K2 Infrastructure Group Inc. hasn't been around nearly as long as many of the heavy civil contractors it competes against in Connecticut.
That hasn't stopped the Glastonbury, Conn.-based company from taking on some very large and complicated projects.
Founded in 2021, K2 has quickly established itself as a contractor willing to tackle difficult highway, earthwork, utility, drilling and retaining-wall projects — often by looking at how the work was originally designed and asking a simple question:
Is there a better way to do it?
That approach is clearly evident on a major Connecticut Department of Transportation project along Route 44 in Norfolk, Conn., where K2 proposed an alternative construction method that substantially reduced excavation and helped shorten the project's schedule.
It also can be seen in some of the equipment K2 puts to work.
When the company needed to move thousands of yards of material behind a massive retaining wall through an access area only about 8 ft. wide, Vice President Pedro Soares turned to Able Tool & Equipment and Wacker Neuson for an unconventional solution — large articulated site dumpers capable of carrying substantial loads through an area where conventional trucks simply couldn't operate.
For Soares, that's K2.
“We love the most difficult, hard jobs and come up with better ways to do it,” he said.
Experience Behind Young Company
Although K2 was established in 2021, the experience behind the company goes back decades.
Owner Phil Karsen had spent approximately 40 years in the construction industry and had extensive heavy civil experience before starting K2. Soares also had worked his way through the industry, beginning as a laborer and later becoming a foreman.
When Karsen formed K2, he reached out to Soares, who initially joined the company as a foreman.
It didn't stay small for long.
One of K2's first major undertakings involved work on an approximately $37 million interchange project at Exit 11 along Interstate 84. K2 partnered with Rizzo Electrical Contractors on the CTDOT award-winning project.
Karsen's experience and the relationships both men had developed throughout their careers allowed the new company to start at a level that normally would take a contractor years to reach.
“You build these relationships with people and you do what you say you're going to do and you're honest with people,” Soares said.
From there, K2 continued to build its resume, including work along Interstate 95 in East Lyme.
The company today performs road construction, retaining walls, drilling, drainage, sewer and water work and other heavy civil construction. It also established its own drilling division, allowing K2 to self-perform soil nails, micropyles and other specialty foundation and stabilization work.
K2 employs approximately 25 people directly, with its workforce growing substantially when subcontractors are included on major projects. The company also has developed its own equipment fleet.
But Soares has little interest in growing simply for the sake of getting bigger.
K2's relatively small management structure is intentional.
“I think we're pretty good where we're at,” Soares said. “Grow a little bit more, but you only get too big and then it's a big monster to feed.”
That philosophy gives K2's senior management unusually direct involvement in its projects.
Karsen oversees the ownership and financial side of the business, while Soares is heavily involved in operations, safety, equipment, employees and day-to-day project execution.
It is a structure that Rocco Micelotta of Able Tool & Equipment believes is one of K2's greatest strengths.
According to Micelotta, there is very little wasted motion within the company. Senior management is directly involved with the work, and the company's resources are concentrated on completing its projects.
“They compete against much larger companies,” Micelotta said. “The top people are intimately involved in the projects.”
Looking at Projects Differently
K2's willingness to challenge conventional construction methods has become another defining characteristic.
Soares said the company spends considerable time reviewing plans and considering whether there is a safer, faster or more efficient way to perform the work.
“We spend a lot of time on redesigning and looking at better ways and more efficient ways,” he said.
That philosophy has been particularly evident on CTDOT Project 0097-0095 along Route 44 in Norfolk.
The project was awarded to K2 in April 2024 for approximately $37.2 million and includes replacement of retaining walls, stabilization of the northern slope along Route 44, roadway reconstruction, drainage improvements and utility work.
The existing rubble masonry retaining walls had deteriorated to the point that their integrity was compromised, creating the need to stabilize the slope rising from the highway toward Center Cemetery.
It is a difficult location.
The roadway is squeezed between the steep slope and river, with limited access and little room for construction equipment. The slope rises approximately 60 ft. in places, while one of the retaining-wall sections extends approximately 1,300 ft.
Rather than simply build the project exactly as originally designed, K2 proposed a different approach.
The original design called for a mechanically stabilized earth wall requiring substantially more excavation into the hillside. K2 proposed a soldier-pile-and-lagging system using drilled casings, piles, soil nails, tiebacks and other stabilization methods.
CTDOT accepted the alternative.
The result reduced the amount of excavation required and helped make it possible to work through more of the winter.
CTDOT subsequently announced that the project's anticipated completion had been moved ahead by approximately two years — from 2028 to 2026.
For K2, that is what innovation is supposed to accomplish.
The objective isn't to do something differently simply for the sake of being different. It is to reduce excavation, shorten schedules, improve safety and ultimately deliver better value to the project owner.
“We'll give time back,” Soares said. “Those are substantial savings for the DOT.”
Eight-Foot-Wide Problem
Even after K2 developed a more efficient way to construct the wall, another problem remained.
How do you efficiently place large quantities of backfill behind a retaining wall when you have only about 8 ft. of working width?
At portions of the project, conventional triaxle trucks simply could not get behind the wall. Skid steers could fit, but their limited carrying capacity would have required an enormous number of trips.
Soares needed something between the two.
