ability to adapt, and close coordination with the owner while executing complex work safely in a very active environment.
BTEA: Safety is paramount for union contractors. What innovative practices or investments in site safety stand out at Railroad?
Safety is our first core value at Railroad Construction. In fact, I started my morning today with our safety committee. We have a full staff of safety professionals, and we’re constantly sharing lessons learned from our jobs and tracking near misses and incidents throughout the industry to see what trends may be out there and make sure we’re addressing them.
One thing that really stands out to me is how quickly we’ll embrace new technology or new means and methods if it’s something that’s going to make the workplace even a little bit safer for our people. If it helps, we do it.
You’re probably familiar with the Type II helmets—the chin strap ones. Years ago, you’d only really see those on lumberjacks or mountain climbers. When they first came out in construction, I remember they were significantly more expensive than your standard hard hat. A regular hard hat might cost a few dollars, and these were about $150 apiece. It’s a big difference. But our CEO, Al Daloisio, said, “What’s a person’s head worth?” And that was it. We went forward with it.
And we didn’t stop there—we also looked at which ones people were actually most comfortable wearing. Because at the end of the day, people are going to wear what they’re comfortable with, so we let our crews have input on that and select individually from a variety of options. This made a big impact on getting early buy-in.
There was also a horrible incident in the industry a few years ago involving a cut-off saw. After that, we threw every cut-off saw we had in the trash and replaced them with anti-kickback saws. That was a huge investment, but when you see the potential for something like that happen, there’s no hesitation.
We’ve done similar things across the board—wheel grinders with improved safety features, boom swing limiters on equipment since we’re often working in live track environments, and a “ladders last” approach, where working off a ladder is your last option when you’re at elevation.
We also bring our engineering department into the planning process early, so we can look at whether there’s a safer way to build something—not just whether it’s safe once it’s built.
At the end of the day, we’re working with some of the best trained craft professionals anywhere. Our job is to give them the right tools, the right planning, and the right environment so everyone goes home safe.
BTEA: Workforce development is a major issue across the industry. What does Railroad do to attract and retain skilled workers, engineers, and project managers?
You know, it sounds cliché, but the culture of Railroad is really what attracts people to the company. We’re a group of people who care very deeply about each other, the people we work with, and the community at large. That’s where it starts.
One of the biggest changes we made was becoming an employee-owned company. We’re an ESOP, so all of our coworkers are owners. We like to say, “we build our future,” and people really embrace that. It gives you a sense that you actually have some control over your destiny—that your financial future is tied to how the company performs, and how you directly contribute to it. And it changes how people work together. When you’re surrounded by people who feel ownership, because they are owners, it creates a different kind of environment.
On the recruiting side, we’re very active. We recruit engineers from a number of schools in the areas where we work, but we’re also heavily involved with organizations like The Moles. They run Student Day programs where we bring hundreds of students out to active job sites—not just to stand behind a fence, but to walk through the work, see it up close, and understand what we do.
We’re involved with scholarships, academic boards, and outreach across multiple regions—New York, New England, Philadelphia, down to D.C. We also have a very robust internship program at Railroad where interns have an opportunity to work in various departments and are assigned a mentor to help guide them. At the end of the summer each intern gives a presentation to the company that showcases their intern experience.
It’s important for our company and the industry, because a lot of engineering students don’t always see construction as a career path. They gravitate toward design, but when they get out on a job site, it can really captivate their imagination. There’s nothing like putting on a pair of boots and getting out in the mud.
As far as retention, we work hard to give people the opportunity to grow. If you really want to succeed in this business, you have to touch every part of it—estimating, field operations, project management, as well as safety, quality, accounting and administration. We give people the chance to move between those roles, to really understand how the whole business works.
And then there’s the craft workforce. They’re the ones putting the work in place. You can have all the engineers and managers you want, but if you don’t have skilled craft labor that knows how to build the work safely, you’re nowhere.
We have people who’ve been with us for generations—second, third, even fourth generation. At that point, it’s in the blood. And that kind of continuity says a lot about how people feel about working here.
BTEA: Railroad Construction has been a fixture in New York’s construction industry for over 100 years. What have been the keys to that success, and how do you think about the future?
I can’t speak to the full hundred years, but I can tell you what I saw when I got here, and why I came to Railroad at that point in my career.
It really comes back to that same foundation—culture and people. Again, it sounds cliché, but it’s true. And a lot of that comes from leadership and the example that’s set.
Our CEO, Al, would be quick to say it’s not about him—it’s about the people around him—but he sets the tone. He’s one of the most generous people I’ve ever met, charitable, and grounded in a faith that carries throughout the entire company.
We’re the only company I know where it’s part of our charter to give away 10 percent of our profits to charity every year. And it’s not just writing checks—we’re actively involved in the communities we work in. Being headquartered in Paterson, we see firsthand how tough it can be. There are a lot of good people working hard to provide for their families, and if our success can help support them even in a small way, we believe that makes us better as an organization. That kind of culture attracts people who share those values. It also shapes how we work with our partners—joint ventures, subcontractors, and clients—with mutual respect at the core. We also wouldn’t have achieved the level of success we have had without the strong support of our banks and bonding partners, many of whom actively participate in the charitable efforts we support.
As far as the future, I think it’s about not losing sight of where we came from. We’re in a world where things are constantly changing, and it can feel chaotic at times. But if we stay grounded in what made us successful—our people, our values, our relationships—that’s what’s going to carry us forward into the next 100 years.