1955 - Nesbitt Contracting Celebrates 60 Years - 2015
Century Materials
Nesbitt’s first hot plant operation along the
Salt River north of Mesa, 1964.
N
esbitt Contracting expanded into new
ventures that complimented the core
business when Century Materials, Inc. was
established in 1973. For this venture,
Nesbitt purchased land in the floodplain of
the Salt River in Tempe. Jim, while still in
college at ASU, directed the installation of
Century Material's mining, crushing,
screening, and batching equipment.
Besides crushed base materials, the
company made hot-mix asphalt and
concrete at this location. By the late 1970s,
they owned two other asphalt plants in the
Valley.
Furnishing materials for freeways
quickly became a major part of Nesbitt’s
business. The Tempe plant put out a
million tons of material for several years.
“We’re not the largest supplier, but we’re
a factor,” Tom said in 1990. The company
provided materials for sections of the
Superstition freeway from 1978-1983. The
company produced concrete that was used
in several buildings on the ASU campus.
“I’ve always been a bug on quality,
whether its concrete, asphalt, or
workmanship, and my people know it,”
Tom said. “I think we give more of our time
to give a better job. I won’t take a back seat
to anyone on quality. That’s what I take the
most pride in. There’s not a town my
company has worked in where I feel I
wouldn’t be welcomed back. I think we do
have a good name for workmanship.”
His son, Jim, the current president of
Nesbitt Contracting concurs with this
assessment. “My father would stick with
what he thinks is right, even if it costs more
TEN - NESBITT CONTRACTING
putting quality above profit,” he says. “He
was business-success oriented but the
bottom line was not his primary concern.
Tom always said, ‘If you watch the nickels
and dimes, the dollars take care of
themselves.’”
Century Materials provided road base,
asphaltic concrete, and redi-mix concrete
to other Valley contractors for two
decades. The materials company closed
when the Arizona Department of
Transportation (ADOT) took over the
property as part of the right-of-way for the
Loop 101-202 interchange in December
1993.