That's where Able Tool & Equipment and Wacker Neuson entered the picture.
K2 had already developed a relationship with Able Tool and its president, Derek Bauer. Soares knew Bauer from his earlier years in the industry, and after K2 was established, the relationship expanded considerably.
On an earlier East Lyme project, K2 placed an approximately $250,000 order with Able Tool for generators, pumps, concrete buckets and other equipment.
For a newly established contractor, that required trust on both sides.
“We gave him our word, and we paid him on time,” Soares said. “We still do. And that's how we built our relationship with Derek.”
That relationship has continued to grow.
K2 operates without a full-time mechanic for its smaller equipment and relies heavily on Able Tool for service and support of small engines, tools and specialty equipment.
More importantly, Soares said Able is willing to work through unusual equipment problems with him rather than simply sell what happens to be sitting in inventory.
That became particularly important in Norfolk.
Wacker Dumpers Provide the Answer
Soares contacted Able Tool looking for a way to move material safely through the extremely narrow area behind the wall.
The initial solution was a smaller Wacker Neuson dumper.
It didn't take Soares long to realize the concept worked — but he wanted more production.
“Second day in, I was like, 'I want a bigger one. And I want two here,'” he said.
Able Tool responded by supplying Wacker Neuson DV90 Dual View dumpers.
The DV90 occupies an unusual position between compact material-moving equipment and much larger articulated haul trucks. According to Wacker Neuson, the machine offers a payload of approximately 19,842 lbs., or 9 metric tons, and a heaped skip capacity of approximately 6 cu. yds. It measures approximately 95 in. wide.
For K2's application, however, capacity was only part of the attraction.
The DV90 features a 180-degree rotating operator station. Instead of driving into the confined area and then attempting to turn the entire machine around, the operator can rotate the seat and controls and drive back out while facing the direction of travel.
From within the all-glass cab and rotating operator station, the dumper operators could work very closely and safely to laborers and workers climbing up and down the hill because of excellent visibility. It would have been too close and unsafe to do with larger trucks. Also, dumpers allow anyone to run them with no special licensing.
That was particularly important on the steep, narrow haul route K2 had created behind the retaining wall.
“There was no place to turn around,” Soares said.
K2 ultimately put two dumpers into the operation.
Material could be loaded at the lower end, carried along the narrow route and placed behind the wall, where another machine graded the fill. K2 also created a pull-off area that allowed the two dumpers to pass one another.
The result was essentially a small material-handling assembly line.
An excavator loaded the dumper, the operator hauled the material behind the wall, the load was dumped and graded and the dumper returned for another load.
Back and forth, all day.
The system allowed K2 to move considerably more material per cycle than it could have handled with skid steers while operating in a location inaccessible to conventional trucks.
For Micelotta, the application is a good example of what happens when K2's approach to construction is combined with Able Tool's approach to equipment.
Soares understood precisely what he was trying to accomplish. Able Tool helped find equipment capable of making it happen.
Able Relationship Goes Beyond Equipment
The Wacker Neuson dumpers aren't the first example of that relationship.
When K2 expanded into drilling and soil-nail work, it needed a specialized grout plant. The readily available units weren't large enough for what Soares wanted.
Rather than settle for something that didn't fit the application, Soares and Able Tool continued working through the problem until a larger custom system could be sourced. K2 and Able worked together with Chemgrout to determine what would work best and what parts the company would stock on-hand.
That type of problem-solving is important to K2.
“When I call, I want something, I get it,” Soares said. “They know me personally. They know we're going to pay. I know I'm going to get the product.”
He added that the real value of a strong vendor becomes apparent when the original plan doesn't work.
“If we're in some type of issue and they can't get the product, we can talk through it and keep moving on the project,” he said.
Downtime is something Soares takes particularly seriously.
When K2 established its drilling operation, for example, he asked what components were most likely to fail and stocked duplicates at the job site. When parts eventually failed, crews could make repairs immediately rather than wait for replacements.
“We used it all,” Soares said. “And we had no downtime besides the time it took us to drive a mile to pick up the tool or the piece that broke, replace it, put it back and go back to work.”
Able Tool plays a similar role by maintaining the service capabilities and replacement equipment necessary to keep K2 working.
“If the Wacker breaks, they're there,” Soares said.
Lean By Design
For a contractor performing projects approaching $40 million, K2's operation can be surprisingly understated.
The company doesn't maintain a large corporate staff. It doesn't even devote significant resources to a website or social media presence.
That isn't where K2 wants to put its energy.
The emphasis is on the work.
Micelotta recalled first visiting K2 and expecting a much larger corporate operation based on the scope of projects the company performs.
Instead, he found a lean organization where management's attention and resources were concentrated almost entirely on executing projects.
That, he believes, helps explain how a company founded only five years ago can compete successfully with contractors that have been established for generations.
Hard work is part of it. Experience is another.
But perhaps the biggest difference is K2's willingness to look at a difficult project and refuse to assume the traditional method is necessarily the best method.
That can mean redesigning a retaining wall. It can mean establishing an in-house drilling operation. Or it can mean looking at an 8-ft.-wide path behind a massive retaining wall and figuring out how to turn it into an efficient haul road.
“We love the most difficult, hard jobs,” Soares said.
And then K2 looks for a better way to build them.
